Assistant Scoutmaster

[rwb380]

I just inherited the honor of tracking our scout's service hours, and I'm having a very hard time of determining exactly what constitutes valid service hours, especially for the non-Eagle projects. In particular, service to the scout's church is an area of confusion. Can anyone point me to a good resource? Thanks

[featherswillfly]

rwb380

I'm not sure of any resources but I can tell you some of the things we call community service.

raking or sweeping yards of schools or churches

working for public TV

Special Olympics

church suppers

food drives, scoutinng for food

anything they do for the community is community service as long as they are not getting paid.

hope this helps

[Bob White]

Hi rwb380,

page 88 of the boy scout handbook describes the service project as benefitting others, the community or the environment. featherswillfly gave some very good examples. He is also correct that there can be no reward, in addition, it cannot benefit scouting, your unit, or a business.

 

Bob

[Eman]

Here's something to think about. Our council holds work weekends at the camp and it is counted by many as "community service" towards star and life rank.

[rwb380]

Thank you all for the ideas and guidelines, they are helpful. I'm still a little unclear in the service-to-my-church area: specifically, if the scout is teaching a Sunday school class, or if his own Sunday school class is serving Communion, or carrolling, or babysitting for a Church supper, or writing letters to overseas servicemen, etc. These are tough ones for me because I was given to understand that serving as an acolyte does not count as service time, and I'm not sure where the line is drawn. Again, I would appreciate any help you might offer. Thanks

[Chippewa29]

The guideline I use with my Scouts is that if the service activity is something they are doing as a normal part of another activity (school, church, etc.) then it shouldn't count (no double dipping). For example, one of my Scouts went with his class and planted a couple of trees in a park as part of a class project (it wasn't optional). That I wouldn't count because I believe the Scout should take some initiative himself to do service (he had to do the class project if he wanted a grade). We're only talking a few hours for Star and Life and only one hour for Second Class. It shouldn't be that hard to take the initiative on a service project.