qwazse

I think Eagledad makes a great point. We aren't just trying to teach the scouts technical skills, but we are also modeling behavior. Take for example the (very bad in my opinion) practice that some troops have of making a scout sing to get lost property back. What behavior is it modeling? If a scout is out in the street and sees the man in front of him drop his wallet, which should he say: "Excuse me sir, you dropped your wallet." or "Hey mister, I got your wallet. Sing a song and I'll give it back to you.". If the second is not acceptable to a stranger, how is it acceptable to a fellow scout? Don't even equate this stuff with singing for your gear. We don't hold a stranger to LNT. We do expect a scout to do right by his country, his troop, and his mamma. And if it's good enough for a scout, it's good enough for scouters. In fact I've gladly sung for my gear, and would gladly do so again. But, the last couple times, SM said he'd take a raincheck! Still waiting in the wings for when the troop needs me to sing.

Way to go BD! That'll keep her engaged and possibly on the trajectory to becoming a great advancement coordinator or maybe even crew advisor. As a soccer parent who has never played the sport, I always ask other parents and coaches (besides my kid's coach) about things that I didn't understand. Even though every coach my kids have had has an "open door" policy, I don't want the guy bombarded with 100 questions, or with an idea that's not gonna fly. And I want to be sure that I encourage the kid to talk to the coach when he/she needed to talk to the coach (about playing time, personal growth, poor sportsmanship, having to quit, etc ...). Then when it's time to chat with coach, it's about stuff that's really useful. Scout parents may sit at the back of the room for weeks and still don't know what's going on. They take whatever someone told them when their son crossed over as gospel. This OP's kid transferred troops, and suddenly some things that she thought was scouting-as-usual aren't there anymore. Asking us here is better than causing a commotion among the rest of the parents at the back of the room. Part of the trade-off of having the geniuses on this forum that we do is being willing to POLITELY respond to questions from newbies who repeat stuff that may make us cringe (again, and again ... ). SM2014, My rant over BD's rant aside, his last three sentences are solid.

Yep there's a lot of painting with broad brushes, but these keyboards ain't made of camel hair. Not sure that 'MyBoy' specified being the Mom or Dad, and the SM may not have all that big of an ego. He is clearly bothered by a boy who has no time for camping asking for an Eagle SMC ... just like you're bothered by an fella coming out of the woodwork after a couple years. The parent is clearly bothered that service to others is not equivalent to camping in this SM's mind. I'm personally bothered that the boys troop/patrol can't slap together a camp-out in March. Last month we had our oldest scout cooking up a storm for us because that was the last thing he needed for Eagle. Advancement isn't just saying "march to the beat of our drum", it's giving the fella a stick and saying "lay it down for us so we can boogie!" Regardless of MyBoy's grasp of the situation, frets about hard feelings, etc ..., It's time for his boy to get a second opinion from his side of the internet. That's what district advancement chairs are for.

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 clique. DE's kept those units on their roster as long as $$ for the minimum # of members come in. And that's why the peak in membership statistics in 2000-2005 is probably exaggerated. The fee increases over the past decade are helping to winnow that herd.

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: it's silver, it has an eagle, it's suspended from red white and blue ribbon. Don't be fooled by the 'different program' double-speak. The folks designing that award wanted us to make a parallel. What does work for my crew? Well, I gotta say going down the Journey to Excellence with the officers. They are no where near Bronze level (wonder if we can change those names too?) But they pick one thing to work on every year and chip away at it. Usually it involves some way of involving more kids, or having some adventure that fits at least half the crew's skill level and figuring out how to bring the other half up to speed. Then at council and area crew meetings they compare notes. So far it has not been "Hey let's work on an award!"

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 sign off. Summer comes and still no progress? well hey, let's make a fresh start and see if we can get Bear this year. Don't worry, be happy.

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 membership. One advantage of a smaller troop, we told the boys outright that we are going to stop caring about the patches on their sleeve. If you do the work: you're in the position. If you are irresponsible, you are not in the position.

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 projects. The most qualified boys get those positions, period. How that is done is between the SM and SPL. Advancement needs ARE NEVER TO BE CONSIDERED. So, for example, if a tenderfoot is very good at tracking everyone's gear he may be QM even if he has no intention of ever advancing! Even so, in all likelihood you won't have more than 30 scouts "needing" a position for advancement. But if you do, what other projects can be assigned? I've heard of lot's: Popcorn Kernel/Fundraiser Coordinater Advancement Chair (who says an adult has to do it?) Auditor/Treasurers Assistant (ever wonder who's watching the treasurer?) Car Washer (all those drivers deserve to come home with clean vehicles). Medic (got a boy earning EMT?). Mechanic. Carpenter. Painter. You get the idea. Sometimes a boy is just not fitting the mold of an official position. But, he will do good work if you give him something that he's enthusiastic about. (E.g., we had a webmaster long before BSA had patch for it.) But what I've observed: if you give a boy a position just for the sake of advancement, his work will be slipshod at best.

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 a common example involving Citizenship in the Community (4.2.3.6 Fulfilling More Than One Requirement With a Single Activity). It's not clear if this was the problem requirement in this scout's case, but it shows how all parties may have meant well, but were not as attentive to the letter of the requirement as they should have been.