Location-Based Group Finder

For Districts: This feature is included within the Plus, Premium and Pro plans.
For Counties, Regions and Areas: This feature is included within all projects.

From Districts with 4 Scout Groups, to Counties, Regions and Areas with 150+, we’ve built a tool which allows a user to find their nearest Scout Group or Explorer Scout Unit easily, using either a postcode or their current location.

On the homepage of your website, we feature a call-to-action to finding your nearest Scout Group. Once used, this call-to-action sends the user to a new page where an interactive, Google-powered map is shown, with each Scout Group and Explorer Scout Unit shown as a pin on the map.

Users enter their postcode, a location, or use their current location.

Below the map, a list of Scout Groups and Explorer Scout Units are shown, in order of distance from the postcode entered, or the location where the user is. You can choose to show the closest five or ten results, or a full list. The distance is calculated using the Google Maps Directions API, so measures the actual travelling time, rather than bird’s eyes distance, so is a true reflection of the nearest Scout Group or Explorer Scout Unit.

There are three options for results shown. You can choose to either:

• Show a simple listing, containing the name of the Scout Group or Explorer Scout Unit, the District it belongs to, the distance from the location entered, and the postcode for the Scout Group or Explorer Scout Unit.
• Show the above, plus when clicked, take the user through to a page about the Scout Group or Explorer Scout Unit where you can detail the meeting address, sections, and contact details.
• Show the above, plus when clicked, take the user through to the website for the Scout Group or Explorer Scout Unit (in a new tab).

An interactive map with pins is shown, along with a list, in order of closest first.

The Location-Based Group Finder we’ve built is designed to increase reach of Scout Groups or Explorer Scout Units within Districts, Counties, Regions and Areas. All of the data is managed through the back-end of the website, so Scout Groups or Explorer Scout Units can be added, edited and deleted easily via WordPress.

The average District, County, Region and Area website we’ve built sees this feature used many times every day, and is often the beginning of the enquiry process for a new member or volunteer. Within Districts, Counties, Regions and Areas we work with, we see several enquiries for these daily. Enquiries can also feed into Online Scout Manager automatically using our built-in integration.

Scout Websites was founded and is run by Josh Diamond, who is Assistant County Commissioner in Cheshire. Josh would be more than happy to answer any queries you do have. You can book a call in with Josh here »