AOL - when to report/award

[bear dad]

Working with your son at home, when all other Webelos must work in the den, or bring in their work to be approved by you before getting credit, is why your son, and none of the other boys in your den, has earned AOL. You are right to be concerned at how this appears.

 

Please - make sure you are giving the other Webelos in your den every opportunity to earn their AOL in a timely fashion also

 

 

agree with that,but don't knock the boy or parents,

some parents just drop off their kids have no ideal whats going on or don't try to help their son. I go over what needs to be done and hand out things to help them finish their requriements. Only a couple follow thru with that and wonder why some boy got this or that. because he earned it.A DL can only do so much to help, a boy needs to do his part as well. There is a reason for "earning" and not "giving" awards out.

[CHLees3rd]

My wife and I are both leaders in my daughter's Girl Scout troop. My wife is the leader and I am one of three assistant leaders. When they were Daisy Girl Scouts (Grades K and 1) we had no problems with any of the Scouts earning their petals. Now our first graders have bridged to Brownies where Scouts can work individually on Try-It badges. (Try-Its are similar to merit badges except Scouts only need to do any four of the requirements to earn them and the awards are age-appropiate for second and third-graders.)

 

Going forward we, the leaders, decided that each Brownie should keep a log/notebook/journal where she would record all Try-It requirements she completed. We figured that it would help the Brownies who wanted to start working on Try-Its during the summer. (Many have told me this summer that they are working towards the badges and everything is in their books.) When we start up in September, the Brownies can sit with a leader and go over everything they did during the summer. The leader can then gives the thumbs up for the earning of the badge. In order to shield us from calls of favoritism, we also decided than none of us would check and sign off advancement for our own daughters. Our daughters would have to see another leader who is not her parent to check and sign off advancement-related activities. Basically, all the leaders will need to do is review the logbooks with the Scouts to see if the requirement was completed. Since I cannot sign off my daughter's work, there should be no calls of favoritism when she gets four badges in September.

 

No reason why Den Leaders can not do the same in Cub Scouting. They can use an Asst. Den Leader or the Cubmaster or a Pack Committee member who is knowledgeable about what needs to be done to successfully complete a requirement. If another knowledgeable person is not available, the Den Leader can ask another adult to witness the reviewing of requirements. For example, a Den Leader asks a parent to witness his/her review of son's requirements. DL tells Scout to tie a square knot and Scout ties the knot in front of both adults. If the parent is not that knowledgeable about the requirement, he or she can look at the book while the Scouts completes the task. This stops any calls of favoritism because the Den Leader can say an independent adult witnessed the work too.

 

Chazz Lees

[CHLees3rd]

No reason why a Webelos can not contact his leader during the summer and ask to meet one evening to go over and sign off requirements. If the WDL is available and willing, why not? Stops calls of favoritism.

 

However, if the WDL said no to a Scout who calls for a meeting and then his/her son completes a ton of activity pins during the summer, then there is a problem. Flames the fire of favoritism!

 

Chazz Lees

[bear dad]

I have had a couple of boys go to day camp at earn some awards for the stuff they did and also did the requirements for a activity badge this suumer vacation. Yes we gave them their awards but it was they earned them.

We meet all year long so they can work on things all year long. I give each boy the chance to earn things and will help them even during the week if needed. Still falls on boys to do their part. So if little Johnny earns a couple things and gets them at a pack meeting, instead of getting mad, maybe they should wonder why they did not?

[CPAMom]

Thanks for all your insights.

 

Some things I note: Not only does our son never miss a meeting, he gets scout tutoring when my husband preps for meetings. We homeschool, so we get things done that others seem to not do. Athlete, for example. It is mostly doing the exercises for 30 days. At home.

 

However, he has done the accomplishments. And I've seen him and 2 other boys really take initiative on their own this past year.

 

The other boys miss meetings for all sorts of reasons. Some parents work with them at home on badges; some don't. We can't get it all done ourselves at meetings. We try to keep the meetings from being "like school," so therefore, we stay away from making posters and writing essays and other things.

 

I'm guilty. He had earned Webelos badge before the January pack meeting, but we made him wait until Blue & Gold in February, which was our stated target date for the den. I promise to get him slated for getting it at the next pack meeting.

 

 

[Stosh]

"Jblake wrote:

When I was WDL, I got my WebI boys in September, met weekly, and all the boys had a blast. They all earned their AOL at the following February Blue/Gold and now the problem was they were 9-10 year olds with the AOL on their shirts. What do you do? Keep doing what you're doing, the boys were having a great time. Because they didn't have any more requirements to do, that summer we went out and did camping and all the neat stuff that they would be doing in Boy Scouts in the next few months. Then they turned into WebII's (September of the second year). Already had the AOL on their shirt, did some fun activities in the fall (guest at BS activities, etc.) and looked for troops to join.

 

 

I'm wondering how you did that. Webelos can't earn AOL until they've been 10 yrs old or have finished the 4th grade for 6 months. Unless your Webs were already starting the 5th grade or were already 10, they couldn't earn their AOL in February.

 

Here is the first requirement of AOL:

Be active in your Webelos den for at least six months since completing the fourth grade (or for at least six months since becoming 10 years old), and earn the Webelos badge."

 

It's easy! Earning it and getting to officially wear it on your shirt are two entirely different things.

 

Okay, a boy has to be in the Webelos program X amount of months.... So if he does all the requirements except for sitting around waiting for X amount of months, how is this any different than earning the award and then sitting around for 2 months and the Blue/Gold to get his patch? If packs do the waiting game, well, so does council/national.

 

If the boy has done all the work and only needs to wait until he's out of a grade or reaches a certain birthday, how is this any different than the boy has completed his requirements, and he's chomping at the bit to move on, why should packs, councils, parents, or national dictate to him he has to sit around and wait.... To the boy does it make any difference who's making him wait? I don't think so!

 

When I was WDL the boys had to wait, but not because the den was behind, or they were behind, but because someone thought that waiting would be a good thing for these boys. I spent a whole year working with these boys, having fun, doing neat things and it was all for one reason WE HAD TO WAIT! Might as well have some fun while we WAITED! So while we WAITED we did Boy Scout stuff, did TenderFoot requirements, even some Second Class stuff just for fun, while we WAITED. Then we went on hikes, did campouts, etc. while we WAITED!

 

This was a few years ago before all the electronic Big Brother from National and I submitted the AOL request well before it was appropriate, but it went through and the boys got to wear their AOL patches anyway. This was 20 years go.

 

 

Stosh