From: EC92@AOL.COM
Date: Tue Apr 25 2000 - 10:45:52 CDT
And I must say that I strongly encourage this, again:
IF A BOR DENIES A YOUTH ADVANCEMENT, for whatever reason, the chair of the
BOR should bring the youth back and explain it in terms the youth understands
until the youth can state that he understands why, write it in the youth's
book with an agreement of how to fix it and when it will be fixed by (on the
page for that rank advancement) and then should STILL follow up by a.
Contacting the parents before there is a misunderstanding and b. sending a
written note to the home describing why.
This eliminates the possibility of questions, makes sure the parents AND the
youth know what needs to be done, and no one is asking questions later.
This should happen so few times in a year (heck, in 5 years) that it should
not be a burden on the troop committee. For the record, since #1 joined
Scouts about 8 years ago I believe I watched it occur twice, maybe three
times. By following these steps there were no bad feelings, no
misunderstandings, or anything else.
Why should it happen so seldom? Before the BOR gets the boy the SM holds his
conference. He gets his chance at making sure everything is signed, that
everything appears to be in place, and sends the boy on.
In the two instances I recall, one board turned a boy away because of a
question over a completion of a MB at Star and the other was where the boy's
dad started just signing things off because the youth said they were
completed (Sorry, but that danged "Akela Signs" pattern from Cubbing kills us
sometimes at the BS level). Fortunately in the latter case they knew going
into the BOR what had happened because the SM was able to point out that he
did not know who the person was who signed things off with certain initials.
It's things like this and SM Conferences that make me continually ask that we
put in a blank page for writing with each advancement. You would have a page
where the SM can write notes and promises a youth makes, you can write in
when a youth promises to make the next rank so he has a reminder looking at
him every time he looks in his book, etc.
Tom Petrik
