Adult-to-young-people ratios on events

A parent helper pulls out at 5pm on the night before camp. The maths suddenly doesn't work, and you've got a coachload of Beavers turning up in the morning. Scoutworks watches the ratio for you between publishing an event and running it, so you find out early — when there's still time to call someone — instead of in the car park.

Where to find this#

Open any event from Events in the sidebar, then look at the top of the Leaders section on the details page. The Adult:YP cover summary sits there as a single bar above the Leader in Charge picker, so the first thing you see is "are we covered?" and the controls below are how you fix it.

The bar refreshes whenever someone RSVPs, a leader changes their availability, or a parent offers to help. You don't need to click anything to recompute it.

What the bar tells you#

The headline is one short sentence telling you exactly where you stand. Underneath, a smaller line gives the numbers — confirmed adults, young people, and a per-section note if any section is short.

For an event running across more than one section — district camps, county days, whole-group activities — the summary line lists each section that's short. One amber section turns the whole bar amber, because adults aren't easily shared across sections at an event.

The POR rules Scoutworks uses#

Scoutworks uses the ratios published in Policy, Organisation and Rules (POR) §4.3.10. Different rules apply depending on where the event is — your usual meeting place gives you more flexibility than a trip away, and overnight events are tighter still.

The numbers in the tables below are minimums. POR doesn't allow you to run an event with fewer adults than this, whatever the circumstances. The Leader in Charge can decide that a particular activity needs more than the minimum — they can't decide to run under it.

At your usual meeting place (or right next to it):

Away from your meeting place, or staying overnight:

Telling Scoutworks where the event is happening#

The right-hand side of the cover bar shows the venue setting in use, with three options to switch between:

• Usual meeting place — your hall, scout hut, or the area immediately around it.
• Away for the day — a day trip, a venue visit, an off-site activity.
• Nights away — any event with an overnight stay.

Scoutworks works this out for you when it can:

• A camp or residential event ⇒ Nights away, every time. Even if the camp is at the hall.
• A location marked as your usual meeting place ⇒ Usual meeting place.
• Anything else ⇒ Scoutworks asks. You'll see a friendly picker on the event page until you choose.

You can change the venue setting at any time from the dropdown on the cover bar — the ratio recalculates immediately.

Counting rules — who's an adult, who isn't#

A few things to know about how Scoutworks counts:

• The Leader in Charge always counts as a confirmed adult. Picking someone as LIC is the commitment — they don't also need to RSVP "Yes" to the event.
• Parent helpers count as adults, the same way they would on the night.
• Anyone who's both a leader and a parent on the same event counts once. If a leader is also signed up as a helper for their own child, Scoutworks won't double-count them.
• Young Leaders don't count as adults — and they don't count as young people either. POR treats them as outside the ratio maths, so they're invisible to this bar.
• Young Leaders can't be the Leader in Charge. They're under 18 and can't carry the POR responsibility. In the Leader in Charge picker, Young Leaders show up in their own group at the bottom of the list, marked with a YL badge and greyed out so you can't pick one by accident.
• Adults must be 18 or older on the event date. A teenage helper who turns 18 the day before counts; the day after, they don't.

Tentative helpers — chasing the maybes#

If a leader has RSVPed Maybe, or a parent has offered to help but hasn't been confirmed, they show up under Tentative — chase first. These are your fastest route to closing a gap, because they've already raised their hand.

Click Chase on a tentative row to send them a warm, pre-written email asking if they can confirm. The email mentions the event, the date, and — if it's a parent — names their child, so it doesn't read as a generic ask. They get one click; you don't have to draft anything.

The button changes to Sent once it's gone, so you don't double-message anyone.

Email nudges before the event#

If your event is short on adults as it gets closer, Scoutworks emails the Leader in Charge to flag it. Section leaders are CC'd so the LIC isn't carrying it alone. The reminders fire at three points:

You won't get a chase email twice for the same window — once it's sent, it's sent. If your numbers improve before the next window, the next email won't fire. And if the bar is green, no email goes out at all — Scoutworks only emails when there's a shortfall to act on.

Each email contains the live counts (adults confirmed, young people, how many short, tentatives still to chase) and a button straight back to the event so you can act in one tap.

Connecting to the risk assessment#

When you build a risk assessment for an event, Scoutworks fills in the number of leaders, the number of attendees, and the age groups taking part from the same ratio data. There's a re-sync button on the form if the numbers shift after you've started writing — one click pulls the latest counts in.

This means the figure on your risk assessment is the same figure on the event page, so you can't accidentally write up an assessment based on stale numbers from a week ago.

When the bar can't show you a ratio#

There are three situations where the bar pauses and asks for one more piece of information:

• No Leader in Charge picked — the POR minimums all assume a named LIC. Set one in the Leaders section of the event and the ratio comes back.
• A Young Leader is currently the Leader in Charge — Young Leaders can't carry the POR responsibility. Pick an adult leader instead and the ratio comes back.
• Venue not confirmed — Scoutworks couldn't tell whether the event is at your hall, away, or overnight. Tap one of the three options on the picker and the ratio appears.

In all three cases the bar stays informational — it never blocks save or publish.

What's next#

• Parent Helpers and Young Leaders — set deadlines for parent helper sign-ups and manage the leader list on every event.
• Creating Events — assign a Leader in Charge and Attending Leaders so the ratio can compute from day one.
• Risk Assessments for Events — record a risk assessment that pulls its head-counts from the same data this bar uses.