ADVANCEMENT
PROCEDURES
TROOP 125
One of the best features of the Boy Scouts is the Advancement Program and the Rank Awards associated with it. As you progress from Scout to First Class, through the honor ranks, and hopefully culminate in becoming an Eagle Scout, you will learn skills that will benefit you for your entire life. Furthermore, the awards and badges that you will earn in the various ranks will help to motivate and keep you interested in your personal advancement. Many adult men have stated “Becoming an Eagle Scout was the first major goal I achieved in life.”
While advancing through the scout ranks is a key element in scouting, the process through which you advance is very important. The process designed below is intended to help you learn the skills and to keep them a part of you for your lifetime.
An excellent resource concerning requirements for scout ranks and merit badges is Boy Scout Requirements. This book, which is available for a nominal cost at The Scoutfitter, lists the requirements for all ranks and merit badges. Furthermore, it is the most up-to-date listing because new merit badge pamphlets are often slow to be revised when requirements change. A new edition of Boy Scout Requirements is available each January.
Trail to First Class Presentation
The goal of the first four ranks in scouting is to introduce you to all of the basic scout skills. You will deepen your knowledge of these skills as you move into the honor ranks, but your first goal should be to acquire the basic scout skills and knowledge. You will learn these through attending troop meetings and campouts on a regular basis, and by completing the requirements for these ranks.
Many of the skills in each of these ranks build on the skills that you learned in the previous rank. For example, the first aid skills for the rank of Second Class assume you know the first aid skills for Tenderfoot. For this reason, we ask that you complete all of the requirements for each rank before you begin the requirements for the next rank. This way, sufficient time will have passed for those skills to sink in and become a part of your everyday knowledge and practice.
1. Select a requirement for the rank for which you are working. Read the information in your scout handbook for that requirement.
2. Seek to learn the skill or knowledge needed for that requirement. Ask an older scout or your parents to help teach you that skill; or attend a class where that skill is taught.
3. When you are ready to complete the requirement, tell your patrol leader or another scout in leadership that you would like to pass off the requirement. All First Class scouts who currently hold an active leadership position (PL, APL, SPL, Scribe, Quartermaster, Guide, etc.) are allowed to pass off the rank requirements for these first four ranks. (Note: The Scoutmaster and his Assistants may also pass you off on the completion of the requirements, and occasionally there may be other adult leaders who teach classes on the requirements, and those “adult” leaders may also pass you off on the requirements during their class. You are asked, however, to use our “boy” scout leaders unless they are unavailable.) The scout leader will ask you to demonstrate your knowledge or ability to perform the requirement. If you sufficiently complete the requirement, the scout leader will initial and date the requirement in your scout handbook. If you are not able to complete the requirement, the leader will help you learn the requirement, and you will then need to complete it at a later time.
4. Complete steps 1, 2 & 3 above for all requirements for the rank.
5. When you have completed all of the requirements for the rank, contact your Scoutmaster for a Scoutmaster Conference. If the Scoutmaster feels that you have sufficiently completed all of the requirements for the rank, he will initial your handbook and you are now ready for your Board of Review. This is a great opportunity for you to discuss with the Scoutmaster the things you like about Troop 125, as well as ways that your experience could be even better.
6. Take your scout handbook to the records office. The records coordinator will enter the data from your handbook into your master computer record and will print out a summary sheet for your Board of Review. Review the summary sheet to insure that all of the data has been entered correctly.
7. Contact the Board of Review Coordinator to schedule your Board of Review. You will need to go to the Board of Review in full scout uniform. Generally three or four men from the troop committee will be on your Board of Review. They will ask you about the requirements to make sure that you have completed them, and will ask questions about your scout spirit, your adherence to the Scout Oath & Law, your appraisal of the troop, and your plans for your future advancement.
8. After you have completed the Board of Review, you will be awarded your new rank at the next Court of Honor. Be sure to tell your parents to be present with you when you receive the award.
STAR, LIFE, AND EAGLE
In the honor ranks, you will deepen your knowledge of basic scout skills, and will expand into many other specialties through your merit badge experience. Completion of merit badges is the main requirement for the honor ranks, but you will have some very important service and leadership responsibilities as well. Whereas you primarily worked with other boy leaders to complete the requirements up to First Class, you will now mainly work with adult leaders.
1. Select a merit badge to complete. Note that there are some merit badges classified as “required,” and that a certain number of these required badges are needed for each rank. See the merit badge procedures below to complete each badge.
2. You will need to complete service hours for your Star and Life ranks. Secure approval for the planned service opportunity from your Scoutmaster. For your Eagle service project, you will need to undertake a more significant project that incorporates significant leadership responsibilities as well as service. For your Eagle project, you will need to complete an official Eagle Scout Service Project application and secure approval from the troop committee as well as the district chairman. The Eagle Scout Advisor will guide you in this process.
3. Select a leadership position to complete for each rank. Secure approval to be considered for the position from your Scoutmaster. The troop members elect some of these positions, and either the Senior Patrol Leader or the Scoutmaster will appoint the others.
4. When you have completed the requirements for each rank, follow steps 5, 6, 7, & 8 above. For your Eagle Scout Board of Review and Court of Honor, contact the Eagle Scout Advisor.
MERIT BADGES
Merit Badges give you a chance to specialize in various areas of scout skills as well as various hobby and potential career fields. In merit badges, you will work with an adult leader who has special knowledge and skills in that particular field. It will be an excellent opportunity for you to be mentored by an adult and to explore a subject to an extent not otherwise available.
The troop has appointed a “primary” merit badge counselor for most badges. You are asked to earn the badge through this primary counselor unless the counselor is unavailable. The troop has designated these primary counselors so that the counselor can become a real “specialist” in the requirements of the badge, to insure consistency for all boys in the troop taking the badge, and to expose you to the skills of a number of adults in the troop.
1. Choose the merit badge that you desire to earn. Purchase (or borrow) the merit badge pamphlet.
2. Contact the primary merit badge counselor and make a plan to complete the requirements of the badge according to the instructions of the counselor. (If the primary counselor is unable to work with you, or if you have difficulties getting in touch with or working with a particular counselor, see the Merit Badge Coordinator at the Advancement table. He will review the situation and appoint a secondary counselor if needed.) It is important that you contact the counselor prior to working on the badge. This is different from how you completed requirements up to First Class. You may need to complete some of the requirements in the counselor’s presence, or he may desire to instruct you in some of the material. While the counselor will not ask you to do more than the badge requires, part of the value of the badge is meeting with the counselor for his input into the subject matter of the badge. This value is diminished if you call the counselor after having done the requirements and merely ask him to “sign off” on the requirements.
3. Discuss each of the requirements for the badge with the counselor and make sure that you understand what is expected to successfully complete it.
4. Meet with the counselor as scheduled to do the requirements of the merit badge. Read the merit badge pamphlet as directed by the counselor. In many cases, the counselor will ask you to read the entire pamphlet prior to your first meeting.
5. As you complete the requirements of the badge, the counselor will complete and give to you a blue Application for Merit Badge card. He will sign this card when you have completed all of the requirements for the badge. There are three sections of this card. The counselor will keep one of the sections for his records. One section will be for you to keep. The third section needs to be turned in to the Advancement table. (Note: Most of the primary counselors will have the blue merit badge cards, but you may need to take a card to them if they have run out. These cards are available from the Advancement table. If you are being assigned to a secondary counselor, you will generally be issued a blue card for the counselor to complete at the same time the counselor is assigned.)
6. The Advancement Committee member will get the signature of the scoutmaster on the card after the badge is completed, and will turn the completed card in to the records office. You will be presented the merit badge at the next Court of Honor. It is advisable to periodically check with the records coordinator to insure that your merit badge progress is accurate and current.
Merit Badges at Summer Camp
Summer Camp affords an excellent opportunity for you to earn a number of merit badges or specialized badges in a concentrated period of time. The merit badge counselors will be provided by the camp, however, and not provided by the troop. You will generally be in a class with boys from many other troops as well.
The camp merit badge counselor will turn in to the troop a record of the requirements that you completed at camp for the badge. He will indicate if you “completed” the badge or if you earned a “partial” for the badge. If you earned a partial, contact the troop primary merit badge counselor to complete the remaining portion of the badge. Follow procedures 1, 2, & 3 above as if you were just beginning the badge. The troop counselor will not make you repeat the requirements that you successfully completed at summer camp, but he may review those with you in order to insure that you have, in fact, met the requirements. If the counselor feels that a requirement was not completed or a deficiency exists in fulfilling a requirement, he will advise you as to what needs to be done to satisfy it.
Most of the badges “completed” at summer camp will be immediately processed and awarded at the next Court of Honor. Occasionally, however, there will be badges marked as “completed” in which all of the requirements of the badge were not done or were poorly done. If the troop leadership feels this is the case for a particular badge, you will need to meet with the troop primary merit badge counselor (steps 2 & 3 above) and complete/redo the requirements that the troop leadership feels were overlooked or unsatisfactorily completed at summer camp.
Merit Badges at Colleges, Clinics, and other Summer
Camps
You are encouraged to take advantage of other opportunities to earn merit badges. Saturday clinics, summer merit badge colleges, and other summer camps can provide those opportunities. Because these merit badges are being taught away from the supervision of our troop, you will be asked to review the requirements completed with the troop primary merit badge counselor (steps 2 & 3 above). Contact the primary merit badge counselor before the class if possible, but certainly after the class and arrange to meet with the counselor. The counselor will not ask you to repeat the requirements that you completed at the class, but will review the ways that you completed the requirements and will ask you to complete any that he feels were overlooked. He will give you a blue merit badge card to turn in after the requirements are finished.
Special Note on Group Instruction of Merit Badges
BSA’s policy on group instruction is as follows: “To the fullest extent possible, the merit badge counseling relationship is a counselor-scout arrangement in which the boy is not only judged on his performance of the requirements, but receives maximum benefit from the knowledge, skill, character, and personal interest of his counselor. Group instruction and orientation are encouraged where special facilities and expert personnel make this most practical, or when scouts are dependent on only a few counselors for assistance. However, this group experience should be followed by attention to each individual candidate’s projects and his ability to fulfill all requirements.”
Accordingly, you may not qualify for merit badges by just being a member of a group that is instructed in particular skills. You must qualify by personally satisfying to the merit badge counselor that you have met all of the requirements for the badge.
Special Note on Individual Instruction of Merit Badges
The Boy Scout Youth Protection policy requires that another person always be present when an adult is working with a boy. Adult leaders are never permitted to work with a boy one-on-one in private. Thus you will need to have another person present with you when you meet with a counselor, or you will need to meet with the counselor in a public area where other people are around. If you are going to the counselor’s home, you will need to take another scout, friend, sibling, or parent with you, or make sure that another member of the counselor’s family will be present.
In light of the above two special notes, small groups of two or three scouts together meeting with a counselor so that each one can earn the badge is an ideal merit badge environment.