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Delays in presenting rank or Merit Badge patches


PeterS

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Heads up on Eagle Badges. IF you are not going to present them to the Scout, but use them for other purposes, the manager MAY sell you an extra or two.

 

We've tried this. They will sell you one badge and one replacement. My son was able to get them to sell him three since he had three field uniforms he needed patches for (staffing HA base). Even with your NESA or certification of rank from the council office they will only sell you two at a time.

 

It's harder than getting a fake SSN card. Those I can get no problem.

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We award Rank the night of the BoR, to include handing them their patch.  They get announced again and handed their card and Mom pin at the CoH.  We award MB's at the CoH.  We do CoH quarterly.  If a boy misses the CoH I ( I am the adv chair) or the SM will present/award at the next meeting they attend.  I log the Ranks into the system (ours and council) as soon as I can after the BoR.  I do the same for MBs as soon as the Blue Card is turned in.

 

and our council shop knows me so they don't require the signed report to purchase.  I have a stash of rank patches (usually keep an inventory of at least 5 per rank) so we can award the night of BoR.

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Ranks handed out night of BOR, or latest the following meeting.  (Our Troop has an excess stash of patches.)  MBs?  Whenever.  Scouts give them to me, I see the 2-3 week/month old date, and toss in my shirt pocket and SM hands them out in front of the Troop about 1x/month.  Only exception is no one gets anything post-summer camp until the big COH held each Sep - just too much paper and patches.

 

$s?  One BOR, w/o my knowledge, withheld 1st Class rank for a very disorganized Scout who owed $s for an activity months prior.  Parents, who actually are well to do, were contacted without results a few times previously also without results.  Check arrived the following week.  GTA notwithstanding, I had no problem with this given the Scout/parents involved.  

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There have been some very good explanations regarding cost and logistics of getting the rank and MB patches.

 

I am speaking of active scouts. Reasons for missing a COH include sickness, even if not in a hospital bed :); they participate in another part of scouting that has a required event at the same time; they had a required school activity at the same time, and they chose not to be punished at school; the family had other obligations, such as a trip that was planned and paid for long before the COH was scheduled. Whereas all but the first of these involve choices, the choices are not always freely and totally the scout's to make.  There is life apart from scouting, and I think school should be given priority.

 

I really like Fred Johnson's response.  I just don't think a scout should be made to wait longer for their rank patch because they missed a COH meeting.  If you are going to make them wait until the COH to get the patch, then if they miss the COH, I like the idea of getting it to them soon afterward, like at a regular scout meeting.  They could announce the achievements at the COH for scouts who were not in attendance.  Maybe at some point these ideas will be worked into the guidelines, which would also help it be consistent across the board.

 

If the rank patches are not available the night of the BOR, then maybe get them soon afterward.  I find it interesting that some Councils won't let troops keep some on hand and entrust them to be good and proper stewards of them.  

 

I want to ask, what is the purpose of wearing a rank patch anyway?  If it is not to show what rank the scout has achieved, then what is it for?  One person described it as a "decoration."  Is that all it is?  If it is to show the scout's rank, then why make them wait so long for it?   As was mentioned, by the time they get it they could have achieved another rank and then never get to wear one of them.  For some scouts that will make a difference.

 

One more thing, I agree that there should be father pins as well.  If you are going to force me to do things I never agreed to, punish my son for things I can't do, and show no appreciation, then a pin would be a very nice gesture.

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Gee, I always thought the patch was given out immediately upon earning it and the card was presented at the COH.  I must be old-school on that one.  The boy earned it, he gets it immediately at the next meeting at the latest.

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