Dear Andy, It’s said, “Timing is everything.” I wish I’d read sooner your comprehensive response in the Mid-October 2004 “Ask Andy” series to the question, “Aren’t (Eagle) boards of review nothing more than rubber stamps?” I just went through the most uncomfortable Star BOR I’ve ever experienced. It involved a Scout, our Troop’s Senior Patrol […]

Dear Andy, In my travels as a Friends of Scouting contribution “encourager,” I’ve run into several men who were Scouts maybe fifty or so years ago, and a couple of them referred to themselves as a “Double-Eagle.” I’ve never heard of a “Double Eagle”—Do you have any idea what this means? (J.K., Patriots’ Path Council, […]

Dear Andy, I’m currently helping out with my son’s Cub Scout Den as an assistant. Meanwhile, my church is starting a new Pack, and might ask me to be a Den Leader there. Can I serve in more than one Pack? Is there any official policy that would prevent me from helping out? (Pedersenta6) Of […]

Many books and workshops on management, personal development, and so forth, talk hard about the idea of personal best.” They often recommend ”visualizing” – “If I were the best (you fill in the blank), how would I look, what would I be doing…?”  I think this can apply to our volunteer lives in Scouting, but […]

“Merit Badge ‘partials’ expire after a year”…“Eagles have to be at least age 16 because younger than that they don’t understand the significance of what they’ve accomplished or have the maturity to be a ‘real’ Eagle”…“Merit Badge Counselors can’t counsel their own sons”…“Unless a Scout completes a requirement while with his Troop or patrol, it […]

Hey Andy, I’m a new Assistant Scoutmaster who was looking forward to joining my son (Arrow of Light Cub Scout) in Boy Scouts this year. But, being in the National Guard, my country came first. Now I’m stationed in Iraq until mid-2005, looking at pictures of my son making his achievements without me. It saddens […]

Hi Andy! May I copy your article titled “The Day the Music Died” for use at our next Roundtable. I will, of course, include the appropriate credits. (Dave Hudson, UC, Ojibwa District-Clinton Valley Council) I’m honored that you’d ask, and the answer is absolutely YES! May I also ask that you encourage your folks to […]

Well, the summer’s starting to wrap up, and here we are, beginning to look forward to the start of school and the Fall Scouting programs. So, I thought I’d take a personal moment and share with you a letter I received from my grandson, Andy III. Here it is… Dear Grampa, Our Scoutmaster told us […]

Hi Andy, I’m trying to answer a question, asked by my Scoutmaster. I need to list all the Presidents who were in Scouting, and their ranks. I think I have all that, but it also mentions the Silver Buffalo Awards. All the sources I’ve found say that 13 Presidents received the Silver Buffalo; but none […]

Dear Andy, As a Scoutmaster, I must respectfully disagree with the BSA’s absence of restrictions on merit badge counselors signing off on their own son, particularly when other counselors for the same merit badge might be available. How can Scouts “learn how to initiate contact with an adult they don’t know,” when that “adult” is […]