Transform Your Scouting Council

I recently took over the role of Reservations Manager fully managing the Black Pug system for my Council – the Michigan Crossroads Council – the largest Council in the nation. As you can imagine, the prospect was daunting, but the team over at Black Pug have been tremendously helpful in answering all of my questions (even the silly ones), and have been so friendly to work with – sharing personal pictures of our pets with one another makes the experience more human and helps to show that their team really cares. My questions, concerns, and requests are always answered quickly, efficiently, and with helpful graphics! They’ve even taken time out of their busy schedules to hold video meetings with me to go over large topics – like setting up summer camp – and will even check in to make sure things are going well. In sum, the team over at BP is personable, friendly, helpful (without judgement), and responsive. Black Pug can sometimes be a daunting system, but the team makes it easy, manageable, and empowers you with confidence.

The onboarding process to Black Pug was painless for our Council. Our volunteers and staff all agree that Black Pug provides a more customer friendly platform than what we had prior. When we need something, Black Pug responds quickly with in-depth steps/screenshots/photos to assist. Black Pug was easy to drive right into and start work. During the on-boarding process, Black Pug recorded our trainings, which have become invaluable in training new hires.

Over the years I have tried several softwares that would allow the council to take online registrations for events and camps. Never have found any I was particularly pleased with. Many lacked flexibility or had the "muscle" needed to handle the complex process that camp affords. That is until now. We found one that seems to be doing all of those. We use this also for our council calendar for our website. We collect fees, deposits, names and emails for those registering/participating, communicate directly to those registered for an event/camp, conduct surveys... This robust software seems to be the answer. This program is intuitive, simple and is loved by staff and volunteers here in Alaska. Our SE also loves it as he can see real-time how registrations are coming for any event and especially camp. How many times I would have given anything for that for the many years I sat in that chair.