Cub Scouts Pack 8 Charlotte Mecklenburg

All popcorn orders that you record on your take-order sheets need to be entered into Trails-End’s Popcorn System.  As you make sales, either show & deliver or take order sales, write them on your take-order sheets and then enter them into the Popcorn system.  In addition, if your son participates in a Show & Sell at a Church Mass or at a retail store location, this year we will be able to give him credit on his take order sheets towards full-sheet based prize goals (1=Bow & Mallow & Bobcats Ticket; 2=Panthers Experience; 3=Panther Behind the Scenes Tour) in addition to monetary credit.

If you do not have access to the Internet or have difficulties using the system, please reach out to the Popcorn Chair at p8popcorn@gmail.com and a plan will be developed to get your son’s orders into the system.

An email will be sent to the parent email addresses listed in Scouttrack with your son’s login information to access the popcorn system.  Additionally, your den leaders will have a list and can provide help, and of course you can reach out to the Popcorn Chair for help if you have difficulties. 

Note: one point that may be confusing is that there is a separate tool that Trails-End has provided to help you drive Internet-based sales for friends and relatives who live at a distance and may wish to place their order by Internet but give your son credit.  This tool helps you construct emails with the appropriate links to give your son credit.  

Ok, let’s get started.  The first step is to log in to the Popcorn System – you will need the userid and password we provided for your son to access the system.  If you have multiple sons in Scouting, you will have to use each boy’s userid to reflect his sales.  To find the Popcorn System, we have placed convenient links on the Pack 8 website – look in the upper right as shown below:

Figure 1 – Popcorn System Links on Pack 8 Website

Again, notice there are two links – the first one is for the Popcorn System – the second is only used if you want to send emails to relatives, friends or colleagues who wish to place orders via the Internet.

Click on the first entry, which resolves to: http://scouting.trails-end.com/TESales/scoutarea/ScoutLogin.asp. If you want to follow along, click the link and it will open in a new window.

This takes you to the following screen.  Enter the userid and password provided, and choose a theme – for this example, we will use the Trail’s End Island theme.

Figure 2 – Trail’s End Popcorn System Website

Once you are logged in, you will see a welcome screen.  Normally you will go to the order entry screen first, but there are other options for games, additional help under “Resources” and the ability to set a personal goal, which we’ll cover later.

Figure 3 – The Main Menu Link to Ordering, and Selecting the Sale Period

To record orders, click on “Ordering” and then you will see a screen asking you which popcorn order you want – for 2009, choose “Order 11/19/2009”.

Next we get to the heart of the system – the Order Sheet.  This is set up to look like the paper sheets, except that you will notice it has only 15 lines on the screen versus the 30 lines on a paper take order sheet.   You can add orders at any time – you don’t need to fill up a whole sheet in one sitting.  As sheets are filled, you can go to new ones.

IMPORTANT: To qualify for sheet-based prizes like the Bow & Mallow (30 order lines by the 23^rd) or the Panthers Experiences, you will need to complete TWO 15-line online screen sheets to make the equivalent of one 30 lines paper sheet.

Figure 4 – The Heart of the System – The Order Sheet Screen

Your customer’s name goes in the CUSTOMER NAME spot, note that you can put the customer’s address in parentheses in the name slot for convenience, or you can press the details button if you need to fill in more data.  Here is a detail view of the customer name entry box showing addresses typed in line.

Figure 5 below shows a view of the detail screen that comes up.    

Fill out the products the customer bought and check whether they paid and whether you DELIVERED the product to them (as in an individual show & sell). 

Figure 5 – Closeup of Customer Name Entry Showing Inline Address

As stated previously, if you help support a sale at a Mass or retail location, the Show & Sell leader will keep track of who was supporting the sales and the product sales will be allocated among the participants according to how much time they spent and total sales – if thirty sales were made, with 3 Scouts helping, for a value of $300, then the Popcorn Chair will make entries such that each Scout would get credit for 10 sales and $100.   This is a great opportunity – reserve your spot at a Show & Sell!

IMORTANT – You can add orders at any time – you don’t need to fill up a whole sheet in one sitting.  As sheets are filled, you can go to new ones.  Again, 30 lines of sales equals one “filled sheet” for sheet-based prize purposes.

Once the order data has been entered, press the blue SUBMIT button at the bottom – be sure you verify the order information before submitting!  Once done, the order totals will show up in the master Pack 8 sales and up to Mecklenburg County Council.  As you see in this example, the $155 in orders for this Scout reflect on the Pack 8 total.

Figure 6 – Den and Pack View of Sales

SALES GOALS

If there is a particular sales-based prize or set of prizes your son has his eye on, you can help him find out what level he needs to reach in total sales and set a prize goal.  To do this, go to the main menu or top menu bar and select “Set Goal” – this takes you to a screen where you can look at the catalog of prizes, find out how much he needs to sell to earn it, and set the goal amount.

Select the “Set Goal” option

Set the Sales Goal, Choose Patch or Pin, and Explore the Catalog of Prizes

GAMES

There are several popcorn-related games on the site as well – check them out!