Re: Eagle/Gold/Silver/Ranger Awards
William H. Sills (whs@idcnet.com)
Wed Feb 18 09:31:23 1998
Service Academies, most colleges and knowledgeable recruiters are fully aware of
the QUARTERMASTER AWARD. Attaining the Eagle Scout Award is a wonderful
achievement. Both of my children earned it. However, they also both made
Quartermaster. In fact, all four of the boys that earned Quartermaster in
Central Region last year were Eagles. The official BSA position is that they are
equal. However, that is not really true. That is not surprising since Eagle is
for younger boys while Quartermaster may be earned by youth until 21. College is
harder than high school and it necessarily follows that the Quartermaster
requirements are designed to challenge young adults and Eagle is designed to
challenge younger boys. This does not make one BETTER than the other BUT it
certainly doesn;t make them equal any more than apples are equal to oranges.
Anyway, what is important is for former Explorers to support the SILVER
advancement track and the RANGER advancement track. We should all be thrilled to
have BSA return these other prestigious Senior Scouting/Exploring Awards. It is
time for us to encourage our young people to work toward the three older youth
awards. I certainly encourage my Sea Scouts to earn their Eagle but we don't
STOP there. Sea Scouts have such incredibly long tenure because we keep our
young men and women challenged. Now all posts will have the opportunity to use
the advancement methods that have worked so well for your web-footewd fellow
Scouters.
YISS;
Bill Sills
Skipper
SSS Hathor (1)
Roger L Stearns wrote:
> On Wed, 18 Feb 1998, Christopher K. Sokolov wrote:
>
> > The Quartermaster Award in Sea Scouting/Exploring is and has been exactly
> > equal in honor to the Eagle Scout Award. Reportedly, the new (resurrected
> > old?) awards will not be equal to the Eagle Award in the way that the
> > Quartermaster Award is.
>
> It may be considered equal within thescouting community. But most scouts
> have never heard of the quartermaster award, much less the public. If the
> Sea Scouts (wish there had been a ship back in my home council) wanted to
> keep the quartermaster award that's fine with me. But I don't feel that
> calling it the quartermaster award will give the scout the same amount of
> recognition as calling it an Eagle Scout Award. When you put Eagle Scout
> on your resume it draws attention and immediate recognition from your
> hopeful employer.
>
> In scouting,
> Roger Stearns
> Eagle Class of 89
> Alumni, Alpha Phi Omega
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