Families — the unit MyTroop is built around

A family in MyTroop is a household — usually one or two adult parents/guardians plus the scouts in their care. The family is the unit of:

• Calendar visibility — events targeted at a den show up for every adult in families that have a scout in that den.
• RSVPs — one RSVP per family, listing each member's attendance.
• Payments — one bill per family per event, payable by any adult in the family.
• Mailings — digest emails go to every adult in the family individually, not "to the family."

Where families come from

Families are created two ways:

1. Automatically when an admin adds a new user — if you don't pick an existing family, MyTroop creates one named after the user's last name ("Smith Family"). Most families start this way.
2. Manually from /admin/families — useful for setting up a placeholder family before adding members, or for renaming.

A family can have multiple adult users (e.g., two married parents, a parent and a grandparent, divorced parents who share custody and want both in the loop).

Adding members to an existing family

In Admin > Users > Add User, type the email of the new user, then in the Family picker choose the existing family from the dropdown. This is the right path for adding a second parent to an existing scout's family.

Don't create a duplicate family — it splits the household's view of the troop and confuses RSVPs and payments.

Moving a user to a different family

Open the user's detail page in /admin/users, click Edit, and pick a different family in the Family dropdown. Save Changes.

Common reasons:

• A divorced parent moves out and wants their own household record.
• A grandparent who was added to one grandkid's family is now also caring for a sibling.
• An incorrect family was assigned during onboarding.

Scouts stay with their original family — moving an adult does not move the scouts. To move scouts, edit each scout from /admin/scouts and reassign them.

Who can manage scouts

Both Admins and Leaders can add, edit, and delete scouts, set a scout's rank, and assign scouts to a den or patrol — from Admin > Scouts. Parents can see their own family's scouts but cannot edit them. (Family membership itself — adding or removing adults — remains an Admin-only task.)

Renaming or deleting a family

In Admin > Families, click the family name. From there you can:

• Rename the family.
• Update vehicles (used by transportation signups).
• View the list of adults and scouts.

Deleting a family removes its scouts too. You'll be warned before this happens. If there are still adults in the family, you can't delete it from this page — remove or move the adults first.

Merging duplicates

Sometimes a household ends up in the roster twice, often because each parent signed up separately. Or one person has two records, say one for each email address. You can merge either kind. Start from the record you want to keep.

Two families that are the same household

1. In Admin > Families, open the family you want to keep.
2. Under Duplicates, tap Merge a duplicate family and pick the other family.
3. Tap Review merge. MyTroop shows what will move: the adults, Scouts, RSVPs, payments and carpool seats.
4. Tap Merge into ….

Everything from the duplicate moves into the family you kept, and the duplicate is deleted. Scouts keep their RSVPs, and a Scout's own login keeps working. The moved adults are signed out once, so they see their new family when they sign back in.

A merge can't go ahead while:

• both families have paid for the same event. Refund one payment first.
• a card payment was started in the last 24 hours and isn't paid yet. It could still go through. Merge once it's paid, or after a day.

If both families list a Scout with the same name, you'll see a warning. After the merge, remove the extra Scout from Admin > Scouts.

One person with two records

Both records need to be in the same family. If they aren't, merge their families first.

1. In Admin > Users, open the record you want to keep.
2. Under Duplicates, tap Merge a duplicate person and pick the other record.
3. Tap Review merge, check the summary, then tap Merge into ….

What happens to the duplicate's details:

• Blanks are filled. The kept record's phone, address and BSA number win. Any that are blank are filled from the duplicate.
• Its emails become backups. The duplicate's email, and any backup emails it had confirmed, become backup emails on the kept record. Troop mail sent to them still arrives, and mail sent from them still counts as this person. The duplicate's email can no longer be used to sign in. If it was never confirmed, it isn't kept. The person can add it from their own profile, which confirms it.
• Its activity moves. RSVPs, driver signups, den leader roles, mailing lists and positions move to the kept record.

A merge can't go ahead while both records are signed up to drive for the same event. Remove one signup first.

Merges can't be undone. Read the summary before you confirm.

Edge cases

• Same scout in two households (shared custody). MyTroop's family model is single-household. Pick one family for the scout's "home" and the other parent can be added as an adult in that same family. They'll see all the same events and RSVPs.
• Family with only adults (no scouts). Allowed and common — committee members who don't have current scouts. They show up in /admin/users and /admin/families but won't appear on event rosters.
• One adult in two troops. Allowed (multi-troop support). The adult will see both troops in their troop switcher and can switch between them. They belong to a separate family in each troop.