With the start of Fall, Troop 26 is back in the swing of things, and the new leadership and Court of Honor reminds me of a topic that you should be thinking about in terms of your advancement in Scouting. While fall is busy with school, sports, lobster season, and holidays, finishing up your next rank often goes to a back burner. Let’s see where this can be a problem: Say you’re a Star Scout, just about at Life, and you get elected to a leadership position in February. You then finish up your Life rank in March – so you’re in good shape, right?! NO!! When you finish your leadership term in August – you’ll only have done 5 months of leadership as a Life Scout – not six! You’re one month short – so now you have to do a second six month term to get that last month for your Life rank.
Now, that’s not to say doing leadership is a bad thing – in fact, you should be wanting to do it, since it’s your troop, and it’s only as good as you make it! However, we have had several scouts who are closing in on Eagle, and their 18’th birthday, only to be almost caught in this trap of missing a few weeks of leadership. Sure, it’s only a few weeks, and you might think we could look the other way – but what’s the right (and easy) way to do it is for you just to stay on top of the timing of your advancement! Just check with a Scoutmaster if you want to see how you’re doing on advancement – we’re here to help. A bonus might be to see some Eagles finish up early enough to hang around the troop for a while before heading off to new adventures!!
ASM Weakliem
