jaxvol

Cost is a major issue in some Packs and Troops. My pack is at a Catholic school that wears blue pants as to school. We allow school pants for uniform pants as cost issue. I now some uniform police will disagree, but I even have trouble with uniform shirts at times. We raised some money and hit thrift shops and eBay for uniform shirts a few years back. We then set up a uniform swap box and now we have a resource for parents who need it. I guess you could do the same thing for pants. We had a Scout leader who saw a homeless guy wearing a scout shirt. It was in good shape minus the shoulder tabs. He gave the guy $10 for it and a couple of t-shirts he had in the car. It took about four good washes before his wife would let him wear it. A scout is Thrifty.

For our pack a we don't require the official pants. For uniform inspection we started off with giving ice cream bars to any den with all members wearing their shirts. Then the next month required the shirts, necker, and slide. Then the next month -- all patches in the correct places. May be another idea is a blue ribbon for the Den flag. We try to make it a carrot, not a stick.

The COR and the District Advancement Chair are all in the loop. I even had a short discussion with were he did the project to indicate that the project wasn't the issue. I thanked them for their participation. We beat this horse well -- I will check back in with the outcomes.

I would agree -- borrow from Troop. As an alternative I think good old Walmart "blue tarps" work well. You can just get a couple 2x2's at the lumber yard for poles and your set. That is what our Troop uses. Even in put away damp they won't be ruined. A Scout is Thrifty...

I have an idea that may make it easier for those of us who can't speak anything but American.... Give a strip to any scout who has a parent who speaks a language and can attest to the scouts abilities. Give a strip to a scout with a certain number of years of high school language. You could have his teacher sign off on the requirement. I have a melting pot Troop and after reading this I think I will see which boys would quality. Several are bilingual in Spanish, Vietnamese, etc..

I think the new knot says - "my Eagle is better than your Eagle". I would support a new knot just for NESA before I would a special Eagle knot. I am a life NESA member because I am too lazy to renew and they caught me when I had a comma in my checkbook. My sons both are Eagles and have the standard five year membershtip that I got them when they earned Eagle. Am I "more" Eagle than them? What about the other leaders who are Eagles and don't have $180 to buy a knot? What is their reaction to me? Eagle Scout is Eagle Scout is Eagle Scout -- we don't need degrees of Eagle Scout

How about TroopMaster? We use it to print 'blue cards' and the advancement cards for the COA. They sell the paper on their website. http://www.troopmaster.com/

The scout did get preapproval on his project. He finished it with 72 hours to go with a bit of a "drive by" attitude. The work day took about 20 hours of total effort for all the workers. The parish was happy and signed off. That is why I said there was no problem for the project. In this council "done" trumps "done poorly". There are some issues with his record keeping and NO receipts for money spent. I was told new materials were purchased, but they appear used. The main issue for me was can the appeal cover the MB's, the project, the attitude, and still give him a paper Eagle? If it happens, at least I was not a party to it. Who this hurts worst is the boys who actualy work on it. If he is awarded Eagle the next fight will be with my Committee and parents. I can't see his name on the Troop plaque, and a big COA. I hope he just goes quietly into the night with a lesson learned.

For Family Life, what you stated is requirement 5. Requirement 4 is: "With the approval of your parents or guardians and your merit badge counselor, decide on and carry out a project that you would do around the home that would benefit your family. Submit a report to your merit badge counselor outlining how the project benefited your family For Personal Management the scout showed money "in" and money "out" but never planned a budget. Also, there were a dozen pages of notes on requirements worded "Explain to your merit badge counselor..." that needed to be reviewed. He filled in a form, but the explaination needed to follow. He was quized on several issues that he could not answer other than -- look at my notes. I don't think we are making up requirements.(This message has been edited by jaxvol)

The project is not the issue here. The "shopping" for a merit badge counselor rubs me wrong. For Personal Mangement the Troop approved counselor who the Scout was working denied his work. I passed to to another Troop approved counselor for who would not pass the work. Both counselors would work with him, but could not finish in 48 hours. Then the scount went to another Troop and used their counselor to sign the badge (in 20 minutes!) with no approval of the SM. Family Life was also denied -- so I guess you find a merit badge counselor to sign that one as well. Then appeal and get the Eagle. What does that teach the boy? I ask him -- "What would happen on April 15 if you had a car wreak on the way to post office and couldn't mail your taxes to the IRS?"

I have a question on a recent case. I am the Committee Chair and the other night a scout brought four of his Eagle requirement merit badges and his project completion to be signed off. This meeting was 48 hours before his 18th birthday. The C. in Nation and E. Prep merit badges were partials where he lacked one requirement. The other two, Family Life and Personal Management had never been reviewed before. For Family Life he had done cleaning around the house for his project. The merit badge counselor thought there needed to be more thought and would like to have pre-approved the project. Theere had been no discussion with this boy from the time he started until this night. He was told to do a different family project and contact the counselor again. For Personnel Management he used the forms from MeritBadge.Org and filled them out and brought them in as his proof of completion. I had the papers review by two merit badge counselors for the badge and neither one would sign off on the badge without several meetings. Both thought he needed to redo his 90 day budget. So he was batting .500 on the merit badges with 48 hours left. We didn't sign off on the project because neither the Scoutmaster or myself had seen the work yet. Here is where it gets interesting -- he calls another Troop, gets with their merit badge counselor and gets them to sign a blue card for Personnel Management. He comes to my house with the blue card (no Scoutmaster signature), and his Family Life with a different project from 5 months ago. He wants me to take his blue card, approve this Family Life and sign his application. I called the Scoutmaster and the three of us met for over two hours. At the end of time we had not approved either merit badge, and not signed his application. He has now turned 18 and Mom is raising the roof. I can't lower standards just because the boy is 17.999 years old. What happens on a appeal when there are merit badges and issues other than just the approvals on the application? I would like the boy to get Eagle, but I don't want to have the other Scouts feel that rules have been bent. My feeling at this point is that there is no wiggle room in not completing merit badges before you are 18.