Setting event capacity and per-section limits

Most camps and trips have a limit — a minibus with sixteen seats, a campsite that takes forty, a climbing session booked for twelve. Scoutworks lets you set that limit once, and it can also hold a fair share of the places for each section so one busy section doesn't take them all.

Where to find this#

Open the event, go to the Invitations tab, and edit the Sections & capacity card. You'll find two settings there:

The two limits are separate, not a split#

This is the part that trips people up, so it's worth being clear about.

Per-section limits are not a way of dividing up the maximum capacity. They are an extra ceiling on top of it. A place is only offered if both limits still have room.

Say you're running a camp for five sections and you want 60 people in total:

• Maximum capacity 60, and 60 in every section box. Both limits are satisfied by any mix at all, so it's first come, first served up to 60. One section could genuinely take all 60 places.
• Maximum capacity 60, and 12 in every section box. Each section is held to 12, and the event still stops at 60. This is what most leaders actually want when they say "an even share".
• Maximum capacity 60, and every section box empty. No section limits — first come, first served up to 60. Same outcome as the first example, just stated more simply.

Why it sometimes offers to change your maximum#

If the section limits add up to more than the maximum capacity, an amber note appears — for example, "Section capacities total 300, which exceeds the maximum capacity of 60" — with a link reading Update to 300.

That link raises the maximum capacity to match the sections. It's there for when you meant the sections to be the real limit and the overall number was just left over from earlier. If 60 really is your ceiling, don't click it — lower the section numbers instead.

Section limits adding up to more than the maximum isn't an error, and Scoutworks won't stop you saving it. It simply means the sections aren't the thing doing the limiting; the overall number is.

What happens when a section fills up#

When a parent taps Yes for a child whose section has already reached its limit, that child goes on the event's waiting list — even if the event as a whole still has places free.

The parent sees a message confirming it, and their child's status on the event shows On waitlist with a position number.

When a place frees up#

If someone who was coming changes their answer to no, Scoutworks fills the empty place automatically. It looks for the longest-waiting child from the section that just freed up, and it checks that section's limit again before offering the place. So a Beaver's cancellation gives the place back to a waiting Beaver, not to a Cub whose section is already full.

The parent finds out straight away. They get an email — "Good news — [child] has a place on [event]" — and a notification in the app. Leaders see the change on the event's RSVP list.

Keeping an eye on the numbers#

The RSVP tab on the event shows how each section is doing — how many have confirmed, how many are waiting, and each section's limit. That's the quickest way to spot a section that's filled while others still have room.

Leaders can still add someone#

Section limits apply to parents booking their own children. If you add a young person to the attending list yourself, or mark them as coming from the RSVP list, the section limit won't block you — only the overall maximum capacity will.

That's deliberate. Sometimes you know a sibling is coming anyway, or a section leader has agreed to take one more. The limit shapes what parents can book without asking; it doesn't overrule your judgement.

Sharing an event with another group#

If you've shared the event with other Scout groups, your group's number of places is set on the Sharing tab as your allocation, not in the Maximum capacity field. The card will tell you when that's the case. Each group gets its own allocation, and the total across all of them is the real ceiling for the event.

What's next#

• RSVPs and Attendance — turning on RSVPs, chasing responses, and taking the register
• Creating Events — setting up a camp, meeting, or activity from scratch
• Inviting Specific Members to Events — when you want to choose who can respond rather than open it to whole sections