Scouts angling to shorten Merit Badge Reqs

[qwazse 4342]

Honestly, the fact that the boy is having dialogue on this level shows some impressive communication skills.

 

I'm glad you want to take the time to help him take it to the next level.

 

Hopefully he will plan a time to teach another skill and meet with you ahead of time.

[moosetracker 132]

artjrk - your a day late. I posted yesterday, and looked for a debate, but everyone who voiced their opinion yesterday was in agreement that the scout pulling a past training that he had done but was not done with the focus of the instuction of the MB or what I had emailed him about concentrating on, would not have been acceptable.. So with that I dusted off my reservation about not accepting it and answered back..

 

I agree organizing others to help with the training is a form of communication skills. But, it is not what is part of this requirement. Unfortunatly I do believe that adding them to help with the actual training does take away from him being the sole person successfully communicates and teaches the other people.. I organize people to help with training all the time. That does not mean that I am the best person doing the training, I just feel I have been successful in rounding up great trainers around me that are far superior to me. But I will take credit in being either successful with the power of persuasion or nagging.. (I guess others will have to say which it is I do to round them up.)

 

I don't think all communication needs to be in person. I communicate with the scouts for MB by email, phone and arranging meetings. If I start a MB from scratch with a scout, initial meeting is in person, then other meetings are only when I need to see what they are doing.. If I am finishing up a few left over requirements, then I don't have the initial meeting unless there is a real need..

 

qwaze - He does have great communication skills through email. I would normally be suspicious if it was the scout or the parents, but his parents were never that into scouting at all, so I have to surpress that suspicion with this scout..

 

(This message has been edited by moosetracker)

[artjrk 11]

Sorry I don't read these forums daily.

 

Moose, an item you mentioned in your last post does change things in my mind. "what I had emailed him about concentrating on." Apparently you had discussed this requirement previously with the scout. I did not get that from the initial post. I'm with you then that he had failed to meet your expectations for the requirement.

 

 

[JMHawkins 15]

I'm not sure when the next Court of Honor is, but I can work on planning it out for requirement 8. I was also wondering if the program for the CoH could be considered a brochure for requirement 7c.

 

This one I told him was double dipping to do one thing and count one item for 2 seprate requirements.. So "NO"..

 

I'm fighting hard to ignore the phrase "double dipping" which sets me off about as bad as "Eagle Mill" gets others, but...

 

I don't see anything wrong with the Scouts' proposal here. The requirement says he should create printed material with at least one article and a photograph. I would agree if you said "No, I don't think a CoH program is the right place for an article" but to simply say he can't combine two requirements because there's some.... argh, can't resist... fixation on "double dipping" is odd. If you said "Okay, but if you want the program to count for 7c, it's going to need to be a really good program, more than just a list of people being honored and a schedule of activities. It needs at least one article and a picture, and it needs to represent your best efforts..." well, I'd think that would be pretty good. Better than some random make-work brochure. You can remind him that CoH programs often get stashed in keepsake boxes by parents, showing up decades down the road, so he should take pride in it and etc. etc. He's already planning the CoH, it hopefully will be important to him, so having a really nice program to go with it would be fantastic. Might prompt him to really put his heart into it.

 

Now, clearly there is no shortage of Scouts who are used to skating by with the minimum effort, and we should swim hard against that current. But if we automatically assume their every effort is an attempt to dodge work, we miss opportunities. Even if it is an attempt to dodge work, we can still let it be the first step in doing it right. And if the Scout wasn't trying to skate by, there's less chance of offending him by incorrectly questioning his integrity.

 

And I realize my tone is more critical than I'd like it to be moosetracker. MBC isn't a piece of cake (not even the cooking MB!, well, burnt cake maybe...). Even if I disagree with the decision you made on the CoH program idea, I'm 100% on-board with you caring enough to think about it and make sure the Scout is being challenged to get everything he can out of his work.

 

 

 

 

[moosetracker 132]

You may be right.. All I envisioned was him organizing the timeline of the COH for those who would play a part in it.. Then publishing same timeline (plus picture) to pass out as a brochure.

 

Problem solved (sort of).. SM redirected him into doing a campfire... Although MB states "get PLC approval", in this troop it is more "get SM approval".. SM likes running and organizing & being MC of this event.. If it wasn't the SM, I wonder if this would be a problem in other troops where the SPL would only get the opportunity to be MC once or twice while in office, they may also not be too pleased to hand it to another scout.. Then again they may be pleased as punch to get out of that responsibility.

 

Therefore if now he would like to do a pamplet/bulliton for the SM's COH, he is free to do that.. It is no longer double dipping. But, I doubt it, the SM can not plan or organize, so he more organizes 1/2 hour before or wings it.. A little difficult for someone to pre-organize a pamplet..

 

There are alot of different things a scout can create a flyer or brochure that would not be make-work.. All he need to do is ask a plc group, SM, or Committee.. I am sure someone is organizing something that could benefit from a flyer..