Re: Bad Advancement Dates on Eagle App -- What do I do?

Robert Prager <pragerfamily@WORLDNET.ATT.NET> asked:

>An Eagle Application came in to council with following months,
>verified by advancement reports:

>Tenderfoot, June 95
>2nd Class, July 95
>1st Class, April 96
>Star, May 96
>Life, July 96
>
>Obviously, if these dates are right, he didn't have time in grade
>for Star or Life, but appears to have fulfilled everything with
>respect to the Eagle Requirements. Apparently, attempts to get in
>touch with the boy's Scoutmaster have been unsuccessful. The boy
>is 16. Any advice before the standing Eagle Board-of-Review meets
>on November 18th?

You mentioned that the Eagle application is confirmed by the
Council copies of the Advancement Reports, right?? Then, National
would have caught this if you'd sent it up to National for
approval. So doing *nothing* is NOT a valid response here; nor is
"letting it slide".

Where's the two-year gap between July 96 and November 98??

Was it possible that this Scout was a member of a Troop and left
out only to come back?

Here's some things that you could do:

*Reach the Chartered Partner organization of the Troop in which the
Scout was a member of. Explain the problem and have them to assist
you in tracking down the Scoutmaster or Assistant Scoutmaster that
would remember the Scout.

*Explain in a letter, which would HAVE to be signed by your Council
Scout Executive, the conflict between the dates and the BSA's
established requirements and your problem in reaching the unit
leader which signed the Advancement Reports. Make sure that you
include copies of the Advancement Reports (as it will slow down
things if National has to contact the Western Region to track down
the "national copies" of the advancement reports and to fax them to
Irving).

A reminder: there are three parts to the Advancement Reports: the
top copy is sent from the local Council to its Regional office,
whereby it is stored for tracking and as part of the Scout's
"national record". The middle copy is retained by the local
Council for inclusion in the unit's file which the Council is
required to maintain on every unit chartered within their
territory. The bottom copy is retained by the unit in case of
conflicts like this or for their own recordkeeping and tracking of
individual Scouts.

When a problem like this comes up, the three Advancement Reports
MUST "match up" for it to be valid. What has happened in the past,
is that a unit may leave a copy of the Report in their files within
the unit, but for a series of reasons, the National and Local
Council copies don't "make it" to the Council office for recording,
stamping and forwarding to the Region. Then, the Scout attends the
Board of Review, with "advancement reports" in hand (or verified by
the unit because they have *their copies*) and the arguments start
out. The Eagle Scout Service closely matches up the copies of the
Advancement Reports obtained from the Regional office (the
"national copies") with the data on the Eagle Scout application
itself. If the dates DO NOT MATCH or if the MERIT BADGE LISTED IS
NOT THE SAME AS LISTED ON THE ADVANCEMENT REPORT, the application
gets returned to the Council Scout Executive with a "buck slip"
informing him or her of the discrepancy and giving them time to
correct it and verify (by the Council Scout Executive's signature!)
that it's correct.

The solution, from *my* perspective, is to have the Council Scout
Executive to write the letter explaining the situation and asking
for the assistance from the Regional Director of Administration or
Program in the Western Region. He or his staff will find the
copies of the advancement reports sent in, and they can verify that
either they were submitted or that the reports never reached them
(which means that the report's not valid). The Council will do
their OWN searching beforehand as well.

In the meantime, the Council can reach the Chartered Organization,
who will try to reach the Scoutmaster or Assistant Scoutmaster of
that unit and ask them about this Scout's advancement as well.

Hope all of this helps out! Let us know please what happens!!


Settummanque!


(c) 1998 Mike Walton ("no such thing as strong coffee,...") blkeagle@mninter.net
http://mninter.net/~blkeagle Burnsville, MN 55306-7130 (612) 435-3085
privately at kyblkeagle@aol.com or waltonm@server.kaiserslautern.army.mil
---- FORWARD in service to youth ----

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