CherokeeScouter

My son and his buddy completed Eagle BOR last month. Figure it will take another few weeks or so before National registers it and before we can pick up the presentation kit. My question is this: My son and his patrol want to do their Eagle COH together. The ones that are still working on it will probably finish up by Xmas, which means a spring 2017 Eagle COH. My son doesn't mind waiting - he would like to go through this with his buddies - but he did ask if he could wear the patch after he was certified by National but before the COH. I'd never seen this done before, but then again,

Stosh, I disagree. The spontaneity and unexpected questions are the whole point. Plus, there is absolutely no wrong answers in these situations, regardless of who is doing the BOR. These are my two criteria when I do an Eagle BOR (assuming everything is in order on the application): 1. Did the young man do the work? 2. Is the young man of good character? When you flunk someone on an EBOR, there has to be some extenuating circumstances. I've had painfully shy, autistic, just about everything you can imagine. Never flunked them. I even had one candidate who was so shy and so nervo

I copied and pasted our policy (old rules): Activities, Participation and Troop X's Expectations As with any enterprise, the more a Scout puts into any endeavor, the more he will get out of it. Troop X is no different. Yet Scouting is only one activity in a young man's life and it is a challenge to balance the time demands of similar worthwhile activities, such as organized sports, extracurricular school activities or other pursuits. All Troop X Scouts are expected to attend the monthly meetings on a regular basis and it should be the goal of every Troop X Scout to attend 50 perce

No, Beavah, but it's covered in GTA. It says something to the effect as Scouts get older, enter HS and participate in more stuff, there is a different expectation.

I took my post down. Sorry for the rant. Little too strong. Just follow the guidelines.

This is just terrible.

I think we ought to follow Scouting's recommendation and discourage practice BORs. I think the SM offering tips or suggestions prior to the BOR is reasonable. I serve on Eagle BORs. One thing I have done is to go back to the Troop and try and make our rank BORs somewhat like the Eagle BORs in so much as this is possible. There are obvious differences. But in the upper rank BORs, I engage the candidate on leadership, what Scouting means to them, etc. - very similar questions to Eagle BOR. And our district starts Eagle BORs with the same three things we start every Troop BOR with - a

We have a goal of 50 percent participation, but it's a goal and it really is covered under all the governance mentioned above. It is not really talked about a lot in our troop, but it is written down along with some guidelines, such as what constitutes an activity or what can be used for service hours and all of that posted on our website. As I said, it's a goal and we explain in the same breath that we just want the Scout to enjoy what Scouting has to offer and to take advantage of it. However, we did flunk a Bronze Palm candidate who disappeared for a year after getting Eagle and then

My son does, but he's been finished with it for only about 9 months. It was a landscaping project. He goes by once a month to pull weeds and spray roundup. He plans on doing it until he goes to college, which is still a couple of years away. The project included hedges and ground cover. Hopefully, as the landscaping matures, there will be less need and can be handled mostly with spraying. The agency's lawn maintenance company is taking care of the edging, which is a big help.

Find another troop.

Neal, I'm terrible at math. I'm seeing five references, four if not employed. Religious, teacher and two others.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Will do the parent thing. We are blessed with a good council, district execs and an excellent Eagle BOR coordinator down here in Fla. BTW, I have served on quite a few Eagle BORs and we never, ever get around the references. It's more like "Did we get them? Yes, that box is checked." The Eagle BORs around here tend to focus heavily on the project, community service, leadership and the candidate's thoughts on Scouting and his future goals. Thirty to 45 minutes can go by pretty fast on those subjects.

Merrell Moab Ventilators (non-waterproof) for everything. One shoe really does fit all. I think it's what Northern Tier recommends for the portages, water, etc. They dry quickly, have great soles and provide a lot of stability. You can also use them at Summer Camp, on the AT, Philmont, etc., although you may want to look at the waterproof model. I have a pair of each. I know you should wear boots when hiking on terrain, but these Moabs are cut so high that they give you great ankle support. I also bought the boot version, but never wear them. It is an unbelievably lightwei

My son is filling out his Eagle application. While we are Christian, we are not currently churched. He was baptized in the Episcopal Church. He felt a little awkward (as did I) about asking for a recommendation from the charter organization's pastor who doesn't know him. I thought I read where the Scout's Statement of Faith could be submitted in lieu of the pastor's recommendation. My son crafted a pretty good one. There are a number of reasons we are not churched, but we attend various churches throughout the year. My son just doesn't know any pastors that well. Wha

No, none of the current administration knew of this. As soon as we did, we brought it to council's attention. I can't speak for the administration that was around at the time. Most are not around. And our Council signs every new application. It's on the form.

Hey, I'm the OP. Application was filled out correctly and honestly. The semi-new Advancement Chair says there is a prompt on the new version of TroopMaster if the age is too young, but she is not sure if earlier versions had it. And some of the posters are correct. There are three ways to join Scouts: 1. Be 11 years old; 2. Be 10 years old and have AOL; 3. Be 10 years old and have completed fifth grade. Since he does have AOL, his earliest join date would be 1 day after his 10th birthday. I'm not sure how you accomplish a do-over. 5-mile hike for Second Class was done when

Ok. Thanks for the replies. Good advice. BTW, the kid has done two summer camps and the AT. He is a an excellent camper, etc. However, I've decided on the following course of action: 1)Notify the Council/District and talk about it with them. 2) Make sure the kid waits an appropriate amount of time for the Life BOR so that his time in rank needed for Star and Life sync up with what he would have done if he had joined at the right age. That way, we avoid the 11-year-old Eagle thing. I do not think the kid or the parent will have a problem with that. What do you think?

Feeling pretty sick about now. New Committee Chair and relatively new Advancement Chair. Getting ready for some BORs on Monday and we were reviewing records. A kid wants a Life BOR. And he's just turned 11. Don't know how, but somehow he was registered when he was 9. And council must have accepted the application because he was on the council roster two years running. And I'm fairly certain that corrrect DOB is on the application. And although I haven't looked, I'm pretty certain the correct DOB is on his physical. Parents have no idea about Scouting and I'm 99.99999 percent they d

I gotta say I vastly prefer my ol' ASM position to the CC. Nothing but computer stuff, BORs and Committee meetings now. I did manage to get the key adult positions filled. SM is in for another year, as is Treasurer and Adv Chair. Got a surgeon/dad to keep and handle all the physical forms. Excellent mix of new and old Dads for ASMs. Very few trained, however. I see that as a big weakness.

Doing Internet Recharter for BSA for first time and have a couple of questions. Registering the boys is not a problem. You uncheck the ones who are out and at a later point, you add the ones that are in. My question concerns the adults. We have had a total makeover in Troop adult leadership. Some are remaining but in different positions. Others are moving on and others are being added. How do you edit when a person stays on but in a different position? Is there a way to change and edit things and still stay in "Stage 2" as they call it? I don't want to go too deep into the elec

Oh, and there is the badge thing for the COH. Who should get the Scout Sunday patches?

Interesting occurrence yesterday. For the first time in many years, our troop decided to honor Scout Sunday and worship with our chartering organization, which by the way, is a new chartering organization for us. But we are doing everything we can to become a part of the church's community and after good collaboration with the church, we came up with a good program. The church reserved seating, had us march in with colors and then had the Scoutmaster and SPL make a few remarks. Then the church spruced up their normal after-service reception with special refreshments. Out of an 80-Scout troop,

NJ, I'm not registered as a Committee Member but I have done the adult-leader training as well as BOR training that we do at the troop level. As an Eagle Scout, I also serve on Eagle BORs at the Council level. I guess that is why the Committee Chair feels comfortable delegating that stuff to me when he is out of town. Also, our Committee meetings are open to all (I know it sounds crazy, but it actually is OK) and I occasionally sit in on those and try to help when needed. I reconnected with Scouting two years ago when I volunteered to go with a group to summer camp in my son's first year.

Good advice. We are on a target for First Class within a year, plus we have 80 registered kids, which is a lot to try and oversee.

Last nite was a bear. Eight BORs run by two panels of adults. I conducted one group and unfortunately, we weren't able to devote more than 15 minutes to each Scout. We had just conducted PLC elections and I hate to take Scouts out of meetings for their BORs. Yet, if you do them after meetings, the Scouts are often getting home at 9:30 or later. Fifteen minutes seems like such a short time to cover BOR ground, but maybe not. I try to organize them so that we can spend a little more time with First Class, Star and Life BORs (Life especially). Moving to another night is out of the question. We ha