Re: Awards Chairman Woes

It seems to me that there is a misunderstanding in this thread
(maybe I'm the one who misunderstands :-) ).

This is that in a Cub Pack that the Advancement Chair has any
responsibility for signing or certifying the boys' advancements. It is my
understanding that the Advancement Chair's responsibilty is to take the
reports of the Den Leaders, fill out the Advancement Report that is turned
in to Council, obtain the awards, and fill out the cards for signature by
the Den Leader and Cubmaster. They are not to add or delete any boy or
award on the report without being asked to do so by that boy's Den Leader.
In this case, the Chair seemed to be adding awards for her own son that the
Den Leader was not aware the boy had completed. An Advancement Chair may
also have been given responsibility for tracking the overall advancement
progress of all boys in the Pack to make sure no one falls through the
cracks because a parent doesn't understand that they can sign the boy's
books for a lot of things. In no circumstances are they to add or delete
without the Den Leader's say so. They certainly are not the one who checks
the boys' books and certifies that Akela has signed off on that
requirement.

There was also some suggestion that this mother was signing off for things
her son may not have done. In this case, extreme tact is needed by the
Den Leader. While reviewing the book and noticing, say that the family
campout was signed in December. They could have gone in September and she
only now realised this would count. I would talk to the boy while
reviewing the book and say something like:

I see you met the family campout requirement. Where did you go and what
did you do? Was it fun?

Then, if the answer seemed to indicate that the camput was not done during
the appropriate time, ie while the boy was in the correct status to work on
that requirement, I would make a general announcement to the boys and
seperately to the parents reminding them that things done before they were
Cub Scouts, ie registered, or before they had "graduated" from their
previous rank could not be used to meet the requirements for the rank they
are now working on. As a Cubmaster, I always state at the Sept Pack
Meeting and the last Pack Meeting of the year that parents can and indeed
in many cases *must* sign off their son's advancement requirements. I also
tell them that things done before the current year do not count toward this
year's advancements. I also give them the absolute cut off date to
complete the current year's advancement. With this information widely
known, I have had few if any problems like those being discussed in this
thread.

YiS,
Mike

--
LCDR M. Dobson               | NetNews Admin net.usuhs.mil
Experimental Hematology Dept | dobson@net.usuhs.mil
Armed Forces Radiobiology    |
Research Institute           | I don't have enough rank to speak for DoD

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