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There are seven scout ranks:
Scout
Tenderfoot
Second Class
First Class
Star
Life
Eagle
Unlike Cub Scouts, the ranks do not correspond with what grade your scout is currently in at school like it was with Lions, Tigers, Wolves, Bears, and so forth. Instead, Scouting America ranks are earned when the requirements are met, regardless of the scout’s grade or age at the time.
Your scout will start out without a rank, but the good news is that the first rank – Scout – can be achieved pretty quickly. Troop 455 tries to get all of their new scouts to that point before the first court of honor.
Besides ranks, the other key advancement benchmark is the achievement of a merit badge. When your scout gets to the higher ranks, certain merit badge requirements kick in. A great way to earn merit badges is to attend summer camp and winter camp. If your scout plans everything well, they can come back from camp with four or five merit badges fully completed.
When your scout has completed the requirements for the next rank, he then must perform the following three tasks:
Turn in all of the requirement signoffs to the advancement committee chairman.
Schedule and attend a scoutmaster conference. This is a meeting with the troop scoutmaster (usually held off to the side during one of the weekly troop meetings) to discuss your scout’s progress and ensure that he is ready to rank up.
Schedule and attend a board of review meeting. These meetings occur on a Monday each month. Your scout will appear before a panel of three adult volunteers from the troop in his class A uniform. The intent of the meeting is to ask questions of the scout about his experience working towards the new rank and confirm that he is ready to rank up.
The key item to remember is that your scout is responsible for requesting a scoutmaster conference and a board of review once he is finished with the requirements for a new rank. Both of these requests are done via a Google form here. One last item to remember concerning communication between your scout and adult leaders in the troop is that no one-on-one communication (via phone, text, or email) is allowed per the youth safeguarding rules of Scouting America. Such communication always requires that a parent or another adult leader be included on the call, text, or email. Likewise, scouts are never allowed to meet in person alone with an adult leader.
Four times each scout year, Troop 455 hosts a court of honor ceremony. These events will occur during the normal weekly meeting time slot on Tuesdays at 7:30 PM at Haygood Methodist Church. Scouts who have achieved a new rank, earned a merit badge, or achieved another award are individually recognized during this ceremony and awarded the appropriate patch. When a scout moves up in rank, they also get to move their name to the next rank column on the troop board. It is a wonderful little rite of passage. Parents are encouraged to attend the courts of honor. And when your scout is being recognized, it is a great time to invite other family members like grandparents. There are even refreshments afterwards, and better yet, the parents get to go through the line before the scouts.
For additional information concerning rank and advancement topics, refer to the Troop 455 website here:
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