"Charter Name Scout" question

It's *my* turn to ask all of you great Scouters a question; I hope that you
can help me and my friend out!

I have a friend of mine who's a Council Commissioner; he called me this
morning and explained the entire thing. I was half asleep, so I had him to
call me back in a few minutes while I turn the TV on and then start up the
coffeepot. He called me back and here's the situation:

He was called by a Scoutmaster and later by one of his District's
Commissioners earlier the day before yesterday. The Scoutmaster told him
about one of his "Scouts", a high school track player who was on his way
home with some of his friends, when he noticed a kid playing on the rail
track about two minutes away from getting hit by the oncoming train.
The boy and his friends yelled and waved and the boy ran up to the track and
found the boy connected to the track some way with his clothing...he
stripped the clothing off the boy and both him and the boy tumbled down the
side of the track in time to barely avoid getting hit by the train.

The track member/Scout suffered scars on his leg which will knock him out of
participating as a member of the track team or to practice until the scars
heal up.

Track coach is mad as a hornet, and Mom and Dad (living in separate towns)
are extremely proud. Scoutmaster wants to recommend the kid for a Heroism
Medal but here's the problem:

The Scout is what I call a "charter name Scout". That is, he has been
registered with this Troop from what I understand every year since his 12th
birthday; he is now 17.5 years old. He is a Life Scout with no interest
toward Eagle. He has attended meetings very rarely since becoming a member
of the high school varsity track team two years ago. He hasn't attended
summer camp in the two years, and he has not been to a Court of Honor in two
years; but he did appear on the front row of the Troop's annual photograph
that hangs in the lobby of the chartering organization (a factory).

The application calls for the Scout to be "registered actively" as a member
of the BSA, which he is and has been. However, is that good enough to
recommend the awarding of a Heroism or Meritoritous Service Medal??
Scoutmaster says "No", District Commissioner (and friend of Mom and Dad)
says "Sure it is".

I said to my Council Commissioner friend "I would recommend him for the
national award, but I would make the presentation private to avoid losing
the rest of my boys to this "charter name Scout" ". In dinner this evening,
Jessi strongly disagreed with me, saying that "it's not fair; the boy did
something based on Scouting and you're penalizing him for not showing up at
the regular meetings??", which made me relook this issue and to bring it up
here for discussion.

The BSA is *starving* for some great news about its members, especially
after defending itself in several venues....this would be a "good news
story" for the BSA and this local Council, whereby the Council didn't do
well in their SME/FOS this year (dropped a staggering 12 percent from last
year), and the CC couldn't tell me if it could be recovered before the end
of next month ("report card time" for local Councils are in June and
December). So this would definitely help....

So which is it going to be:

Public ceremony, with all of the bells and whistles, which would meet the
need of the parents, the local Council and get the track coach off this
kid's back (even temporariliy) -- but will state this message to Scouts:
"You don't have to show up or be active with our units to be a "good
Scout"....just pay your money every year and everything will be fine"

Or

Private ceremony, without the bells and whistles, but dignified and which
expresses the recognition due this hero, which won't meet the parents nor
the Council's needs for the additional PR and because it's not public, the
track coach may be invited, but he's still going to be mad because his 'good
runner' is out because he "played Boy Scout"...but it says to Scouts that
"good things come to those whom are active".

What do YOU think? I'll post a summary in a few days and also call Ted up
and hopefully offer him some additional suggestions!!

Thanks for the help and assist!!

Settummanque!
(c) 1998 Mike Walton ("no such thing as strong coffee,...") (502) 827-9201
(settummanque, the blackeagle) http://dynasty.net/users/blkeagle
241 Fairview Dr., Henderson, KY 42420-4339 blkeagle@dynasty.net
privately at kyblkeagle@aol.com or waltonm@hq.21taacom.army.mil
---- FORWARD in service to youth ----

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