Exporting Your Members from OSM

What you are exporting#

Your members are the most important thing to bring across: names, dates of birth, sections — and, crucially, their parents/carers and emergency contacts. Scoutworks creates parent records automatically from those columns, so the more contact detail you include, the less you will need to re-key later.

A quick thing to know up front: OSM exports one section at a time. There is no single "export everything" button, so you will repeat these steps for each section in your group.

How to export (per section)#

The exact wording in OSM can vary a little between accounts and over time, so treat this as a guide and check it against your own OSM screen.

Typically:

1. In OSM, open the Members area and go to Personal Details.
2. Choose the section you want to export.
3. Select the members you want (usually "select all").
4. Choose the option to export to a spreadsheet — OSM will produce a CSV or Excel file.

Repeat for each section, so you end up with one spreadsheet per section.

Include parents and emergency contacts#

When you choose which columns to export, make sure you include:

• Parent / carer names, emails and phone numbers
• Emergency contact names and phone numbers

Scoutworks uses the parent/carer columns to create parent records and, later, to invite parents to the portal — so it is well worth carrying these across rather than re-typing them.

If you cannot see an export button#

A spreadsheet export ("data exporters") is a paid OSM feature — it is included on Silver (£18 per section, per year) and Gold (£24 per section, per year), but not on the free Bronze plan. Pricing is per section, per year, so do check your own OSM account.

If your section is on Bronze and you have no export button, you can:

• Upgrade that section to Silver for the month you are migrating, then export, or
• Use OSM's GDPR data download to get a copy of your data, or
• Contact OSM support and ask them to provide an export.

Bringing members into Scoutworks#

Once you have your per-section spreadsheets, you are ready to import.

• Importing members from other systems — upload your spreadsheet, map the columns, review, and import.
• Adding members to your group — all the ways to get members in, including adding the odd one by hand.

What's next#

• Exporting badge records from OSM
• Moving from OSM to Scoutworks — the full checklist.