Camp Mode — Working Without a Signal

Camp Mode is the screen leaders use at a campout, a trek or any place with poor or no signal. Open it from an event (the Camp Mode tile on the event page, for leaders). Everything you do in it is saved on your own phone or laptop first and sent to MySummitKeep when you press Sync All, so a dead zone never loses your work.

Before you leave: open Camp Mode once while online

Camp Mode can only show what your device has already loaded. While you still have a connection, open the event’s Camp Mode page once. That caches the crew roster, the recorded roll call, the emergency-contact and health-form yes/no flags (for adult leaders), and, if you are allowed to sign off requirements, the list of requirements you can sign off for this event’s Scouts. Each cached block shows a “cached … ago” line. After 72 hours it is marked stale; it still works, but check it when you are back in range.

What works with no signal

You can	Notes
Take roll (Present or Absent) and Check Out	The time recorded is the moment you tapped, not the moment you synced.
See emergency contacts and whether a health form is on file	Adult leaders only. Youth officers run roll call but are not shown contact or health details.
Sign off requirements	Adult leaders and assigned merit badge counselors only. See below.
Add trek or voyage logbook days	Publishing a logbook always needs a connection.

Everything else (messages, payments, publishing, approving) needs a connection.

Signing off requirements without a signal

If you are allowed to sign off requirements, a Sign Off button appears on each Scout’s card in Camp Mode. It opens that Scout’s ranks (every rank up to First Class that they have not earned yet, or the single next rank) and their merit badges. Tick a requirement to queue the sign-off. It shows Queued, and Undo takes it back.

• A requirement that is already recorded shows Recorded and cannot be ticked.
• The date is today’s date on your device. There is no notes box.
• Only what you are allowed to sign is offered. Ranks need leader sign-off rights; a merit badge appears only if you are the badge’s assigned counselor (with Youth Protection and registration current) or a unit leader.
• If your registration or Youth Protection training is not current, Camp Mode tells you at the top and offers no Sign off buttons, so you find out before the trip rather than after it.
• If the cached list is more than 3 days old the sheet says so. You can still queue; the server checks every sign-off when you sync.

Nothing is recorded until you sync. A queued rank sign-off then lands in the usual approval queue as Pending, exactly like a sign-off made online, and the Scout’s family gets the same notice they get today for each requirement.

A merit badge requirement the Scout has only saved a response for is not signed off, so you can still tick it at camp. If the app is closed while a sign-off is being sent, it stays queued and is sent again on the next sync.

Syncing and what each result means

Press Sync All when you have a connection. Roll call goes first, then logbook days, then your sign-offs, one after another. The server applies every rule at that moment: who may sign, the registration and Youth Protection check, whether the Scout is still in the unit, the merit badge counselor rules. Being allowed when you queued something counts for nothing; being allowed when you sync is what matters.

Each sign-off ends in one of these:

Result	What it means	What you can do
Gone from the list	Recorded.	Nothing.
Already recorded, same date	Someone (often this device, after a dropped connection) already recorded it for that date.	It is removed quietly.
Already recorded (different date)	Someone else recorded it first. Their date stands; yours was not applied.	Dismiss.
Changed on the server	The requirement was approved, rejected or otherwise changed while you were away. Nothing was saved.	Review it, then Sign Off Anyway (sent against what you have just been shown, and still checked by the server) or Discard.
Refused	The server’s own reason is shown, for example a suspended seat, lapsed training, or you are no longer the counselor.	Retry (the server asks again) or Discard.
Not sent yet	There was no usable connection, or you had to sign in again.	Reconnect and press Sync All again.

A sign-off is never silently overwritten: if the requirement changed since you looked at it, you are told and nothing is written until you decide.

Shared phones and tablets

Queued sign-offs belong to the leader who queued them. If another leader signs in on the same device they see only a count (“1 sign-off queued on this device by another leader is waiting for them to sign in”), cannot send or discard it, and it is never sent under their sign-in. Sign-offs stay on the device until their leader syncs or discards them; signing out does not delete them. The one limit is age: a sign-off that has not reached the server is deleted from the device 30 days after it was queued. Each queued or needs-review sign-off shows how many days it has left (for example “Queued 12 days left”), and when Camp Mode removes any, a notice says how many were removed and that you should check the requirement and sign off again if it is still needed. The same happens if you are no longer a member of the unit a sign-off was queued for: once the app has loaded your units while online and sees you are not in that unit, your unsent sign-offs for it are removed from the device (they are not sent) and counted in the same notice. A unit that was deactivated is not a unit you left: your unsent sign-offs for it stay on the device until the unit is switched back on or the 30 days run out. If you were removed from your only unit the app still clears them, because it knows the load worked. A device that is offline, or a units list that failed to load, never removes anything. Press Dismiss to clear the notice. Sign in again as the same leader to send them.

What is stored on the device

Queued sign-offs hold identifiers, the requirement’s number (for example “Tenderfoot 4a”), and a date. They contain no Scout names, notes or any typed text. The cached list of requirements holds identifiers and each requirement’s status only. Camp Mode’s cached data is not encrypted on the device; it is limited to what is needed at camp and the cached reads are cleared when you sign out or switch units. Use your device’s screen lock.

Related guides

• Recording & Reviewing Attendance
• Event Roster, Roles & Attendance
• Advancement Workflow
• Merit Badge Counselors & the Badge Workflow
• What Youth Leaders Can and Cannot See