Time extensions to complete Eagle requirements

[RWSmith]

There seems to be a lot of comments here about how the boy is being run over by the Board, but something stuck out to me. Mom admits that the young man earned his Star in January 2010. This should mean that the young man was aware of the new 2010 requirements for Life and should've come to the BoR with all of the requirements completed, not with a brother in tow "just in case". (....)

Yes, my son knew about the requirement. After the BOR he was the one telling the SM that there was a requirement missing (the EDGE) but he was prepared and ready to do it that day. The SM and the Leadership told him that they needed time to find out about the new requirement, but he would be awarded the Life rank that day.

It took 3 weeks for the requirement to be done because the next meeting was cancelled, the meeting after that it was the C.of Honor, where my son was told he would be fulfilling the EDGE requirement at the next meeting... the next meeting, I think a lot of the scouts missed it, so the SM told my son to be ready for the week after...

My son was just following the Leadership's orders,and under the impression that not matter what he was Life,(because that's what they promised him and me).What they told him almost 4 months latter was that regardless of what they said at the BOR, they decided to change the date leaving my son with no chance to get the 6 months Life requirement.

My son is right now waiting word from the advancement advisor to see if he will be awarded the 3 weeks that he needs...

[international]

QUESTION - Was the Life BOR done as soon as your son requested a BOR or did he have to wait weeks or months for a troop scheduled BOR? Not sure it makes a difference, but I'm curious.

I ask because, my apologies, the LIFE BOR was a schedule critical BOR. I know I'm one that is often guilty of procrastination. But things don't always turn out good when left to the last minute. I was wondering if your son was very busy with life and other activities ... or if the troop made him wait weeks or months to get his BOR done. Some troops do that. Some troops have only four scheduled BOR dates throughout the year. Other troops hold BORs as soon as possible after requested, often the same night.

If he's going to try to fix the situation, act NOW. If necessary, have him call the district advancement chair. If he does not get a positive answer, have him call the council advancement chair and/or visit in person. If that doesn't work, have him keep escalating the issue.

I'd really hate to see him not earn his eagle over such a small requirement that was not in his scout handbook that gets blown way out of proportion.

The important point is ACT NOW. It may be too late now, but it definitely will be too late if you wait. Also his acting aggressively now on this can affect what happens. In my view, he has a really good argument to make. He just might not know it because he's young.

Just remember...

Eagle scout is not the end-all, be-all of scouts. It's just a rank. Hopefully, your sons enjoy and have benefited from dozens of camp outs, activities, adventures and friendships. These are all growing opportunities.


Finally, I'd take a hard look at the situation and what happened.

(My apologies now to all those great long term Scouters who do a great job every day...) Watch out!!!! There are Scouters (adult leaders) who spend more time protecting the integrity of the Eagle rank and their troop processes than helping every scout succeed.

If that's your son's troop, transfer your other sons. Get them into a different troop. Scouting should be fun and the adult leaders should help every scout succeed.

If I was a leader in your troop and knew the tight time constraint and the single EDGE requirement, I would have helped the scout find the resources to do an EDGE, let him get it done and then get his BOR signed off on the same night. Anything less means the Life BOR is deciding the scout won't be an Eagle because of a small requirement that was not in his scout book that slipped by everyone. (scoutmaster, advancement coordinator, ....) I would have helped the scout solve the issue and put his advancement back in his hands. Hopefully, he'd dig down and get things done.

Because this didn't happen, it makes me wonder about the whole situation. Something doesn't jive.

You have my sympathies.

Good luck!

Thank you for all the replies, they are keeping me sane

My son is definitely guilty of procrastinating, but he did had to wait several weeks for the BOR to be schedule (the boys are used to it), but since there was the problem of the time I had to remind the S.M. that my son was turning 18 soon and he needed to advance or he would never make it.That's why what happen Months latter doesn't make any sense to me...

I really wanted my boys to either quit scouting or consider another Troop, but they don't want to, they are too close to the Eagle rank,(I have another Life and Star scout) they want to finish it, and they don't want to move because they like the "boy ran" (is that the name) style of the Troop. They do get frustrated some times (one of my boys only received his Star badge, 11 months after earning it and at the same time as the Life badge) but overall they like it.

One of my boys earned his Life rank at 14, actually he had it at 13, but again dates got messed up and 1 year was lost. That was fine with me, I didn't like the circumstances, but I even told my son to slow down and take his time on the road from Life to Eagle, but now, I want him to finish as soon as he can,because I don't want for him to be in the same situation as his brother.

[Mrw]

While I agree that the boys should be fulfilling all the requirements, the teaching using EDGE should not be something that requires it be specifically scheduled as a troop meeting event. The older boys should be teaching the younger ones all the time and should be doing EDGE regardless of whether you are into acronyms of not.

I have not seen a kid in our troop tripped up over this as it just happens in the course of being an older kid in the troop.

[wagionvigil]

While I agree that the boys should be fulfilling all the requirements, the teaching using EDGE should not be something that requires it be specifically scheduled as a troop meeting event. The older boys should be teaching the younger ones all the time and should be doing EDGE regardless of whether you are into acronyms of not.

I have not seen a kid in our troop tripped up over this as it just happens in the course of being an older kid in the troop.

Exactly Building a fire,using an axe,knots etc, they are doing it all the time

[jr56]

True, advancement should be a natural byproduct of the troop program.

[smtroop168]

international:

At this point you have 2 options

1) Let it go

2) Call the Scout Executive and tell him you are filing an appeal with National. Your appeal is based on a "Blame the Adults" defense. The troop purposely and willfully is denying you son's advancement. Based on their record, if you were in our council, your appeal would be upheld and he would be given a Life BOR date 6 months and a day from his 18th birthday and most likely an extension past 18 to finish his EP and POR.

[international]

GOOD!GOOD!GOOOOOD News!

My son was given a 1 Month extension!
Thank you all soooo much!

[wagionvigil]

Great Now lets get on with it!

[Bill Pitcher]

Alright Intenational!! I think the EDGE method shouldn't be a requirement anyway. We aren't intentionally making teacher's out of every scout. It just happens naturally as mentioned above (and I'm a retired teacher of 35 yrs.!). It's about as lame a requirement as was the "You must bring a friend into a Scouting situation, and/or recruit him." These are NOT the boy's jobs and shouldn't be required . . . they just happen if the program is working.

[razor_strop]

I would disagree, Bill, since part of the experience BSA seems to want Boy Scouts to have includes leadership, and training others is an important component of leading. Using the EDGE method to teach a skill isn't trying to make teachers of Scouts, but it does go a long way in providing a basic framework on how to train others. I do agree that the "bring a friend" requirement is a shameless membership appeal, though.

[jr56]

Gald to hear your son was granted and extension. Hope he succeeds in completing his requirements.

[smtroop168]

GOOD!GOOD!GOOOOOD News!

My son was given a 1 Month extension!
Thank you all soooo much!

Question....Who gave your son an extension past 18 to complete his Eagle Requirements?

[international]

GOOD!GOOD!GOOOOOD News!

My son was given a 1 Month extension!
Thank you all soooo much!

Question....Who gave your son an extension past 18 to complete his Eagle Requirements?

My son wrote to the district people explaining what happen, and the advance advisor, after deciding that my son had a case, sent the request to National, and National sent the final approval

[smtroop168]

GOOD!GOOD!GOOOOOD News!

My son was given a 1 Month extension!
Thank you all soooo much!

Question....Who gave your son an extension past 18 to complete his Eagle Requirements?

My son wrote to the district people explaining what happen, and the advance advisor, after deciding that my son had a case, sent the request to National, and National sent the final approval

Perfect...that's how it is supposed to work.

[Fred Johnson]

You made my day when I read the status update. I'm proud when groups I associate with have the common sense and compassion to correct mistakes.

I look forward to seeing another update.

[international]

It's official! My son is an EAGLE SCOUT!

He made it because of the guidance he got from YOU!
THANK YOU!

[wagionvigil]

Congratulations to the whole family

[smtroop168]

Good for him.

For others this is a lesson learned that could have gone badly. If the new Guide to Advancement was out (September is latest) , it may have been a different result as under "Extensions" it will say:

The Boy Scouts of America assumes anyone working on Boy Scout ranks has a handbook and has read the requirements. misinformation from unit leadership is often cited as grounds for extensions. These cases will be considered, but they should be very rare.

[FrankJ]

It seems to me that in this case it was more of the actions of the adults than the misinformation that is the issue that was the basis for granting the appeal.

[smtroop168]

It seems to me that in this case it was more of the actions of the adults than the misinformation that is the issue that was the basis for granting the appeal.

Yep maybe so...my point is that the new wording places the burden on the scout to actually read HIS handbook and know HIS requirements vice saying "no one told me". The adults read the handbook and saw the EDGE requirement. How the adults handled it is most likely why he won his appeal.