Completing the same activities for Wolf and Bear. ANOTHER outdoor flag ceremony?!

[sixtoe 10]

I'm a little confounded by some of the Activity requirements for Bears.

 

Last month, when my Scouts were Wolves, we coordinated an outdoor flag ceremony with our local Boy Scout Troop. Each of them learned how to raise and lower the flag, per the Wolf requirements.

 

Here we are on the cusp of June 1. They're about to transition to Bears, so I'm reading through the requirements, and lo and behold, Achievements 3h and 3i are...learn how to raise and lower the flag, and participate in an outdoor flag ceremony.

 

My question: Is this to reinforce the behavior by having them do it again? Or is it to ensure Cub Scouts have done it at least once during their Cub Scouting experience?

 

As an Advancement Chair, I'm a believer that Scouts (or more likely, their parents) shouldn't be marking off activities based on the fact that they once went camping when their son was two-years-old--after all, Scouting isn't about checking off your life achievements. But as a Den Leader as well, I'm not really into organizing ANOTHER flag demonstration two months after our last one...or ANOTHER visit to the police station (after visiting as Tigers and Wolves, and with their school class)...or ANOTHER run through the bike safety rules...

 

So what's the ruling? Do I run through and mark off all the things they already covered as Wolves? Or do we do it all again as Bears?

[dedkad 127]

First of all, you can't complete a requirement for Bear until you are actually a Bear, so anything they have done prior will not count towards their Bear requirements. The requirement you must complete for Achievement 3 is 3j (the Character Connection), not 3i (the outdoor flag ceremony). I know the j looks a lot like an i in the handbook, but if you look close you can see how the j drops below the line. Also, whenever an Achievement includes a Character Connection, you always have to do the Character Connection, so it makes sense that it is 3j and not 3i. I have noticed there are often a few things that are repeated each year when the boys move up to the next level, but the beauty of Bear is that you have soooo many other Achievements and so many options for requirements within each Achievement to earn your Bear rank. Don't want to do something you've already done as a Wolf? Then choose a different requirement or an entirely new Achievement.

 

Also, I don't know what other leaders do, but I do allow certain school activities to count towards cub achievements, like science fair projects and field trips (things that take many more hours to complete than we could do in a single den meeting). I have even chaperoned a few field trips to make sure the right questions are asked and answered by the tour guide in order to meet the requirement. I know DL's who homeschool their kids and work entire lesson plans around some of the cub requirements.

[blw2 433]

I'm in the same place as ADL, transitioning to Bear. I haven't gotten to that point yet, but apparently it's not required. Good, because it is silly to bore them to tears repeating stuff......

....but what does it hurt?

We have found is that the boys don't really get it when it comes to formal complex things like flag ceremonies. They are boys and are at best only half paying attention.

Our new DL took over half way through the wolf year. Something he's been doing and I have been supporting is doing a flag ceremony at every meeting.... more than just the pledge.

We have a small US flag and a Den flag on shorter poles, and I made some simple little flag pole stands. At almost every meeting, we run a quick little indoor ceremony where the color guard will march the flags forward, cross the colors, etc.... It takes almost no time from the meeting, and with more and more practice, the boys are getting better. Even still after many den meetings, they still flubbed it at our last pack meeting.....well actually, they flubbed the closing script which we don't practice nearly as often as the opening.

 

When the weather is nice, we sometimes do our meetings outside. There's a flag pole in front of the school and it's no big deal to clip the flag on and run it up. Doing it as a den the second time could be a good review, simple, and quick. I wouldn't think that it needs to be a big drawn out formal production with every boy getting a turn. Just part of a normal meeting.

 

I have yet to see a cub scout color guard that couldn't use some improvement.... even when the "standards" are reduced to a 7 year old level.