Next week is Christmas and the following is new year’s, so for the next two weeks the podcast will be on vacation right along with you as you enjoy the holidays with your friends and family . I’ll return on January 5th with Podcast number 249. You can listen to our archived podcasts here Music on this week’s podcast by the Pine Street String Band Banjo Christmas A New Scoutmaster (chapter one)...
What’s the difference between demanding compliance and getting voluntary obedience? The answer may have a lot to do with the tone of your voice (literally and figuratively). In this podcast I answer emails about an particular Eagle Scout Board of Review, where it looks like the Eagle Scout candidate may be being set up for an ambush. I also answer questions about Scouts volunteering to raise funds for other organizations, and a couple of questions about newsletters and backpacking....
What is the context of Scouting, and why does it matter? The game of Scouting has it’s own set of rules, it’s own playing field, or context. I discuss a couple of common questions that are answered by understanding this context. In addition we’ll discuss conflicts of interest for an Eagle board of review, whether one advancementrequirement automatically means you’ve completed similar requirements, when offering advice is interfering with your leadership, patrol selection, and Scouts asking for boards of review....
Sir Ernest Shackleton’s board of review for the rank of World Explorer assembled one evening and began reading over his application and supporting documentation. He earned all of his merit badges on Captain Scott’s Antarctic Discovery Expedition in 1901–04, and clocked his leadership tenure as the leader of British Antarctic Expedition in 1907–09. For his World Explorer project Shackleton had proposed “The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition”. The project was enthusiastically approved, and it’s progress carefully followed....
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....
In ornithology ‘fledge’ generally means independence of the chick from parents; a young bird whose feathers and wing muscles are sufficiently developed for flight. Fledge is also a term that describes raising a young bird. Ornithologists apply the term differently to individual species because individual species develop differently. Our Scouts develop individually too. Each one is a bit different than his fellow Scouts, has his own strengths and weaknesses. So when a boy is a fledge Eagle Scout there is an assumption of independence in his work....
Here’s what makes an Eagle Scout; A Scout completes the requirements as issued by the B.S.A. and is approved by a duly constituted board of review. That’s it. So what about those oft discussed and argued qualities like maturity and leadership ability and active service? All of these things are embodied in the requirements – they are not requirements in and of themselves: Maturity To make it to a board of review for Eagle a Scout has had the following experiences:...
CA Scouter comments on last minute Eagles: It would be interesting to hear your reflections on Scouts putting off Eagle til they’re 17.5 years old and then trying to get their project and missing merit badges done in the small amount of time left. … in a perfect world, the SM has been counseling boys not to let it get to this point, but as you say, Scout aged boys do a lot of things they shouldn’t....
So far we have determined that needless Eagle Scout problems can be caused when a Scoutmaster seeks to impose his ideal vision of an Eagle Scout on the advancement process. In addition we have discovered Baden Powell founded Scouting on the idea that it would offer Scouts a way to challenge themselves towards achievement on an individual basis rather than against an ideal standard. As a rule of thumb if there is no numerical metric applied to a requirement it is improper and against policy to create one....
Scoutmasters need to understand what makes Scouting different from everything else – why young men and women have been Scouts all over the world for the past century. If they take the time to do this they’ll avoid most Eagle Scout problems. Scouting’s founder Baden-Powell envisioned a movement that would give everyone the opportunity to challenge and achievement based not on a single standard of performance but on a highly individualized, internalized standard....
During my tenure as Scoutmaster I have worked with 50 Scouts who have earned the rank of Eagle. Becoming an Eagle Scout is supposed to be challenging. Unfortunately these normal difficulties are often compounded by totally unnecessary Eagle Scout Problems. All too often this drama is caused by the Scoutmaster. Somehow there are a number of Scoutmasters who act like that they are the gatekeepers for the advancement system (especially the rank of Eagle) when they are supposed to be coaches, guides and mentors....
Andy at Ask Andy shares these Eagle Scout thoughts: In 1931, Jane Addams, founder of Hull House, received the Nobel Peace Prize; she was 91 at the time.Former US President Jimmy Carter is also a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize; he was 78 when he received it. Theodore Roosevelt, the only US President to receive this recognition while in office, was a mere 48 on receipt. But he wasn’t the youngest....
Ask Andy answers a question about the 13 year-old Eagle and “delaying the earning of Eagle till Scouts are older and more mature… ” A bit of ancient history: I made Eagle at 15; my brother at 14; both of us stayed active in our Troop and in Scouting right up to 18, and then became ASMs (I went on to become Scoutmaster of the same Troop I’d earned my Tenderfoot badge in!...
Reaching the rank of Eagle Scout is a laudable and challenging goal for any boy, and we ought to keep the trail to Eagle clear. In many instances the process has been clouded by a self-appointed priesthood pledged to ‘maintain standards’ and ‘the integrity of the award’. They most often do this by unethically and incorrectly adding to the requirements in subtle and not so subtle ways. Perhaps it is a local anomaly but we seem to have an inordinately difficult time with the approval of projects, conduct of boards of review and a high degree of nit picking....