The BSA was a great program when I was in it. I enjoyed it and learned a lot from it.
My eldest son was trying to get his Eagle. He put out project plans that would have been just fine, but the local guy kept shooting them down, insisting that he put in a new flag pole for the new park… meaning he wanted me to buy a new damn flag pole for the park. He new time for my son was running out. Five project proposals in a week at one point… all shot down. For my Son. Other scouts I know of in other troops did those projects just fine. Nope, they wanted us to buy a flag pole.
But the time came and went and my son passed the deadline to get his Eagle.
I’m pissed.
Now my other sons are having other problems with the BSA… and they are no longer enjoying the program here. I’m just done with the BSA. And that makes me very sad.
(There was a little Change in the local BSA leadership all the sudden. This may be a good thing.)
We’ve had problems, too. It seems that the BSA troops are not for the boys anymore, they have been warped into these little fiefdoms of control for the adults. It’s cliquey, like High School. My son had his Scoutmaster conference and his review board for his last rank put off , cancelled, or other kids got to jump ahead of him, for over 2 months. THis is with weekly meetings. He doesn’t want to go to anymore meetings at this troop, and we’ve been shopping out ohter troops, but, I afraid that it will be same shit, different smell. My wife and I have had it out with the Scoutmaster and a Committee Chair on more than one occasion, regarding bullying, and other issues going on.
“little fiefdoms of control for the adults.”
You, sir, have just described my former troop. Getting out was one of the best decisions I have ever made. I have no regrets.
Time to make a formal complaint to the BSA regional office in Orem (I think).
Could have looked at the plans of a BSA approved flag pole from the handbook. A pine pole with some hemp rope IIRC.
M’s right. The Eagle project is to be proposed by the scout, not by the scoutmaster. I understand that you are frustrated, and rightly so. And that your son has been shafted, and wrongly so. That scoutmaster needs to lose his position. He abused his position, and now he needs the appropriate consequences.
What can the regional office do? I don’t recall much contact from them when I was in Scouts, but I had some decent Scoutmasters and it was a pretty worthwhile experience.
I say contact the local guy’s “boss”. It is not right to “require” a certain (expensive) project in order to gain the Eagle.
I’m just done with them all. Screw’m.
This place looks interesting;
http://www.vernalmartialarts.com/
In our Eagle program the boys have to take intiative and speak to individuals, contractors and vendors to seek expertise, donations and help to get the project finished. There is a reason that Eagles receive preferential trreatment in job interviews and in the military. My son graduated from boot canp 2 ranks above his class mates because he was an Eagle.
In my Boot, the scouts became squad leaders and the Eagle the Platoon Guide. I replaced the Eagle the next day and was stuck with it the rest of the time.
Perhaps this time, money, and energy could be channeled into some branch of martial arts.
I’m involved in scouting, but only at the Webelos level. I set up a decently strict schedule for getting the scouts their requirements for their Webelos patch and we’re pretty good at following it. For me, my only goal is to get the boys their awards.
We take the boys out to Camp Kiesel, near Causey Reservoir. A woman in my ward is the camp director out there. I know personally that her goal is to get the boys their awards and primarily take ideas FROM THEM what they want to accomplish.
Ogre, you do not have to do the activities that the local leadership demands. You can set the pace for what your kids do and if they refuse to sign it off, you can either take it to the Bishop (who should be running the show for the Aaronic Priesthood) or if it’s not an LDS troop, get your kids into another troop.
They’re there to help the kids, not dictate what they will or will not be doing.
If the scouts are cliquish, and certain boys magically have everything fall into place for Eagle, while others get roadblocks, it sounds like not much has changed since my brother and I were in 20 years ago. The troop was chartered through the local LDS church, and depending on who the scoutmaster was at the time, it varied from being fair, to all about getting the LDS boys through to their Eagle, and particularly from one family. Non-LDS could still make Eagle, but they didn’t get the way paved ahead of them. In other words, they had to actually deserve it. Only about half of the LDS recipients seemed to.
I had just the opposite of that, except for the scout leaders son(kid couldn’t read for hells sake). I got to the rank of Star before girls,sports and guitars took over my life. If a kid doesn’t get his eagle by the time he is 14 its harder than hell to get it. The wide variety of what is an acceptable eagle project baffles me. Some are flat out hard and time consuming and others are flat out crap.
I had a tough time getting my eagle when I was a kid. My dad was the scoutmaster and my mom was on the eagle review board. Just prior to turning in my paperwork for my eagle they added one more required merit badge. It was one of those 3 month jobs too. Rule in our family was you don’t get a drivers license until you get your eagle. I got mine at 16.5. The other bonus was we got a gun when we got our eagle. It’s how I got my first rifle a Rem 7600 .270 winchester. Scouting was a big deal growing up. The last few years my mom was the one you turned your papers in to. She was a stickler on the rules. If you didn’t get your papers in by the time you were 18 you were out of luck. Hopefully the local changes help and your boy gets his eagle. My dad only made it to star and regretted it his whole life. But to have 5 boys make eagle it made up for it some.
I had issues when I was in. I say we abandon BSA as a whole and redo it from scratch. Go back to the original intent of the program.
Amen.