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melissalb: Somehow when you registered this forum tied your account to my e-mail address. Now every time someone posts in this thread I get an e-mail saying "Hello melissalb, so and so has responded to a thread you are subscribed to..." Could you please check your account info and put your e-mail address so I don't get your e-mails? Thanks, Mark

Apparently a new member signed up with a user ID of: melissalb I don't know why, but my e-mail address has been tied to her account and everytime someone posts in a thread she's been in I get an e-mail notification. I really would like this to stop. Who do I need to e-mail that can take care of this? Thanks, Mark

This thread is kind of like watching an Episode of American Chopper... people arguing due to boredom and/or ego.

Let me ask for clarification, because this was an issue that delayed a scout from reaching 1st Class for a couple of months... when this scout had completed all the other First Class requirements he had attended 6 separate troop activites AND 5 campouts. The Scoutmaster believed that only 3 of those 5 campouts could count as troop activities since the requirement says, "three of which included camping out." So this scout was stuck at 9 troop activities during a two month period where the troop didn't have any other non-camping special activities. It is/was my belief that the "three

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As our troop's "merit badge coordinator" it has been my job to try and recruit as many qualified counselors as possible for the badges where we didn't have someone in the district. The SM defers to me to help the boys find a merit badge counselor. Because my son has worked on a lot of merit badges I have been able to meet with these counselors and I have a good idea who to send the boys to and who is difficult to schedule. I encourage all of you to get as involved as you can with the merit badge counselors. Anytime I meet someone with a unique skill set that would be great for a counse

My son is 13, a Star Scout, and has earned 42 merit badges so far. He is also making a run at earning all merit badges. Probably 2/3 of his counselors are in-town, but not necessarily in-troop. One thing I've noticed is that some of the merit badge counselors my son has called haven't worked with anybody in years. I get the impression that most troops are using in-troop counselors and some of these older counselors are no longer used. The YPT requirement for MB Counselors is fixing to cause our District MB counselor list to get cut in half.

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I got the e-mail with these requirements from our District today. In bold letters they indicated that the YPT requirement also applies to MERIT BADGE COUNSELORS. If this is the case, I think it will be difficult recruiting new MB counselors that aren't already involved in Scouts some way. We'll see.

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There has been a minor change effective January 1, 2010. It doesn't actually affect anything, but the nomenclature is different. For Star, Requirement 6e has changed... It now reads 1, 7a, and 7b (outoor skills) and NO LONGER includes 7c (requirements a & b were combined, and c was changed to b). Anyhoo... While a Star Scout, use the EDGE method to teach a younger Scout the skills from ONE of the following six choices, so that he is prepared to pass those requirements to his unit leader's satisfaction. Second Class - 7a and 7c (first aid) Second Class - 1a (outdoor skills) Se

I've discovered that my feelings on advancement are different from many of the people here. However, I think it's good to have a plan... one that is flexible and can be modified based on changing tastes and circumstances. My son read an article about a scout who earned ALL of the available merit badges. Now my son wants to earn at least 100. We sat down and talked about what he would need to do to make that happen. Then we made a plan. We looked at the requirements for all the merit badges and divided them into categories... badges to work on at camp, badges to work on during the sum

A lot of the conversation in this thread is discussing "when did the scouts join, who are the scouts, are you related to the scouts..." None of these are requirements for advancing in rank. I am a "by the rules" kind of guy (my father is a judge). If the rules say a Scout may advance after completing XYZ requirements, then I believe it is contrary to the BSA guidelines to make it harder to advance. A scout would not be in a position to advance to Star if he had not already demonstrated proficiency in camping, first aid, basic swimming, etc. All three of the scouts in question

Vicki: I totally agree with your stance on "artificial hurdles" Monday night there is an "all adults" meeting to clear the air. The advancement chair and I both agree that it should be her call as to scheduling BORs and we will push to make it that way. She's said she doesn't have a problem with having two other committee members over to her house to do a Board of Review if one is needed outside of normal meetings. That's the kind of adult commitment that I was looking for. Having a new Scoutmaster and new CC in one year is hard. Too many personalities all trying to exer

"What is your position in the Troop, as a registered Scouter?" I am an Assistant Scoutmaster, registered and trained. I will be attending Wood Badge this Fall. One of the interesting things about Scouting is the wide difference of opinions. I am of the opinion that Scouts should be allowed to advance as quickly as possible. I realize not everybody feels that way and some of those reasons may be valid. I will say that my son has earned 15 merit badges already and is definitely a go-getter. Thanks everybody for the information. I agree it is simply not worth the risk of losin

There are 3 boys all in this same situation, one of whom is my son, yes.

"What's the Rush?" Two answers... 1.) He's already waited four months to advance, how long do you think he should have to wait? 2.) This is the Centennial Anniversary of Scouts. If you haven't been made aware, the rank insignias this year are unique... they say Star Scout 2010, Life Scout 2010, etc. The Scout in question really likes these badges and wants to earn them. In order to earn the Life 2010 badge, he has to be Star 6 months. Well if he doesn't make STAR by June 15, the likelihood of him getting a LIFE Board of Review between December 15 & New Years is remote.

Let me ask another question... who is responsible for scheduling the Board of Review? It seems to me this should be the job of the Advancement Chair. If the advancement chair can call two other committee members and ask them to show up for a BOR, it's a done deal, right? In our troop, the Committee Chair is scheduling BOR's by full committee vote. That just seems overly complicated to me. BSA mandates that Board of Reviews will be held, so a committee can't vote not to not have them.

If I were in charge of Advancement, I'd try and pull together a Board of Review whenever a Scout needs one. It's honestly not that hard to get three people in a room together. I have never been more frustrated in my life than I have been trying to get adult leaders to put their pettiness aside and help out a bunch of kids.

In our troop we have a Scout eligible to become Star on May 25th. He has completed ALL the requirements for Star except the 4 month commitment. We have a regular meeting where a Board of Review can be held on May 24th. Is it legal to have the Board of Review on the 24th, and then advance the scout to Star on the 25th? Our troop committee believes that it is impermissible to have the Board of Review until ALL requirements have been met, including the 4 month requirement. I am looking for a definitive answer yay or nay, and any supporting information from BSA that I can point to our Co

I've tried to very objectively look at my involvement in all of this to see if I am the problem. I don't think that I am... I am simply trying to promote that the troop/committee abide by BSA rules, help scouts with their goals, and get out of their way. This year our troop has a new Committee Chair, New Scoutmaster, and mostly new committee members. There has been a mad scramble by many of the adult leaders to try and get things done "their way." Four of these parents came from another troop that they couldn't get along with. It's apparently a pattern for them. One of these parents

There's not any question I'm being the Papa Bear protecting my cub here. My son is having trouble getting the committee to schedule his Board of Review to advance to Star. I've talked to enough of the other adult leaders to know that there is some animosity because my son is advancing as quickly as possible while the other scouts are not. This is because there is a fundamental difference in philosophy in the troop... The committee chair tells all the parents when their scout enters the troop that if the scout will earn 4 merit badges at summer camp and 3 merit badges at merit badge col

Thanks for your input everybody. I have it on good authority that the CC was trying to prevent one particular problem parent from attending the meeting and raising issues from the past. If he had told me that instead of the arrogant response he made I would have completely understood. My concern is that my son was singled out for discussion in that meeting. In the past 3 months my son has earned 9 merit badges. Of those 9 badges, I was the counselor for two of them, Photography and Cinematography. In both cases, I am the only registered counselor in our immediate area. I ran a tel

I am an ASM in my son's troop. As an adult leader, I am not on the troop committee, however all parents and adult leaders have been invited to committee meetings in the past. The last meeting, however, was held with no notice to anyone but committee members. I found out that at that meeting some items were discussed of which I am the only member in the troop with actual knowledge of those issues. I asked the committee chair why parents and adult leaders weren't invited to the meeting and his response was, "I am not aware that I am required to invite all of the uniformed leaders, if y

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