Service Stars for Cub Scouts

[Bob White]

Again Lodge 489, your rank and your OA involvement have nothing to do with service pins.

 

While you were 18 to 21 what program were you in? That is what matters.

 

If you want to make things simple, being that you are an adult now you can combine ALL your years in the BSA regardless of whether they were as a youth or an adult member, and regardless of what program you were were in, and just wear your total years on a blue background star or stars.

[Eagle92]

Lodge,

Here how it was explained to me when I worked in supply and based upon the Insignia Control Guide.

 

You can wear the number star and yellow backing for tenure in CS.

 

You can wear the number star and green backing for BS.

 

You can wear the number star and red backign for pre-1998 Exploring/ Venturing.

 

You can wear the the number star and blue backing for Adult Leadership Service only, in conjuntion with the other stars, OR wear the TOTAL TENURE with the Blue backing.

 

In my case i can wear the following

a 3 yr star on yellow.

a 7 yr. star on green

a 1 yr star on red,

a 16 yr star on blue

 

OR I can wear a 26yr. star on blue.

 

Now you do the math on the indiviudal stars and it adds up to 27, not 26, because there was one year that I was both an ASM with a troop (adult leader) AND a Sea Explorer (youth). So if you were an adult leader in a troop, you get tenure for adult, and if you are a Venturer at the same time, you get youth tenure as a venturer.

 

Same goes if you have a scout dual registered in a troop and crew. He gets tenure in each individual program at the same time. However TOTAL tenure is not double counted.

 

I personally don't wear the stars as they kept popping off the shirt

[ScoutNut]

It does not matter if you are considered a youth in OA. It matters what you are REGISTERED in BSA as.

 

Being a member of OA is NOT a registered position.

 

While you were 18-21 years old, what position were you REGISTERED in? If it was as a youth member of a Venturing Crew/Ship, than you can wear the youth backing. If it was in an adult leadership position of some sort, than you would wear the adult backing.

 

 

 

[Buffalo Skipper]

OK, here's the rub, and back to the original post. There were two Webelos 2 dens in our pack, both of which began as Tiger Dens (though only 2 boys from each of these dens stayed with it until 5th grade). Both dens had exceptionally strong and experienced leaders. The first den determined that all their AOL requirements were completed and chose to cross over in September (49 months after joining). Five new boys joined this year and all went into the second den who whose leader was wanted to work with them all on earning the AOL (even though the original 5 had nearly completed their requirements for AOL). This second den will be crossing over the last week of February.

 

Should the original 2 from each den be awarded 5 year pins? The boys from the first den spent 4 years and 1 month in Cub Scouts. The two from the second den will have 4 years and 6 months in the program.

 

If you award the latter 5 year pins, should the same be done for the other group, who chose to cross over 5 months earlier? I am not one to recognize equally, because it is fair. So where do you draw the line in a case like this?

[ScoutNut]

I am unclear why you are concerned with what service star to present to boys who have already crossed to a Troop back in September. If you did not give them anything then, at this point it is up to their Troop.

 

For the boys crossing in February, if the Troop they are going into gives out service stars at the end of the year, then it is up to the Troop to give them their star. If they do not, then you can present it to them when they cross over. I would count this year (2008-2009) as a whole year for all of the boys crossing in February.

[diogenes]

Call me a stickler, but unless a person did 5 years, they don't get the 5 year pin. I have yet to see any employer say "Aw heck, you can have the 5 year longevity pay raise at 4 years and some change, close enough!". For the boys, I might be persuaded to round up if they were shy by a few weeks, or in a really generous mood, a few months (they still must be at least over 4 years, 6 months). But 4 years 1 month is not 5 years by any stretch of logic.

 

If the boys wanted to hang around and get a 5 year Cub pin, they could have not crossed over already. I'm personally more impressed that they earned their AOL already and moved on to bigger adventures.

[Buffalo Skipper]

The reason I am interested in the Webs who crossed over is that their leader is a friend of mine, and we have been discussing the matter. Our pack has never presented service stars, leaving this to the parents. We wanted to ensure that we were being correct on this when we bought them.

 

Likewise, we have in my son's den, several boys joined in August and they have been working hard to earn the Arrow of Light before crossover. They will crossover with exactly (almost to the day) 6 months as a Cub Scout. They will wear their AoL on their boy scout uniform, but should they be "denied" the opportuntity to wear any cub scout service pin because they were in for less than one year? That doesn't seem right.

 

I know I am nit-picking here, but I see these kinds of things in a strict-pragmatic sense (rules are rules, but what do you do when the rules don't make sense?). So, where do you draw the line?

[Bob White]

What rule are you speaking of? A rule that controls Service stars? No such rule exists.

[scoutldr]

From the Insignia Guide: "Service stars may be worn by all youth and adult members who have at least one year of tenure with the Boy Scouts of America. The stars are worn with the appropriate color background for the phase of Scouting in which the service was rendered. If an individual's primary registration is in one phase of Scouting and later in another, separate stars with the appropriate background and numerals may be worn simultaneously. Or, leaders may combine youth and adult tenure into one or two stars with blue background."

 

Sounds like a rule to me. And the phrase "at least one year of tenure" couldn't be more clear. It says "one year"...not "six months".