Monkeytamer

I've been impressed with how much thought you put into this move. Thank you for sharing the anguish of weighing pros and cons with the rest of us. I know it wasn't easy on either part and hope that the weeks of soul searching are going to pay off for you and your boys.

This is an old thread, but I found this sentence to be the crux of the matter. I did the mile swim last summer in the ocean at Emerald Bay Scout Camp. It wasn't for any patch, or for accolades or to prove anything to anybody but me. I did it because I wanted to see if I could do it and I had the chance to do it in the ocean. I'm 51 and out of shape, so it took a long time (1:15 to be exact), but I made it and that's all that matters. You can't keep from aging, but you can keep from getting old. If you do that, living with your self judgements isn't so bad.

My son passed his BOR with flying colors last night! He is now an Eagle Scout.

RookieMom, you are getting opinions with a lot of years experience behind them shared with you here. I was a Cubmaster for 10 years. We operated out of a parochial school, so most of the scouts were from the school, but at least a couple times a year we had families visit our Pack with a boy who was "done". For whatever reason, their old Pack wasn't a good fit for their son and he now hated being a Cub Scout. I really felt for those families and tried to go all out making them feel at home. A lot of those boys ended up joining us and having a blast the rest of their Cub Scout careers

As mentioned earlier in the thread, It is semantics on my part. Others have set me straight that different districts and councils run things differently. In ours, the administrative part of verifying the boy is eligible and approving his project proposal takes place in person before the board. So locally, we've taken to calling that the "initial" board and the next time before the board the "final" BOR. I have spent all my time as a scout and now a leader in the same council, so I was ignorant of other council's practices.

This! Barry, I couldn't agree more. I think it is important to shop for a Troop that does things the correct way. Which is sad. I'm sure it's romanticism to believe that there was a time when all troops ran the patrol method right down the line and had leaders (and frankly, a top-down leadership culture, from National all the way to the troop) who were versed and focused on the aims and methods, but as an Ideal, it's nice to think of a time when a parent didn't need to worry about these things.

At least those berets will look darling on our new scouts! -Whatever we end up calling them. Too bad we don't have a Green Bar Bill to pull our fat out of the fire this time.

Good on her! We need more people like her.

Oh. Well, it might be semantics on my part. I know that there is only one Board of Review meaning the body that judges the Eagle candidates, but doesn't every scout have to appear before that body at least twice to earn Eagle? In our council and district, the boy will sit before the board for the initial approval of his proposed project and then again after he completes the project and the Scoutmaster Conference. If that's not how it's done everywhere else, I claim ignorance. As for the process as practiced here, there is a great deal of administrative tasks that the boys have to accompli

You are a moderator and you don't see the value of engaging members on this forum should they not have a lot of posts or voice an opinion contrary to what you see as the right way of thinking? Interesting. For all the rest of you that engaged me anyway, a tip of the cap to you. Just for the record, I have spent about half my life involved with scouting (I'm 51 btw). I never said I was leaving scouting (or this forum), but even if I did, wouldn't it be a good idea to engage such a person and find out why?

Thank you Sir! Regardless of all the current controversy, eight boys from the same class making Eagle together is an enormously joyful thing. When they joined, there were 22 Tiger Cubs in their group. Thirteen made it to Boy Scouts and these eight persevered. I'd be proud as punch as their scout leader, but that my son is in this group makes it even more special. Our troop runs old school, i.e. patrol method, all-weather, camping year round. We haven't had an Eagle younger than 16 in the entire time I've been an ASM (10 years) and then only one or two. In short, these guys are rugged, cap

I tried to reply once, but it disappeared. If I end up with two replies, I apologize for the redundancy. I have been with them for most of their lives. I was their CM for their entire cub career and have been an ASM for their entire Boy Scout career. So although they never asked me to, I can probably speak for them as well as anyone. They will never be impacted directly by the appearance of girls in the troop. Our troop is an established troop and will never willingly be "linked". Our CO has no interest in the mammoth undertaking of standing up a girls troop. Plus they support a v

I'm sorry John. I don't understand your question. I'm not being snarky either. I just don't get what you are asking me.

Not to quibble, but it is still "Boy Scouts" until the end of the month. I know that seems like semantics, but it is an important distinction to a small number of highly interested Boy Scouts, one of whom is my youngest son. See, last year when all of this began, it lit a fire under him and his classmates. All of them decided that they wanted no part in any of it. They came to me and asked if we would help them get out under the wire. Now, my son is the second oldest in the group and turns 18 in April anyway. So he was already going to need to get in gear during this time, but the rest o