rdn51

Dear Members,

I have a question about an MBC reneging on his approval for a merit badge requirement. My son is a Star scout, almost ready for his advancement to Life. He is also a Den Chief for the 5th grade Webelos and just finished 7 months as assistant senior patrol leader.

He began working with a MBC in our troop for Communications merit badge 6 months ago and just finished the last requirement 2 weeks ago. At that time the MBC asked him to show him the materials he had written for section 8 which the MBC had approved and signed-off on 5 months ago. My son finally met with the MBC last night and showed him the material he completed for section 8. The MBC told him that he had re-thought what he signed off 5 months ago, that he had done it when he was tired and now felt that it was insuffient to meet the requirement. He wanted my son to re-complete the entire section. (note: My son had written up a script based on previous courts of honor. This script was approved by the SPL, the scoutmaster and the church liason. During the next Court of honor, my son acted as ASPL, recited some of the script, handed out merit and advancement badges and lit candles etc. He also acts as an assistant at Cub/Webelo camping events (campfires) and assists the Cubmaster) It was insinuated that this was sufficient to meet the requirement. My son asked me to discuss this with the MBC. I asked him why he signed off on the requirement and did not explain in a more timely manner (a week, a month?) that he had changed his mind regarding this. He had no answer and got extremely angry. I then approached the Scoutmaster, who said that he could not interfere with the MBC process. Our PLC will not meet for another month or so and will not be in time for my son to work the next Court of Honor. The MBC has admitted that my son had gone above and beyond the requirements for all the other sections of the merit badge.

Right now my son is extremely discouraged and upset. What is our recourse here? I can tell you that as an educator if I would do something like this (ie. pass a student on a term paper, tell him just prior to the end of the semester, that I re-thought about his grade on the term paper, determined that he had now failed the paper (reneging the original grade) and this failure will not let him complete the course, I would be in the superintendent's office so fast my head would spin. Also, if I refused to accept my original grade, I would probably be dismissed.

Thanks

My son recently had a Board of Review for his Star advancement. My son is 12 and at this board, an assistant scout master (who in September of this year will become Scoutmaster) asked him in front of the rest of the board if he attended church regularly and if not why not. He also told him that he had to know that belief in God is required for scouting.

When he told me this later, I felt that this was extremenly inappropriate, especially in front of the rest of the board. While my son does not regualrly attend church, he does bible study and also assists as a helper at a local methodist church vacation bible school each year at their request. As far as I know, attendance at church is not required for scouting, only a belief in God and a strong sense of spirituality, which my son does have. What can I do about this? Do the rest of you think that this kind of questioning is inappropriate also?

For the camping merit badge, the requirements for 9a. state: "Camp a total of at least 20 days and nights. You may use a week of long-term camp toward this requirement. Sleep each night under the sky or in a tent you have pitched (long-term camp excluded)".

Does this mean that if my son spent 5 days/nights at summer camp last year (tent camping) and 6 days/nights tent camping this year he can count 7 days/nights of camping from both trips for the camping merit badge? One of our scoutmasters said that he cannot count any of the 5 days/nights done his first year because he had not yet pulled the blue card for the camping badge. Is this true?

It is my understanding that advancement takes place officially after a boy has passed his scoutmaster conference and his board of review. Is this correct? One of our assistant scoutmasters suggested that actualy advancement only takes place after a court of honor. Which is right?