An honest comparison
Keep Scoutbook. Retire the spreadsheet.
Most packs do not run on Scouting software. They run on Scoutbook plus a pile of improvisation: a roster spreadsheet, a shared Gmail, a reply-all thread, a Facebook page, and Zelle to the treasurer's personal account. It is all free, and it mostly works, as long as nobody new shows up and nobody quietly leaves.
MemberCairn replaces the improvised pile, not Scoutbook. And the replacement is free too.
First, the part we will not pretend about
Scoutbook is free, official, and required: advancement has to be recorded there to count. So MemberCairn does not do advancement tracking, on purpose. No second place to type the same adventure, no sync to babysit. MemberCairn sits beside Scoutbook and does the work it was never built to do: answering interested families, welcoming new ones, and noticing the ones drifting away.
Job by job
The same week, run two ways.
Nothing below is a knock on your volunteers. The improvised stack exists because they care enough to duct-tape one together. Here is what each piece of tape is holding, and what happens to it.
A new family looks for you
The improvised stack
A dated Google Site, a Facebook page a former leader still owns, or nothing but your pin on BeAScout, BSA’s official find-a-unit site.
With MemberCairn
A clean site at your own address, written by your AI assistant from a few questions, with photos, meeting times, and a join button.
They send a question
The improvised stack
It lands in cubmaster@gmail, whoever has the password. Read on a phone at work, forgotten by dinner.
With MemberCairn
It lands in one shared pack inbox nobody has to remember to check. Replies are drafted for you, and on the Guide plan answered for you in minutes.
They join
The improvised stack
Someone retypes them into the spreadsheet, adds them to the email list, and hopes the welcome email from last year is still in someone’s sent folder.
With MemberCairn
MemberCairn welcomes them in your voice and guides their first month: dues, forms, what to bring, who their den leader is.
Reminding everyone about Tuesday
The improvised stack
A reply-all thread that does not include the two newest families but does include someone’s uncle, with last month’s flyer attached.
With MemberCairn
One announcement to the whole pack or a single den, from a list that stays current on its own as families join.
A family starts drifting
The improvised stack
Nobody notices. The spreadsheet says they are members right up until they do not come back in the fall.
With MemberCairn
MemberCairn flags the quiet family while there is still time and drafts the check-in for you to send.
Collecting dues and event fees
The improvised stack
Zelle to the treasurer’s personal account, cash in envelopes, and a chase-them-down column in the spreadsheet.
With MemberCairn
A family pays the campout fee right on their RSVP reply, by card or bank. Dues are one link for the whole pack, and the money lands in the pack’s own account.
Handing off to next year’s volunteer
The improvised stack
Three password resets, a spreadsheet only its author understands, and two months of "how did she do this?"
With MemberCairn
The next volunteer signs in and everything explains itself. The history, the families, and the AI help are already there.
The price question
Free, versus free.
The improvised stack's best feature is its price, and MemberCairn matches it. The free plan is free forever: a real website, an interest form, one shared inbox, money collection, unlimited roster, and full export whenever you want it. No card, no trial clock, no member cap. When a family pays online they cover one small service fee at checkout, which is how free stays free.
What the free plan actually costs you is what the spreadsheet was costing you all along: nothing in dollars, hours in evenings. The difference is which way the hours flow. Paid plans exist for packs that want announcements at committee scale (Organizer) or want your AI assistant to do the answering and welcoming itself (Guide). Paid plans run by the year, and upgrading never touches your data.
You are not choosing between free and paid tonight. You are choosing between free that drops families and free that does not.
Ten minutes, tonight
Retire the spreadsheet. Keep the $0.
Answer a few questions and your AI assistant sets up your site, your interest form, and your inbox. Scoutbook keeps doing what Scoutbook does. Your spreadsheet gets a well-earned retirement.
Import your roster from a CSV in one step, and export everything, anytime, on any plan. Your data stays yours.
