Age Requirement for first class?

[Lynda J]

My mistake. He will have Star in July if he keeps the focus he has now.

[hacimsaalk]

My mistake. He will have Star in July if he keeps the focus he has now.

ok, just clarifying. tell him to keep up the good work. i got my first calss last june, and am still working on 2 mb's for star.

i hope to get eagle by 15

[Lynda J]

When we do our Court of Honor he will have completed 12 badges 4 of which are Eagle. He just started working on two more Eagle. His Language arts teacher has them doing a weekly reading log of 100 minutes. He counts his merit badge work books. She thought it was funny. I think it is great. Kill two birds with one stone.

Boys don't need limits put on their learning. And working on merit badges is learning. Even it they start one and it takes then 2-3 years to finish it or if they never finish it. They still learn from the experience.

[mommatoodle]

I think it is great when a scout sets his sights on a goal. My son just had his BOR for start this past week. He will be 12 in June. His goal is to be life when his brother crosses over next year. He wants eagle at 15..He too is into doing merit badges. He has a list that he wants to do and when he plans to do them! If he didn't want to do another badge, the only ones he needs to have enough for eagle are the eagle ones! It seems every time I turn around he is asking me to take him to a merit badge counselor. My girlfriend thinks that we are pushing him, we aren't. He has become very focused and this has crossed over to his school work so he is doing better in school. He has become more confident in what he can do and even tried out for the school talent show. He made it and can't wait to play Ode to Joy on the piano...(that should be interesting but that is another story)

Congrats on what your son has accomplished....! I don't even know him and I am proud of him!

[Woodbadgegirl]

My 2 cents:

1) If the SM is setting a hard attendance rule, I feel this is clearly wrong and would take it up the ladder. Even if it were 'legal', his making a Scout a full additional 4 months, rather than merely getting his attendance up (which could only take a month), is clearly wrong IMHO. The sticky point here is that the definition of "active" is left to the SM. However, I feel in this case if the matter were taken up the chain, it may be worthwhile.

*sigh* This is such a sore subject for me with our troop, but I have found that I need to just pick and choose my battles. I absolutely hate their attendance policy, but Love that we are getting more and more closer to BSA policy every where else.

This troop is a bunch of "Good ole Boys" who have always done things their way and not always the BSA way. This is all so new to them and they are having some growing pains. I have worked for the last three years in the District and council in membership, so I'm very BSA minded. They are coming around. I don't think they will ever drop the attendance policy, but there are so many other things that are not right, that I haven't approached that one anymore.

As for the merit badges, Ben has learned to get around their rules. I went to the Scout shop and bought some blue cards. Ben took 5 cards tot he SM to get signed. He is taking 5 more tonight. Then he will just meet with the MB councilors and not have to deal with the SM again.

He had a goal of being Eagle by 14 but with all the stupid rules he will be 15. Oh well.

[T305TG]

I WOULD DEFINETY SAY SOMETHING TO YOUR COMITEE ABOUT YOUR SCOUTMASTER BRUINS BEACAUSE EVEN THOUGH HE ADMITED TO YOU THAT HE WAS WRONG HE SHOULD HAVE KNOWN THIS BEFORE YOU HAD TO REAPROACH HIM

[scoutdiver]

To bruins14, I am a first class scout and only in my first year of scouts. If the scoutmaster doesn't let that fly. Take it up w/ the district

[deweylure]

We had a similar problem in our Troop . One boy jkoined early after earning Arrow of Light He earned his rank requirements then merit badges. One ASM made a comment that he would not want to be areound an 11 year old in an emergency this boy earned Emergency preparedness. It seems they have a real problem with scouts advancing quickly. At this point I am upset. I evewn had the SM doubt he earned the MB I told Mr SM He did and that I do not give out free rides.

The SM shoul get his act togeather and get trained ,5-6 yrs in and no training. Maybe he could learn the program. I am really getting sick and tired of the made up rules. Its one thing to mis understand a rule or procedure its another thing to just run the troop without knowledge.
Dewey

[Lynda J]

Update. Kevin was elected SPL last month. He lacks his Communications badge on his Eagle and is in the process of writting up his presentation for his project. It is at his school. If it all goes through he will have Eagle by the first of the year. He worked a Cub Recruitement last night. They got 8 new Cubs. He goes to OA Fellowship weekend Friday. He is the only one from our troop going. He said he really didn't care. I am really proud of him.

[Scouting179]

More power to you both!

[Mad Dog]

One of the biggest problem our troop faces is made up rules by the SM. He creates rules to try and hold the boys back. While he pushes his son ahead. The other night he announced that he wanted the boys to only advance one rank a year so they could learn more leadership skills. Well the parents committee jumped all over that and it is not going to happen. My son is on a path that should have him make Eagle around his 14th birthday. We are not pushing him, he really enjoys the program and working on advancement and MBs.

[wagionvigil]

Time to get your unit commissioner involved.

[Lynda J]

Mad Dog, Has you SM been trained? If not he needs to take the training if he has he needs to take it again because he didn't learn anything from it.

[Mad Dog]

He has been trained up to and including Woodbadge. He has been involved in scouting for over 10 years. He was a Cubmaster and has an older son. It seems he always has a hidden agenda. A few of the other parenst see what he is doing and agree that it is wrong. I was given a contact name/number for someone at coucil to contact. I am not sure who our Unit Commissioner is. We have a trip coming up in a few weeks and the other parents want to wait and see what happens then. I'd rather act now but giving him a few extra weeks probably won't hurt. Although it may be a safety issue. On hikes and other outings he takes off leaving the boys behind. One of the boys could get lost or hurt and he wouldn't notice.

[jr56]

If additional adult leaders would accompany him on these outings, he wouldn't be able to take off and leave the boys behind.

[Mad Dog]

Additional adult leaders ALWAYS go on the trips. That does not stop him from running off. We can't tie him down now can we? So while he and his son and a few other boys run off the other adults take care of the rest of the troop. We tried to give him a radio but he "does not need technology"

[Mrw]

It sounds like you need to have one of the adults detailed to follow him around and that person can hold onto a radio to keep in touch.

Then you know that none of the boys is being left behind alone.

I personally would have to tell the guy he was out of line though. It wouldn't be the first time for me to bluntly tell someone they shouldn't be doing what they are. And even though it is generally better to pull the person aside, the boys might appreciate seeing him being pulled aside to know that someone else is sticking up for them when they are feeling unfairly treated.

[Mad Dog]

Well we had a scout masters meeting a few weeks ago and I was VERY blunt with him. He seems to think everything he does is his "right" as scoutmaster. At this point he isn't speaking with me. I want the best program possible for the boys. We really need to have him change his ways or step down. And it's going to take a fight to make either option happen.

[Lynda J]

You may need to talk to your Charter Rep. If this guy is putting the boys at risk. They need to know.

[ASM-142]

Just remember it is not always up to the current SM to remain the SM