Beagles

Thanks everyone for the input. We are scheduling a conference between the SM, the ASM's in attendance and the parents (myself included) of the 2 boys in question, to discuss the full nature of the events as they unfolded. I do believe there was some mis-communication going on between the boys and leadership. 

Welcome to the forum, Beagles.

 

I think things are really messed up when a boy's merit badge "homework" has priority over building a bonfire. 

It was the last day of camp. It wasn't the actual bonfire for end of week activities - it was the building of the bonfire.

Either he finishes his homework and earns the badge or it goes as a partial, to be worked on NEXT year at camp. The badge was Eagle required Environmental Science which is not offered by our Troop locally.

Why would an ASM ever address such an issue unless the SM and SPL asked him to?

Our had to leave early the night before and our elected SPL was not available to attend camp as he was at the Jamboree. So we had ASM's, a handful of volunteer parents and an ASPL in place.

@@Beagles welcome to scouter.com. Some followup questions:

 

1. When you said "the Troop volunteered"  was that done by the scout leadership or adult leadership.

2. With ASM complaining about  "scouts ditching the service project", why do you feel your son was singled out. I suspect most scouts were also finishing merit badges on Friday and missed the service project.

3. What was the reaction of your other troop adults attending camp? Did they intervene?

1. The adult leadership volunteered the Troop.

2. There were only 2 boys out of about 40 that did not work on the project as they were both finishing their merit badge homework. Everyone knew which 2 boys were missing.

3. After talking with other ASM's, it turns out that 3 ASM's convened beforehand on how to handle the situation. They came to an agreement that they needed to be firm with a talk in front on the Troop. 

To set the tone for my question, I’ll relate my son’s experience...

At camp, he had some merit badge work to finish up on the last day. He told the ASM that he had this work to do, both in the morning and at lunch. Now fast forward to the afternoon. The Troop volunteered to put together the bon fire for the last night at camp, calling it a service project. My son was not there to help because he was turning in his merit badge homework. Upon returning to camp, the ASM made a big deal about scouts “ditching†the service project, yelling loudly that they knew who it was and that it was unacceptable. They were to work on it as a team and that by not being there to help, it made the rest of the scouts work harder.

My son says that everyone there knew he was talking directly to/about him. And that the ASM wasn’t just talking loudly but was in “rage†mode, never asking directly what he had been doing during this time.

I’m not happy about A) an ASM raising their voice to get a point like this across. B) publicly embarrassing a Scout in front of the Troop. C) why they weren’t following the Patrol Method and bringing it first to the attention of the SPL. So I’d like to get some opinions here about situations such as this...

Thanks in advance!