New AOL Rank - time to complete

[blw2 433]

does anyone else have anything different re the time to complete IF he were to do the new program?

 

@@Eagle94-A1 said 7 months.  Seem about right?

[Eagle94-A1 2687]

There are 7 required Adventures, and each one is suppose to take about a month. Although the Duty to God requirement can probably be done concurrently with the others. So say 6 months.

[fred johnson 936]

.... funny ... With all the BSA acronyms, I'm not used to seeing AOL.   I immediately pictured a 1990's dial-up modem, connection noise and "you've got mail".

Edited August 20, 2015 by fred johnson

[blw2 433]

Yep, America OnLine!

 

so getting through it by say mid to late January is not reasonably likely then.....

[Eagle94-A1 2687]

It's possible. Remember anything he's done since June 1st can go towards the new AOL requirements.

[gumbymaster 98]

Where does that requirement come from? It seems to me that the two-deep leadership that is already provided by the troop would be sufficient, even if he is a registered member of the pack rather than the troop. As for supervision for members of Webelos dens, I believe that when my son was in Webelos (more than 10 years ago) a parent of each boy had to be present on camping trips (but not meetings), but I thought they had changed that for Webelos since then.

Since the Webelos, at that time, is NOT yet a member of the Troop, he is still technically a member of the Den.  So he can participate as a member of the Den (i.e. One registered Den leader, and another Adult over 18), or can participate as a single if accompanied by the parent.  I'd have to check with the District Membership chair to find a citable source.

 

I'll grant that I may be misinterpreting or reading too much into how the supervision works; but I did not think that a Webelos could be dropped off at a Boy Scout activity; even for recruiting; that it needed to be a parent accompanying, or as a formal Den event.

 

Now, if the Den leaders bridged to that Troop as well, since they are still technically Den Leaders, that would probably cover it, even if they were ALSO Troop leaders.

 

Now stepping on my own toes, I do recall that one of the Troops in this area does to a lock-in style camp out with the Webelos as guests.  I'm not sure what, if any, Den leadership needed to remain for this - so maybe it is not an actual requirement.

[DuctTape 1231]

A webelos, or ten webelos visiting a troop is not a cub event, it is a troop event. This is no different than if the boys were not cubs and are just boys from off the street looking to potentially join the troop. Sometimes we can get to caught up in the minutiae of the "regs" and not see the forest for the trees. 

[Gone 435]

Now stepping on my own toes, I do recall that one of the Troops in this area does to a lock-in style camp out with the Webelos as guests.  I'm not sure what, if any, Den leadership needed to remain for this - so maybe it is not an actual requirement.

 

I suspect a lock-in overnight would be treated like a camp out with the troop. Cub leaders would need to be around.

[5yearscouter 52]

Yeah Our troop expects a parent to stay with webelos if they are visiting individually, just like a brand new person off the street we wouldn't want them to be just dropped off.  If the whole den comes we expect a den leader and would prefer two, but troop adults would act as second adults for two deep leadership if anything were to come up. 

 

It's just nice when you have a new young cub scout there visiting the boys scouts on his own to have a parent around at least at first until everyone gets to know everyone. How closely he will need to be monitored will of course depend on the maturity of the cub.  We've had some 11 and way older scouts who we wished mom and dad both would always stay, others where we wished mom and dad would both leave, and some where they never really did grow up enough where we'd want them to be dropped off without a parent--and we have some serious visiting cubs occasionally that would have acted fine if dropped off when they were just bears...  But best when you have a permanent webelos visitor that you also have their parent around.

 

As to the original question, in the "old" webelos for it took 8 badges to get arrow of light. For an interested scout we could get them to arrow of light if they really wanted it somewhere between September and February or early March, the soonest was about January for a scout who went to a winter day camp activity where they completed a badge he needed extra to get everything done..  So sept to January is 5 months, with November and December being short months of meeting with holidays.  I bet you can get more accomplished this fall than you think, and then take the time to sit ddown and show him how close he is to the aol award.  If you break it down into little pieces you may be surprised that he sees it as a doable thing.  he sounds like a good scout and sometimes showing them some easy ways to track their advancement can really help them to advance to be able to wear the badge that goes along with his scout skills. getting that book signed off can be a hard skill for some of the guys to learn and they need a little bit of guidance from someone aside from a parent..

Edited August 25, 2015 by 5yearscouter

[qwazse 4348]

What he can or cannot do in a troop with or without a parent is not a function of any of y'all's special little policies, but rather a function of what the SM will put up with.

 

Back in the day before we'd hem and haw over the Internet with strangers about this sort of thing, two leaders would talk about the situation and hash it out. District personnel would never be told, except maybe the SM would say to the UC and his CC "We have ... I want it to work out with H.Q. so that .... Make it so."

 

Hands shake. DL thinks SM can walk on water. Boys have fun.

 

I suspect that's still how things operate most days.

[ShutterbugMom 23]

I had a similar question.  We have only two Webelos 2, that have already done most of their requirements for AOL (did the badges last year.)  However, we had a new 5th grader / Webelos 2 join this year.  He would have to do all the new requirements of AOL in order to cross in February (which is what is normal) and it is different from what the other boys do.  Alternatively, can he just join the Webelos 1?  Or is he not allowed to since he is a 5th grader?   We want him to enjoy himself and follow the rules / requirements of course.  (I should mention or Webelos 2 leader is not very active and they completed most of their stuff last year piggybacking with the Webelos 2 from last year.)

[Chisos 118]

@ShutterbugMom:  What are the new scout's goals?  How old is he?  If he'll already be 11 or will be by February when the rest of the Den crosses over, just let him cross over too, AoL or not.  But you've got to figure out if getting that award is important to him or not.

 

Otherwise, if he wants his AoL, he's got to use the new requirements.  But, that could be doable by February, especially if he did some of the Adventures on his own.

 

As for him doing stuff with "Webelos I"...there's not really a rule on "Webelos I" vs. "Webelos II".  As a 5th grader he can earn the Webelos badge if he wants.  Or, work only on AoL.