KoreaScouter

Barry; I'd buy what you're selling about the adults determining the lad's opportunities, except for one thing: no Scout is an indentured servant. For a buck and a piece of paper, he can transfer to another unit. I've picked up a number of them that way. You know, it's funny how some of us refer to how much more challenging and difficult it was to earn Eagle in the "good old days". Suspecting this might be an adaptation of the "I walked five miles to school, uphill, each way" admonition, I checked my 9th Edition Handbook (only back to '82, but it's the oldest one I have, so 23 year

To answer Dug's earlier question, the POR credit part is perhaps the easiest non-dilemma we face...if, and it's a big if, the SM used his junior leadership training kit, explained and gave a copy of the job description to each youth leader, conducted JLT, and most importantly, gave regular feedback to the youth leaders. And especially, if one wasn't measuring up, where he wasn't measuring up, what he needed to do to improve, and what the implications are if he doesn't. Only by doing so, can you avoid the "I did my four months and you didn't say anything" misunderstanding. On numerou

The SPL handbook says (Chapter 1, page 9): "Each Troop sets its own age, rank, and other qualification standards for its senior patrol leader, though these may be temporarily waived if a troop is newly organized." It goes on to say that: "The senior patrol leader of an established troop is often selected from among the most experienced Scouts of a certain age and rank." So, your Troop (the PLC ideally) will determine what the SPL qualifications are for your unit, and you have the flexibility to make the qualifications fit your demographics. KS

Bug; You hit it on the head, my friend! Unless we're asserting there's widespread chicanery among parents, leaders, and District staffs, a completed Eagle application packet with the project workbook is prima facie evidence of sufficient maturity to get the lad an Eagle BOR. That august group will review the application, the references, the project, and interview the candidate to determine if he's worthy. If they have deemed he is, National agrees, and he's wearing the badge, then it's settled. If someone thinks he doesn't measure up, well, the BOR members disagreed with you, and it's

The DRMS operates DRMOs -- the terms are essentially interchangeable. Like others, I've been identifying excess for DRMO, doing removals from DRMO in my military capacity, and using state release to get surplus property for my Scout unit. My military access to our local DRMO may give me a bit of an advantage -- when I'm in there in my military uniform, I can spot property (although I can't screen it) while it's in the federal/DoD cycle, then ask the state DAGS screener to scoot back out there as soon as it enters the State cycle. If you have any military members affiliated with your unit, a

The mentality? Forgive me for being dense, but I'm not sure to what extent we're supposed to be able to crawl into these kids' heads in order to assess their motives for earning Eagle. None of my training, including WB, prepared me for it. Now, I've got a teenage boy at home, work with 45 of them right now, have also volunteered in youth sports, and have spent the last 20+ years chasing others through back yards and down alleys wearing a badge. I certainly don't feel qualified to psyche them out. Do I need to go to Philmont all summer to be able to do it? Besides, as I scour my reference

The only absolute you can state about the "value of the rank" is the cost of the Eagle Presentation Kit (less than $20 if memory serves). The value in the context of the long term effect on the Scout and the people around him is something nobody will know until he achieves adulthood. Let's not measure the lad by a snapshot of what he did today. Either way, I will assert that the Scout who earns Eagle with a few years before he ages out has more opportunities to give something back to Scouting, immediately, than the lad who earns it right before his 18th and then goes off to college, then co

Yes, we are. Our council has an account with the State of Hawaii agency that deals with surplus property (DAGS), and all we need to do is visit the warehouse, tag what we want, and there's a little paperwork. There's a slight charge, council pulls it from our unit account up there, and the property is ours. If we need something that's not in the DAGS warehouse, we can meet the DAGS screener at our local DRMS (Defense Reuitilization and Marketing Service) office, and if the property is available for State issue (after DoD and GSA cycles), the DAGS screener can get it transferred to State for

To consider an Eagle Scout of any age questionable, we must also by extension question his unit leaders, his MB counselors, his Troop Committee, the organization that benefitted from his Project, the District Advancement Chair, and the members of his Eagle BOR. Sorry, but I'm not going to jump into that conspiracy-theory quicksand (with apologies to all of you Elvis-is-alive, 2nd-gunman-on-the-grassy-knoll, the-lunar-landing-was-shot-in-Hollywood types). Do they have the leadership skills? By definition, they do, at least to the satisfaction of their BORs (but not, apparently, to the sa

The Eagle project workbook asks the Scout to list "Hours Spent by Scouts, Venturers, or Other Individuals Working on the Project". We can split hairs (again), but it seems to me that the "or" means that the "other individuals" are not Scouts or Venturers, and BSA National understands and endorses this practice. For example, for his Eagle project, little KS enlisted the aid of several members of our CO who had a side business laying concrete. They built the forms, laid the re-bar, and helped screed and edge it when the truck showed up. All were adults, and not currently registered.

You know, sometimes these hair-splitting discussions border on the ridiculous. When one of my Scouts asks me for a blue card, I look at the list of counselors, consider the Scout, any other Scouts who may be working on the same badge, my experience with the counselor(s), and then I discuss with the Scout which counselor I'd like to assign to him. Why do this? Different counselors have different availability and preferences (days of the week, travel distance, older vs. younger Scouts, etc.). I know the Scout and how they'd match up with a particular counselor. I know which counselors a

We are also "Old Goats", and model what we hope is planning, organization, campsite setup, menus, and teamwork worthy of emulation. We don't structure it as a competition, but more of a "static display". Also, we deliberately plan to cook more than we can eat, and after we've eaten (we include the SPL/ASPL/Guide on our menu plan), the SPL offers samples to the rest of the critters. That's caused some trickle-down, too. KS

Personally, I think it's a little "overkill" for an MB counselor who has no other role in Scouting to be expected to maintain a current Requirements book. I do think, however, that it's reasonable to expect a counselor to use the current MB pamphlet for the badge or badges he counsels. At a minimum, he should be aware of what the Scouts are using as a primary reference, and if the state of the art has passed the reference, he'll know it and can point that out during meetings with his Scouts. Now, should a counselor have to buy the pamphlet, or should it be provided to him? Reasonable p

I had a situation like this in a previous unit, except the boy was a 17 year old Life Scout transfer. He and dad came to a Troop meeting. I got the impression he was there because his dad insisted -- in the next six months, two meetings and no outings -- and wasn't interested in even Instructor responsibilities to help with the NSP. I smelled a rat, and in our conferences -- frequent and well-documented -- I told him he wasn't cutting it on Scout Spirit, but he was non-responsive and very measured in our conversations (read: coached by dad on what to say to me). Long story short: dad was w

I'm sure it's been said before, but if the CO doesn't care, and the lad's parents condone it, we must do so too. Ultimately, it's a family decision, not a unit decision, and every family's different. I've tried to teach my son that tattoos are painful and regretted later, and that body piercings are something that girls do. But, I've told him that if he ever gets interested in either, he may have exactly as many tattoos and body piercings as I have. I have Scouts with earrings; I think they're silly on a male, but I don't discriminate because of it. None of my lads have tattoos, but s

Man goes to his local monastery's fish & chips fund raiser. The potatoes are so good, he wants seconds. He asks one of the residents: "Are you the...chip monk?" "Nope, sorry, I'm the fish friar". KS

Putting aside the too-early/too-young arguments, I know many high schools expect community service; my son's is one of them. But to buy into the logic that says "wait until HS for your Eagle project" brings with it the assumption that the last community service hours a lad will perform is on his own Eagle project. In my experience, that's not the real world -- read the Eagle charge. Those boys are paying back the investment others made in them by jumping in on other Scouts' projects, and participating in unit level and/or OA projects, too. I suppose there are the Eagles out there who flat-

That's what I thought, too, at least, that's how it was when I was in Cubbing a few years back -- Webelos was either/or. You said your Cubmaster doesn't want to get involved? Excuse me, but you don't have a Cubmaster, you just have someone wearing a shirt. KS

Amen to EagleinKY! I see many Scouts who have group signoffs through First Class, mainly through NSP leadership (we do it), or through FCFY programs at summer camp (we do that, too). That makes sense because they're tying the knots and learning the first aid as a group. However, alarm bells should go off if you're seeing group signoffs on Star, Life, and Eagle requirements. I've also had transfer Scouts who I know came from "Eagle Mill" Troops (I love that term!). I know because they were experienced Scouts who had never seen a Troop Meeting Plan, had no idea what the Handbook sai

I don't know if this will make the ASM job description thing clearer or more muddy, but here I go with my $.02: The SM Handbook tells us that ASMs should be given specific program responsibilities (so they aren't just standing around, so SMs can delegate, and so that ASMs can be developed into SMs themselves if so inclined). There are two specific program responsibilities mentioned of course: NSP ASM and VP ASM. OK, that takes care of two ASMs. If you have more than that, it's time to get creative. At various times in my SM tenure, I've had a Program ASM, Patrol Advisors, Life-to-Eagl

Yep, after a few iterations, we got tired of hanging and removing temporary patches, dunking them in the soup, and having the wind blow them around our chests like pastie tassels. We'd both earned the International Activity Patch, and simplified our lives by just sewing them on and leaving them there. KS

I don't think we should be acting as "human restrictor plates", trying to slow Scouts' advancement because of parental agendas. Many Scouts age-out due to procrastination and other factors, but what's too early? Every boy is different, with different interests, opportunities, and motivations. Some have many extracurriculars, extra family responsibilities, or have to work harder at school to get decent grades...or what have you. On the other hand, some boys and their families make Scouting a family activity, at the exclusion of other discretionary activities. Guess which ones are likely to

Let's not create any false dilemmas here. This doesn't come down to a choice between a "no parents rule" and the modern equivalent of an Old West shoot-em-up with more parents than Scouts, and the parents are brandishing weapons in one hand and bottles of whiskey in the other. As I see it, the intent of the BSA policy on parental observation is to underscore BSA's YP guidelines, to "put our money where our mouth is", if you will. I welcome parents who want to join us on outings. If they're staying overnight, I want to make sure they're prepared to do so, properly equipped, and we hav

You can also put it on a patch vest, backpack, or blanket KS

Ditto to FScouter; revisons are once each year, in January, and they're all published in the Requirements book... KS