New to Forum and Advancement Question

[wallacesusan]

Hi!  My son is a Boy Scout and we are having trouble getting an advancement question answered:

My son asked for a Star BOR, and he passed it in June.  He then took off for a two week “Philmont trip” (due to fires the scouts went on a two week camping trip across CO).  He was excited to get started on his Life requiements.  Upon returning, he realized he never had a Scoutmaster Conference.  He tried to schedule one in August, and continued trying to get a conference (which he finally got on Oct. 30, 4 months past his BOR).  We asked for his Star rank to be back-dated to June since that is when he passed his BOR, and we were told that wouldn’t happen.  We feel that the missed conference should have been caught by a leader before or during the BOR. When he realized he didn’t have the SC, he promptly began asking for one and wasn’t granted one until end of oct.  I feel this wrong, but I would love to hear from you all - should the scoutmaster backdate to boards or SM?

thanks!

[MattR]

Welcome to the forum, @wallacesusan.

It took 4 months to schedule a smc? That's a problem. Well, that's the problem.

Should he back date it? I guess. Should you demand that? No, because the real issue is that the SM didn't see a need to fix a problem. Has your son talked to him about the time delay? Is there a reason given for the delay? Anyway, getting on the bad side of the SM is not suggested.

[qwazse]

@wallacesusan, welcome to the forums!

What's at stake here? Is your son 17, thus making it impossible to tenure for Eagle?

[RememberSchiff]

IMO, now that your son has completed ALL requirements including Scoutmaster Conference for Star, he should have a new BOR.  

My $0.02

[PACAN]

His Star rank date is June.  GTA para 9.0.1.3 last paragraph applies.

[shortridge]

20 minutes ago, PACAN said:

His Star rank date is June.  GTA para 9.0.1.3 last paragraph applies.

Once a Scout has been advanced in rank, advancement errors subsequently discovered must not be held against the Scout for any future advancement, even if the requirements were not properly completed. As an example, if after a Scout was advanced to Life rank it was discovered the Scout had less than the required six months between Star and Life, that would not be cause to deny advancement to Eagle.

https://www.scouting.org/resources/guide-to-advancement/eagle-scout-rank/#9013

[Chisos]

Agree with @PACAN and @shortridge that once the rank is approved by the BOR it is earned.

That being said, the Troop Committee needs to figure out what happened here.  The lack of SMC should have been noted by the BOR; it would not have been signed off on in his book if it had not happened.  And as others have stated there should have been an opportunity for a SMC much sooner.