Troop,
Due to Adult leader availability, we have postponed our camping trip this weekend for three weeks. That would be the weekend of Nov 13-15 November.
There are fewer options for that timeframe, but we will figure it out and do some colder weather prep.
I wanted to touch a little on rank advancement like I did last night; more for the parents since you boys were there and heard my ramblings.
Here is our Troop’s process: Each Scout for the First Four (Scout, TF, 2C, 1C) will demonstrate his knowledge or skills to two levels of Scout leadership prior to coming to an adult for the final sign off. Each level of Scout leadership will initial in the left margin of the Scout’s handbook for each requirement completed. Scoutmasters (or Assistant SM) will sign off in the right margin once they are satisfied with the demonstration of skill, knowledge, or otherwise completed requirement.
Here is where I think the Scouts are getting confused: Over the past couple of weeks, I have done SM conferences where I have spent a lot of time with the Scout going over every requirement since they didn’t have any adult leader signatures. Then we rolled into the SM Conference portion.
Scouts do NOT have to wait until they have all the Scout leader initials before coming to Scoutmaster for initials. If the Scout is confident in one skill, demonstrates it though the two levels of Scout leaders, then he can go to an SM for final signature. I guess my point is not to wait until the end and rely on the SM conference to roll all that stuff into one night. The idea is to piece it together as you go along.
I hope this clears up any confusion. If you have any questions, give me a call, or shoot me a text. I know it has been weird due to “the Rona”, but now that we are back to in person meetings, we need to get back to our normal Rank AVD processes.
Talk to you soon,
Dan
