Moving up a section — Beavers to Cubs, Cubs to Scouts — is a real milestone for a young person. Scoutworks turns that moment into a warm welcome for parents: a short email that confirms the move, shows the first meeting of the new section, introduces the leaders, and drops them straight into the parent portal with one tap.
It's sent automatically whenever a member moves sections within your group — whether you moved them one at a time, ran a batch of moves in the Transition Planner, or a scheduled move ran on its own. You don't need to compose anything, and you stay in control of whether it goes out at all.
When parents receive the email
Any time a member's section changes inside your group, an email is queued for each of their parents. The email is sent once the move has settled, so the content is always up to date — if you fix a typo on a section name two minutes after applying the move, the email reflects the correction.
| Move type | When the email sends |
|---|---|
| You move a single member (Members → kebab → Edit Sections) | Five minutes after the move |
| A batch of moves from the Transition Planner (Move now) | Five minutes after you run the moves |
| A scheduled move that runs on its own (no leader clicked anything) | 9am in your group's timezone on the day of the move |
| Cross-group transfer | Not sent — this is a different flow with its own parent email |
One email per parent, even if several of their children move at the same time. A parent with three kids moving up at end of term receives one email listing all three, not three separate emails.
What leaders see
When you run a batch of moves from the Transition Planner, the Move now confirmation shows you the actual email before you commit, and a switch underneath it:
The switch reads I have already told these families, and it starts off — so the email goes out unless you say otherwise. Underneath it:
When to turn it on
Leave the switch off for the real thing — end-of-term move-ups, individual progressions, anyone actually changing section. Turn it on when you're doing housekeeping:
- Fixing a data entry mistake where someone was in the wrong section
- Shuffling members around during initial setup
- Moves you have already talked through with every family involved
If you turn it on for a real move-up, parents won't be told — so use your judgement.
What parents see
The subject line depends on how many of their children are in the email:
| Children in this email | Subject |
|---|---|
| One | {Child's first name} has moved to {new section} — for example, Aria has moved to Cubs |
| Two or more | Section update for your children |
The email uses your group's branding — logo, colours, from-name — the same as every other email parents get from you.
Inside, for each child, the email shows:
- The move itself — "Aria Hart has moved from Beavers to Cubs, effective 30 April 2026."
- Their first night — "Aria's first night with Cubs is Thursday 30 April at 6:30pm–8:00pm at St Mary's Church Hall." Omitted if the new section hasn't got a regular meeting day and time set up.
- Meet your new leaders — names and profile photos of the leaders of the new section. Falls back to initials if a leader hasn't uploaded a photo. Omitted entirely if no leaders are assigned to the section yet.
- A View in parent portal button — a single-tap magic link that signs the parent into the parent portal and opens the view for that child in their new section. No password prompt. The link is valid for seven days and single-use.
- A reply line — a mailto link to the section's primary leader (or to the group admin if no primary leader is set). Parents can reply to the email itself too and it'll reach the same address.
If parts of the email don't apply
Three pieces of the email — first-meeting time, leader list, and reply-to — rely on data you've set up in Scoutworks. When that data isn't there, the email drops the missing piece rather than showing a placeholder:
| Missing data | What the email does |
|---|---|
| Section has no meeting day/time | First-meeting countdown is omitted |
| Section has no leaders assigned | "Meet your new leaders" block is omitted |
| No primary leader on the section | Reply-to falls back to the group admin address |
If you want parents to get the full welcome — meeting time, leader introductions — make sure the new section has its meeting day, meeting time, location, and leader assignments filled in on Settings → Sections before the move goes through.
If you undo a move
An accidental section move can be put back for 30 days — from the Plan tab while the young person is still in their moving-on period, or from the History tab of their record once the move has finished. See Planning Section Moves with the Transition Planner.
Undoing does not pull back a welcome email that is already queued. So the confirmation offers a second, plainer email instead: Email their family to say it is not happening. It is off by default — most leaders undo a move because a parent has already been in touch, and a second automatic email about their child's section is rarely welcome.
Turn it on when the welcome email has gone out and you have not spoken to the family since. What they get:
| Part | What it says |
|---|---|
| Subject | {Child's first name} is staying in {the section they stay in} — for example, Aria is staying in Beavers |
| The news | That you told them recently their child was moving section, that it isn't happening for now, and which section they stay in |
| Reassurance | "Nothing changes for you: same night, same place, same leaders." |
| Close | An invitation to reply to the email with any questions |
It is deliberately plain, and it does not apologise or explain what went wrong. The family only needs to know where their child will be on the night.
It reaches the same parents the welcome email would have reached, and skips the same ones — see below.
When the email is skipped
A few situations where Scoutworks quietly skips the email rather than sending something useless:
- No parent is linked to the member — no one to email, so nothing sends.
- The linked parent doesn't have an email address on file.
- The parent's last email bounced or was marked as spam — Scoutworks won't keep sending to a broken address. Fix the address and the next move-up email will go through.
These are logged for your records, and there's nothing you need to do differently — Scoutworks handles it.
What's next
- Planning Section Moves with the Transition Planner — plan, run and undo section moves.
- Managing Parents and Guardians — make sure every member has at least one parent with a working email address.
- Branding Your Group's Emails — add your logo, colours, and footer so section-move emails look like they're coming from your group.
- Getting Started as a Parent — what parents see when they first arrive in the portal from an email link.
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What's next?
Related guidesPlanning Section Moves with the Transition Planner
How to plan who moves section and when, agree moves without anything happening yet, and see what each move does to your section numbers.
Read articleArchiving, Restoring, and Transferring Members
How to archive members who leave, restore them if they return, and transfer members between sections or groups.
Read articleGetting Started as a Parent
How to accept your invitation, set up your account, and navigate the parent portal.
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