Re: More collective wisdom.....3 questions
Bruce E. Cobern (bec@NYC.PIPELINE.COM)
Fri, 11 Oct 1996 21:28:39 GMT
On Oct 10, 1996 11:58:34, 'Ned Jacklin <LASNJ@CCMAIL.CECO.COM>' wrote:
>Topic One
>On an Eagle application, (and merit badges with writing requirements)
>how picky should I be getting about grammar, spelling, penmanship, and
>so on? I realize these things are all very important in life, and you
>can see from my posts that I can write and spell. I don't really
>think I should be rejecting Scouts' work as though I'm their high
>school English teacher. I've only reviewed one Eagle application so
>far, and made suggestions on how to improve it and the cover letter to
>the District Advancement Chairman. I did not require it to be perfect
>before sending it on.
I would act just like their high school English teacher. While I wouldn't
refuse to submit the paperwork if the English needed correcting, I would
certainly suggest to the candidate that his work would certainly make a
better impression if it is grammatically correct and has proper spelling.
Our SM usually sees several drafts of the project write up before he
accepts it, and even then I am usually not satisfied with what I see when I
get the paperwork as district advancement chairman. I will state that the
quality of the English I see from any Scout at any time does make an
impression on me.
>Topic Two
>
>How widely varied is the difficulty of Eagle projects. In our
>community (four troops) I've seen projects ranging from having a car
>wash and using the money to buy a VCR or a video game for the hospital
>all the way to painting a reflective stripe around each of the 580
>fire hydrants in town. The car wash lasted about four hours one
>afternoon. The planning for the hydrant painting started about one
>year ago and has consumed well over 100 Scout-hours on weeknights and
>weekends.
This is an interesting question because there really is no right answer.
The magnitude of the project very much depends on the capability of the
particular candidate. One of the things that I always stress when
approving projects is that it is the SCOUT who must set the goals of the
project and that those goals should be ambitious enough for him to have to
stretch to achieve them. Obviously, that is different for everyone. I
also suggest that the Scout knows best what his capabilities are and so HE
is in the best position to set those goals. There are projects that I
would approve for one candidate but not approve for another, either because
I feel it is too easy, or because I feel it is too difficult. One of the
most difficult things is to convince these young men that they are capable
of far more than they feel they are capable of. I am currently not
satisfied with the quality of the Eagle projects in my district and will be
making a concerted effort to convince the SMs that they need to ratchet up
the quality of the projects a few notches.
>Topic Three
>
>If a Scout doesn't bring his book to a meeting and advancement
>requirements are being worked on [don't all Scouts come prepared??
>;-) ], does he have to repeat the requirement at a later meeting when
>he has his book there to be signed off? I'm of the opinion that we
>should be teaching the Scouts responsibility by coming prepared and
>shouldn't be secretaries for them (even though I use TroopMaster to
>keep track of what each of them is doing), but we've had meetings
>where a SM or SPL will write down everything they did and hand the
>list to me.
The requirement is completed when the Scout completes the requirement.
Whether it is recorded or not does not change that fact. However, if it is
not properly recorded then there is always the possibility that nobody will
remember that he has done it when he finally has his book available. In
our troop, the official records are those kept by myself (Troopmaster) and
the troop advancement chairman who keeps them manually and maintains the
advancement chart. We tell the Scouts that they need to get the
requirement signed in their books, but they also need to make sure that we
record it. That is so that WHEN they lose their HB we can recreate
accurate records in the replacement book. If we have not recorded it then
the new HB doesn't get it signed off. We will allow the person who has
approved the signing of the requirement to tell us that it has been passed
and we will record it, even if the Scout doesn't have his book present, but
we PREFER that the sequence be to record it in the HB first.
--
Bruce E. Cobern
MC, Troop 1, Flushing, NY
Advancement Chairman, Founders District, Queens Council, NY
bec@pipeline.com
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
