Ask the Experts

This post from Scouting Magazine’s Cracker Barrel answers a question I sent in: We at Cracker Barrel feel geographically blessed to be in the same building as most of the Boy Scouts of America’s major decision-makers. So when one of you comes to us with a question about Scouting policy, we know how to find the answer. That was the case when Clarke Green had a question about advancement.

Clarke writes: “Many troops have adopted a policy that interprets the ‘active’ requirement as attending a specific minimum percentage of meetings and outings. This seems to be in contradiction to the BSA policy forbidding adding or subtracting from requirements. Are troops permitted to add these percentages to requirements?” The short answer: No. For the official reasoning, we went to Bill Evans , team leader of youth development for the BSA. Here’s what Bill told us: “Good question. As the writer states, it is true and stated several times in the Advancement Policies and Procedures Guide that neither, councils, districts, nor units may add to, modify, or delete BSA advancement policies. This rule is highlighted, bold, and in a box so people won’t miss it. If a unit does modify the active requirement as the writer suggests, it could come back to haunt them if the youth appeals a negative decision based on that modification. The national advancement taskforce just revisited the definition of ‘active’ and, after great discussion, decided to leave it as it is.

Units may not add a percentage of meetings to attend.” We hope that clears up your question, Clarke.

Thanks for asking. If you have a BSA-related question, we’ll find the answer. Just send us an e-mail .