nolesrule

Wow. You guys really accomplished quite a bit. Nice work!

I just received an email sent from scouting.org which confirms and details the new YPT rules. --------------------------------------- Youth safety is the No. 1 concern of the BSA. To increase awareness of this societal problem and to create even greater barriers to abuse than already exist today in Scouting, the Boy Scouts of America is implementing several important changes to further enhance its Youth Protection policies. Effective June 1, 2010: * -- Youth Protection training is required for all registered volunteers. * -- New leaders are required to take Y

Brent, thanks for posting that.

" Count months? I'll tell you flat out that if a Scout has documentation that he earned Star on 2/23 and Life on 7/3 on his Eagle application, it will be rejected. Yes he was Star in six different months, February, March, April, May & July but not for a duration of six months. " I don't think that's what anyone meant by counting months.

I don't believe there is any documentation on this issue anywhere. But I would suggest that since the requirements are counting 4 or 6 months (note that it's not counting days), you only need to add 4 or 6 to the month. In the case that it would be the 31st, I think it'd be just fine to use the last day of the month, whether it's 28, 29, 30 or 31. I don't know why you'd count 122 or 183 days. That seems arbitrary. Naturally occurring 4-month length ranges from 120 to 123 days and 6-month length ranges from 181 to 184 days. And yet we don't concern ourselves with number of days

Not sure if you were kidding or not. If you were being serious, you might want to check the contrast on your monitor or get your eyes checked. :-)

Yes, of course. I was just responding to a comment on my first post in this discussion.

The argument you make about a (subjectively) wrongly awarded on appeal Eagle, while I'm not discounting it as being a relevant argument, is limited in scope to usually a single unit and it may or may not have an effect in other units, the district or council. Rarely does it have an impact on public perception of the BSA on even a local level, because most non-BSA people will never even know about it. We know about these things on this forum because we participate in the discussions, but most scouts, scouters and the general public will never know about it. On the flip side, discontin

Not a requirement. Bureaucracy in action, just like the Eagle Application. After all, shouldn't a signed handbook suffice? Or a troop advancement record printout? Why the need for an application at all?

I'm one of those people that earned Eagle but also understands it's just another rank. I'm also one of those people that thinks that the requirements are the requirements and phrases like "only did the bare minimum" are pure BS. Regardless of HR and hiring managers and the occasional felon, the rank of Eagle Scout still is the biggest positive PR buzz word that the BSA has in regards to public perception. The Advancement method is one of the carrots the BSA uses to get boys involved and retain them. I know this is a purely hypothetical discussion, but I think that it would be a mista

I just don't see how using a Court of Honor every 3-4 months to distribute non-rank advancements is nearly as much a kick in the pants to motivate scouts as seeing other scouts receiving their advancements on a weekly or bi-weekly basis in a short ceremony as part of the opening or closing of a troop meeting. Maybe I was spoiled as a boy scout in that my troop met only two miles from the council service center, but we received all advancement items within a week (or two at most) from the date we earned them. The Court of Honor was to acknowledge all advancements and present non-advan

Why are merit badge patches only being given out at a Court of Honor?

Yup, a Rabbi who knows his stuff is not going to give a lesson on head coverings. It doesn't matter whether the head covering is a yarmulke or a scout hat. Either would suffice as a head covering for religious purposes, and one is not expected to wear both simultaneously. On the other hand, if the scout is eating non-kosher food, it wouldn't be appropriate to wear a head covering at all.

"Plus, they are expected to attend and support (teach merit badges, do camp site inspections, what ever is needed to support the effort) all District events and as many Council events as possible - especially Camporees and our annual Scout Show." A UC's job is to service the assigned units, not support district or council programming. These things fall under the purview of the District Committee (particularly Program and Camping subcommittees), not Commissioner service. If my District Commissioner or ADC expected these things from me, I'd hand him my resignation effective immediately

Same thing happened to one of our local troops a couple weeks ago. I know in our area some of the other troops donated some equipment to the troop.

Your troop should have a copy of the Advancement Committee Policy and Procedures manual, which would answer your question definiteively. "After a Scout has completed all requirements for Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, and Life ranks, or an Eagle Palm, he appears before a board of review." - P. 29 #33088 ACP&P Manual 2008 Time in rank is one of the requirements, and all requirements MUST be completed first. The correct answer, as nldscout points out, is to schedule a Board of Review for as soon as possible on or after May 25th. They should be held as needed

How do you enforce it when the responsibility for signing off requirements starts and ends with the parent? There will always be parents in this to get their kids a patch without regard for the ultimate meaning behind it. You just have to learn to live with that while helping the rest of the boys the best you can. And it'd probably best not to bring back the father as a leader next year. Just make sure you have someone who can step into that role.(This message has been edited by nolesrule)

I read it as being who is authorized by the parent to do pick ups and dropoffs, not about who may transport during an event. So I'm in agreement with your interpretation T2Eagle.

Recharter time in our District is Jan 31st. For Centennial Quality Unit, the goals are supposed to be set early in the year, with the final review at the end. Our UCs are usually tasked with working with the units to have the goals set by the end of February. We review the goals with the committee chair over the course of the year and spend between Oct 31 and Dec 31 determining if they have been met. We got to a late start this year because our DE departed for greener pastures (and while we miss him, we're happy that he's happier working in the real world again), so we ended up doing

Beavah. Not arguing with you. I agree with you. And I explicitly said it was just one factor. "But the advancement reports taken by themselves should not be used to diagnose anything." On the other hand, I can't visit each of my troops 5 times a month, especially when they meet at the same time. So I can't see everything that's happening. And yes, it is a good way to spot the advancement mills. That's something that really stands out on the reports.

Beavah, just because I wrote about the goals a few posts up doesn't mean I think it's worth a hill of beans. I also agree with what Calico wrote, about how it could have a positive or negative affect. Percentages aside, for a commissioner, the advancement reports are just a tool in our box to help us keep an eye on unit health (lack of advancement can be a sign of a troubled unit), or to make sure they are remembering to turn in their advancement reports regularly. My units are the 3 closest to Council Service Center so they better not have issues turning them in. :-) But the a

"Note that Troop is dead last and more notably behind School. " Could just be alphabetical order. :-)(This message has been edited by nolesrule)

Our DC provides us UCs with the monthly District Advancement report. Sometimes a lack of advancement is just deferred Advancement reports. Other times it's a red flag that a unit might be having an issue. But an active UC should be able to know the difference in his/her units. As for the council or district goal, I'm pretty sure that setting an advancement goal of this nature is part of the Quality District/Council process. I know it is for Quality Unit. But it should be a reasonable goal. And it should take into account that advancement is not a method of Venturing.

One of the problems with the electronic system (or even the written advancement reports) is ensuring the correct completion date of merit badges. Often times, advancements for the entire troop are entered batch method, and unless there is careful adherence to dates, the date of the advancement report may be what is rtecorded in the official record. Whereas a merit badge application and completion record will have been individually dated upon completion.

From what I understand based on information provided at a recent MBC Orientation that I took, IN OUR COUNCIL, the Blue Cards are considered the official paperwork for merit badge completion. What that means is that for instances where the blue card is not completed (such as a summer camp with a unit-level printout), a blue card should be filled out with counselor information and out of council location where merit badge was earned in lieu of a MBC signature. The scout's record portion of the blue cards are turned in with the Eagle Application, and all dates and in-council counselors on th