Channels & Group Messaging

MySummitKeep gives your unit three ways to communicate, each built for a different job. Channels are for ongoing real-time chat, group messages are for one-time announcements you need people to actually read, and direct messages are for a private one-to-one conversation. This page walks through all three, plus the Youth Protection guardrails that keep youth conversations safe.

Channels vs. group messages vs. direct messages

It helps to think of these as three separate tools:

• Channels (/channels) are persistent chat rooms — like Slack or a group text that never goes away. Members open a channel, see the full history, and post in real time. Best for “campout this weekend” chatter, patrol coordination, and leader discussion.
• Group messages (/communications/group) are a leader-only broadcast. You pick an audience, write a subject and message once, and it lands in every recipient’s Inbox. You get read receipts so you know who has seen it.
• Direct messages (/messages) are a private one-to-one thread between two people, with a subject line and reply chain — closer to email than chat.

Tip

If you need to know who read it, send a group message. If you just want a conversation to live somewhere everyone can scroll back through, use a channel.

Creating and using a channel

Open Channels from the navigation. The left sidebar lists every channel your unit has, grouped by type — General, Announcement, Patrol, Event, and Leaders. Unread channels show a red count badge. Click a channel to open its thread on the right; messages send instantly and arrive live for everyone else who has it open.

To create a channel, click the + button at the top of the sidebar. Give it a name, pick a Type (General, Announcement, Patrol, or Leaders), and optionally add a short description. General and Announcement channels automatically include every active member of your unit. The first time a unit opens this page with no channels, MySummitKeep seeds a starter set for you.

To post, type in the box at the bottom and press Enter (use Shift+Enter for a new line). Each message shows the sender and time, and reveals a small flag icon on hover to report it.

BSA two-deep and Safeguarding Youth warnings

MySummitKeep enforces the BSA’s Youth Protection rule that at least two adults with current Safeguarding Youth Training (SYT) must be present in any channel that includes youth. This is checked automatically — you don’t have to track it by hand.

When a channel has youth but fewer than two SYT-current adults, you’ll see an amber shield icon next to the channel in the sidebar, and a warning banner at the top of the thread explaining how many qualified adults are present and that a second is required.

Enforcement is a single hard block, not a soft warning. The moment a channel includes youth but has fewer than two SYT-current adults, MySummitKeep both flags the channel (the amber shield) and locks the message box — the composer is disabled and messages cannot be sent until two-deep is restored. The banner shows how many qualified adults are present and the corrective action.

The one exception is built into the server: a parent or guardian who is linked to every youth in the channel can still post to their own children, even while the channel is flagged. That carve-out is decided when the message is sent, so the composer may stay locked in the list view and still accept a parent’s message.

Caution

A locked channel is not a bug — it is Youth Protection working as designed. Add a second leader who has current SYT to that channel and posting re-enables itself. Parents and guardians can always message their own children directly outside the channel.

To confirm which leaders count toward two-deep, see Adult Leaders & Youth Protection.

Event channels

Event channels are tied to a specific outing or activity. When one is created, MySummitKeep automatically adds everyone registered for that event, so the right people are in the conversation without manual invites. Event channels appear under the Event group in the channel sidebar and follow the exact same two-deep and SYT rules as any other youth channel.

Archiving and restoring channels

When a channel has served its purpose — say, a campout that has wrapped up — a leader can archive it. Archiving hides the channel from the sidebar without deleting any of its history, so the record stays intact. A leader can restore an archived channel later to bring it back, or delete it permanently. These are leader/admin actions.

Reporting a message

Anyone can flag a message that doesn’t belong. In a channel, hover over a message and click the small flag icon that appears. For a direct message, open the message and use the Report action in its action row. Either way, pick a reason — Youth safety concern, Harassment, Inappropriate language / content, Spam, or Other — and optionally add context, then Submit. A leader is notified to review it. Reporting is safe to do more than once; duplicate reports are handled gracefully.

Note

Use Youth safety concern for anything involving a Scout’s wellbeing — those reports are prioritized for leader review.

Sending a group message with read receipts

Open Send Group Message (/communications/group). This page is available to adult leaders, committee members, and unit admins.

1. Choose a Recipient Type: Members (a built-in audience like all members, a specific patrol, or parents of a patrol) or Contact Group (a saved list that can mix linked members and external contacts).
2. For Members, pick your audience under Send To. Some choices, like a specific patrol, ask you to pick the subgroup. For a Contact Group, select the group and review the delivery preview, which shows how many recipients will be reached in-app versus by email.
3. Write a Subject and Message, then click Send Message.

Messages to members land in each recipient’s in-app Inbox. Youth Protection rules still apply — messages to youth are automatically copied to the required adult leaders.

Below the compose form, the Sent Group Messages list shows everything you’ve sent with a read receipt badge — “Read by 8 of 12,” for example. Expand any item to see a per-recipient list with a read/unread status and the exact time each person opened it, plus a progress bar of the overall read rate.

Note

There is no canned-template library on this page — you write the subject and message each time. For recurring audiences, save a Contact Group so you can reuse the recipient list without rebuilding it.

Direct messages and the Inbox

For a private one-to-one conversation, open Messages (/messages). Click Compose, search for a recipient by name, add a subject and your message, and send. You can reply directly from any received message, which threads the subject as “Re:”. Messages can be marked read or deleted.

Everything lands in the unified Inbox (/inbox), which has three tabs:

• Messages — your direct messages, with an unread count badge.
• Announcements — unit-wide announcements, with a shortcut into the live announcements channel.
• Notifications — system alerts, advancement updates, and event reminders.

The Inbox is the one place to catch up on everything addressed to you. For more on the alerts that show up there, see Notifications.