Advancement Reports
Steve Hoar (shoar@INFINET.COM)
Fri, 19 Mar 1999 10:58:31 -0500
This is a question that might be asked as 'How do you do it in your
council?".
In the past, up until a year and a half ago, when we bought merit
badges we turned in the advancement report at the council scout shop.
They in turn forwarded it to the council office for posting the records.
About a year and a half ago they began to require that we turn in the
unit portion of the blue card with the advancement report. BY 'they'
I mean the council office. The council office did nothing with the
unit portion of the blue card other than forward it to the DE who was
supposed to verify that the counselor was registered as a counselor.
He in turn was supposed to return the card to the unit.
Well, the end result was that massive numbers of blue cards were
lost in the handling and the DEs did not have the time to check the
registration of the counselors on the card.
Due to the lost cards there was such a massive uproar that they
stopped requiring the blue cards to be turned in.
But, that did not mean that they gave up the idea.
Now they have generated a local council form to be used in addition
to the unit advancement report. On this form we are supposed to
fill in the scouts name, Merit badge, and counselors name. Again
this form will be routed through the council office (where they will
do nothing with it) and returned to the District where the verification
of counselor is to take place. This will be real fun during the summer
camp season. (Like we have this huge staff!?)
This new requirement has not been formally communicated to the
units yet but I anticipate that again there will be quite an
uproar. For the district to take on this project will certainly be a
full time job. The Scoutmasters/units will just love another layer
of administrative paperwork being put upon them.
Unfortunately, as many of you guys associated with the government
will attest, BSA paperwork and administrative procedures have become
worse that the federal government.
SO, the quesiton I put before the group is..."How do you do it in
your council?".
Steve Hoar
Newark, OH
