Eagle earned, no registration

[fred8033]

Yeah, I must disent though. While Krampus may have successfully wiped himself for 30+ years, it is cold hearted bad advice that adds more damage to an already bad situation. Of course the unit on it's own can't give the "scout" official advancement. The council/BSA needs to fix that. But that's only part of the problem.

 

The problem is that the "scout" is many years down a scouting path and has effectively completed it. AND the problem is only partially the mom's fault. Even more at fault are the unit leaders who are supposed to know the program, know the rules and know what will happen when you have a youth participate for years without registering. It might be a fun fantasy to be the hard a##, but that is almost always bad advice. AND I fear someone would actually take that advice. Would you really tell the scout: "Your mom was an idiot .... ????" If you did that, the only thing you end up creating is a kid with a grudge against mom and against scouting. Not only that, but you take a kid who has achieved and slap him in the face and only focus on the negative. *** AND *** you might as well continue at that point and say that all the previous unit leaders were morons too as they were in the same boat and they were the captains of the ship and running the tiller. ... But it doesn't help anyone and as such it's not real practical advice.

 

The original poster is now representing the unit that led the scout youth astray and has responsibility to participate in fixing the situation. I'll leave it to the SE, council, BSA to figure out if they want to go so far as to formally credit and recognize the scout. There is not enough info to judge that here and the poster doesn't have authority to decide that.

 

The key is that we are supposed to be teaching leadership, character, citizenship, etc. To have led someone and treated them as a scout and taken them thru the advancement program FOR MANY YEARS and then only at the end draw a hard line is completely wrong. We are not the guy yelling: No Soup For You.

 

Find a way to recognize the scout that is on par with what he achieved and don't dimminish his achievement because of adult screw ups. It is sad that it will probably be unofficial due to his mom and his unit leaders. That is already unfair enough. Don't damage the youth / scout any more.

 

[Krampus]

Fred, I think we all agree that we try to fix the situation. But that fix is to register, pay the back dues and complete all the paperwork that makes you a legitimate Scout. Barring that being done ANY other action is against BSA policy and is an insult to the kids and adults who DO follow the process. Of course no one is going to tell him his mom (and previous troop leaders) were clueless and caused this issue. But Eagle cannot be handed out unless process and rules are followed. To do otherwise sends the message of "Don't worry about the rules, Timmy. Someone will always fix it for you." At some point we have to draw the line.

[Tampa Turtle]

The mom is being unreasonable. I was never in Boy Scouts as a lad but I could have completed each and every requirement on my own somehow up to Eagle and while that might make me "good as a boy scout" I would be neither a Boy Scout or Eagle. What kind of lesson is this lady teaching? How are they gonna handle College applications?

 

Agree this is up to the SE to fix.

[fred8033]

Units give out unofficial awards all the time. Unit leaders just need to get creative and do something meaningful that the youth / "scout" can look back and take pride in as he should because he's achived something special. Yes, it's mucked up by the unit leaders and the mother. But he has still achived something special.

[Twocubdad]

What happened in the past happened in the past. Yes, the mom was an idiot and the old unit leaders were morons. But as Pumba said, 'Put the past in your behind."

 

My issue is the current troop leaders are trying to solve the problem and in fact have a tentative solution, but the mom is still being an idiot and still doesn't want her son registered.

 

So where is the problem now?

 

No, I wouldn't really tell the scout his mother is an idiot, but you wanna bet she has no problems throwing the troop leaders under the bus?

[Second Class]

This is a ridiculous situation. This kid has been running fast and loose at BSA events with no insurance, no medical forms, releases, etc.

 

This is on the unit leaders. They didn't have enough spine to tell mom NO however many years ago.

And no, he didn't earn Eagle. This is a bad joke. I'd have nothing to do with this.

[eisely]

The unit leaders have no good choices in this wierd situation. Given that the unit leaders have bungled, I think they have an obligation to do what they can to help, but the mom has to get on board as well and register her son and complete all required paperwork and pay past dues if any. I would also make clear the it is largely out of local hands and that national may decide not to award the eagle. That is all you can do and should attempt to do.

 

The earlier post suggesting that all youth records be reviewed to see what other ugly surprises may await is sound advice.

[NJCubScouter]

So, BartlettBear, whatever happened with this situation?

[Backroads]

Wowzers. I'm guessing there are no past rank advancements, are there?

 

Yes, by all means, wash your hands of it. That Eagle registrar either is crazy or has no idea what he is going to get into.

 

Now, I work for a council, and I've seen kids go for years without being registered. Usually a slip on someone's part. And yes, during that time, stuff gets written down by some one in the troop with the good intent of eventually officially recording it. This is a wild case where it happened pretty much on purpose, but I can see how it can get that far.

 

First off, any back registration anyone would try to do is going to take FOREVER.

Second, you are probably going to get some major approval to have any of those past never-officially-recorded things recognized.

 

I'm sorry Billy did everything action-wise and I hate seeing the boys punished as well, but I think this is a life lesson for all involved.

 

Congratulate the kid on all his hard work, but that's about it.

 

And I truly hope this isn't a council that just sells stuff. Our Scout Shop is separate from the council and they've fired employees over selling stuff without the proper documentation.