Can't get a straight answer

[Coach Matt]

I can't begin to express how frustrated I am.  I have read help articles, I have read forum threads, I have asked via chat, and all I get are conflicting or incomplete answers.  Here's my problem and some of the answers I've gotten (I've bolded parts that seem to conflict and I can't get an answer on)

 

Me: Our concern is with how communication breakdowns occur and how we can best utilize the website and app to make communication easier. We have parents and players that range from 11-18, so we want to ensure that everyone receives the schedule updates and chat/email messages, and can respond. But I'm still not sure I fully understand how that would all work with household vs profile vs guardian.

 

So, here's a typical scenario. I have a player on the roster (not through a registration, because most of our parents will simply not register for "one more thing" after everything else they have to do with school, USAV, other organizations, etc. We will eventually break them of this but for now, we added players manually. 

 

So, I think I add Mom's email to the roster player and she will get the invite to accept the roster spot. She should then create a SE household account under her information (if she doesn't have one), and accept the roster spot by creating a profile (or selecting a previously profile) for her daughter. She then would need to add Dad as a "guardian" to "daughter's" profile so that he can also get emails, updates, etc. More text to follow >>

 

But, it sounds like then Mom has the account to log in to the app and website, but Daughter and Dad don't have actual accounts, and would not have team access to the app or website to get updates, post chats/emails/photos, stuff like that. So how would Daughter and Dad be able to do all of that without a "household" account like Mom has? We need to ensure that parents and players all get the same communication, can RSVP, get schedule updates, and all that fun stuff that happens all year round. Is there something I am missing? Are Daughter and Dad supposed to set up their own accounts (assuming they have their own email addresses) and then somehow be merged or linked to Mom's household? If a daughter doesn't have her own email but has her own phone, can she get an account at least for the app so she gets updates, chats, etc.? We currently used Remind, especially at tournaments so we could communicate during down time, site changes, and more but would like to use SE platforms for everything if it is possible. More text to follow

 

So, that's the long story. Is my understanding on how accounts and profiles and guardian set up correct, and if so, does that setup provide what we need as far as access to chat, updates, emails, and more in both the app and the

website? Thanks.

 

Answer: Thanks for laying everything out. You have a pretty good idea of how claiming and profiles currently work. If the player is 13 or older they can create their own account using their personal email. This account would be added to the player's sub profile located in the parent's account as a guardian. This structure would allow additional guardian(s) or player to use the team functions. Here is the help article that you can share with the members on how to add a guardian, or if they are using the mobile app to add a guardian, here is the mobile help article.

A club administrator is able to add a guardian but only through the mobile app. Here is the help article for this process. 

Let us know if you have additional questions.

Thanks,

 

ME: So the player would have to be added as their own guardian to have the correct communication access?

 

RSVP, chat, etc.?

 

And if Daughter and Dad each have their own account, and Mom adds those email addresses as "guardians" to the Daughter profile under her household, does that automatically link the accounts based on email address?

 

Answer: Thanks for reaching out.

Yes, they will need to add the players email to the players account as a guardian in order for them to log into the app.

For your last question the answer is no. They can not add a guardians email if that email is already associated with another members account. To fix this the players account would need to be merged into one of the parents accounts (only we can merge accounts so make sure to reach out if you need this to be done.) and then the other guardians email would need to be added to the child's profile as a guardian.

Please let me know if you have additional questions on this or anything else and I will be here to help.

 

Me: The first answer said "If the player is 13 or older they can create their own account using their personal email. This account would be added to the player's sub profile located in the parent's account as a guardian." But if they have their own account, you are saying that if an email already has an account, it can't be added as a guardian? I just need Mom, Dad and Daughter to all have the same access and communication with only the Daughter actually being represented on the roster. I thought originally the child would have to have their own account and add the parents as guardians but the guides all say that an account should NOT be the child and should never be on a roster, only the sub profiles should be on the roster. This is why I (and parents) are so confused. The players need their own login/access as they have their own phones and Mom isn't going to give Daughter Mom's login information with full access to her settings.

 

Answer: Yes that is correct.

A child should really only have their own account if the parents will not be involved.

Again, If you need me to merge the accounts together just let me know and I will be here to help with that.

Thank you

 

For the love of all that is holy, why is this so hard?  I've read and been told that if I don't set this up exactly "right", some people may or may not get schedule updates, some may or may not get chat/messages, some may or may not get access to RSVP, etc.  

 

Please, can someone just tell me how to ask our parents and players to set up their SE accounts or profiles or households or whatever the new name is going to be?  If Mom and Dad each have their own accounts (households), and Dad can't be added as a guardian on Mom's household's subprofile for Daughter, then how can he get access to Daughter's team?  All I need is for the player and her parent(s) and/or guardian(s) to have access to the team functions, especially chat/messages that are tied together by player/parent so that coaches cannot send a player a chat without their parent/guardian being included. 

 

It can't be this hard, can it?  I have to have step by step instructions or some sort of guidance to provide to parents and players or even if it is simple, they won't get it right, but if I can't understand it, I can't expect them to.  And I code for a living.  

 

I'm begging for help - please can someone tell me how to accomplish what we need to accomplish, or that SE is not a platform that can accommodate this and we will have to revert back to using other calendaring and messaging products?

 

Thank you

 

 

[Lisa Akerson]

Hi Coach Matt,

 

We previously responded with the below information via our Help Center in your account. Please let me know if you need further assistance!

 

Thank you for reaching out to us about this topic and thank you for your patience thus far. My goal in this response is to clarify your question of essentially "how can both parents and their athlete(s) receive the same notifications all while maintaining ownership of their own accounts".

We're continually monitoring and improving our platform to account for all family structures and scenarios, and this is a topic that we come across quite often. At this time and stage on our platform, each parent can (and should) have their own SportsEngine Accounts. These accounts can be created here and the Primary Email Addresses on file must be unique, as an email address can only be used for one SportsEngine account at a time. From here, traditionally one of the two parents uses their account to sign up on behalf of their athlete, this initially creates a sub-profile for that athlete on that parents' account. If the athlete already has a sub-profile created, the parent can select that profile to signify who they are registering for on the registration session's "Who Are You Registering?" page. Then, on a parent's account in their "Household" tab, this parent can click on the profile for this athlete and add a Guardian for the other parent, or whoever else should receive notifications as a Guardian for this player. With this method, if the athlete would like to log onto the website or app to see notifications for themselves, they would need to use their parent's login information.

In the instance where an athlete is 13 years or older and they would like to have their own account and also would like both parents to receive notifications as well, they can simply go ahead and create their own account. Then, the parent who has this child existing as a profile in their household would add this new account as a guardian to the already-existing player profile in their household. 

Thanks again, and let me know if we can assist you further!

 

Lisa Akerson

Director of Customer Support