BSP PROGRESIVE SCHEME & THE BADGE SYSTEM
Session Objective
- Explain the philosophy and principles of advancement.
- Illustrate the BSP Advancement Scheme
- Discuss the importance Badge System.
- Describe the Merit Badge Counseling Process
- Talk about the role of adults in promoting Scout Advancement.
The Philosophy of SCOUT ADVANCEMENT
Series of basic activities which will help develop scouts
physically, morally and socially and to have fun while doing the activities. As each scout progresses, he will gain
self-reliance and come to realize that he is capable of undertaking
increasingly difficult skills. As an
outcome, scouts then can accept certain responsibilities towards other
people. Included in the Scout
Advancement concept is the recognition of the scouts’ progression by an award
or a BADGE. (The Badge System)
The Principles of SCOUT ADVANCEMENT
- The scout is encouraged to compete, not against somebody else but against himself.
- The scouts’ advancement in rank should happen as a result of his normal experience in the unit.
- The scout should be given opportunity to practice requirement rather than be told.
- Various Scout Ranks and Badges represent the Scout’s degree of qualification to be a good outdoorsman and a good citizen.
- Scouts should be informed about the reasons and purposes of the advancement requirements and how they fit usefully into their everyday lives.
- Advancement must be presented attractively and be fun. It must be enjoyed and leading towards a definiteend.
- Advancement is ONLY a means to an end as the obejective is not to produce Eagle Scouts or Leaping Usa Scouts but MEN OF CHARACTER, trained for responsible citizenship.
Rationale of the BADGE SYSTEM
The Badge System is based on a set of requirements so
planned that the scouts’ interest will be developed in a natural way. Parents, Scout Leaders and other adults play
an important role in making the Badge System truly work in the Color Group
(Kawan), Patrol (Troop), Crew (Outfit) or at home, in school, in the community
and most especially in the life of the scouts.
The Badge System is the recognition for an achievement or
for meeting the requirements for advancement, but the real satisfaction must
come from the way the boy earned it and not the badge itself. Therefore, it is not a program for doing
things for the sake of getting badges.
Thus the Badge System aims to produce boys of character, trained on hjis
four duties: Duty to God; Duty to
Country; Duty to Other; and Duty to Self.
Principles of the BADGE SYSTEM
The Advancement program was planned to encourage the natural
interests of the boy in a natural way.
It is silply a guide to his everyday life. It is not a program of doing things for the
sake of earning badges. The badges are
incidental and parents and leaders must avoid allowing the badges to become the
aim in itself. The Badge is recognition
for merit/achievement, the real satisfaction comes from the ”doing”-not-“
getting”.
FOUR EASY STEPS IN ADVANCEMENT
Step 1. The Boy
Learns (Preparation)
The boy learns Scouting skills by taking an active hands-on
part in Troop and Patrol Meetings and the outdoor programs. This learning is
the natural outcome of his regular Scouting activities as in learning how to
tie a square knot or how to treat for shock and transport the injured during
Patrol Meetings.
Step 2. The Boy Is
Tested (Examination)
When his leaders see that he has mastered a given skill and
has satisfied a given requirement, they tell him so and record his achievement.
This testing is done through observation made as the boy participates in the
activities and not by means of a threatening written test or interview. Rather,
the testing is based on how the boy performed in a knot tying relay or the
gadgets he was able to put up when the Troop or the Patrol went camping.
Step 3. The Boy Is
Reviewed (Review)
When a Scout completes all requirements for a rank, he
appears before a Board of Review composed of members of the Troop Committee.
Their purpose is not to retest the boy but to make sure he has met all the
requirements, to chat with him about how he feels he is getting along with the
Troop and Scouting, and of course to encourage him to keep advancing.
Step 4. The Boy is
Recognized (Award) When a Scout is certified by the Board of Review, he is
awarded a new badge of rank the soonest time possible in a ceremony in the next
Troop Meeting. He should be recognized again in the Troops next Court of Honor.
ROLE OF ADULTS IN PROMOTING THE SCOUT ADVANCEMENT
The Scouting program is not for the scouts alone but for the
whole family. The amount of interest
cooperation and support received from parents and leaders will determine what
Scouting can do to our boys.
KAWAN LEADER
Plans and develop a program of activities integrating
different requirements of a certain badge.
Applying the “PLAY-WAY” method, the boy accomplishes the requirements
without actually knowing it. Advancement
in this case comes as a natural outcome of such activities.
PARENTS
Parents can give inspiration and guidance to their sons in
accomplishing advancement requirements at home.
Since KAB Scouting is also a home-centered program, most of the
advancement works are done at home with supervision of their respective
parents.
TROOP LEADER/OUTFIT ADVISOR
Leader/Advisor Encourages advancement by promoting interest
in mastering skills of Scouting. They promote active participation in
Patrol/Troop, Crew/Outfit activities to give the scouts chance to study nature,
knowing their environment, their community and to put into actual practice
their skills and knowledge of outdoor life in line with the advancement.
MERIT BADGE COUNSELLOR
The key person in the phase of the advancement program.
Chosen by the Advancement Committee, a merit badge counselor
will help scouts learn a man’s vocation, hobby or specialty skills and is
willing to give his time generously to help the scouts. An encouraging friend and helpful coach in
scouts’ adventure, a merit badge counselor goes through the requirements making
sure that the scouts understand what they have to do and how to go about them.
Promoting and Administering Advancement
Personal encouragement of the Troop Leader and the
coordination between the Patrol Leaders, parents of Scouts is by far the most
effective method of achieving this end. Nothing less than a personal follow up
of the progress in advancement of individual boys, done regularly, will produce
the desired advancement among the boys in a Troop. Individual counseling is
necessary. The permanent display of an advancement chart, properly filled out,
in a Troop Meeting Room is a positive way of encouraging advancement. When a
boy sees his performance against other boys, he becomes strongly motivated to
go on with his advancement so as not to be left behind.
The administration of Advancement necessitates the use of
Badge Counselors and the necessary forms from the BSP for reporting advancement
progress. These forms are the following:
1. Merit Badge Application
2. Application for Advancement
3. Advancement Report
4. Report of the Board of Review
The Court of Honor
The term “Court of Honor” has a romantic appeal. It is typical of the Scouts’ Scheme of
education and character training which emphasizes the positive rather than the
negative. Its purpose is to recognize a
Scout’s achievement.
The term Court of Honor is applied both to the ceremony of
recognition at which the badges of achievement or other awards are presented
and also to group of men who constitute the court.
The principal objective of the Court of Honor are to furnish
a dramatic background for the recognition of achievement and tenure to spur
among other scouts to achieve what the scout has accomplished and to build
among those present an appreciation and deeper understanding of the aims and
ideals of Scouting in the life of the Scout and the Troop.
SPECIALIST RATINGS
Craftsman
Basketry
Barbering
Blacksmithing
Bookbinding
Carpentry
Handicraft
Leathercraft
Masonry
Metal Work
Plumbing
Pottery
Printing
Basketry
Barbering
Blacksmithing
Bookbinding
Carpentry
Handicraft
Leathercraft
Masonry
Metal Work
Plumbing
Pottery
Printing
LAGUNA COUNCIL ADVANCEMENT AUGMENTATION STRATEGY
How it was PREPARED?
Information was initially
gathered through observation of the council’s advancement practices, the
council’s relationship with the academe and the implementation of the national
scouting policies on advancement as being interpreted and implemented by our
local council through our advancement officer.
If you may recall….in the past 10 years Laguna council already had 3
career people handling advancement by the persons of - Joseph Tan, Rexon
Arevalo and presently Andrew Cano.
Other pertinent information was
derived through scores of casual inquiries and consultation with our Scouting
mentors and our council’s scouting pioneers. Unang una na po diyan si SE Tino
Arellano, Sctrs. Ding Alonzo, Manuel Valdez, our colleague who’s now residing
in Canada but very much in touch with us - Sctr. Salustiano Garjim Garcia,
Sctrs. Edu Barroso, Elpie Fabello, Peding Averion, Gilbert Ocampo and our
colleagues with the present Executive Board - Engr. Rolly de Guzman, Rey
Talavera and Benny Casas. After
gathering relevant information, an overall strategy was devised. The initial draft was prepared and later
presented to SE for his comments and other suggestions. Subsequently, the
advancement committee discussed the draft with chairman FVC and SE.
Members of the Advancement
Committee are Sctr. Roger Austria, Sctr. Michael Pantaleon, Sctr. Andrew Cano
and myself.
- The
goal of the strategy is simply to produce quality scouts who had undergone
quality scouting training and proficiency in scouting skills needed to become
responsible and productive citizens of our country, confident of their
knowledge and abilities.
- The aim
in the pursuit of an Eagle Scout rank should not confine to the award
itself but the experiences the boy will gain in the process. Climbing the advancement ladder should
be at a consistent progression phase for the boy to clearly understand and
correlate activities to the changing times.
- To share
with other boys what they have learned on good character building, skills
development, good leadership and foremost of all love of God and country
and devotion and respect to parents.
The BSP National Headquarters
like all NSOs in the world has a satisfactory Advancement guidelines way
back. “Learning by doing“ activities are
essential part of the program. Elsewhere, the pursuit of Scout Advancement has
always been through the “badge system”. This has always been proven for the
simplest yet paramount reason of training our boys in citizenship and skills
for self-reliance.
The Laguna Council is
consistently one of the 5 best councils in the Philippines for many years.
Being always on top does not necessarily mean there’s no more room for growth. We
in the Advancement Committee believe there should always be a way to improve
some more so the scouting goal as dreamt by our founder Sir Robert Baden Powell
can be attained
Yearly, we have been producing
hundreds of Eagle Scouts. It is somehow a regular occurrence that we produce
such number of awardees, bestowing these prestigious medals to our boys who are
expected by many to be “trained and able.”
Nonetheless, the Advancement Committee recognizes some inadequacies. We
think our boys deserve more knowledge and skills than what we have been giving
them today. There should be more room for enhancement. . (pictures of our ACM
awards/Lorellard Spencer Award)
Obstacles and Challenges
There are several factors that
our local council somehow unknowingly tolerated resulting to the diminishing
quality of programs on our scouts’ advancement that concern the following:
- Our present relationship
with the academe
a. Mandatory
against Voluntary set-up with the DepEd
b. Relationship
of people involved in the Scouting organization:
·
career professionals ≠ academe
·
Supervisor ≠
principal ≠ coordinator
- professional and personal relationship with each other
·
Teacher ≠
parents’ rapport towards the scouting activities
- Well defined obligations
and responsibilities expected of scout leaders:
a. Leaders
have different focal points of interest in joining the scouting movement
b. Proper
communication and coordination with other local scout leaders
c. The
level of knowledge or competence of leaders in conducting scouting activities
in their respective areas
d. Leaders from the academe solely dependent on
local council’s scouting schedules.
- Complacency or lukewarm
attitude of local council and its leaders in conducting ideal and
innovative scouting programs due to:
a. Lack
of continuity of programs being implemented by the council through its
advancement officer
b. Decreasing
number of training personnel to handle
training activities
c. Insufficient
training skills and materials
We in the Advancement Committee
finally devised a strategy proposal that shall appropriately address most of
our present problems mentioned and hopefully generate good results. Hence, the element
of complacency is eliminated and subsequently for the council to carry out
scouting activities for advancement in a more defined, interesting yet
practical manner.
Are we moving away or
deviating from the National Headquarters’ guidelines for advancement?
No, we are simply putting adequate
means that will not keep us off tangent from the ideal program. We are mobilizing our course of actions so we
may not linger away from the true sense of motivating and imparting knowledge
and skills training to our scouts.
THE STRATEGY
To best explain the strategy, we
prepared a calendar that shows the course of actions on a given time frame from
Day 1 which is the boy’s joining the scouting organization and undergoing an Investiture ceremony. Should the set program is religiously
followed with the help of institutional scout leaders, and of course with the
blessings and permission of their parents---a boy can be an Eagle Scout in
three years’ time. With this timeline, a
boy can have enough opportunity to devote his remaining year in highschool
serving as a model Eagle scout awardee, giving inspiration to other scouts of
lower ranks and to motivate or encourage other boys to join the scouting
movement. They are our local council’s ”walking
advertisement” to promote
Scouting to the youth and what these youth will become if they join the
scouting movement. This strategy, if implemented seriously and diligently should
give our local council a steady stream of ideal Eagle Scouts in the years to
come.
Also, with the high level of
interest and consciousness gained by the Eagle Scouts and with the ample time
left before they graduate from high school, they can still purse other scouting
training programs to gain additional knowledge and improve their skills and
acquire some exposures to become the next set of leader-trainers of our local
council.
Suggested Augmentation
Inputs
- Assignment t of merit
badge counselors to handle proficiency training (per congressional area)
- Provide curiosity measures
in the Merit Badge system for Advancement. This will include orientation
meetings to equip leaders of enough knowledge on Scout Advancement
including its proper documentation.
- Well-defined program of
activities in advancement camps. Traditional CLTC wil become 2 Separate
Courses namely: CLTC for Outdoorsman rank and CLTC for Venturer Scout
rank. Or simply Advancement for Outdoorsman rank and Venturer Scout rank
respectively.
- Relevant & detailed activity
assignments for Eagle Scouts to motivate them to be valuable gems of our
local council.
- Utilization of Eagle
Scouts in many facets of Scouting Activities and prepare them to be the
next set of leaders of the organization.
·
Ambassadors of goodwill in the membership
promotion activities.
·
Associates at Advancement Camps and other
scouting activities
·
In the course of utilizing our Eagle scouts, we
can clearly select our Local Council’s bet for the next TOBS
There seems to be additional activities in the implementation of
Advancement Activities. Does that mean more expenses for the scouts?
No. Scouting program does not
have to be costly. Most of advancement activities particularly Merit Badge
Earning will be conducted in scouts’ respective local areas. In that manner, scouts will not spend for
transportation and food. . In fact, scouts can learn new things and
develop their skills even without money involved. With this program, scouts
will gain knowledge and skills in the most practical way.
ILLUSTRATION CHARTS
ILLUSTRATION CHARTS
 |
| fig. 1. Provisional Scouting Program |
Arrows represent
interest/consciousness level of our boys. It is usually the boy or his parents’
enthusiasm that made him join the organization. At an early point in time after
joining the organization….due to the challenges and lack of skill development
mentioned earlier – the boy immediately loses interest and sadly shifted focus
to non-scouting activities.
Why is it so?
(1)
Less or no activity at all as expected by the
boy or his parents from his school.
(2)
Scout leaders are not physically available to
attend to the initial needs of the boy so as to gain enthusiasm in joining in
the organization
(3)
There were no clear scouting programs being
implemented in schools. Most number of schools at least in our area requires
children to wear their scouting uniform only during Fridays.
Because of
these, the boy loses interest and prompting him to leave the scouting
organization.
Others who are
patient enough waited and eventually attended scouting activities mostly
scheduled by the local council. The Scouting Advancement scheme and the dream
of being awarded Eagle Scout medals somehow gave them the encouragement and
eagerness to achieve more..
After the Eagle Scout Award and the pursuit for
the TOBS search, most local councils currently do not have definite programs
being implemented to maintain consciousness and proper interest level require
of our boys. Thereafter these boys lose the opportunity, graduate from
highschool and leave the organization
We in the
Advancement Committee found, the present situation disturbing and should be
properly addressed.
 |
| fig. 2. Perpetual Scouting Program |
With the above cited program
set-up with its proposed strategy, the intensity of consciousness and interest
for the organization become uninterrupted. From the boys’ membership up to the
implementation of activities in schools and then later on involvement in scheduled
activities conducted by the local council are sustained. Series of activities within the program will
perk up motivation of the boys to pursue the Scout Advancement ladder. Hopefully thereafter, the boys can also have
the chance to vie for the TOBS search.
Earning the Eagle Scout rank
before finishing third year high school means the recipient having enough time
to serve as Eagle Scout in his last year in high school (1) serving as
assistant institutional scout leader or boy leader of scouts of lower ranks,
and (2) local council associates to help out in the implementation of local scouting
programs.
Eagle scouts can help in the
local council membership promotional campaign by assisting our council career
professionals in the conduct of visitation and attending meetings to promote
the scouting organization to prospective members as well as giving updates to
members. Eagle scouts can either prepare a presentation showing their skills in public
speaking and public relation either or have a demonstration showing their
prowess of a particular skill like knot tying to be used in rescue, fire
building, pioneering etc.
Eagle Scouts who will subject
themselves to additional training in Emergency Response can be a special unit
in our local council to handle first aid service during scouting activities.
Eagle Scouts who will get advance
training in Camping and Hiking, Orienteering can be our local council
associates to help out in the conduct of our regular Survival hiking/training
in advancement camps. They can be the trustees of our hiking trails in our
campsite that we developed for our council’s hiking and survival skills
training activities. With this, Survival hiking as a requisite in the pursuit
of Eagle Scout rank can be very informative, interesting and enjoyable for our
scouts.
A good number of Eagle Scouts have
to involve themselves in the familiarization and eventually mastery of
traditional Scouting ceremonies like: Investiture, local court of honor,
campfire, color details- entrance and exit of colors, opening and closing of
scouting activities. Hence, our local council can have scouts with expertise in
conducting traditional scouting ceremonies.
Life after receiving an Eagle
Scout award can be very rewarding as it is worth earning the proper way. And if
used with right perspective, it would be very beneficial both for our boys who received
the award and to his mother council who helped mold them. Educating our youth through the right
scouting values will definitely help develop a good citizenry and ultimately
build a better society. Slowly, but surely.
There should be no shortcuts.
SUGGESTED CALENDAR OF ACTIVITIES FOR ADVANCEMENT
Updated Scouting Activity Proposal for Private Schools (LAPRISADA) June 2016
Boy Scouting Activities
Senior Scouting Activities
Boy Scouting Activities
Senior Scouting Activities
Senior Scouting Advancement as released by BSP NSO January 2016
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