Time requirement for advancement

[SM214 10]

My son has completed all the requirements for Life Scout, except for the 6 month time requirement. Our Board of Review night is being held six days before he reaches that mark, but the court of honor is held 2 weeks after. My question is can he still do the BoR and earn the rank if he falls between the 2 dates? Basically, is the time frame set in stone or is there a grey area as far as the dates go?

He really wants to reach Life prior to summer camp, and at the last COH for the outgoing Scoutmaster.

[FireKat 10]

Our Troop does BOR when requested. The boy requests a OR for the following week. If they do more than one rank before a COH, they are presented with all ranks earn.

Does your troop only hold BORs before a COH? How often are the COH?

[moxieman 11]

Unfortunately, (at least around here), you need to meet all the requirements prior to having your BoR for that rank. BoR's can be conducted at any time for other reasons, but for a rank, all requirements must be completed prior to the BoR.

 

Has your son asked the BoR members if they would be willing to schedule a a BoR for him a week later than normal so he can reach the time requirement?

 

Most units up this way are willing to reschedule for reasons like this. The request should come from your son, not you on behalf of your son. If he wants it, he needs to show the initiative to get it.

[packsaddle 753]

More than one question but the essential answer is, yes he can do another BOR just after the 6-month mark and still make the COH. The COH is entirely up to the unit. Assuming that someone can walk the paperwork through the council after the BOR, you theoretically could do the COH later the same day as the BOR. We have actually done this although not for quite a few years. And that one was a special case.

[SM214 10]

FireKat, our BORs are held every 3 months 3weeks before the COH on meeting nights, this quarter we have so many eligible for rank advancement we are doing it for 2 weeks straight, we do three weeks between to get the paperwork back from Council and give us time to get the patches.

Moxieman, Believe me if he wants it, he'll ask. My wife and I are raising all 3 of our boys to be self sufficient (to varying degrees of success) and with the committee chair at every meeting getting ahold of her will not be a problem (her husband is the advancement chair)

 

thanks to all for the quick replies(This message has been edited by sm214)(This message has been edited by sm214)

[FireKat 10]

Personal opinion - holding to a rigid schedule of BOR is dangerous. It can cause appeals as the adults are holding the boys back. When eagle time comes around I have seen some appeals due to this. Boys do not have the timing planned for rigid BOR. I have also noticed that on demand ones keep the adults from having too many to do on the scheduled date. Talk to the committee about being more flexable, it also gets the boys used to requesting things from the adults.

[nolesrule 58]

I've said this before and I'll say it again. Boards of review should be held as soon as possible once a Scout has completed all other requirements for a rank. I can understand if a unit might have a monthly board of review night on the schedule in order to be able to get the needed people together, but 4 times a year is just too few and unnecessarily holds up the advancement process.

 

All that is needed to hold a board of review is the Scout and 3-6 committee members and 15-20 minutes in the same location. I've even seen them held during some afternoon downtime on a camping trip.

[SM214 10]

Our COH schedule is set at the begining of the year and the boys get a copy of the schedule ( clarify- month is set, date set closer to the month, depending on what outing the Scouts have planned) and the BOR schedule does vary between 2-3 weeks prior to COH. This month we have 2 weeks set aside for BOR, last time before the COH we had no one ready for BOR.

And FireKat, I do understand your position and agree on some points, But if they knock out the BORs all at once, it keeps one from getting lost in the shuffle between here and council.( heard horror stories) And we do Eagle BORs on demand, you tell them when you're ready.

As for my son, if he doesn't get it before the summer break, it won't break his heart ( he just told me as he reads over my shoulder) he'd just like to recieve it from the current SM instead of from me in the fall. ( every one likes Tom, I have BIG shoes to fill)

[SM214 10]

OUCH, I hope I haven't set off a fire storm with my initial question.. Can I add that we're a small troop and that the boys tend to earn their advancement as a group ( its not planned, thats just the way it has gone the past 3-4 years) usually because of the time requirement.

Man I hope I haven't brought the wrath of the board down on my TC in just my 5th post....

[FireKat 10]

To keep the paperwork from being lost between troop and council, submit by internet advancement. We have had too much lost at council. By IA, you enter the info then print the report and drop it off. They even have form for # of awards need & when. Our SM drops report then goes to the Shop & picks up the awards, all on same day.

[nolesrule 58]

You know, the really silly thing of having a rigid board of review schedule like this is that the troop already knows there is a 6-month requirement (and that it's possible to complete the requirements in that 6 months). They knew the exact date that your son earned Star when they scheduled the dates for their quarterly board of reviews.

 

So why are they holding the board of reviews at 5 months and 3 weeks? They are effectively forcing a 9 month period on any scout that has met all the requirements except the 6 months because of some adult who couldn't bother to count out 6 complete months when making the schedule.

[packsaddle 753]

Yeah, we've been able to avoid all of these problems by holding BORs whenever they're needed and even maintaining flexible COH dates. The only big productions we do are when families want to put something together for their Eagle COH.

[SM214 10]

Knowing the committe members like I do, I'm pretty sure I'm making a mountain out of a molehill to begin with. If the only issue is time, 6 days either way isn't changing a whole lot if he does his BOR on the 12th and he's Life eligible on May 18th, and the COH isn't until June 2nd, he's still done the 6th month requirement. I guess the smartest thing to do is to ask the CC on Tuesday how they handle this (actually have him ask, its his rank advancement) Doing it on the 19th will be a non-issue.

Overall the big concern was getting the rank before the summer break, he then has 2 fullyrs to complete his Eagle project before he turns 18, (he's gone almost all summer between SCA, Scout Summer Camp and Band camp, so the chance of doing anything towards his Eagle project is practically nil anyways)

 

[Twocubdad 665]

To do it, the date of the board of review would have to be jiggered. The board of review date is considered the official date of advancement. When the Scout goes for his Eagle, the dates of his advancement get looked at. If there isn't the proper time frame between advancement dates, it could get kicked out.

 

My personal opinion would be to allow it and make the paperwork work. If there were some reason his BoR had to take place as scheduled, I don't think the world would come to an end by dating his advancement the day he the time requirement is met, not the day he sat down with the board.

 

But I agree with the others who note the real problem is with having such a rigid BoR schedule. There's no reason the board can't sit for him a week later. Making the kid wait another three months "just because" is crummy.

 

Question: if board's are held on a strict quarterly schedule, why doesn't he meet the requirement? If his previous board was held two quarters ago, he should be okay, right?

[EagleBeaver 10]

On page 122 of my 2001 Scoutmaster Handbook:

A troop should schedule its boards of review to occur on a regular basis so that Scouts and leaders can plan for them well in advance.

 

In chapter 6, Program Features, all the 'week 2' plans have a board of review.

 

Based on those two things, our troop has BORs scheduled the same time every month. Everyone knows it and scouts request BORs when they are ready.

 

If a scout's time requirement is 6 days after the BOR, he usually waits 3 weeks for the next schedule BOR time. I've told a few scouts they might approach the Advancement Chair about scheduling a BOR, but so far all have chosen to wait.

 

I think if you 'jigger' one small thing, it gets easier to 'jigger' other things.