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Beavah, Check your irony meter, if you think I was advocatin what you seen to think then it needs to be recalibrated. There are two extremes in this thread. One that puts the threshold fire an Eagle sadly low, the other is just as wrong in making it unreasonably high. Both are just as wrong and both miss the point of scouting. As for my son. There are a couple of people here that know him. Not only would he do fine with an international family. A he is a pretty good stand in for a Norman Rockwell Eagle.(This message has been edited by Jet526)

You have to ask what you are wanting to accomplish with your son? If you are just wanting him to receive credit for the merit badge then remind him all you want. If you are wanting to get the chores done on a daily basis and the only way for that to happen is to remind him everyday then remind him everyday. If you are wanting him to take responsibility for his actions and learn to do things without someone constantly watching over him to make sure that he does what he is supposed to do then you might allow him to take as long as needed for him to record his chores on his own. I'm not saying that your should never remind him, but simply asking him how he is doing every couple of weeks would likely be more productive in the long run. It all depends on what you are hoping to accomplish. For that matter it does not require that he log things every day, just log when he did what he did do. He could sit down at the end of the week and log, "I didn't do my chores". That might make for an interesting conversation with the counselor, especially if that was what he did most weeks. But that fulfills the letter if not the spirit of the requirement. When in doubt on the interpretation of a requirement it is the Scoutmaster's or Merit Badge Counselor's call. They are the one that says, "Yes, Billy Bob did this".

NJCubScouter, when you eat your pi is it at 3:54 PM?

Based on the article their ward does have a pack but, per LDS policy, no Tiger Cub program for their 6 year old. "Mormon Bishop Rowlan, who heads the Stokes' Weddington church, would not say whether he would be open to naming a non-Mormon as a Scouting leader. "'I'd have to take each one on an individual basis,' he said, adding that that is the policy of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Come on Bishop, be honest and just say, "Probably not". "What upset the Stokes family most was the church questioning their Christianity." Let's face it, this is the elephant in the room that we all avoid talking about.

Read them the Firem'n Chit "This is to certify that [name] can carry fire-starting materials and build a campfire." Fusing a rope requires him to do neither of those.

The TroopMaster web app has a ten user limit which really makes its utility questionable. TroopMaster is very useful, although there are a few reports I wish it had.

That sounds about right. In our troop the median age is 17.5. A little less than 12% earned their Eagle before 15, 25% had their BOR after they turned 18.

Strange that you were not given any reason or warning. The scoutmaster serves at the pleasure of the charter organization. How the troop is organized will determine if the committee has the authority to remove you like that. As for what to do. Talk to the Committee Chair to start. Find out why you were removed. If that does not cut it for you then you should go to the Charter Organization Rep and finally the Institutional Head (This is generally the head of the CO). The Scout Executive will not get involved, certainly not to overrule an IH. The District Executive might have your Unit Commissioner pay a visit but there is little he can do other than be a mediator. BTW, there is not such thing as Co-Scoutmasters. Only one or the other of you could be the Scoutmaster, the other would be an Assistant Scoutmaster.

The easiest way is to put it in a mesh lingerie bag and take it to the dry cleaners. The dry cleaning removes the badge magic while the bag keeps all the patches.

"During the next six months, he completes his 21 additional MBs (an average of nearly 1 per week) as well as planning and executing his service project." Only 10 additional MBs beyond what was required for Life. Only 5 are Eagle required. Typically, by the time they earn Life they have already earned at least 5 of the MBs for their Eagle with at least a couple of them being Eagle required. So they likely only have about five Merit Badges to go. For most scouts I would expect those to be Personal Fitness, Personal Management and Family Life. Perhaps Camping or Emergency Preparedness/Lifesaving. Other than Lifesaving the toughest thing for any of those are the longs the scouts need to keep. Very little time is actually involved. "How much leadership do you think he's really giving to the Panthers?" He could be doing a fair amount. Patrol Leader is not that burdensome. Go to all the meetings he normally would, add an hour long PLC meeting once a month and maybe another hour a week in planning and preparation. But 6 months would be unusual. Even the youngest of scouts will take 8-9 months on Eagle and most run about two years.

Engineer61: "clearly the 14's parents earned the Eagle." Clearly? There is not room for the possibility that the scout earned his Eagle on his own? When does this doubt start to occur? Could he have done it on his own if he was 15?

>>> We have a troop in our council that has a troop trailer that says something along the lines Troop 123 were eagles soar....It goes on to list the count and then the names, by year. They have 10 or so a year, I am not sure of the membership so I cannot give you a percent of troop. This fairly common, at least with larger troops. I can think of a couple of other things that could be put there, nights camped, miles hiked, service hours performed, etc. But then I suspect that there would be some people that would be critical of that as well. People like to brag. It is also not a bad thing to recognize things you are proud of. Heck, the troop's ceremony team trailer lists the Vigils Honorees on the back. Does that make us a "Vigil mill"? I guess there is a bit of advertising involved, although I've never know a scout to join because of the list they saw on the trailer. >>> Realistically most parents could careless if their Scout can tie a knot, do a presentation or actually lead. They care about that extra line on the college resume, Period. They will be disappointed when the find out how little of a difference it makes on that college application. I also doubt that it is that big of a deal for most parents. Of the scouts that earned Eagle in our troop over the last few years, I can think of one mom that was like that. Most are very proud, a few are very surprised, but very few see that as the only reason for being a scout. This may be a factor in the older scouts earning Eagle, but after 6 years they have very little reason not to do their project and finish up. In those cases the parents are more of the attitude, "It would be a shame to come all this way and not earn his Eagle".

Packsaddle, I've come to the conclusion that an "Eagle Mill" is 1) any unit that recruits more scouts than your unit, 2) unlike your unit, keeps those scouts around long enough for them to actually earn their Eagle or 3) does not require that their scouts become profession project managers, orators and fully capable of showing Les Stroud how to manage in the wilderness before granting them an Eagle.(This message has been edited by jet526)

Sitting at Roundtable last night and was appalled when a staffer got up to do her thing in capri jeans. If you have silver loops and a red & gold patch then you should at least make an attempt to be properly uniformed.

Last night was our District Roundtable...The Roundtable Commissioner was disorganized, unimpressive, and frankly unprepared. I think it is cool that a scout that could be a Freshman in High School got up to promote a project of some kind in front of 50 or more adults that evidently don't have anything better to do than be critical of scouts. I've seen many competent adults become bumbling dolts standing in front of less intimidating groups. "but his communication skills are poor, and overall he gave the impression of your average, ordinary, High School kid." Likely this would be because he, like 90% of all Eagle Scouts, is an average, ordinary, High School kid. "He didn't show the poise, confidence and general competence I would expect of someone with an Eagle dangling from his pocket and a white sash across his chest." Last I looked none of these are requirements for Eagle, they certainly are not for the OA. While I've known a few Eagle Scouts that would meet our Norman Rockwell ideal of a Eagle Scout, most are just ordinary teenagers that worked a bit longer and a bit harder than some of their buddies. If at 14 this scout has the gumption to organize an project (I assume, unneeded for any person reason) and promote it to a group of strangers then I'd guess that he will end up being in that special 10% with a bit more experience.

We used to have the scout do the presentation at the monthly committee meeting. But it made the meetings very long. So we started having the scout present during a troop meeting like he would for a BOR except that instead of three MCs, any committee member that wants to can sit in. In our district there are about six people that can approve the projects. The scout does not present to the entire advancement committee, just to the one committee member. It does streamline the approval process, as the scout can generally get the approval without having to wait for the next advancement committee meeting. However, there is some inconsistency between the members.

Wouldn't want to go through that again, although I think I lost interest about page 3. But I don't see why this approval would wait for the scoutmaster conference. Indeed, that could cause problems in units with high leadership turnover. If the scout completes the project under Scoutmaster Able and does his conference with Scoutmaster Baker or Charlie shouldn't it really have been Mr. Able that signed that the project was complete? The first Eagle conference I did was with a scout who had completed his project 2 or 3 years before, and then had been AWOL until his 18th birthday was looming. I barely knew the young man, much less had any memory of his project.

You left off a step. AFTER: >>> Scoutmaster signs off project completion - Customer signs off project was completed. - EBOR approves the project completion

That expressly only applies to council run camps. If that is the definition of resident camp then no unit run long term camp will qualify.

For Boy Scout Leaders Everyone: Youth Protection Training Fast Start MC: Troop Committee Challenge Board of Review Training MBC: Merit Badge Counselor Training ASM: Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster Specific Training All the safety courses Wood Badge would be good SM: All the above Wood Badge Strictly for Scoutmasters (Philmont Training Center course) in their first year.

In general, the long term camping requirements for a camp run by a unit is to include the program and menu with the tour permit. These are wanted to make sure that there is a plan and that the scouts have a balanced diet during the week. Some councils may have specific requirements for the program but I suspect that most are rubber stamped with little review. For all practical purposes, if you received a tour permit for the camp then it is "approved and under the auspices and standards of the Boy Scouts of America".

I'm not sure where the committee has the authority to make this call. I don't see this anywhere in the Guidebook. The closest is: * Advises the Scoutmaster on policies relating to Boy Scouting and the chartered organization. The CO can make a requirement that authorized camp-outs require a trained leader. But if that was the case then the tour permit should not have been signed by a MC, assuming that there was a tour permit. But the committee does not set policy for the unit. Okay, if the committee is the CO then it can set policy. Committee meetings should go like this: SM: The scouts want to do X, Y and Z. Meeting: Find ways for the scouts to make X, Y and Z happen. Then I wake up.

I'm not sure. That it is of "plans" I would assume that it is of future events. The only reason I can think of doing it then is because the parents are there and it would be a challenge to get them all together for a separate meeting. Another curious thing was that for maximum points the budget is to be complete by May 31 for the following program year. Our program year starts in October with the APC at the end of August or beginning of September. This would imply that we should move our APC to April and run June to May. I can see some reason for doing that. Of course, that assumes we have a budget, something I've never seen in seven years with this troop.

Not terribly hard at the unit level. We had an so/so year and still managed 1975 points. This was interesting: "Scouts are awarded badges at least twice a year at court of honors, where troop plans are reviewed with parents." Our court of honors take the entire meeting. I'm not sure how we would fit in reviewing troop plans with the parents.

Where is the CO in all of this?