Question about 6-month requirement

[Eagle92]

NJ,

 

Now this is hearsay, so please bear with me, but I was told that discrepancies in appeals occur because the appeal board looks at all the factors involved. Plus I am assumming that each appeal board is composed of different folks.

[NJCubScouter]

Eagle92, just to be clear, I have no problem if the decisions makers "look at all the factors involved," in fact I hope that is what they do. In other words, they should look at all the facts that are relevant to each case. If they do that, and based on all the facts of two particular cases, they approve one and not the other, I don't see that as a "discrepancy" or "inconsistency." An inconsistency would be if, based on all the relevant facts of each case, the request of Scout A is equal to or more compelling than the request of Scout B, but due to different boards applying different standards of "leniency" (or whatever you wish to call it), Scout B gets Eagle but Scout A does not. Admittedly, my belief that this sometimes happens is based on "hearsay" as well, and the same kinds of inconsistencies happen in other large "systems" as well.

 

So I am not necessarily criticizing the BSA for this, some amount of inconsistency in a large organization is inevitable. Hopefully they try to keep the decisions as consistent as possible, by having a set of common standards as well as training in those standards for the people making the decisions, plus some "quality control" at the top.

 

I also think that people (whether in this forum or elsewhere) should be careful about "predicting" what might happen in a particular case, or telling someone that a request is hopeless. First of all, we usually DON'T know all the facts of a case that someone posts about, and second, inconsistencies in the decision-making process might lead to unexpected results.

 

By the way, Eagle, you mention "appeals boards." Are you talking about on the council level, or the national level? I always thought that council makes recommendations but that the decisions are made at national, and I guess I had the picture of a single person or group making all the decisions. Is that incorrect? Also, is an extension of time that is requested "before the fact" (as it could be in this case) considered with the same process and by the same people as an "appeal"? To me, an "appeal" means someone disagrees with the decision at a "lower level." In the case presented in this thread, no decision has been made yet.

[boomerscout]

Well, he can still earn the Hornaday medal, which would put him in a more select group than Eagle.

Would he consider going into Venturing and becoming a Silver-Ranger?

[silvereagle]

When told about Venturing he did not seem interested but if this does not work out for him, maybe he will give it a go.

 

As for the six-month POR, the requirement gives the scout an "or" option. They can ask the scoutmaster for a leadership project and still get credit.(This message has been edited by silvereagle)

[Eagle92]

SE,

 

Only for Star or Life if memory serves will the leadership project work. Eagle has a specific list of PORs.

[silvereagle]

Star and Life.

 

We are talking about Life.