Processing Waiting List Applications

The waiting list workflow#

Applications follow a clear status flow: Received → Contacted → Offered → Accepted → Create Member.

Each stage helps you track where every application is in the process.

Not everyone on your list came in through the public form. A Returning member is a young person who was in your group and has been moved back to the waiting list — leaving for now, expected back. They queue and get offered places exactly like anyone else, and their chip is there to remind you their record is waiting for them. You cannot set Returning member by hand; it is only ever applied by the move.

Viewing applications#

Navigate to Members → Waiting List. The table shows all applications with toggleable columns:

Age, Proximity, Date of Birth, Suitable Sections, Target Section, Target Start Date, Parent Name, Parent Email, Application Date, Status, Priority, Position, Preferred Days.

Position is where the applicant sits in the queue for their target section. It counts only the families still waiting: when somebody accepts a place, declines, withdraws, or lets an offer expire, everyone behind them moves up and the applicant who left stops holding a position at all.

Individual actions#

Click the action menu on any application row. The menu adapts to where the application has got to, so you'll only ever see the actions that make sense right now.

Leaders and group admins can both use these actions, Assignment included — you do not have to be an admin to hand an application to a colleague.

Change Status opens a submenu with the full set: Mark as Received, Mark as Contacted, Mark as Offered, Accept Application, Decline Application, Mark as Deferred, Mark as Expired, and Mark as Withdrawn.

To see everything about an application, click the row itself.

Triaging applications#

New applications arrive without a target section, so the first job is deciding where each child is heading. The card at the top of the Waiting List page counts what's waiting on you and gives you a Triage Now button to work through them. When there's nothing left to do it just says All caught up!

Triaging an application lets you:

• Assign a Target section for the applicant.
• Add notes for leaders with relevant context.
• Set a target start date for the expected intake.

Priority tiers#

Every application gets a tier, worked out automatically from your Settings → Priority Rules order — a leader's child, a sibling of a current member, a local family, and so on. The tier is shown in the Priority column, and it does two jobs: it ranks the waiting list, and it decides who gets a place when the Transition Planner has fewer places than young people who need one.

You can overrule it. Change Priority on a row, or Priority in the bulk actions bar, sets the tier by hand and lets you record a reason. The override stands until you clear it.

One tier behaves differently from the rest. Ageing Out is applied automatically to every young person already in your group who is moving up a section — it is the only tier an existing member ever holds, which is why its name is locked. Where you place it in the order decides whether the last place in a full section goes to one of your own members or to somebody on this list.

See How Recommended Places Are Calculated for the full picture.

Sending offers#

When you are ready to offer a place:

1. Click Send Offer on the application (or use the Waiting List Actions dropdown → Send Offer / Send All Offers).
2. Confirm in the dialog.
3. The parent receives a notification with the offer.

Offering a place before the start date#

You can offer a place for a start date that has not arrived yet. It is how you hold a place for a child who cannot start until they are old enough, or until the term the family asked for.

The dialog still shows an amber warning naming the earliest start date, but it is a caution rather than a block:

Bulk actions#

Select multiple applications and use the bulk actions bar:

• Mark as Received / Contacted / Offered / Expired — change status in bulk.
• Decline Applications — decline multiple applications at once.
• Message — email selected parents.
• Assign — assign a leader to follow up (leader picker).
• Interest Check — send interest checks to all selected.
• Priority — set the same tier on every selected application, or clear the override.

The emails parents receive#

Every step of this workflow emails the parent automatically, so you're not writing "you've been offered a place" messages by hand. Previews of the main three — the application confirmation, the place offer, and the interest check — are in What Scoutworks emails look like. The rarer ones look like this:

If a parent defers their place (for example, to start next term), they get a confirmation of what was agreed:

If a parent withdraws their application, they get a confirmation so there's no doubt it went through:

And if you use Revoke Offer, the parent is told clearly, with the reason you give:

Converting to a member#

Once an applicant has accepted their offer:

1. Click Create Member from the application actions.
2. Scoutworks pre-fills the member record with the application data.
3. Review and complete any additional fields.
4. The new member appears on your Members page.

If the application is a Returning member, this reactivates their original record instead of creating a new one — badges, nights away, and attendance history all come back with them, and you never end up with two records for the same child. They join whichever section you admit them to, which does not have to be the one recorded when they left.

Application Details dialog#

Click any application row to see the full information:

• Applicant Information: First Name, Last Name, Date of Birth, Sibling's name, Special information.
• Parent Information: Parent names, Preferred days, Target section.
• Leader Notes: Notes, Target start date.

What's next#

• Setting Up Your Waiting List — configure your public form and priority rules.
• Waiting List Reports — analytics and intake planning.
• How Recommended Places Are Calculated — how tiers decide who gets a place.