SteveMM

My son and I were talking yesterday about his Eagle BoR, as he just got it scheduled for early next month. We were looking at some resources together to try to give him an idea of what to expect. As a member of the Troop Committee, I do a lot of the Boards of Review for his troop, and I said it would be a lot like the ones that he's done for every rank, except it would be longer and there would be more people in the room. That led him to ask if I'd ever wanted to "fail" a Scout after a BoR. I did almost do it once, and here's the story... This was back when Scouts had to do a BoR for

Fair enough! I need to remind myself that what seems obvious to me isn't always the case in other troops and other people's Scouting experiences.

Yeah. I'm new, and I'm now learning that there isn't much agreement around here. That's not a bad thing so long as it's respectful.

I don't have anything against partials, but in this instance it just doesn't make sense to me. I think if the Scout walks away with a partial and won't actually complete the merit badge for more than a year (which could easily happen with Camping) then they should just wait to take the merit badge. In this example, they could take a more enjoyable merit badge in their first summer camp and then take camping later, when they at least have the camping nights. Edited to clarify: There are some badges where partials will just happen, and there's no pressure to even finish them if they're no

Whatever we all disagree about, I think we would all say that it's monumentally stupid to take Camping at your first summer camp. The Scout won't have the camping nights, and won't have any of the 9B requirements. What you're left with is a partial that probably won't be finished for a year or more. There's no point in bothering with this one until the Scout at least has the camping nights. Once he has the camping nights, he'll likely have knocked out one or more of the 9B requirements as well, and can focus on figuring out ways to get the rest.

Very good point and I imagine it's oh so true. My son got another piece of advice from a parent in our troop, which many around here may not like: "Congrats on finishing your Eagle project so young -- now you have a few years to just relax, have fun, and not worry about which merit badges you're taking." I agree with it, but I'm sure some here would say that's what he should have been doing all along.

THIS is the truth, and the most important thing about summer camp. My son is missing his first summer camp this year since bridging, but it's because he's in Philmont on a two-week trek right now. As soon as he returns, he's going to go about getting his Eagle Board of Review scheduled. I asked him a few weeks ago if he planned to keep going to summer camp, and he said he did. He really enjoys it. He's only 15 right now, so he has plenty of time. He's talked about joining the staff of our local camp as well.

The more I read the opinions in this thread (and thanks for them, by the way) the more I realize that my son HAD to do it a little differently than some Scouts. Since he missed a lot of meetings in the spring and fall due to travel soccer, he needed to make up those badges somewhere. He has never missed a winter camp or summer camp, but did miss a majority of the merit badge weekends that the troop attended. So, it behooved him to sprinkle in some non-fun badges at camp. Thankfully, it never seemed to bother him, and he always enjoyed camp.

We were having a discussion on the sidelines of a troop meeting recently about who *should* be an SPL or even ASPL, and who shouldn't. I think those positions should be exclusively (if not by rule) Scouts who have attained Life rank and are at least 14 years old. Our most recent outgoing SPL in our troop was a minor disaster. He just now turned 14 at the end of his time as SPL, and is very immature for his age. He got the position because no one was available to run against him. None of the adults were happy about the situation, but couldn't do anything about it. The SM basically had to

This is why, for good or bad, my son never ran for SPL or ASPL until recently, despite being in the troop for four years, being a Life Scout for two years, and being fairly respected by his peers. Because of his soccer schedule, he would vanish for several months in the fall and several more in the spring and it just wouldn't have worked. He did hold leadership positions back before the troop really followed the patrol method. He did those jobs as well as he could, although some of them were really just titles, unfortunately. My son's schedule opened up a bit when he joined a new soc

This is exactly how I feel. Our young Scouts don't do the 1st year program at summer camp because the older Scouts teach that stuff during weekly meetings. Swimming is a no-brainer because without it you can't do a lot of the fun stuff at the waterfront. I really think First Aid is right behind it for me. That leaves a lot of wiggle room for fun electives that first year.

I was just looking at the requirements for Cooking. Did they recently add the below line? I don't remember it when my son took the merit badge. I'm pretty sure they definitely doubled up, using these merit badge requirements for advancement. Given this statement, I retract my suggestion of Cooking as a good first year merit badge, unless the Scout has some interest in cooking in general. The meals prepared for Cooking merit badge requirements 4, 5, and 6 will count only toward fulfilling those requirements and will not count toward rank advancement or other merit badges. Meals prepare

I'd add Cooking in to that list, but I agree with you. I'd never suggest that a Scout take one of the Citizenship merit badges at his first summer camp. That's just cruel. Although, it's funny (or not) but I just found a string of emails from 2015 when I was sending my son's list of merit badges to our advancement chair. His list was: 1) Swimming 2) Cooking 3) Leatherwork 4) Fishing 5) Citizenship in the Nation He also took Standup Paddleboarding, which wasn't (and I think still isn't) a merit badge, but it's something he wanted to learn. If I had to do it o

I agree with this wholeheartedly, at least for a Scout's first summer camp. I can't think of a better way to bore a Scout right out of the program than to take the citizenships in his first year. My son did take one or more of them at camp later, however, because he wasn't able to attend the various MB days throughout the year due to sports. Summer camp was really the best place for him to take them.

I was talking recently to the parent of a brand new Scout in our troop, and asked what merit badges his son is taking at summer camp in a couple of weeks. He said he'd had a discussion with our SM, and was told that the Scout should choose anything he wanted, just have fun this first year, and worry about advancement later. When he listed off the badges this Scout was taking, I had to clamp down on my tongue. They were all "elective" badges, with not one that will help with the Scout's advancement. When my son went to his first summer camp (which was four years ago this week, by the wa

This is correct. The issue I've had in our troop with the current SM is that at times he'll stop just barely short of berating kids (he's done it to my son and others) if they can't come to a Scout activity. That's the exact opposite way of handling things. If a Scout doesn't come to activities, they shouldn't be made to feel bad about it. The only thing that should be done is to let the kid know that they won't get as much out of the experience if they're not there. My son has missed a lot of Scouting activities, but he's stayed more active than some other kids in his troop, and worked h

These are all excellent points, but nothing will convince me that this has to be an either/or situation. A lot of kids aren't getting into Scouting because schedules for travel sports are insane. There are ways to manage the situation. My son was told that if he went to as many meetings as possible, and always went to winter and summer camp, that he would get a lot out of Scouting. That's exactly what's happened. Yes, he disappeared for swaths of time in the fall and spring, but he stayed involved as often as possible during those sports seasons, skipped an occasional practice to go to Sc

I see your point and it makes a certain amount of sense, but... 1) On competitive high-end sports teams, the expectation is set from day one that you can't miss many practices or games, or else you simply won't play. Is that how we want to run Scouting? 2) In this day of declining membership in Scouting, it seems to me that it's a bad tactic to tell tell kids that if they're involved in travel sports they are somehow lesser Scouts. A lot of them will simply quit Scouting. You know with most kids, sports will win that battle over time. The better tactic, in my eyes, is to let the

We're clearly not doing it by the book. I'm a Committee Member and didn't have a hand in choosing how we do it, but personally I don't like seeing an appointed ASPL. Invariably the SPL elects his best bud, which can reduce the number of Scouts who have an opportunity for leadership. There are a lot of differences from troop to troop on how things are done, and even from council to council. Don't get me started on how our council handles Eagle letters of recommendation.

Perhaps that's how it works in your troop. That's not how it works in ours. In our troop, the ASPL is elected, serves for six months, and then becomes the SPL. At that time, an election is held for a new ASPL.

Side note: My son beat the SM's son in the ASPL election, which brought me far more joy than it should have 😀

Thanks for all of the opinions, particularly those who tried to answer my question. The new SM is a decent person who is trying to do things right, at least in his own eyes. Shortly after taking over as SM, he began (and eventually completed) his Woodbadge. He's basically all-in on Scouting, which I can respect. His son is one of those kids that I call a "Super Scout," which basically means that Scouting is his only extra-curricular activity. He never misses a merit badge weekend, campout, or training opportunity, and he has a ton of merit badges as a result. One of the biggest problems

This is the first thread I've created, although I have been lurking for a while. I wanted to discuss differences in Scoutmaster leadership styles, and what people think is best. My son has been in one Scout troop, but it's really been two vastly different experiences. There was a change in Scoutmasters a year or two ago, when my son was a Star scout. Up until then, the atmosphere when it came to requirements was somewhat loosey-goosey. It was an adult-led troop with extremely laid back leadership. You would think that would lead to Scouts not advancing quickly, but it was the exact

Thank you! I've been lurking for a long time

I know there are extenuating circumstances that we're not aware of, and this is going to sound much harsher than I mean for it to, but I can't imagine many situations where someone was awarded Eagle and doesn't remember it.