Spin Off: How to Identify and Correct An Advancement Problem Before It's Too Late

[Eagle94-A1]

The Blue Cards thread, in which an SM is doing his own thing, and the Youngest Eagle thread, got me thinking. If a unit is doing their own thing, and Scouts are getting signed off on advancement, how can a troop's advancement problem be identified and corrected before a Scout sits in front oh his EBOR?

 

My council uses the district/council EBOR option. So there is a standing EBOR committee. But the first time they see the scouts is when they go get approval for their Eagle Projects. So the first time they may realize a troop is having advancement challenges, is when they are getting ready for Eagle, which as some have pointed out, problems should have been resolved earlier, which is on the unit level.

 

Worst example of this was an "Eagle" who had major advancement issues and the EBOR denied it. Parents appealed and when the info was sent to national, including detailed notes done by the EBOR on their concerns, national overruled the EBOR. I was told that national stated they should not penalize the Scout for adult leadership problems of his troop. The entire district advancement committee resigned in protest.

 

So how can a district advancement committee ID a problem before it gets to the Eagle stage?

[qwazse]

Two words that some of you aren't gonna want to hear: Unit commissioners.

[Eagle94-A1]

Yes, I do see a role for UCs. But what if, despite the attempts of the UC to work with leaders to solve the problem, the UC is ignored?

[Hueymungus]

The Council should be vetting all dates and paperwork when submitted. The District Advancement Chair should have eyes on the paperwork before it gets to Council. There should be a Eagle Project Chair that works on that end. Many eyes should see it before the Scout gets to the EBOR. The EBOR is the last set of eye balls to catch anything before the Scout sits down. Yes, it may still be an item that slipped by.

 

This is all after the SM, CC, Troop Advancement Chair and Eagle Mentor go through the paperwork.

 

If it is consistant issue with a Troop, then the District Advancement Chair needs to sit down with the SM, CC and Troop Advancement Chair to review. In our Council there is a training for the Eagle Board Chairs and Eagle Mentors. You cannot be a Board Chair until you take the class. You have to retake after the first year of service and then it's every two after that.

[qwazse]

Yes' date=' I do see a role for UCs. But what if, despite the attempts of the UC to work with leaders to solve the problem, the UC is ignored?[/quote']

 

The UC's success would be in coaxing leaders to round tables and other training opportunities. Hopefully at a few those round tables the district advancement chair would occasionally go over various "pitfalls" and "red flags", offering ways for troops to avoid them.

 

There is no doubt that a troop could operate badly in spite of the UC's efforts. There's no getting around it. That troop will likely feed the district poorly qualified Eagle candidates. No amount of paperwork will prevent it. The next corrective action would be for a scouter or pro with a whole lot of stones to contact the CO and inform the institutional head that their unit's program is not being delivered the way the BSA intended.

[DuctTape]

Good suggestions mentioned. What also needs to be included is accountability for the troop. All the suggestions and trainings in the world mean nothing if the troop decides to do something other than follow the process correctly. Charters should be suspended and revoked if a troop is not following the BSA design. Will never see this happen.

[click23]

If you take a look in the Guide to Advancement, section 3.0.0.2 list 14 things that a district advancement should do. #14 states:

 

To strengthen units through strong advancement programs, consider the following:

a. Assist unit commissioners and others who serve units.

b. Serve as a resource for roundtables.

c. Develop relationships with unit advancement volunteers.

d. Provide units with advancement reports, summarizing and explaining what they mean.

e. Assist unit leadership with advancement planning and promotion.

f. Visit pack, troop, team, crew, and ship committee meetings, as warranted.

g. Visit boards of review, as warranted.

 

District advancement committees need to be proactive, and work with troops to ensure address issues early.

 

I am currently a district advancement chair and my committee needs to work on the above!

 

The Guide to Advancement is very clear in that a Scout may only have one EBOR, if a Scout is "failed" for any reason, the only recourse he has is an appeal. A better course of action is to simply postpone the EBOR and let the issues be worked out and then reconvene it later, but sometimes they are just to complex to fix, especially if they go back to the lower level ranks. We are currently have a standards of membership issue that we are working through this way.