Court of Honor

[troop10BSA 10]

We have a primarily boy run troop, as I think it should be. Of course adults are present at meetings to assist as necessary with crowd control but it's primarily boy run. They survey boys for the schedule, they plan meetings, schedule instructors etc.

As far as COH's go, they too are boy run and boy orchestrated. Myself(SM) and the Advancement Chair do the advancements and badges when called, but that is it. Other than the Scoutmaster Minute I get at each one of 3 for the year, it's all them.

I think allowing boys to go and run with it develops their leadership ability, problem solving and management skills. My SPL came up to me a few months ago and said "the younger scouts don't listen". I just told him it was natures way of paying him back for the hard time he gave his SPL at that age. I told him to try changing his style or delivery and it eventually came around.

I personally think if it gets so bad I have to step in and act like a den leader, I haven't done my job. Correction, through education should take place as soon as you see a sign your program or activity is headed to the outhouse. But just my opinion.

[troop10BSA 10]

But answering the actual question..typically our COH's are-

Colors

Pledge

SPL Welcome message

Special guest speakers ie. FOS, if any

badges

advancement

announcements

awarding the bronze eagle(indivdual scout award by SPL)

Scoutmater minute

Closing

[Old_OX_Eagle83 212]

Theres some confusion here between who is responsible to make sure the CoH is put on, and who may ran the CoH. The Committee is charged with making sure the courts are conducted, and at appropriate intervals. The committee is not charged with actually conducting the program, although they could.

 

Were talking about a Boy Scout troop here, and the boys should be running a significant part of the program. Id rather attend a poorly planned, and poorly executed, boy ran program any day . However, with proper coaching, and support, boy ran need not equate to poorly planned and executed.

 

[dlearyous 10]

Thank you for you comments. I think several misunderstood my dilemma though.

 

I didn't say I wanted myself or the adults to take it all over and ban the kids to the corner. I would like to see an adult plan it with the Scouts and have the Scouts participate [actively] in the ceremony. An adult would handle the presentation of awards and rank with the assistance of the SPL. The Scouts would conduct the opening ceremony, lead us in prayer, make their announcements and hold the closing ceremony.

 

Also, I didn't say this was my first COH and it was horrendous or that we are new parents. I've been a Scouter for 5 years in Cub Scouts and 2 years in Boy Scouts. I've attended numerous trainings, continued to learn through other avenues and consistently held an adult position supporting our units. My husband was an ASM for a year and then SM for a year which is when he met resistance from the rest of the Committee and CC when he suggested we allow adults plan the ceremony in accordance with BSA guidelines.

 

It's interesting to see what what a big difference "serve", "arrange", "chair", and "plan" mean in a Court of Honor vs the rest of the Boy Scout program.

[jtswestark 11]

>> An adult would handle the presentation of awards and rank with the assistance of the SPL.

[dlearyous 10]

Boy led, I get it. But obviously BSA seems to think that the boys need a break every once in awhile and some support. Otherwise they'd be in charge of submitting tour permits, creating a budget, purchasing all the equipment, registering new Scouts, etc. While they have a hand in some of these tasks, it is not their responsibility.

 

No one's bothered to address the fact that it states otherwise in BSA materials (other than to be told it's rubbish). Almost all other answers in this forum point to the handbooks and training. Why is this one different?

[Eagle92 110]

D,

 

In some troops, scouts do indeed do some of the items you mentioned. And sometimes the committee member who does not listen to the scouts make serious mistakes.

 

When my troop lost most their tents and needed to buy new ones, the QM did all the work and stated exactly what we needed to get. Committee member who was helping to get the gear saw a sale on tents, and decided to ignore the research the QM did, and get the tents on sale. These were the "pop up" tents where everything is attached to the frame already and all you do is take it out the bag and it's set up and ready to sleep in. Problem with them is that if one pole, or joint breaks, the entire tent is ruined as you cannot fix the problem without tearing up the tent. How do we know this, 2 of the tents broke on the first camp out, and a 3rd broke on the 2nd camp out it was on. Fourth one was retired. Luckily we new some pioneering, and rigged up the tents.

 

Another problem is that some adults think youth cannot do things on their own. While I was in my Sea Scout Ship, I was a petty officer, sorry can't remember if it was yeoman or purser, and one time I needed to submit an advancement report to pick up stuff for the ship. Now the paperwork had all the necessary signatures, I had a check from the Ship, etc, but guess who wouldn't let me pick up the paperwork b/c I was a youth. Didn't matter that everything was in order, didn't matter that I was also a trained ASM, b/c I was a youth I couldn't do squat.

 

In fact I ran into some adults who feel that a 18-21 yo Scouter doesn't know squat. And as you can guess that's a pet peeve.

 

You train them, give them responsibility, and you will be surprised at what they can accomplish.

[Engineer61 19]

Well, I've attended each type .

 

By the way, technically, all CoH's are Adult Planned, specifically by the Advancement Chair, who has to verify all awards, complete the paperwork, get the materials from the n+1 Scout Shop(s).

 

The only variable is the actual proceedings.

 

Basically, from my own observations, the "Boy Led" CoH

 

1. Takes twice as long, one took nearly 2 1/2 hours.

 

2. Has numerous cases where the wrong award is given to the wrong kid

 

3. The printed program isn't followed because they boys can't remember where they were in the program,

 

4. You can't hear what the boys up front are saying anyway, because they talk to soft and the rest are too loud.

 

There is never any improvement in this path, since a different Scout is running each CoH, and they don't learn from each other.

 

All this tends to infuriate the parents in the audience who are proud of their boy's achievements.

 

Adult led CoH's are the polar opposite...