Eagle Advancement

I get lots of email questions about… … troop conflicts. It may be volunteers arguing with each other, parents arguing with Scouters, volunteers arguing with Scouts, they all have a common thread, and most have a common answer. I also offer my simple advice for welcoming girls into troops, so simple you may not like it very much! I also talk about what’s next at Scoutmastercg.com Listen to this week’s podcast This podcast is brought to you by Patrons & Backers Podcast Notes...

Create shared expectations and you’ll have a happy troop. In this week’s podcast I answer an email question about a behavior problem. A problem that would never happen if those involved shared expectations. Ask Scouts to analyze their behavior in light of the Scout oath and law. Listen carefully, ask questions, listen more, share your thoughts, and leave this discussion with a very clear set of shared expectations. The same applies to evaluating the “judgement call” requirements like Scout spirit and active participation....

When thinking about Eagle Scout advancement … .. we ought to ask “what is an Eagle Scout?” rather than “who deserves to be an Eagle Scout?” The answer to the question “who deserves to be an Eagle Scout?” is easy; any Scout who completes the requirements. That’s it. No more and no less. There’s no Eagle-plus, and no Eagle minus, only Eagle. When you understand that Eagle Scout Advancement becomes less stressful....

Expertise and experience are overrated Scouts need Scouters with energy and vision more than Scouters with expertise and experience. Scouts don’t care what you know, they respond to who you are. In this podcast I answer three email questions. The first (begins at [1:05]) comes from a new Scouter contemplating becoming a Scoutmaster, but is concerned they are inexperienced. I was a very inexperienced Scoutmaster, so I know you can do this....

Scout advancement questions are often easy to answer … … if you simply take things at face value. It’s actually all pretty easy to understand. Problems arise when Scouters don’t challenge their own assumptions after they have read the requirements or directions and policies in the Guide to Advancement. This week I’ll answer three Scout advancement questions you’ve emailed me. As always, I’ll encourage everyone to get a copy of the Guide to Advancement, read it and work to understand what it has to say....

How well do Parents understand Scouting? Should we expect them to? Most of us didn’t understand it either for our first two or three laps around the track. There’s an understanding that comes with having things explained, and an understanding that comes from experience – two entirely different things. This week I’ll discuss how authentic Scouting provides opportunities that most children cannot find anywhere else, and how this makes it both valuable and confusing at the same time....

This is seventh in a series of posts about the new rank requirements that take effect on January 1, 2016. Scout | Tenderfoot | Second Class | First Class | Star | Life | Eagle Exactly how the new requirements are phased in is explained in this PDF document – Notes on Transitioning to the New Requirements. I found the new requirements in this PDF – 2016 Boy Scout requirements—parallel comparison....

Podcast Episode (00:49:01): Listen on Apple Podcasts This encore presentation features an interview with author Mike Malone about his book about what it means to be an Eagle Scout, *Four Percent.*Mike is an award-winning author and experienced Scouter with an impressive resume of leadership. Four Percent is much more than a simple history of the award – it is a significant contribution to what it means to be an Eagle Scout....

There’s always plenty to talk about when it comes to the Eagle Scout! In this week’s podcast I’ll opine (and preach a little) about our Eagle Scout attitudes and answer email questions about troop meeting chaos and an advancement mistake. The important thing to realize is that once a Scout earns Eagle Rank he begins the lifelong process of becoming an Eagle Scout. Not one of the 2.7 million or so boys who have earned the rank were an ideal, fully formed, “EAGLE SCOUT” when someone handed them the badge; they have a lifetime of opportunities ahead of them....

Wilderness First Aid is highly recommended, but when is it required? In this week’s podcast we’ll do our best to tell you when wilderness first aid training is required (although it’s just good common sense too!) , I’ll also answer questions about uniforms, the effective date a Scout earns a rank, and how Venturing Crews use the patrol method. LINKS Red Cross WFA Pocket GuideRed Cross WFA Reference GuideWebelos Crossover LetterGuide to Awards and InsigniaScout Leader Uniform Inspection SheetScout Uniform Inspection SheetGet text notification for Scoutmaster ChatsThe Big Three Resources every Scouter should read...

Are you in danger? I know that a title like “troop program death spiral” sounds dramatic, but I got your attention, right? I’ll explain what the dreaded troop program death spiral is and help you avoid it as well as answering email questions about Eagle Scout advancement, Advancement policies instituted by a troop, and “Webelos Purgatory“. Links The New Scoutmastercg Android AppTroop Program Death Spiral Article Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers Podcast: Play in new window | Download...

Asking “what is an Eagle Scout?” sparks interesting conversations among Scouters. This question got me wrapped around my own axle for a few years; but not anymore. Conversations about Eagle Scout commonly unfold like an operatic libretto. The curtain rises on the chorus singing about how once proud standards have fallen because now just anyone can be an Eagle Scout. Stories of overzealous parents, twelve year-old Eagles (good lord twelve!), and other “grave concerns and injustices” unfold dramatically to advance the theme....

This questions starts some pretty dramatic conversations! In this week’s podcast I’ll explain my answer to the question ‘What is an Eagle Scout?’ in Scoutmastership in Seven Minutes or Less and answer two email questions about Eagle Scout advancement. Our role is not safeguarding Eagle from the unworthy, or trying to make it something it isn’t, but understanding exactly what it is and sharing that understanding with our Scouts. Music on this week’s podcast...

When the Emperor has no new clothes… it’s sort of embarrassing for everyone isn’t it? Listen to my response to those (thankfully few) troops who decide to create their own requirements. Adding to the requirements is as misguided as subtracting from them, and sends a mixed message to the youth we serve. In the email segment of this podcast we answer questions about whether a Scoutmaster should step down if his son becomes the senior patrol leader, Scouting urban legends, resolving conflicts with parents, how much the Scoutmaster is involved in Eagle paperwork, disciplining Scouts, and more on the mechanics of patrol formation,...

Podcast Episode (00:26:45): Download MP3 Listen to Scoutmaster Podcast 232 | Sponsored By ScoutmasterCG.com Backers Hello! Back home and lots of catching up to do! I answer emails about signing requirements, Troop Planning, Eagle projects, and advancement. Plus an announcement for those of you interested in going to Kandersteg, Switzerland! Get The SCOUTMASTERCG APP Podcast Archive Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS

Eagles and peacocks are both impressive looking birds. Peacocks are known for their elegant, showy, appearance, and for strutting around and their impressive display of feathers; “proud as a peacock”. If you’ve ever spotted an eagle in the wild you’d agree they are an impressive sight. A symbol of power, nobility and freedom the eagle’s flight through human history is steeped in myth and legend. Assyrian carvings blended the lion and the eagle – a symbol that spread to Greece where Herodotus believed the griffin lived in the mountains of India, where it made a nest of gold....

Reading the requirements for sustainability merit badge got me to thinking about merit badges as tools to achieve the aims of Scouting in general and Eagle required merit badges in particular. Faithful readers will understand that I like to think about these things and write about possibilities, take it all with a grain of salt. Before diving in I’d also like to reiterate that I am not an official of the BSA, just a Scoutmaster with a blog....

One of the more common emails I receive concerns the frustrations of Scoutmaster’s who are faced with a boy they just don’t consider has done enough, cares enough or is good enough to become an Eagle Scout. They want to know what to do. There’s a big gap between my idealized Eagle Scout and what’s required to earn the rank. I realized this after twenty or thirty of my Scouts earned Eagle and none of them perfectly matched my expectations....

Friend of the blog and podcast Mike Malone has announced the release of his new excellent, authoritative Eagle Scout history: Four Percent – The Story of Uncommon Youth in a Century of American Life;**. (Listen to my interview with Mike on podcast 137.) Mike is a well known writer, twice nominated for the Pulitzer Prize for investigative reporting. His articles and editorials have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, The Economist and Fortune, he was a columnist for The New York Times and he’s published nearly twenty award-winning technology books...

Google the title of this post and you’ll find some pretty elaborate plans and opinions for the Eagle Scoutmaster conference. Some of them leave me thinking I should don a wizard’s robes and start boiling up some eye of newt because I am about to do something magical and mysterious. There’s nothing magical or mysterious about it – it’s another (if more momentous) Scoutmaster conference. The Scout I will speak to tonight has completed all his requirements and is four days away from his eighteenth birthday....