Beavah

Yah, hmmm...

Good heavens, @@fred johnson.  I confess I hadn't read da new Cooking MB requirements, not being a counselor for that one.   Now I'm goin' to have to go look at all da other recent ones to see how badly we're screwin' this up across the board.  

I'm thinkin' folks on da various committees keep mixin' up the difference between teachin' and testin'.  When we teach da skills of a MB, we might do a lot of different things, eh?  Use "Myplate food guides" and discuss shopping lists and all that.  Those are part of mentoring a boy workin' on a badge.  Part of da whole "A Scout Learns" step that everybody seems to forget about nowadays.

Da requirements are supposed to be Step 2: A Scout is Tested.   Tests should be straightforward use-your-skills-and-knowledge events, eh?  Fun and challenging.   I like @@SSScout 's version.   Just show yeh have some solid competence in cookin' different stuff. 

Yah, "out of hand" is right, I reckon.

Beavah

One of my councils has barred troop-only MBCs.  

Yah, but has this really made a change?    By and large, they still sign up and assign lads within-troop I expect.  Da rest are from MB fairs or Summer Camp.

Say it isn't so!

Yah, I think if yeh want to use Amazon as a fundraiser, you're better off usin' the Amazon Associates links as an advertising addition on your unit web site.  Payoff is better.   Just train your folks to click through your website when they go to buy from Amazon.

Yah, if yeh want affordable high adventure yeh need to stay away from the outfitter supported stuff, eh?   Just run your own!   The lads learn a lot more and grow a lot more if they're doin' the planning themselves rather than buying a pre-packaged trip from an outfitter or high adventure base.

What part of the country are yeh in?

Beavah

Yah @@caffeinatedmom, welcome to da forums, eh!   Caffeine is what keeps most of us old critters goin' with a smile on our face!

What you're experiencing is fairly normal for boys.  Not just in scouts, in school as well.  Boys will do the fun stuff and accept da challenges until they feel they're good enough, but they can't abide paperwork and busywork.  Whether it's turnin' in homework or finishin' the last MB requirement, it's a drudgery for the lads.

Speakin' as an older fellow who was once one of those lads, and who has had a few Beavah Pups, the biggest thing yeh can do for your son is to give him the space to work through that and develop his own techniques for pushin' through drudgery.  If yeh line it up for him he won't learn initiative.  If yeh annoy and pester and threaten and take things away he'll come to hate school and scouts.    It's a bit like da research out this week about kids and weight loss.  Talkin' about weight is da surest way to make your kids fail.

Problem is for all of us parent types it's really really hard to do the right thing by not doin' much. 

Best thing yeh can do?  Have your son tell yeh stories about camp and what he did for the badges.  See which ones he doesn't seem to really care about.  Let those go.  He did a good thing and tried somethin' new, eh?   He learned it didn't light his fire.   That's worth praise, not pesterin'.

Note which badges he seems to light up about.  Have him describe to you all da things he accomplished and da requirements he completed.  Give him your attention for da things he did well and finished strong on.   Now here's da challenge:  Don't even mention completin' the badge or da thing(s) he has left to do.  Not a word!!

The game you're playin' is to make him feel confidence from his successes, eh?  Not feelin' guilt and stress from his incompletes.  Da more confidence he feels, da more success he'll pursue on his own, eh?  He'll figure it out, and it will be his for life.   Maybe he doesn't finish a badge this time around, but when his buddies get a badge at a Court of Honor and he doesn't, that will be its own lesson (without a word from you!). 

That's da magic of Boy Scouting.  Yeh get to be da parent who loves and encourages and celebrates adventures and victories, not da parent who pesters.  He gets to learn and struggle and grow and fall down and feel da triumph of gettin' back up again in small, safe cutout of da real world made kid-sized.  Odds are that will lead him to be a confident, independent teen rather than a sullen, rebellious one.

So... don't find him MB counselors.  That's his job, when he wants.  He'll get 'em through his Scoutmaster.  You'll find he stalls out for a while, watchin' and learnin' and buildin' up confidence.  That's a good thing.  Once he figures it out, he'll be blazin' through badges at a gallup.

To answer your technical question, a MB completion has to be signed off by a counselor for that badge (though in a few rare cases a SM might do it if da requirement left is just nights of camping or something like that).  One of the great things boys get to learn in Scouting is how to call a strange (but friendly) adult MB Counselor to set up a meeting.  It's torture the first few times for everybody.  One of those real-world-made-kid-sized growin' experiences!

Happy trails,

Beavah

Yah, hmmm...

@@dfolson, I reckon this is one of those learnin' moments where the lad should be tacked to the wall a bit, but nobody out there in Scoutland is goin' to nail him to the wall.  Just enough pain to learn not to push things to deadlines and expect everyone else is goin' to drop everything to help yeh out.   So I wouldn't worry too much.  An ASM can do da conference, or perhaps when the SM gets back he back-dates his signatures after a stern conversation, or we all quietly recognize that it's da beneficiary's signature that confirms when the project is done.  Da SM signature only reflects that it was done by the boy himself in a scoutly fashion.  That can come at any time. 

That's the adult side, eh?  So that you don't get heartburn.

For the rest of it, this ain't your problem, mate.  Let the lad deal with it.  If you deal with it instead, you're just tellin' him that you don't trust him to be a young adult and handle a small challenge.  It's a form of stealin' honor and a chance to grow from the boy.   Sit back, let him worry and vent to you, and just ask him "Well, what are you going to do about it?"

Beavah

Yah, only once can I remember doin' the hotel thing with a group.   It was a few years back when da Federal Government was gettin' shut down, and the group got evicted from da federal campground the night before an early mornin' airline departure.   Could have done da shuffle with local scouters to find a church floor, but the notice came so late and there were other "group dynamics" things goin' on.

I'll confess Uncle Beavah quietly paid for da hotel and dinner that night.  It wasn't the lads' fault, since they aren't old enough to vote yet.  Figured one of us who was responsible for electin' da schmucks should take some personal responsibility.  

Didn't have any need for "rules" though.  These were scouts, eh?  They were better behaved than da other guests.  As I recall, one room even asked da front desk for a vacuum to clean up some stuff before they left.

Beavah

Yah, it seems like da place where a council could contribute is in those camp badges where a troop might not have da resources or a counselor.  Stuff like shooting sports or lifesaving, eh?  Outdoors badges that belong at camp.   That's why council camps and volunteers exist - to provide services to units that they can't do on their own.

My feelin' is it should be a service to troops, though.  That's what we council folks are supposed to do.  When we make it a service to individual boys we're undermining the patrol, and the PLC, and the troop, and its adults.   

Now if this is somethin' that a group of troops are askin' for because they don't have internal MBCs for some Eagle Required badges... OK, I guess.  I'd rather have the council do a better job with counselor lists and active counselors that can really counsel boys in small groups, though, rather than runnin' another school class weekend.

Beavah

Yah, I'm with T2Eagle, eh?   I've seen adults try to offer boys forms a few thousand times.   Probably best to stop and think about how annoyed yeh get by fillin' out somebody else's bureaucratic form at work before yeh push it on kids. 

We don't want the boys to become young bureaucrats, eh?  We want 'em to become self-directed and self-organizing.  If they decide they need a form, then yeh can help 'em with it, but not before.   And yeh can only help 'em with it if you're actually better at shared Google Docs forms on your phone than they are. 

Beavah

Yah, hmmm...

Whiteblaze is an Appalachian Trail site.  Last time I looked, Philmont was a fair ways away from da AT. 

There's a Philmont email list already managed by USSSP, and a Philmont forum at BackPackingLight.  Pretty sure there's a Yahoo group as well, plus da lists run by Philmont staff.

As yeh say, it's unclear whether there's enough traffic to merit independent forums on the subject.  Folks generally are interested only prior to or perhaps right after a trip.

Beavah

But given the timing, I know that many LCMS churches have made drastic decisions over the past few months as they've worked to process this message from the synod.  

Yah, hmmm....  Thanks for the info, @@meyerc13.  I knew of the memo and MOU action, but I wasn't aware of how it was playin' out some places as individual parishes got word.

That seemed the more likely case to me as well (in my original post).  My guess was the merged CO had a better understanding of the nature of the BSA Charter and wanted to exert more control over its youth ministries.  Problem was I'd think they'd be more likely to drop BSA Scoutin', or replace the whole committee.  No?   Yeh are likely closer to this than I am.  

Seems like the way they went about it doesn't fit in some ways, though.  Removin' people from positions I get, if yeh want loyal parishioners in key posts.  This wasn't that, though - it came with a full-out ban from participatin' in any way, eh?  Full expulsion from the unit.  That's really unusual.

Droppin' just the unit leader, CC, and treasurer suggests a lot of familiarity with BSA units and positions.  If you're that familiar with da way things work, then I'd expect 'em to reconstitute the committee or even remove all non-Lutherans.  That hasn't happened (yet).  So it just feels like it's an action that's targeted at individuals for some reason, rather than an action tryin' to accomplish a more general goal.

All speculation.  We need more information.  I'm also curious whether the DE has offered to help find 'em a new CO.  I couldn't figure out why that wasn't somethin' the DE suggested as an option up front.

Beavah

 

While he is to my mind sometimes wrong and a little off base.

He really isn't a bad little fellow.

 

Yah, hmmm...  Gee, thanks, @@Eamonn.      Nice to see yeh around!  I thought yeh had gone the way of da rest of the Departed from da forums.  Seems like there's only a few hangers-on from the old days.

@@NJCubScouter, give me a break.  If you were sittin' around a campfire and a fellow said he'd gotten notice from the church pastor that a few of their youth ministers had been removed for cause, includin' being "unfit" and not maintaining a "healthy environment", you wouldn't immediately consider da possibilities I suggested?   Not necessarily abuse, but other things, eh?  Like bullying that went unaddressed, for example, or other sorts of inappropriate behavior.

Sadly, I've been involved with da BSA and chartered partners on the removal of volunteers, and with other organizations on da removal of youth workers, and one of the hardest things is that the folks in charge can't share the details of what's goin' on.  What they're doin' looks arbitrary and unfair.  Yeh either trust the folks in charge to be doin' what's right, or yeh don't.  Doesn't matter if it's da IH or the SE sendin' out a letter.

So I was just bein' honest, eh?  If a scouter were to ask me in person, that would be the very first issue I'd ask the fellow to think about and consider if he hadn't already.   I'd gently suggest to all of us that in da interest of doin' our duty to protect youth and provide a healthy environment for kids, it should be our first thought as well. Certainly before taking those same people and puttin' them in contact with kids in a new setting.  Would yeh choose to "hire" a youth worker who yeh know had been removed for cause from his previous youth ministry position without findin' out da whole story to the best of your ability?

Sorry, no apologies here.   Not raisin' the issue is just irresponsible.

Beavah

@@Beavah,

I apologize but I have reported you and requested that your comment be removed. It may be your opinion, but creating speculation of wrong doing towards a child in any way, shape or form from an innocent party is very damaging and I won't allow you to do it to good people.

 

Yah, hmmmm...

@@Cubmaster35, if yeh are sure that the folks are good people and such, can yeh share what the pastor's real reasons were for removing them?  Being "unfit" and not fostering a "healthy environment" coupled with an immediate removal and permanent ban are unusually strong actions for a church pastor to take with any youth program.

I'm sorry if yeh found my comments unhelpful.  I reckon we can all be more helpful if yeh can give us more information.

Beavah

Yah, hmmm...

Sorry to hear about da difficulties, @@Cubmaster35.

Your handle says "Cubmaster", but you're talkin' a bit like da Cubmaster who was removed is a different person.  Can I ask what your current position with the pack is?

Yeh also don't provide any information on the possible reasons why your new Institutional Head (IH) has decided to remove the CM,CC, and treasurer.  That leads us all to speculate, eh?  Problem with speculation is that it might not be helpful to yeh, but I'll try.

One possibility is that there was a confidential report of wrongdoing made to the pastor that you aren't aware of.  If that's the case, yeh might never be made aware of it.  Maybe it's been referred to the police and an investigation is in process, maybe it didn't rise to that level but was still somethin' the church could not countenance.  For a variety of practical and legal reasons, yeh aren't goin' to get more than the generic statement, eh?  Folks can't talk about those things.

Another possibility that seems more likely to me is that the pastor isn't comfortable with non-Lutherans in those key positions, or perhaps has other information on their behavior that isn't consistent with their view of proper examples for kids (Gay?  Divorced? etc.)  Given what yeh say about the view of the synod toward the church this seems quite possible.  

Unfortunately, that's a situation where the pastor and da church get to make the call.  It can make yeh sad, it can make yeh angry, but you and any parents who agree with you are not in a position to affect that decision.

So you're left with the choice of either staying and making it work, or leavin' and startin' afresh somewhere else.    Don't dismiss either possibility.  We do this for the kids, eh?  Every unit has a set of founders, but just because yeh start somethin' doesn't mean you own it. Startin' a unit is a gift yeh give to the church and community, and once you've given that gift yeh can't take it back.   Yeh can either keep giving, or go somewhere else and give a new gift.

Beavah

LOL.  I love @@Stosh's reply.

No, @@SpEdScouter, there are no "rules" about scouts staying in hotels, eh?  Why would yeh think there would be?

What's goin' on?

B

Yah, @@UncleP.  I forget... is the lad on the Spectrum?  

I'm in the "don't worry about it right now" camp, but not the lie camp.  At some point, yeh can drop a note to the SM and tell him what you've told us, eh?  That the lad really doesn't have friends at school or in the neighborhood.  Most SMs will understand and work it out with the boy.  Really good ones will chat with his Patrol Leader and encourage some other boys from the neighborhood to ride by his place and invite him out on things.

Beavah

 

I know it's a gradual process. Troop has been working on it since for at least 3 years, and was doing well until about 1.5 years ago. For a variety of reasons, we took one giant step backwards, to the point where it's worse than when my joined the troop. When oldest joined the troop on this scale http://scoutmastercg.com/ladder-of-youth-leadership-infographic/ the troop was a 5 and moving towards 4. Now we are a definate 7, with an occasional spike to 6. 

 

Yah, this is da way things go, eh?  As soon as yeh get one group of boys or adults on board, they have the nerve to grow up and graduate and move on to other things!   Buildin' a youth program is a game of constant buildin' and rebuildin'.  It's supposed to keep us young.    If yeh do it well, each time it will be a little different, perhaps even a little better.

If it was just a class, I would have no problem with it. But the adult faction wants a skills check off weekend before even considering anything else. 

 

Yah, this is just where you're at, eh?  Like @@Eagledad says, adult fear is what yeh have to overcome.  Gettin' frustrated by it is about as helpful as gettin' frustrated when a youth is afraid to try somethin' new.   The trick here is to imagine the other adults are kids you're workin' with.  Just somewhat slower kids with more ego.  

It's just a weekend, so who cares?  Yeh can make these sort of special, the way TLT or NYLT is kinda special.  Do a bit of instruction, have a fun campfire evening.   Da only thing I would add in is that everybody has to do check-offs, eh?  Adults as well as kids.  In fact, I'd start with adults.     Yeh can do a checkoff with people watching, and then discuss how they did as a group, and build consensus.

Just be careful about the "one adult wouldn't talk to me" stuff, eh?  Yeh won't get where you're goin' if yeh build enemies instead of allies.  There's no reason why proposin' patrol competitions should ever get yeh to "one adult won't talk to me", so be mindful of your style.

Beavah

  Knowing what I now know about this stuff, I can see why BSA banned it.  In the hands of idiots, it's dangerous.  Otherwise if done correctly, it is totally safe and quite impressive.

Yah, but if we ban everything that isn't safe in da hands of idiots, what's left?

Besides, when yeh make things idiot-proof, Nature just develops a better idiot.

Beavah

I'd add a qualification to this subject. MBs taught by someone that requires certification are usually done well. So, shooting, aquatics, climbing. Those are all good.

Yah, hmmm.... well, they're more likely to be good I suppose.  You'd be surprised.  Havin' done the camp visitation thing, yeh see a lot of different stuff.  It's mostly well intentioned, sometimes super great, sometimes limping by.  

BSA certification is fairly cursory in some areas, and more about procedural stuff than workin' with kids stuff.  Climbing I think is hit-or-miss in camps.  It's safe, but yeh don't normally get folks who are real climbers teachin' and lots of things are checkin' off da required number of amusement park climbs rather than really learnin' the skill set.   Shootin' sports falls into that, eh?  Lots of procedural safety, but not always great kid-friendly instruction.  Archery tends to be worse than firearms stuff in many camps.   Swimming and Lifesaving are often da best of the lot (but not boating...).  I think that's because so many youth and young adults have outside experience with swimming/lifeguarding/etc.

I reckon da problem is what @@Stosh describes, eh?  Summer camp used to be about campin'.  Along the way, if a few boys got to the point where they merited a badge, that was good too.   Now yeh get this school-like expectation.  Simple fact of the matter is that there are almost no badges where a good-sized group of boys can really learn and be individually tested on all da requirements in the 4-5 hours of a typical MB "class".   It just can't be done.

As long as MB classes are da norm and expectation, we're not goin' to be livin' up to our promise of fun and real learning for the boys.

Beavah

@@Beavah, the problem is the process does not lend itself to the convenient two-steps of "learning and testing".

You don't get the full benefit of step 1 unless you are implementing step 2.

It's not easy ... no bad habit is easy to break. But, putting off breaking it is not the solution.

Yah, hmmm....

I don't think I understand this, @@qwazse.   Can yeh explain why yeh don't think da BSA's advancement steps are actually distinct steps, or at least distinct elements?

Da problem with the teacher doin' the testing is that most of us are content to hear the echo of our own voice, eh?  That's why if you're goin' to be a lawyer or a doctor or an EMT or an airplane pilot or lots of other things da folks doin' the testing are different from the folks doin' the instruction.  

IMHO that helps da process in a bunch of ways, eh?  It keeps instructors from fudging when they haven't done a good job (compare grades to SAT scores in some schools...).  It makes da instructor and the student allies rather than adversaries.  Both are workin' together to overcome a hurdle, eh?   More like a sports coach preparin' you for a competition than a school teacher.   It provides natural means for feedback... even if a lad loses the competition, the coach is there to help him try again... and the coach gets to see where he has to work harder.   In Scoutin', it also helps yeh identify "hey, my instructors don't really know this and I thought they did!"

Even when yeh allow boys to sign off on advancement, I think there's a real advantage to havin' someone other than the instructor do the testing.  APL teaches and PL signs off, for example.  Or even better, yeh have to go to another patrol's PL for your test and signoff, so that your patrol's reputation is on the line a bit. 

Beavah

Yah, hmmm...

Movin' to youth run and patrol method is a gradual process, eh?  Yeh can't do it overnight.  Takes time for the adults to get da feel for it.  Takes time for the boys to learn and adjust as well.   If yeh jump into this all at once, odds are someone will say "See! They can't do it!" and then you'll be back to square one.

Give yourself and your fellow adults some time to learn, eh?  Give the lads some time, too.

Start with the boys who are really active and above First Class, and take 'em on a campout where yeh work with 'em on how to do instruction and help other boys learn skills.  Use EDGE if yeh like, or hopefully somethin' better.   Make those lads instructors, and prohibit the adults from bein' instructors after that.   Let the adults keep the testing/signoff role for now.  It'll help yeh overcome da reluctance.

Let that work for a while.  The boys take responsibility for Step 1: A Scout Learns while the adults keep responsibility for Step 2: A Scout is Tested.  The lads can get experience with teaching while the adults are present to offer feedback and quality control.   If a boy comes for a signoff and it's weak, yeh can help the instructor do better.  It's a good start to things, and sets the right tone.  

Once the adults see that the boys have progressed to become decent teachers, then they'll be less reluctant to move some of da better ones (presumably PLs) into the role of testing and signing off.  Then those boys will help coach and give feedback to the other boys who are teachin', and eventually train their replacements.

Within a year the boys will have it, and more importantly the adults will be supporters.  Then yeh can start to move some of the boys into handlin' Step 3: A Scout is Reviewed and slide da adults out of that as well. 

Only mistake yeh can make is believin' this is easy, or that yeh can go from 0 to 60 in no time flat.   Odds are that will get yeh a backlash and make the whole thing more slow and painful.  

Beavah

Yah, @@blw2, I reckon it's just hard to let go, eh?  That's why I like to encourage troops to use their young men/alumni as ASMs, and to seek out others.  Yeh need some 20-somethings (what other nations call "Rovers") around who aren't as fearful or protective as parents.

An exercise I sometimes do with parents is to have 'em list out all the things they want their son to be and be able to do at age 18 when they go off to college or a job.  Then describe where their son is at right now.  Then yeh just draw a staircase that describes how to get there.  If yeh want a lad to be independent at 18, he better be given full independence at 17 while you're still around as "backup".  That means he should have a lot of independence at 16, eh?  And so on.  In the grand scheme of things, goin' off for weekends or a week of camp at age 11 is necessary as a step on the road to where they want their boy at age 18.

Yeh can do the same thing with scouters too, eh?  Have 'em describe what they want an Eagle at age 18 to be, and then have 'em step backwards year by year.  What does that mean about a Life Scout?  What experiences must a Star Scout then have?  All the way back to what's important for a Tenderfoot boy in terms of tryin' out being self-directed and gettin' confidence from being able to do.

Where we sometimes see advancement problems is when a lad gets near Eagle and the adults realize he's not what their vision of an Eagle is.  It can create some grief, eh?  I like those adults, though, because they have a vision at least.  Now they just need to learn that to get there they have to start earlier, and often let go more.   What's harder is when yeh have adults who think they're bein' youth-run or followin' Patrol Method or teachin' values, but they don't have a vision for what that means in a boy's life and growth.  It's harder to help them.

Beavah

Yah, @@Stosh, I think yeh are a bit confused, eh?

Attorneys have to pass the bar in a given state.   Physicians are licensed to practice in a given state.  Priests and ministers are denomination-specific.  It takes a conversion process and re-education to move around.

I passed off your quote to a Jesuit canon lawyer friend of mine at breakfast this morning.  He says sorry, mate, but da passage is referring to the various rites within da Catholic communion.  Churches like the Assyrian Catholic Church and da Orthodox faiths that share a common sacramental life, and sprung out of the ancient patriarchal churches of Alexandria, Jerusalem, etc.  It's not referring to Lutherans, and by Catholic practice Lutherans cannot receive Catholic communion because they aren't part of da communion.  Not sure why they'd want to, anyway.     He says there aren't guards and nobody's goin' to throw yeh out, but you taking communion isn't really reverent because yeh don't believe in it in the same way they do.  That's not to say there aren't circumstances where it may be appropriate as charity (emergencies, travelin' without access to your own church, participants in ongoin' dialog to promote da reunification of churches, etc.).  Even then, what applies to some Lutherans wouldn't apply to Baptists or Mormons.

That's always been my understandin'.  I suppose yeh can think of 'em as bigoted, but to my mind that says more about you than it says about them.  

Regardless of how yeh feel about it, though, parents and kids are goin' to believe things differently than you do.  That's why in Scoutin' I think the more reverent and respectful way to go is to allow 'em each to pray in their native language, so to speak.  Shows more respect, and teaches brotherliness in diversity rather than tryin' to image everyone is da same.

Beavah

 

 

People today don't care if they are Sunni or Shiite, they are all Muslims.  Is anyone worried whether they are Orthodox or Reformed?  Nope, they are Jews in the eyes of the world. 

Yah, hmmmm.....  

Sure seems to me that da Sunnis and Shiites care a lot about which they are, eh?  Enough so that they've been sustaining a religious civil war across da Fertile Crescent for the past decade or more.    I certainly know some Orthodox folks who wouldn't even consider a Reformed member a real Jew.

 

This is how Christian theologians deal with the issue.  Christianity is not made up of many religions, it is one religion with multiple denominations.  To say that two people do not share the same Christian theology is to say one is non-Christian.  It's the verbiage used by those who think others don't have the true theology and they do.  The practice is called bigotry by definition.

Yah, I think sayin' that Catholics and Baptists have the same theology is likely to be offensive to both Catholics and Baptists, eh?  They don't even quite recognize one baptism.  Theology of sacraments, sola scriptura, theology of salvation, theology of church, approach to Mary and da saints, on and on... seems to be quite a few differences. 

B

Yah, @@TryingToMom, welcome!

As yeh can see from da various replies, lots of good scouters here (who are unusually dedicated by real-world measures) do things differently from each other.  Sometimes different is just different.

Sometimes, too, not every scouter is so dedicated that they spend lots of their free time honing their knowledge on internet forums or readin' hundred-page BSA documents.  

I'd say overall your experience in a troop from your perspective is not that unusual.  Da Scoutmaster has a lot goin' on, and gets behind or messes up SM conference scheduling, notices for events like COHs don't go out with locked-down dates months in advance, etc.    Da procedures for advancement aren't as tightly adult-managed as they were in Cub Scouts, and there isn't an expectation that boys advance on a schedule like you're used to (and like your son may have planned if he was into that as a Cub).  While high-functioning troops typically have PLs sign off on requirements, da official word is that the SM gets to choose who signs off.  Sometimes, it can be just adults.

Lots of stuff tends to get re-arranged at camp, eh?  Many camps have the lads register for badges Day 1, and sessions can fill or a SM can try to talk new lads to goin' to somethin' together or whatnot.  Officially camp staff should not sign off on S-T-2-1 stuff, that's supposed to be the troop.  The camp teaches in Mountain Man/BrownSea/new boy program, but da test happens in the troop.   Camps sometimes put age restrictions on badges (Shotgun comes to mind), and wise Scoutmasters often discourage first year boys from badges where success is unlikely.

Da only thing that seems "off" to me is all da fumbling with advancement tracking, and even that's not all that unusual.  That and the fact that you as parent seem to be doin' a bit more than is healthy about your lad's advancement.  Yeh aren't Akela any more, eh? 

I'd say if your son likes the boys he's with and likes the events, that's what really counts.  Have him find an older boy he likes and ask that boy how best to navigate the way the troop does advancement.  The older lads have likely figured out da system.   Might be as simple as bring your book every meeting and pester Mr. Flubberdub, because Mr. Scoutmaster is always dealin' with da PLC.  You might consider talkin' to a parent of an older boy, since they may have figured out da system, too.

Not a situation where a move is in order unless your son initiates that inquiry rather than you.  

Beavah