Age Requirements

[hotdesk]

What is the minimum age that a person has to be in order to be a Troop Committee Member? and if it is 21, why has BSA decided that it must be that and not 18. At 18 they allow "adults" to work with scouts in the role of Assistant Cubmaster, Assistant Den Leader, Assistant Scoutmaster, and Assistant Varisty Leader (and in my experiences the Assistant Cubmaster has more responsiblities than the Cub Scout Committee).

[FScouter]

All adult leaders in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts must be at least 21 years old with 3 exceptions:

- An assistant Scoutmaster must be at least 18. (The assistant must be at least 21 to replace the SM in his absence.)

- An assistant Den Leader must be at least 18 (an assistant Webelos DL must be at least 21)

- An assistant Cubmaster must be at least 18.

 

Assistants work side-by-side with the 21+ year old leader they are assisting. A committee member works primarily independently.

 

Refer to the Troop Committee Guidebook and the Cub Scout Leader book.

[TheScout]

I have heard many different things about this question.

 

My Scoutmasters Handbook said that a person must be 21 to be an Assistant Scoutmaster, but I have heard other people say it is not true.

 

It would be interesting to know.

[Bob White]

The only reference in the SM Handbook on the age of an ASM that I can find is on page 15, right hand column, last prargraph.

 

"Upon his 18th birthday a junior assistant SM will be eligible to become an ASM"

 

 

 

(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[mdutch]

From the Adult leader application (http://www.scouting.org/forms/28-501.pdf):

 

"All leaders must be 21 years of age or older, except assistant Scoutmasters, assistant den leaders, assistant Cubmasters, assistant Webelos den leaders, and assistant Varsity Scout coaches, who must be 18 or older."

[TheScout]

There must be a mistake in the Scoutmaster Handbook. Page 3 says:

 

"Adult Leader Qualifications

 

These are the minimum requirments for becoming a

Scoutmaster or an assistant Scoutmaster

 

-Be at least 21 years of age, etc"

[FScouter]

Not likely a mistake, but updates occur periodically. I believe the most current revision of the Scoutmaster Handbook is #33009B. The letter suffix indicates which revision, 'B' being a later revision than 'A'. Maybe you have a later revision 'C'?

 

Meamemg pointed out that the very latest update of the adult leader application says assistant Webelos den leaders may be 18+, whereas the Cub Scout Leader book from 2 years ago says 21+.

[TheScout]

I stand corrected, I have #33009A.