This page is a letter to the parents of all the 11 yr old scouts in our Stake, from your Stake Primary Leaders:
Welcome to Boy Scouts!
We hope the following information will help
you have a fun and successful experience with your scout.
The journey to Eagle
begins now
Everything your scout
has achieved up to this point has been in preparation for Boy Scouts. He is now ready to achieve greater challenges
and greater rewards. Statistics say that
only 5% of boy scouts earn their eagle, and we hope that your child will be one
of the 5%. Statistics also show that if
a scout can earn the rank of "1st class" before he turns 12 years
old, he is more likely to earn his eagle.
The following information is to show you how to help your son be in the
5%.
You have wonderful leaders who have a plan to guide your son
to achieve his scouting goals. You also
play an important role in your son's success!
Here are some tips to understanding how the scouting program works and
how you can help your son reach his goals
Scouting Basics
The scouting program has very specific procedures to follow
and as long as you know what the "rules" are, it is a very
straightforward program, with wonderful benefits for scouts. The information below is a crash course in understanding the Boy Scout system.
The Boy Scout Handbook
The black colored pages of the
handbook are for record keeping. You'll
find the rank requirements there, as well as a place to keep track of service hours,
camp outs, and merit badges. This is
where you can help your son by making sure he (or the leaders) are marking all
of the proper places and signing and dating the interviews & board of
reviews.
Your son will be earning merit badges, as well as rank
advancements.
Rank advancements: Each rank advancement has a specific set of
requirements, and includes a "scoutmaster
conference" (a meeting with his scoutmaster), and a "board of review" (a meeting with
several scout leaders). These meetings
give your son the opportunity to share what he has learned to that point, and
to review rank requirements to be sure that they have been met. The first three ranks do not have a time
period involved, but after that there will be a time frame that they have to
meet before they can advance. So it's
especially helpful for you to make sure the signatures and dates are written in
your son's scout handbook.
Merit Badges: Each merit badge has its own set of
requirements. You can find them at
www.scouting.org You can help your son
with merit badge requirements, but only a merit
badge counselor (someone with experience on the topic of the merit badge,
and who is registered with the BSA for the topic), can sign it off. A "blue
card" is a little card (and its blue) with 3 sections. This has to be signed by the merit badge
counselor for the topic. It has 3
sections and here's why:
"applicant's record" is for you to keep, "counselors
record" is for the merit badge counselor to keep, "Application for
merit badge" is turned in to the advancement chair (or your leader).
Here's the important part, the B.S.A. has to have the signed
blue card in order to accept the merit badge.
So, keep track of your copy of the blue cards! Just in case anything happens and you need to
show what merit badges your son has earned.
Organize for success
One way you can help your scout to be successful is to show him how to organize his scouting information. He will be tracking progress, taking notes, writing reports and logging information. Teaching him how to keep track of all his scouting information will be a big help.
Materials to gather:
"the
Boy Scout Handbook" (buy online or at the scout office in Sandy)
3
ring binder
Tab
dividers
Baseball
card collecting sleeves (for merit badge organizing)
Print
merit badge requirements & worksheets as needed (online: www.scouting.org )
www.etrailtoeagle.com : this is a website that many scout
troops are using to track all their scout information. Check with your leader to see if they are
using it and they will help you get a login and password.
Printables
use this printable to make tabs for your scout's binder
use this printable to track your scout's advancement activities
use this printable to help your son know what he will need to memorize for his first rank advancement
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