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These writings will always and forever be dedicated to Abby, Troop 1019, and all the young women blazing a new chapter.
Let's Talk Advancement
I was a participant in Woodbadge Class N6-544-21. I was tasked with writing "tickets" as part of my training. These "Tickets" are essentially what goals do you have for yourself, your troop, and the greater Scouting community. How will you improve, recruitment, retention, diversity, and access? What will you do? What change can you effect in 18 months? One of my goals was to create a social media page where people could get real information from someone that is doing it. A place where we can develop a community of support for each other, and exchange ideas. After I started doing research, I found this has already been thought of. I have found a wonderful active page on Facebook Scout BSA Girl Units, but to complete my goal, I created a more local page Scouts BSA Girls Units - Central PA, but I decided that this was not enough, made this blog. You can find me on Facebook on either of those pages. 
Now back to why I am writing today.
When people talk about Scouting, the one thing they focus on is the Eagle Scout. People often mention that some of the most successful people in their career fields were Eagle Scouts. When you look at a simple list of names, these are some pretty impressive people: Neil Armstrong, Justice Breyer, Bill Gates, James Lovell, Mike Rowe, Steven Spielberg, Ernest Green, Hank Aaron, Martin Luther King, Jr., Colin Powell. These great names, all males, for now, are some of the greatest members of our society. They are part of the 8% of Scouts that attain the rank of Eagle. Yes 8%, they are important, but what about the other 92%. 8 out of 100 will attain the rank of Eagle, but we just don't teach our skills, crafts, and values to those select few. Every child that joins scouts is an opportunity to improve their life. Through the aims and methods of Scouting, each child is learning skills that even if they do not realize at the moment, will help them in the future.
This brings us to using what is already given to help our Scouts grow. Advancement. Working with your senior patrol leaders, and looking at the requirements for advancement. Outside of merit badges, this is one area that will afford scouts a chance to work on their leadership and teaching skills. This is the way they can demonstrate the EDGE method, and really take ownership of the operations of the Troop. Showing the leaders that advancement skills and merit badges are connected. That many of the skills that you need to advance can be done by working on merit badges. Working on these badges as a group or as partners is a way to increase enjoyment. 
If you look at the path to First Class and the Eagle Required badges, you can find the cross-over.
BSA Required Eagle Badges
o First Aid
o Citizenship in the Community
o Citizenship in the Nation
o Citizenship in the World
o Communication
o Cooking
o Personal Fitness
o Emergency Preparedness or Lifesaving
o Environmental Science or Sustainability
o Personal Management
o Swimming or Hiking or Cycling
o Camping
o Family Life
If you look at First Aid, you can use the merit badge to complete -Tenderfoot - Requirement-4, Second Class - Requirement 6, First Class - Requirement 7. The reason I mention this is working on a merit badge often entails more real-world practical exercise and will result in longer retention of this skill.I bring this back to the 92% of Scouts that do not make Eagle. I think that learning basic first aid skills is something that will benefit them for the rest of their lives. These skills can be worked in a group and be made enjoyable. Add a little makeup for a bruise, or some fake blood and gash from Party City, and you have yourself a pretty enjoyable and real experience. Take the time to add the enjoyment, and even some of the not as fun badges can get done. 
In our Troop, we rotate our offerings of merit badges. We are small so we can do this with some flexibility for now. We did Space Exploration in November/December. This was a great time. Building rockets, doing a little bookwork, launching rockets. That was great fun. In January we started communication with them. This one is not always the Troop favorite, as there is a larger portion of the population more afraid of public speaking, than death. Yes, that is a true statistic. Letting the kids follow their interests helps keep them interested. By the end of this summer, all of our April 2021 AOL scouts will be First Class. They just kept moving forward because they were motivated, but also because we made them work enjoyable, and they are progressing together as a group.
I would highly recommend if your Scout is able to pass the swim test, they should complete the swimming merit badge at summer camp. Camping is done in the Troop. As you can see that what works is that the Scouts work as a unit, teach each other, learn from each other, and enjoy the experience.
If you are beating the national average of 8%, keeping them moving forward as a group is essential. Also when others see your Troop is having fun, it makes others want to check it out. Celebrate success, recognize progress, be there when it gets hard, encourage, and strengthen. Even if 90% of the kids that you are working with do not reach Eagle, they are still learning the vital skills needed. They are going to be able to handle adversity, and may get exposed to a future career field they will excel in, and be one of the 92% of extraordinary people in their field that are not Eagle Scouts.
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| 2021- Summer Camp - Finger Carving Merit Badge Recipient |
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