Advancement Chair Duties

[3kidsmom 10]

I was asked to take over as Advancement Chair for our Troop. We are using Troopmaster, so I load the information on that, I pick up awards at our store, I sit in on BOR, but is there something else I should be doing? Our troop is great, we have a handful of parents that do most of the work, but we are in a rut I feel. It seems like the CC & SM feel that we don't need to change things to make things easier.

Could someone please advise me what things I should be doing or could be doing? I have heard/read some ideas, but it just seems like I am not doing everything I could.

I appreciate your advice!

[GKlose 24]

I would suggest training -- all of the troop committee member training is online at myscouting.org (Youth Protection, This is Scouting, Fast Start: Boy Scout, and Troop Committee Challenge), and I think overall it would be less than 2 hours of commitment to go through all of them. From there, the Troop Committee Guidebook has further explanations of what is expected out of troop committee roles. Through Google, you can probably easily find a PDF of the Troop Committee Guidebook.

[moosetracker 132]

I think by the book you have Advancement correct, units will do things differently.. My husband has been Troop Advancement for years, he is now District Advancement Chair.. Our troop allowed him to do things, that by definition could be the SM job, or the SM could delegate it to others.

 

Don't know how long it has been since you moved out of Cub Scouts, but a change occurs for Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts.. It is not about us making it easier for the scouts, it is about how much can we empower the scouts to do for themselves..

 

You can look for opportunities for boys to teach other boys, and make recommendations, but your recommendations would go to the Scoutmaster at a committee meeting, to which he should take it to the boys at a PLC meeting for their vote..

 

You should take note at meetings of skills that are getting rusty, and need reinforcement, or what skills may be needed in the next camporee.. Again same route, to suggest through committee..

 

You should keep an eye on boys not advancing and put them through a board, although they do not need one.. Is he content not to advance?.. Is he getting tired of Boy Scouts, if so what can the troop change?.. Is he in need of some guidence.. If so, what can you think of that is more Boy Lead guidence to help him.. Make suggestions through the committee, to the SM, to the PLC..

 

Your troop may be less formal, you may be able to cut out the committee, and bring it to the attention of the SM between meetings.. You should be able to figure out protocol by how others in the committee work with the SM..

 

Bottom line, don't do for the boys what they can do for themselves.. And don't go directly to the boys with changes to their program..

 

 

[perdidochas 658]

I've been Advancement Chair for about a year. The only thing you can add to what you are doing is that on occasion (maybe quarterly) I print out progress reports. I generally do a patrol or two each week, and get the boys to make sure they keep up to date with me, and ask them what their goal is.

[dg98adams 18]

I second Per's remark.

 

Once we got the Adv. chair to print out monthly (as needed) for the SM, SPL, and the PL's the Scouts are more effective planning during the PLC.

 

We have several ASM's that are supposed to be a resource for each PL, so we get a copy too (although many times we just show the PL our copy when the PL can't find it or lost it).

 

I believe that has been more effective for the Patrols, than almost any other improvement they have tried along the way.

 

 

[SeattlePioneer 144]

Here's a good list of Adavancement Chair responsibilities:

 

http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Unit_Advancement_Chair

 

 

 

I especially like the idea of doing a board of review for boys who aren't advancing. I wouldn't badger them, but find out what their goals are, what they would like to do, any barriers that prevent them from advancing and how they feel about the troop and the troop program. Taking a friendly interest in the Scouts.

[John-in-KC 311]

Relax

 

I personally don't like the term advancement chair at unit level. You're not chairing anything, especially if you have and on the ball CC.

 

Even so.

 

Biggest job, as I see it, is to have a stable of trained committee folk capable of doing boards of review. I'm not quite of the "on demand" school, I think a Scout should ask and then adults should promptly schedule. We owe it to them as part of Adult Association and Ideals: We're modelling proper behavior to them.

 

Yes, if a youth is not advancing, hold a BOR. Find out why. That's in the Scouting literature.

 

Administratively, you're the person who (if your unit uses it) does Internet Advancement and gets the information into ScoutNet. Coming from just a few years ago, where the clerical help at Council was not great, being able to control our own destiny in accurate input is a pretty good thing.

 

If you have a good SM and strong youth leaders, you may be able to use the Scribe to get information from the Patrols to you. Saves your running around and chasing down the youth.

 

Reporting. That's really, really important, believe it or not. Helping the SM, the SPL and the PL know where a boy is can help put some challenge on him to keep moving forward. It also helps the SM, that if a boy is ready (and he doesn't know it), Mr SM can give him a quiet nudge to start the process of rank advancement SM conference and BOR.

 

God bless you for doing this! Enjoy the ride

[acco40 95]

I agree with KC John but fall into using the term Advancement Chair myself. They really are more of an advancement coordinator or administrator.

 

The Committee Chair heads up the committe which the advancement (whatever) is a member. The Scoutmaster is in charge of the advancement program for the troop. So, as a Scoutmaster I would like to see the advancement coordinator do the following:

 

1) Report to the committee on where the boys are on advancement (as an aggregate)

2) Handle advancement correspondence with the council/national

3) Help to organize COH wrt to merit badges, rank badges, etc. (i.e. get the supplies)

4) Handle BOR scheduling initiated by the boys (I don't like standing BOR schedules)

5) Chair the vast majority of BORs

6) Provide BOR feedback to me (the SM)

7) Work with me to determine best method for TroopMaster input

8) Keep current (and help me stay current) with all new rank & merit badge requirements (I rely on handbooks which can be out of date)

9) Along with myself, work with the Scouts who are organizing/planning the quarterly COHs