Gillespie

There are a few ways that the Scoutmaster and Troop Committee can deal with "poor scout spirit", as regards advancement. One thing all troops should have is a strong discipline policy, approved by the Troop Committee, and posted on the Troops website. We hand a copy to the parents of each new scout when they join. The policy should deal with symptoms of poor scout spirit, such as bullying, disrespect, disobediance, unsafe behavior, etc. Our Troop's policy provides various levels of discipinary action based on severity and frequency. The Troop Committee investigates and decides what discipinary action is needed based on documented poor behavior. Scouts with poor scout spirit usually end up violating the policy and becoming subject to disciplinary action. In in more severe cases, this results in a 6-month suspension from troop activities (including advancement), or even eviction from the troop. Most scouts respond favorably to lesser penalties, such as a requirement that one of their parents attend all scout functions with them for a period of time. The key in all of this is to document the behavior as you would for an underperforming employee, so that both scout and parents must face up to it. Don't wait until three weeks after a long-term camp to try and piece together what happened. That becomes an "I said, they said" nightmare. Troops that allow scouts to "slide" on poor behavoir will end-up facing the delima of having to award Eagle rank to scouts who don't even buy-in to the Scout Law or Oath. Another basis for withholding Star, Life and Eagle advancement from scouts with poor scout spirit is failure to demonstrate Leadership. The fact that they've had a title for 6 months is not sufficient to sign-off on that requirement. We make sure they continue to attend meetings and fulfill their responsibilties before signing-off. On the issue of testing, I believe that some demonstration on the scouts retention of his training is necessary, especially for ranks Tenderfoot through 1st Class. Our troop allows Star through Eagle rank scouts to sign-off on requirements for lesser ranks. We did this to encourage the older scouts to demonstrate leadership, but it requires that the ASM's do some "quality checking". I'm also very concerned that some of the "Trail to Eagle" programs I've observed during long-term camps fall way short. Once a "quality check" has been passed, we spend most of conference on character issues. It is true that scouting is not about knowing knots, but unless the scouts take the requirements seriously, we won't build character either. Scouts are very quick to learn when something is real or fake. We owe it to them to make it real. Furthermore, I've never had a scout that I asked to come back better prepared next week that didn't. This was a very long post, but as an Eagle Scout, and father of an Eagle Scout, I feel very strongly on these issues. YIS