2016 Boy Scout Requirements

[christineka]

How often does the unit camp now?

 

Most units I know go 10-12 times a year. Some even more.

 

As stated above- once in 6 months.  I never really paid much attention before.  Perhaps they like to camp in fall?  Somehow, I doubt it.  I know there was one trip my son wasn't old enough to go on.  They went ice fishing and all who went came back with red faces.  So, maybe twice or three times a year, not counting scout camp.

 

BTW, I did sign son up for a community troop that was forming.  It's been in the forming process for 6 months now.  Not sure if or when it ever will be formed.

Edited July 8, 2015 by christineka

[qwazse]

<i>The document is a comparison chart from what is currently listed in the Boy Scout Handbook to what will be in the new Boy Scout handbook. I have the 2014 printing of the BSH, which actually was reprinted from the 2012 printing and prior to January 1, 2014. So, Cooking is not listed in the current handbook, but was updated in the 2014 Boy Scout Requirements book</i>

 

 

So if this is a comparison of what is currently in the book, to what WILL BE in the new book, and Cooking isn't listed under the new requirements, Me thinks the need books needs more editing before coming out.

 

@@Eagle94-A1, Cooking is listed under the new requirements (left column) ... just not under the current requirements (right column).

 

For two years all have been trying to pound it into our 16-17 year olds that they have to earn Cooking if they want to earn Eagle. Even if it's not printed in the handbook, it is in the requirements book. But my scouts will take this document to mean "Oh, Mr. Q was talking out the side of his head. I won't need cooking as long as I am a Life scout before the end of the year."

 

Why? Because they read "current" and take it to mean "right now, this year 2015, when this comparison document was circulated."

[qwazse]

Agree but some will do the bare minimum so raising the bar just a bit make by increasing total service hours on the trial to Eagle is a positive step IMHO. I'd like to see it doubled. Anything these guys do for rank advancement is for "reward", why not service hours. Let's face it, guys don't get Eagle to be philanthropic.

 

We really gotta stop worrying about the folks doing the bare minimum. Some boys were getting a "bare minimum" citizenship training so we created THREE SEPARATE REQUIRED BADGES all with clusters of bare minimum requirements that amount to oh-so-much bookwork and little skill acquisition. Some boys barely respected their home, so we required Family Life. Don't worry about the Birds, your Pioneering tower, Signalling, and other things that we know for a fact school, home, and church won't teach you. We're here to help take up the slack for institutions that aren't doing their job to make you into a great boy ... in the process you hazard missing out on becoming a great scout. But that's okay, so did the umpteen million other boys who looked at our advancement program and took a pass.

 

First class should tell me you attained skills and vowed to live nobly under terms that you understand. Not that you've passed some bogus integrity check.

 

Rant over.

[NJCubScouter]

But my scouts will take this document to mean "Oh, Mr. Q was talking out the side of his head. I won't need cooking as long as I am a Life scout before the end of the year."

 

Why? Because they read "current" and take it to mean "right now, this year 2015, when this comparison document was circulated."

 

Well, your Scouts can think what they want, assuming they even see this document.  (I doubt that any Scouts in "my" troop will even see it.)  This document is not the BSA requirements book.  It is just a document on a web site.  That doesn't mean it shouldn't be correct, both as to the old requirements and the new requirements.  In fact, if anyone at National is reading this, please fix it, now.  This is another unfortunate example of how you confuse the Scouts and those of us out here in the field who are supposed to be leading and/or supporting the program.

 

And along the same lines, I looked at usscouts.org to see whether they had these changes yet, and indeed they do, but they say these are "Proposed" changes and they also say:  "The wording of the requirements shown on the pages linked below are still in DRAFT form, and subject to change by BSA. The final wording will be published in the next edition of the Boy Scout Handbook, and the 2016 edition of Boy Scout Requirements."  And that page was updated July 4, 2015, so it's not out of date.  So (assuming that that web site, which is unofficial, is correct) what we are looking at on the BSA web site may not be the final version.  So there's more confusion.  Thanks National.

Edited July 8, 2015 by NJCubScouter

[NJCubScouter]

And by the way, does anyone know when this new edition of the Boy Scout Handbook is coming out?  I assume "they" are talking about sometime before the end of this year, but does anyone know anything more specific?

[Eagle94-A1]

From some literature I've read, January.

 

But I know that national supply, and a lot of council stores do Inventory int eh late December/early January time frame. GHonna be interesting.

 

And thanks for the italics!

 

As for LDS units and 11 year olds camping, it's a national thing. They are limited to 3 campouts per year. That may need to be changed since I think 6 are required for FC now. Sorry I glanced at the new requirements.

[eagle90]

Let's boot the marketing gurus at National in the rear end and get the new handbook out in December.  What a perfect Christmas gift!

[ZScout5]

Scouter99- actually, it only gives you the appendix of the new leader guide. We're still waiting on the full paper guide to arrive in the scout stores. I've heard end of July or August.

 

CyberChip - there are two levels for cubs and two levels for boy scouts.

Grade 1-3, Grade 4-5

Grade 6-8, Grade 9-12

 

It looks like the new BS requirements have the scouts earning twice. Be thankful, I believe the cubs now have to earn this for each rank.

 

The new books are supposed to be issued in January, but if it goes like the Requirements Book, we won't see it until sometime in February.

Edited July 9, 2015 by ZScout5

[qwazse]

Well, your Scouts can think what they want, assuming they even see this document.  (I doubt that any Scouts in "my" troop will even see it.)  This document is not the BSA requirements book.  It is just a document on a web site. ....

I was on the verge of sending it to them. Instead I'll print it, Mark the 2014 changes, and pin it on a bulletin board.

[Gone]

As stated above- once in 6 months.  I never really paid much attention before.  Perhaps they like to camp in fall?  Somehow, I doubt it.  I know there was one trip my son wasn't old enough to go on.  They went ice fishing and all who went came back with red faces.  So, maybe twice or three times a year, not counting scout camp.

 

BTW, I did sign son up for a community troop that was forming.  It's been in the forming process for 6 months now.  Not sure if or when it ever will be formed.

Curious...your troop camps once in six months. Your son is 12 and has 20 camping days. He's Life or almost Life, right?

 

Who did he camp with to get those 20 camping days? Another troop or patrol?

[SlowDerbyRacer]

We really gotta stop worrying about the folks doing the bare minimum. Some boys were getting a "bare minimum" citizenship training so we created THREE SEPARATE REQUIRED BADGES all with clusters of bare minimum requirements that amount to oh-so-much bookwork and little skill acquisition. Some boys barely respected their home, so we required Family Life. Don't worry about the Birds, your Pioneering tower, Signalling, and other things that we know for a fact school, home, and church won't teach you. We're here to help take up the slack for institutions that aren't doing their job to make you into a great boy ... in the process you hazard missing out on becoming a great scout. But that's okay, so did the umpteen million other boys who looked at our advancement program and took a pass.

 

First class should tell me you attained skills and vowed to live nobly under terms that you understand. Not that you've passed some bogus integrity check.

 

Rant over.

 

Sometimes I think there should be some type of field final exam for some or all ranks.  Just look at all the paper Eagles who don't know a fraction of what is supposedly mastered.  I was not heavily involved in scouting as a kid - got more involved as an adult - so I don't say this by saying my experience was more real.  But I always held Eagles in high esteem.  I thought they could do anything and would be the people I'd want to be with in real survival situation.  I propose a new scouting rank - Real Eagle.  The only difference between it and the current Eagle is a final exam.  To pass, the scout gets dropped off in the woods 50 miles from civilization with only a pack he packed completely himself and is given 1 week to make it home.  I wonder how many "Eagles" would even be willing to take the test?  

 

Only partially joking suggestion over 

[Stosh]

Sometimes I think there should be some type of field final exam for some or all ranks.  Just look at all the paper Eagles who don't know a fraction of what is supposedly mastered.  I was not heavily involved in scouting as a kid - got more involved as an adult - so I don't say this by saying my experience was more real.  But I always held Eagles in high esteem.  I thought they could do anything and would be the people I'd want to be with in real survival situation.  I propose a new scouting rank - Real Eagle.  The only difference between it and the current Eagle is a final exam.  To pass, the scout gets dropped off in the woods 50 miles from civilization with only a pack he packed completely himself and is given 1 week to make it home.  I wonder how many "Eagles" would even be willing to take the test?  

 

Only partially joking suggestion over 

 

I know of only a few.  One of my Eagles was in the Air Force after leaving high school.  As part of his training he was awakened at 2:00 am put on a helicopter and flown out into the desert with nothing but what he had in his pockets of his uniform.  In groups of a half dozen they were dropped off at various points, given a map and compass and told that breakfast was at 6:00 am.  He looked at the map, oriented it to the North Star, triangulated his position and got back to base in time to shower and get ready for breakfast.  No one in his group knew what to do other than him.  There were some groups that missed supper that day and after being out all day in the desert needed to be rescued.

 

Another Eagle from a neighboring troop tells of his Army training in Alaska.  They were all shown how to set up their tents in the dead of winter, but he chose to burrow into the snow instead.  They all made fun of him, but by the end of the week's training, everyone, including the instructors were burrowed under the snow.

 

Occasionally BSA still turns out Real Eagles.

[qwazse]

What @@SlowDerbyRacer and @@Stosh are describing are what I'd expect from first class (the concept, not the patch) scouts. One of our ASMs while an Explorer was inserted in an undisclosed location of the Allegheny National Forest and given a number of days to extract himself and his post. (I think it was roughly a patrol. It may have been just a buddy or two.) The guy always carried himself like an Eagle ... it wasn't until years later that I connected the dots and realized he wasn't.

 

A Vietnamese priest in our community described his nation's scout's 1st class journey as being taken out to the jungle with Dad to a clearing with a stump in the middle. The boy was to make camp on the stump overnight. Dad left him there ... in reality just out of sight in the thick of the jungle keeping vigil overnight ... and came back in the morning to wake his son, have breakfast, and go home.

 

There are a lot of Eagles who forget how to be first class scouts . (Can you blame them if they have to finish their scouting carreer doing the pencil-whipping involved in some of those required badges and service projects?) Our job is to guide them beyond the ranks so they adopt a state of mind and body that many other folks avoid.

[Eagle94-A1]

While not as dramatic as Stosh's 2 stories, one of my Eagles was over in Iraq and the plastic tension thingy on his tent's guy line broke. He fixed it using a taunt-line hitch.  His Gunny made him teach everyone in his platoon how to tie that not so that when it happened to someone else, they could fix the problem.

 

And everyone knows the story of the Eagle who was a NASA shuttle commander and his square lashing story?

[eagle77]

 

 

There are a lot of Eagles who forget how to be first class scouts . (Can you blame them if they have to finish their scouting carreer doing the pencil-whipping involved in some of those required badges and service projects?) Our job is to guide them beyond the ranks so they adopt a state of mind and body that many other folks avoid.

 

 I agree 110%. Problem is though is that many of those that are there to guide them are the "folks that avoid" the state of mind and body.