- A Court of Honor is the culmination of the advancement method and a public celebration of the ranks, merit badges, and other achievements earned since the Troop's last formal recognition ceremony.
- We need our Scouts and families to attend these events!
- Our Senior Patrol Leader is the master of ceremonies, and the youth leadership is called upon to deliver the ceremony. Adults are present primarily to guide and facilitate the distribution of awards.
- The ceremony itself is relatively brief. Even when we have large numbers of awards (rank advancements and merit badges), these ceremonies rarely last 45 minutes.
- To help ease the scheduling burden for our families, we will begin to schedule our Courts of Honor on Mondays -- a regularly designated Scout night.
- In addition, light refreshments will be organized and we will include some social time afterwards to help emphasize the importance of these events.
Nothing inspires advancement so much as a lively troop program. Take care of the program, and advancement will be an inevitable outcome.
Baden-Powell - Scoutmaster's Handbook
What are the 4 steps in Scout Advancement?
- A Scout learns. Learning in Scouting is experiential – a process of discovery – not an academic exercise. Our goal is enabling Scouts to lead themselves to learn anything they need to know.
- A Scout is tested. Scout’s don’t ‘pass’ or ‘fail’ in the academic sense. They get to keep trying until they complete the challenge. A Scout’s knowledge will be challenged many times in the natural course of doing what Scouts do, but he will only be tested and passed once.
- A Scout is reviewed.
- Scoutmaster's Conference: This is a collaborative discussion that reviews how things have gone thus far, and looks forward at next steps in the journey.
- Board of Review: The purpose of this discussion is to gauge the quality of a Scout's experience in the program.
- A Scout is recognized.
- Immediate recognition: Our Advancement Chair hands out badges earned in a simple ceremony during the Troop meeting following the Board of Review.
- Formal recognition: We hold three Courts of Honor each year, where merit badges and rank advancements are recognized in front of Scouts, family, and friends.