Tenure based on Board of Review

[flmomscoutw3]

Our troop typically has the scout request a BOR from the Adv Chair. he then will schedule it for the following week with the CM. There have been times where 3 CM's cannot be at the Monday nite meeting, but will try to schudule on a differnt nite if the parent and scout are willing to do that. (I can only recall once when that wasn't ok and it was because parents were out of town and scout could not be sure he could make it.) On occasion the committee has discussed doing BOR's monthly, but that never seems to work. Advancement is a big deal, that is what they are working for. When my younger scout was looking at troops he wanted to visit some troops other then the one his big bro. was in so we looked at a few. One troop told me they did the BOR's every 3 months, we did not even consider them. I did not think that would be a good fit for us, but that was a personal decision. Hypothetically speaking a troop would not just suddenly start doing BORs every 3 months, so a scout who has hypothetically reached the rank of Star should be hypothetically aware of this procedure.

 

Hypothetically speaking of course

 

Yis

[LongHaul]

Scout Net is not a tool for troop use it is the name of the soft wear National uses to record registration and advancement. According to what I've been told by my council the soft wear does not recognize "six months", it was written to recognize 182 days as the equivalent of six months and that is the way it counts tenure. The soft wear can not be altered by those using it and National isnt going to do a rewrite. Unless you get confirmation from National in writing I for one would not risk a scout's Eagle application being refused for failure to have enough time in grade to qualify for advancement. If the scout didn't have "six months ", according to Scout Net, as a Star Scout then when he applies for Eagle Scout Net will at that point refuse advancement because Life was not earned properly. If the boy has time to reapply fine but if he doesnt have another six months he will age out. Rather be safe than angry.

LongHaul

 

[Hunt]

I find it difficult to believe that a scout would be denied his Eagle because his troop followed the letter of the requirements ("six months"), although I suppose it could be a hassle to get it straightened out.

[Mr.Mal]

find it difficult to believe that a scout would be denied his Eagle because his troop followed the letter of the requirements ("six months"),

If the troop dodn't follow the "letter of the law", then what would be the standard?

 

[Hunt]

To clarify, the letter of the requirement is "six months." Some have stated that ScoutNet interprets that as 182 days--which may be longer than six months, depending on the months. My point is that I don't think a scout would be penalized if his troop held his BOR six months after his last rank, but only 181 days later--although it might be a pain to get it straightened out.

[Vicki]

There is no way software (not soft wear) can dictate that six months is 182 days. Six months is what you can count on your fingers (March, June, July, etc.). Period. I also can't imagine our council trying to tell some of our Scoutmasters that their Eagle candidates have failed over something like this. Especially since a move like that would be penalizing the eager beaver scouts. Not to mention that I know a lot of folks who sit on our Boards of Review and our Council Advancement Chair. If anybody suggested such a thing, the others would look at him/her like they'd grown another head.

 

Nope. Ain't happenin'. Not here anyway.

 

Vicki

[LongHaul]

Hunt,

According to what I've been told you can't straighten it out because the computer program simply will not accept the correction. The program will not accept two BOR dates for the same rank for the same boy and will not delete a BOR that has been already entered. We've been advised not to take the chance and use the 182 days as opposed to "six months". If you use TroopMaster it has the same programming, 182 days equals six months, except that you can change dates, but you can't get the program to accept advancement with only 181 days in rank or for POR. Supposedly Scout Net can't be altered to prevent someone from changing something in error. I'm not a programmer and don't know the ins and outs but I do know that the new program will not allow us to do things we used to be able to do with our old program.

LongHaul

 

[Vicki]

OK, re-reading posts. I agree with Hunt - it would get straightened out in the scout's favor. Still think it's craziness. And I used to work in the software industry - computers are machines. If garbage goes in, garbage comes out. Bad software design makes me angry.

 

Vicki

[Hunt]

Imagine that a boy's Star BOR was on August 30, the next-to-the-last day of the month. When do six months run out? The sixth month is February, which (usually) has 28 days.

[LongHaul]

Hunt,

We both know you can count and that is why you picked the August 30 date for the BOR. 182 days in grade would require the next BOR to be March 2. Saying that it would be resolved in the boys favor requires belief that National would use common sense which is often an oxymoron in the Corporate World. We are not dealing with human beings here we are dealing with software. If the computer will not print out an Eagle Certificate it will not print out an Eagle certificate. You can award the badge but it still won't be registered at National. We can speculate all we want it will not change the computer software and we are just speculating on what each of us thinks not what anyone knows for sure. I'm surprised no one out there has had a personal experience with this. With the number of Eagles awarded and the human error factor in entering data someone has to have crossed this problem since Scout Net went into effect.

LongHaul

[Vicki]

LH, interesting thought, do y'all award the rank before you hear from National? "You can award the badge but it still won't be registered at National." We don't even schedule the ceremony (normally - but even if we did, it wouldn't happen until we got the paperwork back). Without subterfuge, we couldn't even buy the patch.

 

I'm betting this situation has happened and has been resolved. We in the field are "better off" not knowing that as far as National is concerned. Less work for them and it really wouldn't happen all that often.

 

Vicki

[LongHaul]

Vicki,

My response was to the supposition that "it would be resolved in the boy's favor". If National said NO! and you thought the boy should get the rank then what? My statement was that you could get a badge and give it to him but it would not be registered at National. I think "death bed" Eagles are more common then a lot of people think. With the way our council makes mistakes in data entry I can't believe this doesn't happen and that is why we are told to make sure we don't end up in a position where we have to argue about dates. It's hard enough when it's clerical error without getting into interpretation.

LongHaul

[Vicki]

and my question stands, "do y'all award the rank before you hear from National?" You said, "My statement was that you could get a badge and give it to him but it would not be registered at National."

 

Can't believe that's what you meant, but since you went to the trouble of repeating it, I guess you did.

 

Vicki