Wwilkerson

Thank you for all of your input. I do not know all of the details of the older boys, but I do know that they were all told a variation of "We need to see some maturity from you in the next 6 months before you have a BOR". And, come to find out, there is a third boy as well. These boys are all 13-14 yrs old. As for my son, the requirement he has left to complete for 2nd Class is #8a, "Complete a drug program" (paraphrasing). Our school system has a county-wide drug program every October, so he will be finished with his requirements at that time. He will be terribly disappointed if he has to wait until spring to earn the actual rank. I can not see the benefit in holding an 11 year boy's rank back if he has completed everything. Not to mention that he has 1/2 of the requirements for 1st Class met. He won't want to bother and I can't say that I will blame him. He is a high achiever motivated by badges and patches right now. I know that will change with time, but I am afraid he will lose interest if he is put on a "rank-a-year" program. We did that in Cub Scouts. Boy Scouts was represented to us as go at your own pace program. I understand the importance of "Scout Spirit" and working well with others, but 11 year old boys are, well, 11 year old boys.

I was wondering if somweone can explain this to me. A couple of boys in our Troop have completed all of the requirements for "life", but the SM & ASM have made the decision to not award the ranks for another 6 moonths or so, "until they mature a little more". These boys both are a little discouraged and the parents have said that the boys don't feel like attending the meetings. I am afraid this will be the case with my son. He has been a Boy Scout for 4 months and just earned Tenderfoot, and he only has requirement left for 2nd Class. I was told he probably won't be able to earn this until next year. Is this standard? I can't see how it is fair or encouraging to a boy scout to hold him back, even though he has completed all requirements.Any thoughts?

I am the Advancement Chair for a large Pack. We now have 75 boys and will add new Tigers in the Fall, usually around 25 or so. We do not have an official tracking program, just whatever the Den Leaders are happy with. We have Den and Pack meetings on Mondays, so I require award and advancement orders to me by late Tuesday evening prior to the Pack meeting. I send two email reminders for this deadline and have been successful with this method for several years. I occasionally have to remind someone a third time (IN CAPS NO LESS) and remind them we don't want any disappointed Cub Scouts. Works everytime. I have my information within a couple of hours. I have my own tracking system for record keeping purposes. I think the most important part of this is a deadline. Have one and stick to it.