Advancement Coordinator

[Mad Max]

What is the difference between the Unit "Advancement Chair" and the Unit "Advancement Coordinator"? In the Eagle Scout Project Workbook there is a section where the Eagle Candidate is supposed to list the Advancement Coordinator, but then that person has no responsibility to sign for the Project, review it, or anything. How much more confusing can they make this document?

[NJCubScouter]

They are the same position. Officially the name is "Advancement Coordinator", or at least that is what the Troop Committee Guidebook says. Many people call it "Advancement Chair" or "Advancement Chairman", see http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Unit_Advancement_Chair, http://www.usscouts.org/advance/docs/guidelines.asp and many troop web sites that can be found through a Google search. In my troop, where I hold this position, I use the two interchangeably, since nobody really cares. On this forum I am usually careful to say "Advancement Coordinator" because there are several people who will whine at you if you don't. (This message has been edited by njcubscouter)

[Mad Max]

Found it, in the BSA Guide to Advancement. The rascals! Sure has caused some confusion in our Troop and District for Eagle Scouts. Meritbadge.org hasn't caught up, nor usscouts.org. Typical BSA...getting cute with the language. Wonder what problems the lawyers are trying to solve with that change.

[NJCubScouter]

Well, MadMax, I think that we in the legal profession can be given "credit" for some things in Scouting that may not seem to make much sense, but I don't think this is one of them. "Advancement chair" (or chairman) is the the traditional term, I don't know whether it was ever contained in official BSA publications or not. Technically I suppose there would be an "Advancement Chair" if there was an "Advancement Committee" for him/her to chair. There is no official "Advancement Committee" prescribed by BSA publications (that I know of), but there also is nothing that says that a unit cannot have other "committees" or "subcommittees" that would report to the unit committee and/or CC. (I.e. membership subcommittee, fundraising subcommittee; we don't have those, though some may.) In my troop I occasionally (2 or 3 times a year) ask the other committee members who regularly serve on BOR's with me to meet during a troop meeting so we can go over issues or questions that have come up regarding advancement, see if newer BOR members have any questions or would like to discuss anything, etc. So I suppose in that sense you might say we have an informal "Advancement Committee," of which I am the chair.

 

But in the end, I don't think the terminology matters that much. They are the same position.

[Tokala]

A year or so ago, National changed the Council Advancement Committee to the Youth Development Committee. They quickly backed off. Pretty so we'll see the Youth Development Coordinator term spring up.

 

As I tell me Scout Executive: "National is shuffling the deck chairs on the Titanic"

[NJCubScouter]

Tokala, if I recall correctly, that phrase was in a document that was posted prematurely on the Internet but never officially released. Nevertheless, it does appear in at least one document on the national web site (http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/AdvancementandAwards/eaglealt.aspx see item 9) and a Google search on "youth development committee" produces hits on many council web sites. It reminds me of the changes when I was a Scout, from "rank" to "progress award," "board of review" to "progress review" (or whatever it was), "junior leader training" to "troop leader development", and so on. When I "returned" to Scouting as an adult, I found that they had changed most of the terminology back to what it was originally.

[Mad Max]

Well NJCubScouter, the only lawyers I'd really like to see suffer are the ones from the ACLU. But, that's for a different forum. It just seems that a high percentage of the changes that have happened in the past decade can easily be assumed to have come out of some legal challenges BSA has found itself in, to the point that every time I see a new change I've got to wonder. What now?

Nevertheless, "advancement chairs" is referenced on page 6 of the NEW Guide to Advancement. When the Eagle Project Workbook refers to Advancement Coordinator in lieu of Chair (or chairman), it begs the question. But later on on page 13 it clears it up. They are one in the same.