Fixing Advancement Problems

[Hunt]

As a new advancement chair, one of the first things I am trying to do is make sure the records of advancement are in order, starting with the Life Scouts. I have found a few "anomalies," and expect to find others. My question is, which ones need to be fixed (and can they be fixed)? I don't want any of these boys to have unpleasant surprises when they go for Eagle (especially if the problems aren't their fault).

Here are some of the things that concern me:

1. Board of Review for prior ranks not properly constituted: i.e., may have included ASM, non-registered persons, etc.

2. Blue cards not fully filled out--i.e., stamped at camp, not clearly dated, signed by counselor but not by SM, etc.

3. Prior rank given prematurely (i.e., not all requirements appear to have been met)--but rank signed off, BOR held, COH, etc. Again, appears to be fault of adults, not the boy.

4. Merit badge counselor not registered.

(I'm not sure--yet--that all of these conditions exist.)

Assume that advancement reports were submitted to the Council and no questions were raised along the way. Do we--can we--go back and "fix" these problems? What kind of problems will actually cause issues for Eagle review? Thanks.

[NWScouter]

As a former district advancement chair, the only pervious advancement problems that caused a pause in a candidate path to his Eagle BOR were due to missing advancement reports. Most council does not have time to do more checking than looking over advancement reports. So when they have earned their ranks and their timing, if you have enough merit badges and the right ones and the paper work for them is in, are what they look for. The other problem we had was one young man moved to Venturing and his Team didnt recharter him and the Crew never registered him, he thought he was in. That though was easy to fix. Just remember the job isnt done until the paperwork is in.

[Mike F]

Timing of ranks can be a problem. I know of one scout that was denied Eagle at National because one of the merit badges he had on his list for Life was completed after his paperwork said he had completed Life. Because of this, his official date for Life was reset to the completion date of his last MB. With this date reset, he didn't have the required 6 months in Life rank before he turned 18, therefore couldn't satisfactorily complete requirements for Eagle. Everything else (all MBs and project) had been completed - he just didn't have full 6 months in POR after really earning Life.

An argument was put forward that adults had fouled up the records, but that merit badge wasn't complete until it was signed. Doesn't matter whether fault was with adults or scout.

I seem to recall there were some other irregularities, but this was the rationale cited by National when he appealed.

It's probably obvious, but this happened to a scout who was inactive for a couple of years and came back in a frenzy to finish Eagle "just in time." It's very unfortunate, but the whole issue could have been avoided if he had restarted just a couple of month earlier.

[Eagle69]

The only things that matter are:

 

1. Rank dates match what council has on record and the appropriate time spread was met.

2. Specific merit badges required for a rank were completed prior to awarding said rank. If it says you have to have 1st Aid to get Star and you list the Star rank date as 01/23/2003 and the 1st Aid Date as 06/30/2003 then they will/should flag it.

3. Merit Badge dates match what is on file with the council. For Merit badges it isn't the board of review date, but the date on the advancement form beside the merit badge that matters.

 

It is a good idea to periodically request an advancement report from the council so you can compare their records to yours before it gets to the Eagle stage and you find major problems. A lot better to find and fix a problem early than when the Eagle countdown clock is ticking.