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When you think about it, if under the same beneficiary a boy said, "Because of border disputes, I couldn't build a bridge across the ravine, instead I was requested to built a guard tower. So I changed plans ..." The bridge-planning hours would count. But, it the boy said "I couldn't build a bridge for community Y, so I built a wall for community X ,,," The bridge-planning hours would not count.

In my experience, most teens have already gone over this. That said, most of them haven't really thought through applying the material to their circle of friends. Out of date? Yes. Out of touch? I think people are continuing to use technology to control other people. Our little school district had become a suicide cluster. Two fine young men in as many years, lost. There is no option to wait for someone more qualified or "comfortable" to bring up the discussion. Some of the best discussions I've had are when I opened with "Let me be the first to admit that I'm out of my league ..."

Two things to consider: The actual number of hours does nothing for the boy. National is the one grubbing for reported hours so they can get bragging rights regarding the value of their community service, specifically as a function of Eagle projects. Hours aside, the documentation of the plan forming, getting approved, then rescinded, etc ... is an interesting story. And, by your description, not at all trival. So, I'd encourage the boy to include the "failed" project in an appendix. For his BoR. If I were you, I'd follow the lead of your district advancement chair. Maybe the folks on the advancement committee don't want BoRs to be bogged down with stories of first and second tries. Maybe this is exactly what they want to hear about and to make sure is reported and on record.

simple, open a book, master a knot, stop playing video games for 5 minutes, show your PL you did it, PL signs book, done. Same applies to a cub and his akela. Sometimes the world looks to you to take the BS out of the BS of A.

Contact your district or council advancement chairman, they should be able to send you the papework. The process usually involves gathering witness statements. Enjoy it!

Looked perfect until I posted. Hopefully it's a little better with edits.

For "fun" here are annual report stats and percent changes over the past 19 years. (I took previous years from a poster on scouts-l.org.) Year Cub Boy Vent Total dCubs dBoys dVent dTot 1998 2171987 1023442 188010 3383439 1999 2166289 1023691 202164 3392144 -0.26 0.02 7.53 0.26 2000 2114420 1003691 233858 3351969 -2.39 -1.95 15.68 -1.18 2001 2043478 1005592 276434 3325504 -3.36 0.19 18.21 -0.79 2002 2000478 1010791 293323 3304592 -2.10 0.52 6.11 -0.63 2003 1914425 997398 288395 3200218 -4.30 -1.33 -1.68 -3.16 2004 1875752 988995 280584 3145331 -2.02 -0.84 -2.71 -1.72 2005 1745324 943426 249948 2938698 -6.95 -4.61 -10.92 -6.57 2006 1701861 922836 244266 2868963 -2.49 -2.18 -2.27 -2.37 2007 1687986 913588 254259 2855833 -0.82 -1.00 4.09 -0.46 2008 1665635 905879 261122 2832636 -1.32 -0.84 2.70 -0.81 2009 1634951 898320 257361 2790632 -1.84 -0.83 -1.44 -1.48 2010 1601994 898852 238846 2739692 -2.02 0.06 -7.19 -1.83 2011 1583166 909576 231127 2723869 -1.18 1.19 -3.23 -0.58 2012 1528421 910920 219453 2658794 -3.46 0.15 -5.05 -2.39 2013 1417034 888947 192080 2498061 -7.29 -2.41 -12.47 -6.05 2014 1295527 854692 157655 2307874 -8.57 -3.85 -17.92 -7.61 2015 1261340 840654 142892 2244886 -2.64 -1.64 -9.36 -2.73 2016 1262311 822999 136629 2221939 0.08 -2.10 -4.38 -1.02 If the "bump" in cubs is real and represents an infusion of more than Lions, there may be room for optimism.

From the Report to the Nation 2016 (presented this week to POTUS and congress): 1,262,311 boys ages 6 to 10 in Cub Scouts 822,999 boys ages 11 to 17 in Boy Scouts and Varsity Scouts 119,268 young men and women ages 10 to 20 in Exploring career-based programs (including the STEM Scouts pilot program) 136,629 young men and women ages 14 to 20 in Venturing and Sea Scouts 372,891 boys and girls in elementary through high school in Learning for Life character education programs 102,888 units, representing partnerships and collaborations with businesses and community and religious organizations that support BSA programs

The specific words to me were, "Units without complete Charters will be “dropped†on March 1 – meaning you lose insurance coverage and can’t process advancements." I figure with cubs, we're not gonna stop enthused parents from doing family activities with their boys. Life goes on, play catch-up later. If a boy scout demonstrates mastery of a square knot while playing Zelda at the PL's house one day while the charter is suspended, are you really gonna invalidate it because the PL's signature date in his book was during the (hopefully brief) suspension period? Same thing if a boy who didn't get the memo has MB sign a blue card in that period. Once the suspension's lifted, you have the SMC, and order the awards. Call the registrar about being allowed to back-date the the big ones. There's one worst-case scenario that you may have to call in some favors on. If you have a 17.99 year old Eagle who needs to do his SMC, git 'er done. Let your pro's (i.e., the SE and the registrar) know you're doing it. Maybe even call an SM in a troop from another district to back you up on it. If your council is blowing smoke about it, send the boy to HQ with his Eagle paperwork and a signed transfer application + 1$ and have him earn that bird under the auspices of that other troop. Heck, if someone asked if I could bail them out in this circumstance, I'd drive the scout there myself and wouldn't leave until they printed his "new crew" membership card. (Then, of course, I'd give him an adult leader application and tell him to take Venturing YPT the next day!)

Our Crew and Pack had a near miss this year because our church was slow nominating a new charter organization representative (COR). Worse, the dear lady did not have a computer, so she had to jump through numerous hoops with the help of multiple people. If you meet and there is an accident, the liability is entirely on the organization providing the space. BSA provides no insurance. Likewise, with activities, the liability is entirely on the scout and his parents. If your scouts are not officially on the roster of a pack, they cannot register at scout camps. If your scouts' awards have not been purchased, they cannot be ordered. There's nothing stopping parents from helping boys do activities to qualify for awards. But until this mess is straightened out, the best you can do is make up I-owe-you notes for them. Whatever caused this bulk mess should be fixable quickly. Any troop who has scouts up for Eagle will keep a fire lit. The question to ask your CM: does the CC have a pulse?

?? I plugged in 1 million, 1/2 million, and 20 years and got 2.5%/year. Close enough. But there was no ending number that could get even close to 6% (well -500.K). So, the very fact that the formula allows negative numbers is a good indication that it's not meant for the kind of exponential growth/decline we're talking about. Pere's exponential growth/decay formula is the one I'd go to first. Calculate here http://www.rapidtables.com/calc/math/exponential-growth-calculator.htm.

Well, if they think taking advice from strangers on the internet is a good idea, they can borrow my tag line and call it "the concept, not the badge" award! Oh, here's one more "fitting": The Brotherhood of the Traveling Shirt!

No plaques, please! But, that's just my pet peeve. I think it is important to get on the phone or talk face-to-face with the CC before bypassing him. If there are strong opinions contrary to yours you may re-think how you all approach this. But, assuming it's just lost paperwork, the CC met the love of his life and is on an extended honeymoon in Tahiti, or something else innocuous, follow Ken's advice.

Welcome! And, as I've said it before, I'll repeat it again: the best scout I ever met advanced as far as 2nd class. He's the one who invited me to his troop. If your son ever brings it up, tell him you have a story from some stranger on the internet!

From the time the term was presented to me (at son #1's 8th grade graduation), I hated the term millennials, because it makes it sound like this group of youth are like the Jetsons with robot maids and jobs behind monitors at the Sprocket factory. That said, the boy is taking a continuing Ed course in Visual Basic, and his wife getting an online master's degree from a traditional school on the opposite side of the country. That's why I use "post-modern nomadic." Because, if you're not spending an hour or more in a tin can getting to a job where someone will pay for your work, your spouse/friend is. And kids born into this culture are working far longer (albeit somewhat less back-breaking) hours than any I've known. But, because of that, they have less patience for advancement requirements that are self-aggrandizing (e.g., "troop camping only", "talk to a friend about being a scout", "log your service hours", etc ...). So, by "classic", I'm thinking of merely lest pretentious. (Edited Note: I'm not entirely sure "pretentious" is the right word when I'm talking about these meticulously worded requirements. But maybe you all have seen the look in a late-teen's eyes when they stumble upon a "busy-work" rank requirement that isn't necessarily there in younger teens.)

I think you have a point about what seems to be a cradle-to-grave mentality. The program in the first few decades seemed focused on engaging 11-14 year-olds ... and their fathers. If a boy had the time to hang around after that, he was welcome to contribute, but there was an acceptance that most boys would move on to other things. Heck, my SM in the 70s just accepted that football players didn't make Eagle ... until one or two did.

I suppose that's why Dad had us working middle school summers with a driver delivering beer in and out of every bar in the county. One summer was enough for me ... after that I lined up back-to-back camps and home-improvement projects. When we meet at the sportsman's club for training, the RSO (a former SM) asks to clear the bar so the boys can sit there. It's much easier to instruct the boys while they are seated at the stools around the "U".

Understood. My point is, I have heard volunteers at area and regional levels putting forth ideas, and they are all over the map. Meanwhile, the overwhelming majority of scouts and volunteers like the way things are. Even the expansion of Eagle to other BSA organizations who happen to hike and camp and sometimes use the patrol method gets no traction. Heck, it's a small miracle that the image of an Eagle was kept on Venturing's Summit award. http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2014/05/23/leave-your-feedback-on-these-venturing-award-prototypes/ Some of the links to proposals https://www.sageventure.com/venturing/VenturingAwardsDesigns.htmlhave expired, but this is as close as we've come to crowd-sourced development. Some folks, at the time - myself included, felt inclined to respect venturer's desire to be distinct. Others wanted more continuity. But, at least we felt that our views were respected. My crew? Having no interest in bling, they felt it all was a tremendous waste of time. I suspect our best program revisions will come about when every active member has a secure line to an otherwise open discussion and is incentivized to up- or down- vote proposals in a way that we'd know how many parents vs. scouters vs. scouts, etc ... favor one thing or the other. That's a long way off.

In a multitude of scouters, there is chaos. I've heard venturering commissioners suggest Boy-Scouts (and possible a co-ed version of the same) be age 10.5-13, and Venturing be 14-20. If you've only seen troops where older boys don't invest much time in younger boys, I guess that makes sense. But, in spite of potential grumblings, most of our older scouts interact with the younger ones. So, as far as I'm concerned that's a non-starter. On the ground, there is a lot of enthusiasm for the status-quo. Plenty of disdain for innovators (and I've seen some of that directed toward venturers), so I'm not expecting change anytime soon.

BSA asked BPSA in the US to replace "Scout" with "Service", I have only seen their web presence. Never met any in person.

I knew about that regulation when I was a scout, and -- although our troop had no interest in anything but one of the standard issues -- always wondered about it. Did council have a record book of custom designs? (I mean, they had a book of Eagle's names, and we could visit and sign it, so it stood to reason ...) Apparently not. About that other part of the rule. Say you have an Eagle who wants to wear his special neckerchief ... does any troop anywhere have an actual approval process?

That's one more thing that's appealing about the original Camping requirements. There's no pretense about "Boy Scout Camping" or "only one long-term." It's quite clear with 50 nights that camping one week every summer is not gonna get you there, so go ahead count as many of those as you can fit in and still you gotta free up a good many weekends to get it done. But, if you convince your family to start camping (as son #2's best friend did) you can report that to your counselor as well. Think about that for a second. If your buddies are the odd ducks in your troop who are all about co-ed, go help some girl scouts camp. Earn the badge. If religion is your thing, go sleep under the stars at your church's retreats/missions. Earn the badge. BSA isn't trying to herd you into their corner to bump its participation numbers. If there's a school activity where you could camp at, go for it. Earn the badge. From recruitment requirements to all of the service hour counting. All that "do a favor for your BSA" rhetoric gets pulled.

It sounds like you've read everything that I've read. Your actions were prudent. That should suffice.

I guess I never worried about the "glamping" much because it was completely foreign to my upbringing (lots of cold nights falling asleep watching the smoke coming out of some city-troop's cabin), and somewhat foreign in my sons' troop. SM's didn't worry much because the elections were a serious hurdle, especially in my boys' troop. If a genuinely cheerful and helpful scout needed to count some hard-roof outing toward O/A nights (and they all seemed to have a good idea of what was going in those tallies), the boys would let it slide. Foul-mouth cusses and practical jokers could camp topside in the rain/snow 40 nights a year and lose consecutive years in a row.

Of course not. Earn it as an adult in your troop. Maybe den chiefs could sign off pack leaders! Every scout deserves an accountable leader.