Bugling Merit Badge Discontinued

[John-in-KC 311]

I have been at Scout Camp.

 

Last Thursday eve, visited my BSA Supply Corporation Scout Shop. Here is what they are reporting:

1) the last Bugling MB has been made and is out of the warehouse

2) The National Council will lock out Bugling from the advancement modules of ScouNet NLT 31 December 2010.

3) Expect Bugler as a Position of Responsibility to be deleted from the 2011Boy Scout Requirements.

 

Will all this come to pass? We will know in six months(This message has been edited by John-in-kc)

[RememberSchiff 3683]

http://bands.army.mil/music/bugle/calls/taps.mp3

 

 

(This message has been edited by RememberSchiff)

[moosetracker 132]

Even if they take it from their positions, all that means is it wont count for a position of responsibilty at "Life" rank.

 

Unless this is changed too, the SM always had the right to create their own POR or a project for POR.. Only when the boy made Life rank, did he need one that was from BSA list.

[Bando 21]

moosetracker, Bugling hasn't counted for a POR for Life for a very, very long time. It's always been a bit ambiguous, and a lesser-rank position only. I remember a typo in the Requirements book caused me to have to delay a Board of Review for (I think) Star because no one was sure whether or not Bugling actually counted past First Class. It did, apparently, just not for anything past Star.

 

Frankly, I can't believe Bugling is being phased out as a POR. Although you can certainly see the writing on the wall. You can't even buy a bugle from Supply anymore. Was 2001 the last time a National Jamboree had an official commemorative bugle available?

[moosetracker 132]

Really!.. Well our troop only tried bugler once or twice and they were with younger scouts, and it really didn't work out. But our troop may have done a few mistakes in it's past.. I always thought if it was a position in the book, it was a position that would count for life. I was the one who pointed out to our troop they could make their own projects & positions for POR for all but Life. Then I had to remind them that made up positions/projects did not count for a Life scout a few times until it sunk in. Therefore since I did not know that there are some positions in the book that count, and some that don't we may have had a few boys advance with the wrong positions... If we did, it did not hurt them from getting their Eagle. So where in the book does it state what positions are Life qualified and what is not so that I can check this out..

 

I did know that Assistant Patrol leader did not count for a POR for any rank, although I sometimes thought this unfair when the Patrol leader was unreliable, and the APL was basically doing his job.

[John-in-KC 311]

As a note, my District Advancement Chair told me today that Scouting had given notice of the discontinuance to the Advancement channels three years ago, and he actually could point to where he put it in our District newsletter.

 

 

[SaintCad 10]

I think it is bugling in general that is being neglected by BSA. Out troop has a bugler that my son has told me has bugled exactly once - reveille one morning at camp. I have never heard him bugle even though I've heard the SPL yelling, "Fall in!" repeatedly. Why not, "Bugler, sound assembly call."?

 

So I go to Family Day at the Scout Camp. No bugle for mess call. Oh ok but I'm sure we'll hear retreat at Flags. Nope. Nothing. When you can't even get bugling at an assembly at a Scout Camp, why should troops take the tradition seriously.

 

Oh, and making a scout have an office for 3 months before getting a MB is wrong. Offices are for advancement, not MBs.

[mtnnybb 10]

As a Cub Scout leader and a professional trumpet player this development saddens me. I have played the bugle at our pack meetings as well as district and counsel events. The response is always the same.

I cant believe how much the bugle added to the ceremony

Live music does that; it can make a routine, perfunctory event feel special.

Currently the Department of Veterans Affairs is expecting more than 1/2 million veterans to pass every year for the next 7 years. And in 2000 Congress passed legislation stating Veterans had a right to at least 2 uniformed military people to fold the flag and play taps on a CD player.

Yes, taps on a CD player.

See: http://buglesacrossamerica.org

Thats what the men and women of the greatest generation are getting. Seems to me the BSA could reverse this trend by fostering a new generation of buglers.

What would be more fitting than scouts and former scouts playing taps for these heroes? Imo, Dropping the merit badge is a step in the wrong direction. Just my 2cents.

[John-in-KC 311]

A comment:

 

Bugling, in person, as a tool of military command and control, even in garrison, is no more. At Riley, at Sill, at Babenhausen Kaserne, at the CW Abrams Complex in Frankfurt, at Graf ... save for ceremonial Taps (read funerals), bugle calls were the function of a loudspeaker and a tape (now an MP3 hooked into the post loudspeaker network).

 

Even Adjutant's Call for reviews is now played by a trumpeter on his trumpet.

 

 

[FScouter 24]

"So where in the book does it state what positions are Life qualified and what is not so that I can check this out.. "

 

Look in the Boy Scout Handbook on the page that lists the rank requirements.

 

Bugler has been a valid position of responsibility for both Star and Life since the 11th edition of the Handbook came out in 1998. It still is.

 

The POR requirements for Star and Life are exactly the same.

 

A "made up" POR is not valid for any rank advancement.

 

A Scoutmaster assigned leadership project benefiting the troop is valid for both Star and Life ranks.

 

There is no POR requirement for 1st Class and earlier ranks.

 

It's all in the Handbook...

[Miquin1978 11]

This was sad news to hear. Bugling was my second merit badge (Music the third) and Bugler my first POR. I had hoped to be a counselor for it, oh well (I am not enough of a musician to do Music.) Worse yet my Tiger Cub son wants to play the bugle someday. Not that he can't but he will won't have that MB to look forward too (he's seen it on my sash.)

 

 

 

[Stosh 3452]

Gee, I guess my boys haven't heard about this, I had a boy practicing up last week to take over as a troop bugler. He's a French horn player now so it shouldn't be a problem with the instrument. He's just got to learn the music.

 

Modern military no longer needs the bugler they have radios and PA systems. There's no need. However, unless the troop has invested heavily in walkie-talkies and have a portable PA system with them, it's going to be more feasible to have a bugler. The biggest problem with the POR Bugler is the low-tech approach to communications that the bugle offers in a high-tech world. A good bugler is more valuable to a troop of less than 3 patrols than an SPL and his assistant combined. If one doesn't agree with me on that, they have no idea what a bugler is supposed to be doing.

 

Stosh

[SaintCad 10]

Stosh,

I can't agree with you more. Like I said before, I've seen SPL unable to get scouts' attention yet not use the bugler he has.

 

Here's a question germane to the Bugling MB: is there any reason a troop cannot have more than one bugler? It's not a line officer so what if there are two or more (can you imagine a troop doing echo Taps for a Memorial Day ceremony?)

[Bando 21]

There's no reason there can't be more than one, or that a youngster who holds another leadership position can't bugle as well. My troop has 3 young men who rotate amongst themselves, though I think only one is actually the official bugler.

[mtnnybb 10]

Just heard Bugling will continue to be its own merit badge.

 

excellent news!!