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@Eagle94-A1's #1 is almost my exclusive challenge to all adult leaders. Physical distance makes a patrol. It's implicit in a vision of the pinnacle scouting experience being hiking and camping independently with your mates. There's no point in a patrol flag if you can ask a boy standing at a few feet which patrol site that is. No point in a bugler, if an SPL can shout "assemble at the flag!" No point in a patrol yell if you are within talking distance. No point in planning the menu-to-win-all-cook-offs, if the other patrol is at an adjacent table and can overhear/see your menu. Can physical distance "break" a patrol? Sometimes, if the boys aren't really friends, or if they are thugs and bent on no good. But you will never know if you are working anything close to a patrol method until the patrol is in its own space.

He will certainly have a reputation as a scoff-law. I have a reputation of letting youth hike on their own for hours and camp a ball-field's throw from me in wilderness recreation areas. Those things don't sit well with parents of younger scouts. It might mean that certain leaders won't be first on the list for certain activities. But, if those are honest appraisals, CCs, SMs, and parents may work with them going forward. Wanna know what's very hard to work with? Claims that @T2Eagle would sweep violations under the rug! Impossible to work with? Some scout needing to deflect his own mischief on to that scouter, and nothing on record from the scouter himself of what actually transpired. Tragic? Real abuse in a troop that had ignored warning signs.

Not necessarily. A YPT violation is not a charge of abuse. It does not, in itself, constitute an actionable offense. Scouters have been retained after events like this.

This is why I always bring my tent. And, yes, there have been sub-zero temps when I've set it up to avoid a cabin full of teen-scent and alcove of man-snore. (Or maybe I was the snore!) I'll sleep under a roof if there's only one other leader and he insists on staying in the cabin, or some base/hotel regulation insists adults be in the same quarters. Talk to your scout executive or director of field service. Generally, they are more respectful of this sort of thing than people give them credit. And, get the guy ear plugs as an early birthday present.

I think teens are a vital part of our workforce. They are often able to work the hours that parents cannot. Young teens come with two uncertainties: - transportation - first time hire Both put them at a disadvantage relative to the rest of the employment pool.

How will it work? By boots on the ground not caring about a rodent's mule, digging in and getting it done! This could have been done yesterday by saying "If a lady is knocking at the door, you may open it, we'll recognize her achievements." Then, they could get together with troops who've done so, and share the best practices with the rest of us. BSA breeds leaders. Maybe they should let them lead.

My take? If the district/council thinks the boy did not complete the requirements (e.g., paperwork missing, the signature of a counselor or project beneficiary is invalid, etc...) they need to ask the scout to rectify those things before going forward. Once everything is in place on paper, start the board, soon. If anything is lacking, suspend the board with instructions in writing for what the scout should do before the board may reconvene.

Welcome to the forums! Don't let us distract you from your homework!

Of course it's hard to tune out parents who advocate unnecessarily for otherwise competent scouts. The only thing that's harder: helping scouts tune out scouters who use the youth's story to take swipes at his/her parents. In this case, I'm pretty sure there aren't personal grudges against Mr. I (maybe his profession, but I wager that's only inasmuch as his sound bytes are likely crafted through that framework). That's all the more reason to not get hung up on the extent to which he has made this a publicity stunt. I have no idea if she's exceptional. Either Miss I's done everything that your typical boy-scout who advances a rank a year has done, or she hasn't. I don't give a wintertime's snot about "media spotlights" or other obstacles. Like every young woman (or young man) who I've met, I want to know how she's lived up to the oath and law, what went well, what didn't go so well, what he/she would do differently ... and I want to know if there's anything I or my scouts could do to aid in any desired personal growth. Well, not me personally, but I'd like her boards of review to be that way. The actions and personalities of her relatives have no bearing on any of that. I guess @EmberMike, this is where I think an extension doesn't apply. Extensions have to do with needing time to complete rank, given that the scout has already started. That is we have a Life scout who has been so for six months, but life -- especially some scouting obligation or duty to country - has intervened to make completing the project or earning that last MB impossible between age 17.5 and 18 for example ... however it's likely that as soon as that duty is complete, the scout could wrap things between age 18 and 18.5. In Miss I's case, she hasn't even "started" officially working on rank, so an extension to start at age 17.5 makes no sense. If it did, any boy who could not join scouts until age 17 -- for some other reason, like maybe he was an atheist until then -- could file for an extension.

Thanks for the idea. I've been of the mind to make my own casket. Given plans for cremation, maybe I could start with my own urn. Maybe in the shape of a PWD car 5x scale? It would hold patches and neckers until I die ... to hand out to my mourners. i probably wouldn't put a BSA logo on it ... No point in leaving my estate with hassles from BSA licensing.

I'm short on details. I just know that a couple of acquaintances did that, and enjoyed it. It doesn't sound like a thing you get an award for. One might infer from the lack of complaints, that they were well provided for. If I were you, I would have your boys contact the program coordinator and ask if any of last year's participants would serve as a reference. Then, they should contact that scout, and get an idea of what he would do differently if he were to participate again.

@ScoutmasterDave, welcome to the forums! And, thanks for adding a little fuel to this fire!

One thing I am not a fan of: conferring rank on the basis of the squeaky wheel. There is likely some other 16 year-old girl out there quietly putting up with this "outrageous and embarrassing" situation - documenting every skill/activity/responsibility along the way, but whose family and troop is keeping her out of the magnifying glass. There are certainly other women who have the paper trail to prove they did everything to advance according to the rules of their day -- except be male. I do think the nobler thing for BSA to do is give all of those cases due recognition. But, if it is unwilling to do reach back in time, I don't see the point of any sort of special waiver for one parent person in the spotlight. I'm not judging the dad like @Col. Flagg seems to be. I'm just ignoring him. That's how we do rank advancement around here. The parent's word never counts for that much, although it is nice to see their letter of recommendation.

Oh sure, let's make those artists feel good about themselves ... stimulates young minds ... makes for better society ... blah blah blah. City slickers. There may be more of us, but that doesn't mean more electoral votes! (Oh, Mr. Moderator? Sorry for the tangent.) Find details about Agriculture requirements, introduced last year, as "Let it Grow" in the Boy Scout NOVA award's fifth wheel here: http://www.usscouts.org/advance/nova/scout-nova-5.asp.

@WisconsinMomma, as a CM or ACM, your paycheck is the smiles on boys faces. Work for smiles. If other leaders move in our out, remind them. Work for smiles. You really want people to be stepping up into your shoes. If other leaders are doing that for you, be with grace or spite, let them. Your paycheck is not any attaboys from some adults. Work for smiles.

Actually, it's STEAM now. (The NOVA award includes an Agriculture component.) So, in theory, one could 3D print a cellular matrix, infuse balsa wood cells, drain the media, allow the cells to grow and mature along the matrix-including growing them around the axles (tires already inserted), and cure the assembly. With a little genetic engineering you could have the bark mature in different colors -- a pre-painted car. No band saw required.

@Eagle94-A1, welcome to the dark side! Although the challenge with "hooldums" in your situation that I've seen is that that they've been helicoptered so much that the leadership skills they need to start a crew have not developed. I'd be happy if they phased out allowing venturers to advance to Eagle in their crews. I'd refer any disgruntled customers to NESA to petition that they promote the Summit award as much as they do their traditional shibboleth-of-bling.

... but isn't that the point? Remove council or district approval and the need for duplication plummets. It doesn't need to be a digital nightmare. Accept the proposal in the form of a plain text E-mail addressing points on an outline ... with the scout attesting that he has collected the requisite signatures. Otherwise, request a hardcopy be mailed to the district or handed to the district advancement chair at round-table.

Well, I'm finally shaking this bronchitis I've had for the past few weeks, there's space in the SM's car for me and my gear, and it looks like a weekend worthy of my presence (some rain, temperatures falling back to the teens, and snow in the evening) ... so I'm grabbing my hammock and my tarp and finding two solid trees near where my first SM showed me how to tie a taught line hitch. I asked the bugler to be ready to work his calls. His eyes lit up. Paycheck. I work for smiles. After PLC, I mentioned to the SPL that I'm available to help his older scouts plan an extended activity besides summer camp. Before I could finish the sentence he said, "I think we should to spend a few days in Dolly Sods, and if we go there, my dad would love to come." Well, twist my arm.

Good luck! So whose minding the store? Will a DE be dropping in to make sure you all are compliant?

"Preclude" means that, by specifying a class that language includes, one may make straightforward inference about which class is excluded. If the language did address any specific class it would be an exclusion. By stating clearly that the class includes members of foreign scouting organization's who temporarily reside in the US, the language precludes members of foreign scouting organization's who permanently reside in the us. But, suppose there is some other young woman who has been doing a bang up job in the scout association of her homeland. She comes to the US next year, joining a BSA4G troop. Her SM could go over her career so far, and determine what trail-to-first class achievements and MB's she would have earned. That could take a week or two. But, the participation requirements would have to be met "in a BSA unit". That woman would still have ahead of her the months of participation for Star and Life, service in a position responsibility, and demonstration of scout spirit. This waiver is quite clear that performance of those requirements as a member of another scout association do not count. There is just no way that this waiver as helps to "fast track" any scout's advancement - let alone one of a scout whose home address has been U.S.A all along.

Welcome to the forums. Although I'm not a big fan of the fill-in-the blank PDFs. The text in the project plan gives you an idea of talking points you may want in your meeting with the Cheif. Chances are he or she will be more interested in what you say than anything you have on paper. Be prepared with an opening that explains what you would like to do and why you think it's important. Then ask if you think your project would be welcome.

Let's blow some minds: why .pdf at all? When we (as in nearly every government-funded research project in the country) does a progress report, we do it free-form, often with a specific page limit, according to an outline decided by skilled bureaucrats and our peers. We number our headings exactly as they are numbered in the outline, and add sub-headings, text, etc ... according to our projects specifics. Then we save it as a .pdf, and upload it. But the only reason we do that online stuff is because we need peers in different parts to read it, and rate it, and we want to save on stamps. If we had to cut-and-paste the paragraphs of those reports into small boxes between lines of instructional text, our administrative assistants would be spitting nails! (They already give us cold stares when it comes to benchmark and budget templates!) I've seen boys write great project reports free-hand. The ones coming from fillable-forms are not head-and-shoulders above them.

There is an Eagle scout promoting him/herself as that.

So, your real problem is that you have ammassed a number of youth who haven't fully adopted a scout spirit. The more you describe the situation, the more familiar it sounds. This sort of thing can happen with any age/sex configuration. I'd expect this year to be a rough ride regardless of this scout serving as PL or APL. So, let your first offer be the PLC's -- with enthusiasm while admitting the job will come with challenges. If she accepts, bully for her. Your real work will involve those problem scouts who haven't been as friendly, helpful, or courteous as your PLC would have liked.