qwazse

Some honor. In a girls' mind, these statements say "your Silver will never be as polished as my Eagle." Then we wonder why directing a girl towards Venturing Silver comes off as hollow. We still haven't found the right balance with venturers. Activities are fine, but pulling off one event is a limited accomplishment. The requirements for the awards on paper make for a well-rounded individual, but there is no sense in most youths' minds that they need a badge for that. And certainly, if no investment is made in encourage the majority of scouters nation-wide to honor venturing's highest award, maybe crews are right to ignore Silver/Summit as well ... and instead push for girls to be recognized via boy scout rank advancement. It seems like I've had a higher percentage of dual-registered boys (about half) not earn Eagle. The Eagles tended to be the more active boys. I didn't prompt one way or the other ... there were plenty of other scouters doing that for me. I especially enjoyed when Life scouts made the effort to invite the young women in the crew to help with their service projects. I did prompt them about that, and it happened for 1/4 of the projects.

But have you heard of any admissions office selecting those students over students with single activities over a wider diversity of categories? My kids got their first-choice college acceptance with one sport and some music (or five sports and no music), one scouting organization, religious life, and strong academics. The one who got a full scholarship did not earn a scouting award. The Eagles did not get a single scholarship. Colleges ain't stupid. They know how naked the emperor is.

There's hope @ItsBrian! These guys would have earned Eagle under the old cooking MB requirements -- it might not have even been a required badge. The new requirements are a bit more stringent. That said, don't rush to judgement. It sounds like the twins loved being scouts, but are probably more about cheerfulness than spit-and-polish.

The rank is a rare exception. The EBOR is a special consideration. What folks in this thread are talking about is trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. The rules have been written so that it cannot be done. Either chisel out the corners (i.e., change the rules) and welcome the peg, or go home. Cutting corners via GTA acrobatics won't hold.

A good enough project for either award gets you 15 minutes of fame. And a military pay bump. There are already Venturers and Sea Scouts with a silver eagle at the end of their ribbon and a GS Gold award. NESA should shine the spotlight on these champions and give their Eagles something to aspire to.

There's no college worth going to that would care about someone who has two of the same thing. Especially, if the effort in one could be used toward completing the other.

Simple answer: over the years BSA has crafted its advancement requirements so that much of their completion is contingent on homage to the BSA. (E.g., Boy Scout camping nights.) So, no, transferring "credit" would be an exersize in futility. More complex answer (via rhetorical question): why would any Gold Award recipient want Eagle? Also, the Gold Award project may be for its own organization. (E.g., one of my Venturers organized and directed a GS camporee.)

Rest in Peace, Captain Steve https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2018/01/12/steve-cansler-beloved-captain-of-sea-bases-bahamas-program-dies-at-65/ Not sure if anybody else on this forum got to sail with this fine scouter. But, maybe one of you upon retirement has dreams of cashing it all in for a sail boat. Steve's an example of one great way to do it.

Again this is where we part ways. Firstly, I've never met a Venturer - at least one who was never a Boy Scout - who would want to work toward Eagle. The lion share don't want to work toward any recognition - a big problem with the program. The ones who do want to be recognized, want to be recognized for earning their award (be it Silver or Summit) that already has an Eagle on the device. IMHO, NESA needs to either broaden its scope or go away. We have created an class of boys who are actually deluded into thinking that their rank is better than Venturing and Sea Scout awards -- (pardon the report from boots on the ground). I would not ask anyone to join a troop merely for rank advancement. I certainly would not give any venturer of mine up to a troop so they can earn an award attained by 7% of Boy Scouts instead of an award attained by mere fractions of a percent of Venturers. And I certainly would not approve the application of any Venturing female who things that by signing on this year she may count it as tenure in a troop next year!

@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.