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Showing content with the highest reputation on 05/09/19 in Posts

  1. @thrifty I don't like labels either. "Eagle factor" is a shallow snide label not worthy of a scout leader. Be specific in what is wrong wrong or what should change or don't say anything at all. ... Nothing against the original poster. It's just a term that has been thrown around too loosely for way too long. One statement in the article hit me. "“I think it’s a credit to several things but mainly the boys themselves have made the troop a fun activity within their curriculum, " ... Magical mixtures of scouts and scout leaders happen that make the program shine. In my 15+ years
    3 points
  2. Eagle Mills area programs primarily designed to turn scouts into Eagles. Patrol method boy run programs, on the other hand, can be designed so well that scouts intuitively find themselves with the Eagle simply by participating in the program. One troop that always amazes me is Troop 232 in La Junta Colorado. Their program is based on the theme of the Koshare Indian Dancers. La Junta is about 3 hours from Philmont and they provide a place for troops to stop overnight for a small cost, and to watch their troop dancers in action. Well worth the visit. But, their list of Eagles is very impressive,
    2 points
  3. If you have a goal to have x number of eagles or if you measure your success by the number or percentage of scouts who make eagle, then you're probably an "eagle mill" that's overly focused on rank. The troop in the article sounds pretty unique. The troop members appear to be all or almost all from the same private K-12 school and their activities seem to be an integral part of their curriculum. That provides a level of support, continuity, and homogeneity that probably couldn't be duplicated anywhere else.
    2 points
  4. I think it is based on intent. When the adults have advancement as the goal instead if a method; this is when it changes. Even if the scouts meet the requirements as written, they are denied a true scouting experience because the aims are not likely realized as they are not the desired outcome.
    2 points
  5. The crossover ceremony can celebrate Webelos graduating the Cub Scouts program instead of crossing over to Troops. The pack could still use the bridge to symbolize moving on by recognizing every Webelos with a hand shake before crossing the bridge. Have the troops meet their new scouts after the meeting. I think a new scout getting their neckerchief handed to them by the SPL at their first Troop opening ceremony in front of the whole troop would be more fun and appropriate. AOL award is a little harder if the packs insist on doing group awards. One solution is award each scout the AOL af
    1 point
  6. I'd say it's a [derogatory name] if advancement is the sole aim. When my troop had 70-ish scouts we'd have 6-8 get eagle a year. We also had two high adventure trips and summer camp every year because the scouts wanted to do all that. If anything, I added requirements (mainly, scouts would have to know all the skills they had ever been signed off on before any rank SMC). It was never a pass fail test. It was show me or let's learn it again. Another thing I noticed was that nearly all the scouts would get Life somewhere between 14 and 16 and then decide they had plenty of time. At which point t
    1 point
  7. Actually, their 6% metric is based on at this point in time, +/- 850,000 Boy Scouts Scouts BSA registered for a specific year, 50,000 Eagles in that year, so roughly 6%. Sort of a false measurement based on what they say and what they report. Each year we do not get a new 850,000 Scouts, more like 200,000 +/-. Many are registered for 3 - 5 years (some longer). I would argue the number of Scouts who join the Scouts BSA program that get Eagle is closer to 25%. The real measurement would be how many unique Scouts (yep, I know, they are all unique) and bounce that against Eagle Scouts, th
    1 point
  8. I have never liked the fact that districts and councils "measure" how many Eagle Scouts they turn out. And if a number is below some level of expectation the question is "what is wrong", if it above the level of expectation, it is "look at how well we are doing." I suppose it is human nature since it is one of the few methods that has some measurable. But if that is how we want to measure I would prefer to see an overall advancement measure, not just Eagle. Cubs is measured that way, but Scouts is all about the Eagle. The measure of a goo unit in my mind is are the youth having fun,
    1 point
  9. My troop was labeled like this in the late 70s, early 80s. We didn't have 12 in a year, but had maybe 3 per year when only 1% of scouts were earning it. We had a great program as a troop, lodge, and council. Never new of a district existing. We had the Mackinac honor guard each summer and is still going on today. Had a large group go to the National Jamboree, international camping in Canada, and every other year a group from council went to Philmont. It was the norm to have troop members on summer camp staff and to see eagles awarded often. It kept us motivated, as it was obtainable. N
    1 point
  10. I'm glad that most of y'all see it as a positive thing that a troop can consistently get their scouts to Eagle. I agree completely with Fred --- the Eagle rank really is not all that hard if you stick to it, apply yourself, and have the support of a good, active troop. I suspect that most troops that consistently have large numbers of scouts reaching Eagle are seeing that result because they have a solid program and active support of their adults.
    1 point
  11. I attend NOAC when I was a rather scrawny introverted 15 year old, solo of sorts. No one else from my lodge was headed there but I was able to travel with a Lodge 3 hours from me. The other Arrowmen went out of their way to include me and I had a blast. I even joined them on a basketball team and we came in second place for our region. OA is kind of like the magic school bus, you won't always know what you are going to be doing, but you know you will probably get dirty, and probably have tons of fun. And the key to that is to communicate. With OA members in your unit, or chapter, or lodge. You
    1 point
  12. @mrkstvns, 12+ eagles awarded/year out of a roster of 90+ is not all that surprising. A troop's rate will wax an wane. This troop's is on it's high side. More boys will join, they will take their seniors' progress for granted, and many of them will have slower advancement. The trick will be making sure those boys always feel welcome even if they aren't advancing.
    1 point
  13. I don't like it when labels are thrown around. Unless someone is familiar with the troop and scouts, it's impossible to know what the personality of a specific troop is like. Maybe the scouts are motivated and having so much fun that Eagle comes naturally. That being said, I know many adults, including leaders, who believe that Eagle should be the end result of scouting. SM told my son that the MB he wanted to do wasn't important because it wasn't an Eagle. I agree with DuctTape and he said it better then I could.
    1 point
  14. I think part of the negativity towards this Scout is that there has indeed been adults saying their girls will be the first female Eagle, and they will do anything to reach that goal. Sidney Ireland is the best example of this as her troop has been pushing this issue since before girls were allowed. Sidney is currently wearing a Life rank, despite just having enough time as a Scout for only First Class, let alone Star and Life, and they have been pushing an Eagle Project on their council. Part of it is that a lot of experienced Scouts have seen this "Eagle at any costs" attitude before wh
    1 point
  15. We probably have different ideas about how the crossover is done. Most of the packs around here do not do crossover as part of a regular pack meeting, or even as an activity during Blue & Gold. Instead, the crossover (or bridging ceremony) is done as an independent event. The pack sets a time for their AoL Webelos SCOUTS to crossover and invites the local OA lodge ceremonial team to conduct the ceremony and welcoming teams from local troops to come. It's kind of a 2-part event: 1) the OA team recognizes the AoL recipients, 2) the scouts ceremonially cross a bridge at which time their
    1 point
  16. In general, I would rather a qualifying Webelo cross over when he wants to. There might be something in the pack he/she wants to do. Or, maybe he/she hasn't settled on a troop yet. Or, maybe he/she wants to stick with his buddies. Our pack does have a single crossover at the Blue-and-Gold banquet. That's nice because the scouts can plan to attend. But, we now have enough older scouts with various free schedules that at least one of them could free up time to welcome an "off schedule" crossover.
    1 point
  17. Just a couple more thoughts.... The group crossover ceremony is better from a "recognition" perspective. A boy is going to feel more special when there's 40 people witnessing his accomplishment than when there's 5. A crossover early in the year (January) gives the boy a better "leg up" in Boy Scouts. By crossing over halfway through 5th grade, he's got 5-6 months to earn some rank cred before summer camp. (Also, some troops that have strong in-house First Class programs have some activities fairly early in the year).On the other hand, the kid who crosses over in May might feel left
    1 point
  18. As an LDS pack, we move our boys up to Scouts BSA based on age (on their 11th birthday), not the school year. As a result, we have boys crossing over throughout the year, making a group crossover illogical. As for the Arrow of Light, boys receive it when they earn it - for some that happens as soon as they meet the 6-month requirement, for others it takes the whole year they are in the Webelos den, but again, that means there are AofL ceremonies being conducted throughout the year. The advantage to this is that each boy gets more individual attention, and there is no push to move boys al
    1 point
  19. Ours finish AoL whenever they get it done, but we do crossover as a group.
    1 point
  20. Okay, maybe it's time to let this thread end. We are far from the OT and much further from agreement.
    1 point
  21. So glad I found this. I just joined the site and ran across the post. Already called to get a replacement patch.
    1 point
  22. My son's first troop was an Eagle Mill/Factory in the true sense of most definitions. Troop meetings started with the SM handing the SPL a sheet of paper with the announcements for the the opening. After the opening the troop broke into 2 groups and went to MB instruction for the next hour. One of the 2 badges was an Eagle required and the other was usually an elective. Sometimes there would be 2 Eagle required badges running at the same time. All scouts that had not completed the Eagle required badge were required to attend that session. The only way a scout could attend the elective badge se
    0 points
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