10 July 2009
New Boy Scout Rank Requirements
Posted by admin under: policies .
ScoutingNews.org is reporting from the national website that the 12th Edition of the Boy Scout Handbook will have changes to rank advancement requirements.
Here are the requirement changes, remember they take effect on January 1, 2010:
Tenderfoot
- A Scout must teach another person how to tie a square knot using the EDGE model (explain, demonstrate, guide, and enable).
- He must also be able to discuss four specific examples of how he lived the points of the Scout Law in his daily life.
Second Class
A Scout must discuss the principles of Leave No Trace and explain the factors to consider when choosing a patrol site and where to pitch a tent.
He must explain what respect is due the flag of the United States.
He must again discuss four examples of how he lived four different points of the Scout Law in his daily life.
He must earn an amount of money agreed upon by the Scout and his parents and save at least 50 percent of it.
First Class
An additional requirement to the 10 separate troop/patrol activities states he must demonstrate the principles of Leave No Trace on these outings.
He must discuss four more examples of how he lived the remaining four points of the Scout Law in his daily life.
Life
A Scout must use the EDGE model to teach a younger Scout a specified skill.
Star, Life, and Eagle
Troop Webmaster and Leave No Trace trainer are two new leadership positions.
Sounds like it’s time to start a troop web page if don’t have one so your young men have an additional opportunity for leadership. I’m still trying to get a Bugler in our troop. Apparently, it’s hard.
- Digital Boy Scout Handbook
- Closeout on 2008 Eagle Application
- BSA’s Advancement Path
- ScoutingNews Clears Up 12th Edition Boy Scout Handbook Versions
- Interactive Boy Scout Handbook
12 Comments so far...
Scouter Steve Says:
10 July 2009 at 3:51 pm.
I think that having Troop Webmaster as an official leadership position is an excellent opportunity for our Scouts. I hope that the requirements for the position are well defined so the new webmasters don’t run afoul of any Internet gotchas. I am also concerned that this might step on the toes of many adult leaders who already run troop websites. They often pour considerable amounts of effort into providing webmaster services for their units, and take great pride in their work. In those cases, I think that existing adult-run troop websites should be re-designated as the Troop Committee website, and the Scout webmaster should run a Patrol Leaders Council or Scouts website serving the unit’s scouts. Does that approach make sense to any of the other Scouters out there?
YIS,
Scouter Steve
Unit Commissioner and Host of Reverent Scout Radio
http://ReverentScout.com
Randy C Says:
10 July 2009 at 6:36 pm.
Good Idea Steve. We have a Web Site, that our adult Webmaster has difficulty maintaining so this is great. Now, can we have a training module to assist leaders in potentially teaching a youth how to do this, but more importantly to help us help our youth avaoid the gotches you alluded to.
As a Roundtable Commissioner and Scoutmaster this would make some great ongoing roundtable special features this year. Ongoing reinforcement training modulesl for the Leave No Trace stuff, (which we have actually been doing since I was a Scout in the 60’s) and some of the other recent advancement changes as well would be helpful.
YIS
New York OA Trader | Shared Items From Around The Web – July 11, 2009 Says:
11 July 2009 at 9:00 am.
[...] New Boy Scout Rank Requirements [...]
Eleanor Says:
21 July 2009 at 8:06 pm.
As a long time scouter and having been a scout parent, I think the requirement for the second class scout that says a scout should earn a set amount of money and save half of it……how as a middle schooler (most likely) is he going to do this? job? (too young); allowance? (are you kidding? in these times?). This will have to entail a lot of work on the parent(s), which sometimes is not feasible, especially single parent families. This requirement is all well and good and is an early learning of how income/saving/expenses work. But I suppose if the boy saves his birthday, Christmas, etc. money he may be able to complete this requirement.
Leave No Trace on the EDGE of your Next Rank « JohnScout 2.0 Says:
22 July 2009 at 11:53 pm.
[...] July 22, 2009 The next round of BSA requirement changes for Boy Scouts are making the rounds on the [...]
Neil Says:
11 August 2009 at 10:53 am.
Eleanor: the purpose is not to complete a requirement. earning money to pay ones own way is a basic life skill. how does a scout think his summer camp fees get paid? Most troops I know of maintain scout accounts the boys can contribute/save to through the year.
- save cans and cash them in at the recycler (this sustains many homeless)
- sell popcorn (and it promotes citizenship supporting your council)
- organize or participate in a troop car wash (or any myriad of fundraisers you troop does)
- shovel snow/rake leaves/mow lawns (any physically able 7th grader should know how)
The requirement does not specify the amount. Just that it is agreed ahead (plan) and not all spent (a scout is thrifty). What’s the lesson if mom or dad just “writes a check.”
Dave Baer Says:
3 September 2009 at 11:08 pm.
Has anyone found a good job description for the new leadership position of Troop Webmaster? I’ve searched on line and found a few examples from other Troops, but I was wondering whether anyone else has anything they could share…?
Thanks!
Mary Says:
15 September 2009 at 10:38 pm.
The description of the scout webmaster is the key. Until we are given a clear description 
I was thinking that there could be a few different ways that a scout could serve as webmaster. 1) blog (link it to main troop website) 2) twitter or facebook… I think national bsa is hooked up with twitter & facebook. I’m not personally on it but I think it can be time consuming to keep up with.. perfect for those scouts who already uses these services. 3) scout takes over troop website… In many cases they might actually do a better job than the adults. 4) scout uses a free service like the google sites that have easy templates and the scouts could build these mini sites for preparing for special events like High Adventure trips or the National Jamboree… things like this… and then link to your main troop website. And of course, it all depends on the age of the scout and what the scout, troopmaster, and parents are comfortable with. It’s an interesting topic and I look forward to see a better description for it.
Carol Fredrickson Says:
22 February 2010 at 10:41 am.
Does anyone have any information on the new troop leadership positions? I remember there was a Webmaster and a Leave No Trace, was there something else?
The boys are having their leadership elections soon and I can’t find this info.
dave halo Says:
16 October 2010 at 3:37 pm.
late post on this…so some qualifiers, I am an eagle scout (’90) and now have a son in scouting (2.5 years). Perhaps my expectations were wrong but the changes in scouting are astonishing to say the least…
The push to obtain Eagle regardless of these new req’s is absurd. I still see scouts as a skills based organization:
wilderness skills
community skills
leadership skills
faith skills
These 4 core areas are lost in the new zeal for boys to make eagle before highschool starts. As a biologist, I know that there are always exceptions to the rule…but earning eagle as a 13-14 old was rare to uncommon when i was in scouts. It appears commonplace now.
I see merit badge days where boys go in and earn first aid in 7 hours (yes with a few pre-req’s like a 1st aid kit already completed and no some of these boys are not 1st class yet and have not finished the 1st aid req’s for tenderfoot, 2nd class and 1st class). Or the response I get from adults in my son’s troop that many non-eagle merit badges can be earned in a day because in essence they are “gimme merit badges”.
Example – ski and snowboarding. You’ve got boys earning this in a day who have never been on a 1 or 2 planks before in their life. This is assinine and represents just one example of the short-changing that BSA now does in teaching life skills.
Yes I think BSA can teach still serve a function. Yes I hope my son gets his eagle but it will be on his schedule and ignoring the current adult leaders who question…yes question…his commitment because at 13 years and 4 months he just earned 1st class. Point is he is having fun and learning…
I could go on about OA…a 13 year old in OA? Give me a break. This is supposed to be an honor to scouts who have demonstrated a commitment to scouting over time. A 13 year old doesn’t even come close….
My only goal is keep my son from seeing how disillusioned i am about the current state of the BSA.
Chris Says:
10 February 2011 at 8:51 am.
I got my Eagle at 14 yrs “78″. I worked hard and set a goal. I wanted to go to Prep school and knew I wouldn’t have time for Scouting. In my day there was a Star project (I repaired and painted the church fence-back in the day a Scout was reverent- Scouting to me seems to have lost some of that). My Life project I raised money for the Audubon Society (back then very few cared about the environment- raised thousands of dollars to help them-funding was low back then) and my Eagle project I orgainzed a get out and vote campaign for my town. I went to every home in my town with preballots and helped with the voting day activity. Those projects took time and creativity. I still remember all the work that went into them.
Now my son is in scouting. he’s 2x the scout I was. He’s in the 7th grade, but takes High school classes, Algebra Math and Biology. The prep schools he is looking at, I wouldn’t have even thought to write off to. He learned the knots in half the time, and get this, he even realized that some of them no longer apply to scouting, like taut-line hitch, told and tested in my day, as the knot to be used between the tent and tent peg- there are no tent pegs any more.
I find the opposite happening of the gentlemen above (Dave Halo). Scouts are staying in and getting their Eagle at 18 yrs old. Most of the time because the troop and the scoutmaster fell it’s the right thing to do, he put his time in. I saw a 17 1/2 scout swearing at a scoutmaster and grooping him to fight him. What a disgrace. And they still gave him his Eagle- the quote was “he put so musch time in”. In the 70’s 1-100 scout earned their Eagle, now it’s 4-100, anyone can get an Eagle if they stay in scouting till 18 (I hope). If you played sports along, today or in my day, you earned 4 merit badges-and Yes Sports was Just the Scouting Handbook tells the story, look at the 8th edition (70’s) and look at today’s scouting book. The 70’s shows young boys, today’s scouts that are older.
At 18 yrs old, I was running my Dad’s shipping department in the summer months, training for college track and dating. My point, BSA needs to have a cut off date 15 or 16 yrs old. It’s called Boy Scouts for a reason, not Man Scouts. Today, boys are full grown by 16. The BSA should have all scouts 16+ yrs transfered into Venturing Scouting, so that they can be with the opposite sex. Back in my day, Explorer scouting (renamed Venturing in the 80’s I guess) was really non existant. Why in God’s name with a 17 1/2 yr old want to be around 11 yr olds?
Advancement is advancement, regardless of age, it’s what the scout does with his Eagle after scouting ends. Some Eagle scouts do great things, Steve Foster, NASA astronauts etc and others, and some tarnish the award and the organization- the Eagle scout in the 70’s that climb the U Texas water tower and sniped people, the NH Eagle acout 2 yrs old that cut a mother and daughters head off, asked why or did he know them, he answered “no, I was bored”.
