Board of Review problem

[AdvanceOn]

These questions were asked of a boy at his First Class board of review tonight. His board of review took 1 hour. Please give me your feeback.

 

--five signs of a heart attack

--10 things he went on since he has been in the troop

--2 or 3 ways to find distance across a stream

--tell three ways to tell how tall a tree is

--how can you find your way day and night

--demonstrate 3 or 4 knots

--how to do cpr

 

This is a concern that has been brought to me by a parent.

 

I would really appreciate your feedback.

 

Thanks.

[packsaddle]

A Master's Degree defense sometimes fits in that time frame. I consider it excessive.

 

I've edited this response twice now. And that's because I'm not comfortable with a strong answer based on the info you gave. I can see how some of those questions could take a long time to answer and they seem excessive. I would like to know more.

 

There are good suggestions in the guide for boards of review. The review is supposed to be just that, a review, not a comprehensive oral exam. I'd want to know more about why the committee thought it necessary to do all that and why it took so long. Did he pass?(This message has been edited by packsaddle)

[OldGreyEagle]

Lets see, out of your list the one about 10 things the scout has done with the troop is probably the only one that belongs there, and even then if the scout came up with 7 and couldnt think of anything else I would would still pass the scout.

 

How many times must it be stated, A Board of Review is NOT a skills review, its a program review to fond out HOW the scout is doing, not what the scout can do, thats what the advancement process is all about.

[saltheart]

He was put through 're-testing', plain and simple. And that's not what a BOR is supposed to do. That type of testing should have been accomplished before he was signed off in his book, and the BOR has no business putting him through that all over again.

 

The BOR is an interview not a re-test. And 1 hour is far too long. The BOR for First Class should have been 20-30 minutes, no longer.

 

And I'm quite comfortable standing by that.

[AdvanceOn]

I know what the Advancement guidebook says about boards of review and I agree with all your answers (clearly this committee hasn't read the section on boards of review). This is a sticky situation for a number of reasons. One, the person complaining is one of my unit commissioners. Second, for some unknown reason (to me anyway) the unit commissioner for that troop participated in this board of review. I will be calling him today to find out what in the heck he was doing. And, unfortunately, he asked some of the retest questions (had it not been so late last night and had I been less angry I would have called him right away).

 

The Scout did pass, however, because of the length of this and another board of review at least two other boys didn't have their review as they had expected.

 

This troop has many problems, this is only one of them. I was meeting with the new committee chair at our roundtable meeting on Tuesday trying to work out a plan to bring Troop Committee Challenge to them. Hopefully we can get on top of this before too many boys get interrogated.

 

Thanks for your feedback.

[evmori]

From what was posted it sounds like the 3rd degree.

 

Ed Mori

Scoutmaster

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[packsaddle]

Just a general note. I have noticed that BOR members who work in positions that demand time/cost accounting tend to make short, concise, summary questions. They seem to be conscious of the man-hours sitting at the review. Might be a good perspective. The other boys who didn't get reviewed might have made it this way.

[buffalo2]

The term 'Inquisition' comes to mind - poor kid

Is BoR covered in Troop Committee training?

Or how do we get the idea across?

[frank10]

If I felt the need to spend an hour testing a scout the scoutmaster would be the one in trouble.

[Bob White]

AdvanceOn,

Sounds like you are handling things just right.

BW

[AdvanceOn]

Thanks again. Just as an update. I spoke to the unit commissioner who participated in the BOR.

 

He said he was asked to be there because they weren't going to have enough people. As nicely as I could (what I really wanted to do was strangle him for not knowing the correct procedures) I explained to him that his role as unit commissioner would be to observe, not participate. He complained that the others "were just asking general questions so I got out my rope and had him tie some knots!"

 

This guy goes to trainings but gets aggravated because he's not given everything in black and white yet here is a "black and white" and he didn't use it.

 

Sorry, I'm venting.

 

I appreciate your responses. It makes this difficult task manageable. I am currently working to increase my unit commissioner staff and hope to have this person out soon.

[hops_scout]

An hour long??????!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

The last one I had took maybe 5-10 minutes. And half that time was spent laughing;)

[LovetoCamp]

Hops, not all of today's young men are High-Speed, Low-Drag, Motivated Dedicated To The Cause, future Eagle, Silver, Ranger, middle linebackers like you are!!! Did I say congratulations on Star! How's the season going? Pounder

[hops_scout]

Pounder, what you dont know is that I earned 3 ranks since February. Before that, I wasnt so motivated on advancement, but as my ScoutMaster said," Advancement isnt for everybody." Then he talked about how I was a den chief, etc.

 

Season's going alright.... Won last night, we're 2-2 and start conference play next week.

[CharityAK]

As Advancement Chair of our troop, I've created BOR guides for BOR members to use during the review. It lists questions that would be appropriate for each rank level. It also briefly explains the purpose of the review.

 

Before calling the boy in I always explain to the team that we are not retesting the boy. I usually give them some examples in how the questions should/or should not be phrased. For example

 

ACCEPTABLE - Have you used any of your First Aid training yet? If so, how did it go for you?

 

NOT ACCEPTABLE- Show us how to wrap a sprained ankle.

 

After a handful of examples like these, most members have the idea. If I have a hard head that is determined to drill the boy, I go ahead and interrupt with a "I'd like to remind that board that the scout has already proven his mastery of the requirements. We are here to review the candidates scouting experience to date."

 

I may make a team member a little angry, but I'd rather tweak an adult nose than bully a scout.

 

Charity