qwazse

How old was the troop? It may have started because it admired the bold counter-cultural stance of BSA's membership standards. The seeming erosion of those standards makes it look like any other group. Well if they are like any other group, then value is lost. Asking more money for something of less value ... that's not a recipe for growth. Hopefully CO's of some 50,000 youth will find value in the BSA where they hadn't before, but I suspect it will take a few years to find them.

My sheath knife has a compass in the hilt! (And, I recently discovered, it screws off to expose a chamber with matches.) It's part of one of my smaller tackle boxes. A younger relative gave it to me.

Hope your boys have fun and are quick on the uptake! That way they can whittle their pinewood derby cars!

Both are dumb. Humans are capable if empathy if if you telling them something is an act. One could say "today we will model some poor leadership. At the end of the day you will be asked to identify where we fell short." Or "let's pretend we're making a training video. We'll film each patrol. At the end you all will screen the videos and talk about which group did well enough for their video turns be used to train other scouts." You want boys to be involved in every aspect of their adventure, that includes criticism and judging.

I think we should fess up that Eagles have to earn 23 meritbadges, including the required Project Design and Project Management. Then all of those Eagle advisors could be MBCs for either/both badges.

Not one for clubbing beavers. Ruins the pelt. Venturing is the "Un-Cola!", but as I try to point out to my youth, being contrary only gets you so far. My first generation of venturers avoided the VOA, even though they were very helpful to me personally. As that group went off to college I made it clear to the next round that real presidents confer with other presidents. That's helped our group stabilize (in spite of cost increases). But units that were just there for the sake of their own little clique quickly realized that they don't need any of the BSA trappings to be their own little

Some boys don't even want an ECoH. I hope that if your son earns his award, he will still want to have one. But be understanding if he's jaded on the whole process by the end of this. It really is up to him, and generally senior scouters in a district will do their best to help mend fences with no hard feelings.

Tempting for all of us who are a little ice-weary.

I don't think there's a "scoutmaster or designee" line on the MB application.

For those who insist on keeping score, the gold level Journey to Excellence advancement benchmark is 75% (http://www.scouting.org/filestore/mission/pdf/2014_JTE_Pack_score.pdf). This allows for an excellent pack to have 1 in 4 scouts not make rank each year.

BP - I agree with you on one level. If it's not the youth's idea, National is wasting our time. I'm not saying that they should have the same requirements as BS. And Heaven knows, there's not a crew advisor alive that wants a merit badge program! My one crew member who got into the awards program did it precisely because it was not a "patch for every little thing" like her girl scout troop was doing. But it was a set of real goals with real accomplishments that meant something in the real world. I suspect the same light bulb went on for a larger portion of your crew. What I am saying is:

Must be something in the water. A relative called with similar issues about his pack. Boys are a little discouraged. Not everyone made rank by the B&G. I'm here in snow and ice telling a Floridian, "Don't worry. Be happy." Common folks, it's okay to not advance! Advancement is not a checklist. You don't have to freak out if you can't track it. It's a tool for the boys to use to look at their book and discover a cool thing that they may not have done yet! Bobby didn't get Wolf? Have the boys go through what Bobby needs and see if there's something they want to do that will help him get a

True. And stamping can be a gateway drug for letterboxing: http://www.letterboxing.org/

Well, at least it's not an DAM underhanded knot.

Baggss, I'm not pullin' this stuff out of thin air. See my links to the guide to advancement. A signature vs. THE FACTS. Guess which one I want everyone here to go to the mat for? Our boys are counting on you all -- not to add to the requirements -- but to help them be sure that there is nothing bogus about the badges they earn.

In our Troop, after the Troop Elections, whatever positions are left are assigned by the SM to whomever wants them. Everyone does this differently. But it really gives something for the SPL to think about if you give him the responsibility for assignments. Then a month or two later get a one sentence evaluation from him on how each boy seems to be doing in his respective position. One time I put it on an SPL to decide if we should have two larger or three smaller patrols. Occasionally I ask him to consider with the boys if we need an SPL at all in light of our shrinking troop member

Oops. I knew I should have cut-and-pasted the list.

Let's think about how many POR's are available in a troop of 50 scouts. Assume they divide into 6 patrols. That means: 6 PL 6 APL 1 SPL 1 ASPL 1 QM 1 Librarian (If you got a lot of 1st class scouts, there are a lot of MB pamplets floating around!) 1 Scribe 1 Historian 1 Guide 1 Instructor 5 Den chiefs (assuming there are 5 dens nearby who may need a little help) 1 O/A Rep 1 Webmaster 1 LNT trainer 2 JASM 3 Crew officers (assuming that some of the boys are also in a venturing crew). 1 Chaplains aide That's 34 positions without even coming up with special

More specifically ... Cub Scouts are in Packs; Boy Scouts, Troops Venturers (not Venture Scout -- sore subject), Crews; Varsity Scouts, Teams Sea Scouts, Ships (although for administrative purposes they fall under Venturing).

To be fair to Evans, my kids have balked at the recognitions (in contrast to BP's crew), and it has probably cost us in terms of the level of creativity and variety in our program. Maybe stability for the 1% is not what our aim should be. Personally, I think the awards should be named more in lock-step with the Boy Scout Awards (along the lines of Star-Venturer, Life-Venturer, Eagle-Venturer). But, even so, I'm not sure that would increase their popularity.

I wish it weren't true, but it happened frequently enough that scouters insisted that the guide to advancement chapter on MBs (http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/GuideToAdvancement/TheMeritBadgeProgram.aspx) include an article (7.0.4.7 Limited Recourse for Unearned Merit Badges) on how to handle this. Sounds like the SM is trying to proceed by the book on this one, assuming an assistant leader was in on the discussion. As to how this may happen, the chapter on Mechanics of Advancement (http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/GuideToAdvancement/MechanicsofAdvancement/BoyandVarsity.aspx) shows

Pretty much the same, except insert steps for actuaries and claims agents, maybe a few lawyers and judges.

See my comment to your next reply. I'm sure his new MB counselor will help him with what he should say to his SM.

I understand how distressing this seems. But the first counselor's initial might have been on "subjective" information that, when your boy talked it over with his new SM really didn't meet the objective criteria specified by the requirement. It's a life lesson. And at this stage not a very costly one. My college roommate had the discouraging experience that many of his high school grades were inflated and did not give him an adequate background in math and chemistry. It made for a disconcerting Freshman year. He went on to be a decent chemist, but not after actually learning what he thought