More on Boards of Review, Purpose, Eagles

The recent postings on Boards of Review, Purpose and Eagles indicates to
me that the members of this list are a wonderful group of fine Scouters
who are doing their best to see that each Scout they come into contact
with is getting the best Scouting program that they can offer. And the
healthy interest and exchange of ideas that we have seen only confirms
that opinion. We all are always learning in this Scouting business and
the testing of ideas and sharing of concerns helps us all.

Sometimes the sharing can become somewhat spirited! :-) And Scott is
right that he hit a nerve with me. My concern was with the Scouts and a
desire to see that they were being the best program possible. Hence a
long posting on the orientation of BORs towards being more in the
business of evaluating the quality of the program offered to the Scouts
than acting as a retester of requirements and related comments about failing.

I for one would rather not see the word "failure" associated with
Scouting because of its negative connotations for the individual and
the implied danger that a leader might be discouraging rather than
encouraging a Scout to his full potential. In trying to address this, I
suggested two alternatives for a board; e.g., pass or counsel the
Scout through guided discussion into a realization of the additional
effort necessary to meet the requirements, giving encouragement
for what has been done and his honesty before the board. This was
not meant to say that a BOR can't find that a Scout has not met the
requirements. Far from it. What was meant was that the BOR should be
looking not to brand the Scout as a failure, but ways to help him be
motivated and to succeed. Yep. Definitely a nerve for me. :-)

Part of learning is also keeping up to date with changes that can
have an affect on Scouts. As Bruce indicated, the rules for a BOR
have changed and the membership now must be adult committee members.
Likewise a BOR is required for each rank starting with Tenderfoot. For
a Scout, it will help avert potential problems later with an Eagle BOR,
if the Scout has been through all of his rank BORs and their membership
was properly constituted. For example, consider what would happen if an
evaluating Eagle BOR member's questions elicited a comment from the
Scout that indicated a lack of previous BORs or ones conducted by Scouts.
Technically, he would not have completed a requirement for a previous
rank. Most likely this would result in a delay while the problem was
rectified and a good deal of anxiety on the part of the Scout, parents,
leaders, etc.

All of this discussion eventually gets back to the fact that BORs are
a part of one of the methods of Scouting - Advancement and that their
execution should always be in furtherance of Scouting's purposes or aims:

1. To build character
2. To foster citizenship
3. To develop fitness

These are all positive directions and hence the emphasis on encouragement
and motivation in BOR settings.

Similarly, while we can debate the merits of a particular badge or set
of requirements for use in advancement, it is useful to remember that
advancement, outdoors program, uniforms, etc. are methods towards the
three aims and that they are not ends in themselves. It is for that
reason that some aspects of these methods have changed with time to help
our Scouts prepare for new challenges.

Sure, those of us who were Scouts as youths can recall back to how hard
or easy a particular rank or badge was way back when and try to decided
whether it was easier or not. We may or not agree with all of the
changes, but I think the key thing is to look at what it means to the
Scout today. Is he being challenged, motivated and as a result growing
in citizenship, character, and fitness? Are the methods we are using
resulting in the Scouts improving in these areas? And as they approach
Eagle, are they being similarly challenged, though some of the merit
badges are different?

In answering these questions for myself, I tend to look at what it was
like for me as a Scout reaching Eagle in 1967 and my son's progress
toward Eagle now. He is 14 and probably won't be an Eagle until he's
15, although he has earned Life and has 22 merit badges so far. In
completing the requirements of some of those badges he has learned many
things I didn't learn until much later in life. Some of the
requirements are different and some of the learning areas are different,
but as I watch, I'm amazed at how hard he has worked at it and his
self-motivation (in my case the motivation was external - mother on my
back constantly). For him the Scouting program is delivering a lot more
than what I had including a healthy dose of self-motivation. And as he
prepares for his Eagle project he'll be learning a lot more about
leadership than I did when I simply performed services under the
requirements extant nearly 30 years ago. For him as a Scout I think
that the Eagle rank will have every bit as much importance and value as
it did for me, if not more. From this perspective it is hard for me to
try to compare which time period's requirement were harder, better, etc.,
because I can see in my own son and other Scouts here tremendous growth
on the Eagle trail.

Speaking only for myself in the Scouting Spirit, Michael F. Bowman
DDC-Training, GW Dist. Nat Capital Area Council mfbowman@CAPACCESS.ORG

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