About DenBuddy

Why DenBuddy exists

A den leader has about an hour a week and eight Scouts who each need something slightly different. The official tools store what a Scout has completed very well. None of them answer the question a leader asks on Sunday night, which is: given where my den actually is, what should we do on Tuesday?

So the plan gets made from a web search, the meeting is fun but covers nothing, and in April somebody notices that half the den is three adventures short. That is not a failure of effort. It is a failure of tooling, and it is fixable.

Built by a den leader

DenBuddy was built by a Cub Scout den leader for their own den, then shaped by other leaders who wanted the same thing. Every decision is judged against the same test: does this help the volunteer who got drafted in August and has a meeting next week?

That is also why the free plan is a real product rather than a trial. Most den leaders are one person with one den, and one den should not have to pay to be organized.

Independent, and honest about it

DenBuddy is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Scouting America. Scoutbook, Cub Scouts and the rank and adventure names are their trademarks, used here to describe what DenBuddy works with. Requirement text is Scouting America's copyright, so the public pages paraphrase and link to the official source.

Scoutbook Plus stays the system of record. DenBuddy reads from it, writes back only the rows you press Send on, and if you had to choose only one, choose Scoutbook.

What we will not build

A short list, kept short on purpose. No accounts for children. No direct messaging to Scouts. No write-back into Scoutbook. No selling of data, no advertising, and no features that need a child to install anything.

Where it is going

The next work is the pack-wide view for Cubmasters, better handover when a den leader moves on, and a public page for every adventure with a ready-to-run meeting plan. If you want something in particular, say so. This is a small product and leader requests move it.