qwazse

... what some bombastic candidate said. One beauty about this country is that we make no bones about meddling in each others' religions.

Taking things quite literally, these are the requirements that should be done for Life "While a Star Scout": 1, 4, and 5, and 6 (membership, service, responsibility and pedagogy), Star "While a 1st Class Scout": 1, 4, and 5 (membership, service, and responsibility), First Class "Since joining": 3 (participation) Second Class "Since joining": 3 (participation, including campsite prep) Tenderfoot "Since joining": none until this year. If the kid's "all that", he will have met these requirements at the appropriate age benchmarks as well as before age 10. He'll still be holding a position of responsibility, doing whatever service projects are coming his way, and teaching skills. But, run it by the boys. Explain the problem. Read requirements. Ask them what would be fair and right. Do that. The only reason to call national is to make sure the record is set straight (if it needs to be) by the time the boy fills out his Eagle application.

Welcome, and thanks in advance for all of your service to the boys!

Folks are always spreading rumors. It doesn't take an advancement chair to stop them. Your strategy of pinning it on the board and directing the boys to it is perfect. I've got in friendly disagreements with scouters over this stuff. All of them were solved by saying "Let's take a look at what is written, and if we disagree, let's have a boy come over and interpret it for us."

So, he get's awarded life at 10 years, 10 months. Follow whatever advice the council registrar and national give regarding T2F and Star date corrections.

Although I agree with CP and HAWK that SMs and CCs should approach these things with a little swagger. They should also respectfully make clear that they are adhering to national guidelines. We just want the boys to be sure that there are no "unwritten rules."

Bless your boys and their feedback! I've heard the same from other scouts. Thus I have never promoted MB fairs! More ideas: Hold an opening/closing flag ceremony for court or town council. Visit a jail. Visit the mayor. Visit the chief of police. Have a councilman or other elected official visit. This is especially cool if the person was a scout. Have someone who travels a lot internationally visit and show the boys their passport. Have the boys visit the post office while someone applies for a passport. Have someone who is about to be naturalized come talk to the boys about their experience, arrange to visit his/her naturalization ceremony. Invite scouts who from other countries (perhaps international students from a nearby college) to visit or camp with you all. Welcome some refugees.

I've not read anything of the sort.

It's all about, the community, the vision that the older boys have, and what they would like to support. Here's how one might see this working. Troop 7 is lucky to have 12 boys on average cross over each year and 7 boys (one from each class) quit and 3 age-out every year. So, among 11 to 15 year-olds, they have 50 boys organized into 4 patrols, and among the 16 and 17 year olds they have 13 boys for senior leadership including guides and instructors. Each patrol takes on about 3 crossovers. One to four troop guides take on the responsibility of keeping tabs on the crossovers for their first four months. They introduce the scouts to their PL and APL, ask them simple stuff like "Do you like your patrol?", "Are the leaders helping you?", and "Did you get that Scout rank yet?" "Would you like to be patrol leader some day?" "Do you need help with a uniform?" They follow-up with the PL to see if he's been able to teach the newbies some basics. They line up instructors, and maybe figure out some down time when the new boys are off patrol duty so they can troddle over to the parade field for some instruction. Or they line up a patrol with an instructor to get one patrol up to speed with a particular skill. They touch base with the SPL about how things are going. By four months, everyone is in summer camp, and the guides can turn in their patches. Maybe one of them could keep the PoR just to make sure things are running smoothly and to be ready to welcome any new scouts who come along in the off-peak season. In this framework, guides are not central to the well-being of the new scouts, the PLs are. But they are there to smooth out rough patches.

Well, at least he wasn't like one of our 1st class scouts who gave it all up for video games!

My observation: if you (adults, boys, whoever) want all patrols to perform skills at roughly the same level, you will not like NSPs. Better to encourage new scouts to be adopted into seasoned patrols as soon as possible. If you want patrols to be diversified .... Some more high adventure some working on first class in the fore country ... then you will like NSPs. It also depends on who you have as troop guides. Some are fine with starting from scratch with a half dozen crossovers. Others can only handle a couple or three with the help of their PL and APL. It's these boots-on-the ground decisions that dictate how you configure the membership. You can go for years with everything working one way, and then personalities dictate doing it differently.

Yeah, we had all the "bells and whistles" when I was a kid. Called them MB pow-wows. Whatever. I think there is something to knowing you have folks in you corner as you try to earn an award. That could be parents, scouters, or Eagles whose projects you helped with and are willing to give you advise. Maybe there is a little something to that monstrous project workbook. A little more structure. My main concern: are we discouraging scouts who would never make Eagle from enjoying the program? Sure, it's great to have a whole den of boys get the same bling. But I'm kinda glad that -- for the moment -- were back to a mix of boys with varying levels of drive toward that goal.

FYI, @@Ranman328, this is what we scouters call "the paycheck!" I hope you keep cashing in even though your taking that CM patch off of your sleeve.

So you're on par with the rest of the nation, seeing a percentage increase in boys obtaining Eagle?

@@Krampus to gauge what that means percentage-wise, what is your average of new boys per year? Has it increased or stayed the same. I'd agree with the involved-parent observation (got two generations of personal data). Although sometimes it's the reversed causality. I did not bother with the activities my kids were marginally involved in. E.g., I loved music, they were "meh", so I didn't invest my time in those clubs, they loved soccer so to keep up with them I volunteered first as a coach at the Y, then as an announcer. Scouting was a true synergy so it wasn't too hard to get sucked in.

Sometimes it feels like ours lean heavily toward 17.999 I've stopped obsessing over stats for which I won't collect a consultant's fee, but just guestimating: About 1/3 of the boys who registered since Son #1 was in the troop earned Eagle. The age distribution seems to be in two heaps: One around 15 One at 17.5 I was told by a previous scoutmaster that it was nowhere near as frequent an occurrence earlier, and it seems that we're starting to drift back to a more typical percentage. For example, son #2 was the only scout from his den to earn Eagle. We have more boys aging out at Star and Life. Our current SPL has no chance of making Eagle, but he is setting a fine example of a scout (much to the shock of those who knew him when he was younger). But then again, we merged with a troop who was getting our cubs, and most of those are sticking around and setting a goal of roughly one rank per year, so who knows what'll be next?

Welcome! And thanks in advance for your service to the boys!

So, you really are just worried about if something bad will happen if scouters see your W-1's working axes (presumably safely). Well, you can expect comments and back-and- forth between conscientious scouters who want to save your boys from folly. If you all are willing to grin and bear it, share the pics. If you think folks are going to be thin skinned in the face of criticism, don't post 'em.

I like Hedge's procedure as well. Sometimes you need to cast a vision with parents: "How would you like, when your son goes to college, or maybe becomes your business partner, for him to give you a reckoning of income and expenses before he asks for the next infusion of cash? Well, that kinda discipline starts here!" Sure it's real $, but it's not as many real $ as they'll be managing 7 years from now,

I'm just quoting from a published source, as is JiK. But it sounds like you would rather our sources give as reason the bitter truth: So that when the occasional advancement report fails to be filed with council, a boy will hold sufficient evidence that he earned the merit badge and reported doing so. I have not had experience with one-signature white cards. But it sounds like they add a layer of trust to offset redundancy.

Well, in a small troop, we SM/ASMs don't get all bent out of shape if we have to meet the boy more than once for any rank.

Well, from http://www.scouting.org/Home/GuideToAdvancement/TheMeritBadgeProgram.aspx Once a registered counselor signs that all requirements have been met, the Scout should meet with his unit leader to discuss his experience. The unit leader then signs the Applicant’s Record portion and returns it to the young man, who should retain it in his personal permanent records. So, that 2nd signature is to prod the SM to have a little more conversation with the boy?

All of that back-and-forth are interesting steps in the project that a BoR might like to hear about. I would encourage the scout to give his full report to the SM when he asks for his signature. A lot of our boys do have their Eagle project workbook signed along with their application at the scoutmaster conference.

Although I'm not clear under which SM he actually finished the badge, let's assume he did so shortly after camp ... That was sloppy work by your previous SM. Your son should have had the MB in hand the CoH after he came from camp. But, the SM's 2nd signature, is in the applicant's portion of the card. (I.e., the one that should have been given back to the boy as soon as the SM signed it.) The purpose of that is so that the boy has proof from the SM that he turned in the unit copy of the blue card and that a merit badge is forthcoming - just in case the unit and the counselor lost their portions of the application. The only part the advancement chair should need to file the application is the unit copy, which has the SM's 1st signature, and the counselor's signature. Therefore, if the unit has the unit portion of the card, it is incumbent on the SM to sign the applicant portion. And GIVE THAT PORTION BACK TO THE APPLICANT!!!!!!!!! Normally, this happens when the boy gets the badge. But, given that some time has elapsed and an Eagle application will soon be filled out, the boy should ask for an exception.

'skip, my one denial of release was an adopted boy with a bio parent who had a restraining order. So, the more local and specific the website, the more risky sharing would be. It just meant we were a little more attentive about what got shared that year.