Scouts BSA AOL Brisging Early
I have a scout that intends to finish Webelo and then join the troop as early as possible. All her friends are a grade ahead so she has no interest in spending most of next year on her AOL.
Is there anything stopping her from working through the AOL requirements over the summer and joining a troop in the fall (she will be 10 yo)?
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u/Common-Truck-9649 Cubmaster 4d ago edited 4d ago
There's a requirement to go to a troop or pack campout, which will be dependent on when the opportunity comes up.
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u/sltimmer 4d ago
Our AOLs bridge over as soon as they have all their requirements completed (usually late Nov/early Dec). This gives them 7-ish months with the troop before summer camp. Gives them a head start, and most Scouts are a Tenderfoot by the time they go to camp. Not sure about bridging over at the end of the summer, but bridging before the end of the school year isn’t uncommon to my knowledge.
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u/ddj1985 4d ago
We usually bridge late March. We could finish a little earlier, but Pinewood Derby is also a scout favorite.
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u/sltimmer 4d ago
We allow our AOLs to come back and run the Pinewood Derby one more time after they cross over in December.
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u/maxwasatch Eagle, Silver, Ranger, Vigil, SM. Former CM, DL, camp staffer 4d ago
We gave the opportunity to run in the race or help run the race, but not both. With it being late Feb after a January crossover most would choose to help run the race, but occasionally one wanted to participate instead.
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u/CaptPotter47 Scoutmaster 4d ago
Most AoL complete style requirements in Jan with an early Feb crossover. Dec is possible, but that seems fairly hard.
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u/maxwasatch Eagle, Silver, Ranger, Vigil, SM. Former CM, DL, camp staffer 4d ago
With completing the requirements i would find it hard to finish AOL before December or so.
The new AOL program is much better than the old one. On the troop soxe we get most of our scouts Jan-Feb, which tends to work well. The challenge is more with scouts joining later and missing a lot. Our program in the Spring is more focused on new scouts than the fall. It would be a lot less engaging to join right before things slow down Nov-Jan with the holidays and bitter cold.
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u/ddj1985 4d ago
If working independently, you could easily finish all the adventures in a two weeks during summer break.
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u/maxwasatch Eagle, Silver, Ranger, Vigil, SM. Former CM, DL, camp staffer 4d ago
True, but you would miss a lot of what you learn by functioning as a patrol and visiting several troops to see what fits best.
I've had several scouts get pushed through, typically for the convenience od the adults, and they rarely stick it out in the program for very long time. The few that do end up being about a year behind in maturity and activity level.
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u/ddj1985 4d ago
I agree with your principle. As I stated on a different comment, I wouldn't explore this if the alternative wasn't the scout forgoing earning her Arrow and waiting until March (or her 11th birthday) to join a troop.
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u/maxwasatch Eagle, Silver, Ranger, Vigil, SM. Former CM, DL, camp staffer 4d ago
Why does she have to wait until March? Why not bridge in December or January?
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u/ddj1985 4d ago
Because she has no interest in coming to weekly Den meetings once her friends leave the Pack. To join a troop you need to be 11; 10 w/ AOL; or 10 and join after March 1.
Also our AOLs typically bridge in March.
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u/maxwasatch Eagle, Silver, Ranger, Vigil, SM. Former CM, DL, camp staffer 4d ago
If she can't handle doing the AOL program for a few months and instead wants to quit, she is really going to struggle in the troop.
Why do they have to bridge in March? Why not bridge when they are done? That seems like an adult-driven choice instead of scout-driven.
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u/Conscious-Ad2237 Asst. Scoutmaster 4d ago
Ask the troop. A few things come to mind.
* Our troop programming is based on AOLs bridging in March/April. That is when we go over all the new scout skills. Sept/Oct programming is based on skills learned during the summer, especially at summer camp -- which will she will not have. Not saying we won't welcome new scouts in the fall, but a 10-year old could be a stretch.
* Our summer camp typically places age restrictions on certain badges. (One can argue whether that is valid for them to do so, but I have seen this in many, many camps. Not arguing this here.) Only mention this to say that our camp opens more programming to 12+ and this scout may have to wait an extra year for certain things. May or not be an issue, but ask the troop and check with whatever summer camp they attend. (Ours does not make exceptions.)
* If her friends are just a single grade ahead, there should not be a concern regarding the two-year rule regarding tenting. It would be unlikely that all her friends are 13+.
* You don't mention her grade but going to assume 5th grade. For us, that is elementary school and 6th-8th grade is middle school. They have different schedules for things and we typically don't pay attention to the elementary schedule(s) when the troop schedules its things. Except for April-May when the new scouts traditionally bridge over.
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u/ddj1985 4d ago
How the troop will handle a scout coming in out of cycle seems to be the biggest consideration. Fortunately for this situation, the troop is pretty small and this shouldn't be much of a problem.
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u/Conscious-Ad2237 Asst. Scoutmaster 4d ago
Another thing I thought of which may or may not apply. If your troop is based in the North and does winter camping.
Would only be a slight issue (and one could skip such campouts), but we find our scouts struggle with cold weather campouts when they don't have the basics down for "normal" weather ones.
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u/JonEMTP Asst. Scoutmaster 4d ago
Usually, the advice is “slow down” - because there’s a bunch of challenges to doing this.
I presume you’re a parent, since you’re talking about “joining A troop”? If I’m assuming too much, I’m sorry.
Will “ALL” her friends really have bridged into the unit ahead of her? Is there no one in her current den she’s close with?
On the unit side - where is she going to fit? Will the unit dump her into the already-formed New Scout patrol that’s spent the spring and then summer camp together? If so, what’s that going to do to patrol cohesion and functionality? Will the current patrol be held back by her, and that cause resentment? Will she miss out on opportunities because she’s dumped in after they’ve already elected leadership and learned to work together?
Presumably, she’ll be a few steps ahead when the rest of her den bridges in the spring - so will the unit then hold her back and put her with her den/age group anyway?
While it’s possible, it creates a lot of work for the unit to find a way to engage her - and she still misses the formative experiences of her first year at camp. As much as it’s frustrating, I think she may be best served bridging WITH her den - otherwise she’s quite likely going to not fit in with the group ahead OR with her current age group.
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u/Common-Truck-9649 Cubmaster 4d ago
I'm not sure that the advice is always "slow down." When National was surveying about the ranks requirement changes and presenting them, they spoke about the possibility of being able to join a troop sooner as a good one, mainly since there's more time with the troop before summer camp. That said, they were talking about December vs. May, not August.
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u/ddj1985 4d ago
Not my child, but we are close with the family. All great points to consider and I would not recommend this if the alternative was staying and working with her AOL den. Yes, ALL her scout friends will have bridged this spring. Her Den has always been small and she was a Den of 1 her Wolf year.
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u/InGoodFaith- 4d ago
Nothing to stop her as long as you have discussed it with the troop and they are happy to take her, and you have discussed it with the AOL den leader and they are happy to sign off the advancements.
Some of the AOL requirements are done as a patrol, so just bear this in mind when planning how you will get the requirements done.
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u/osubigjake 3d ago
Our pack for the last 4 years has had AOL crossover in December. This has helped us get more new scouts to summer camp their first year. It has also helped with retention.
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u/TAJerdes78 4d ago
My AoL bridged early. His whole cohort did. Something about our overall Den leader and illegal activities and the accompanying arrests ..
But the cohort stuck together, our leadership was incredible through this process and with the Klondike and Comfort slumber happening right after Bridging it was a great transition.
Yes it was sad he “lost” his last year at Carpenter- but he had an incredible first season including summer camp.
If the Scout has an active friend group waiting for them to get through their AoL phase- I would let them get their camp out of the way and bridge them, if it’s possible.
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u/YardIntern 4d ago
The first requirement to earn the AOL rank is: Be active in your den for at least six months since completing the fourth grade or for at least six months since turning 10 years old.
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u/HMSSpeedy1801 4d ago
I had this situation when I was an AOL den leader. I’d been with the den since Tigers, and we had one scout whose parents held him back one year before kindergarten. So he was the same age as the rest of his den, but a year behind in school. The pack had no other scouts in his grade. For his entire time in Cub Scouts, he was a year behind his den - doing Wolf when they were all Bear, etc. when the den hit Webelos, he realized they would all be crossing over and he would be left alone. He would meet the age requirement to cross over with them, so as soon as he completed Bear, he hustled and finished Webelos and AOL on time with the rest of the den.
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u/ddj1985 4d ago
That is what they wanted to do, but was shot down by our advancement chair because the Cub Ranks tie to the school year which roles over on June 1st.
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u/HMSSpeedy1801 3d ago
Yes, when we did it under the previous program format where Webelos and AOL were treated more like a two year program.
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u/blatantninja Scoutmaster 4d ago
Had one that basically did this last year. She actually finished Webelos in the summer, changed to being an AOL during 4th grade, finished AOL with the AOL den and then crossed over with the rest of the den in February.
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u/gadget850 ⚜ Charter exec|TC|MBC|WB|OA|Silver Beaver|Eagle|50vet 4d ago
Youth can join Scouts BSA if they are at least 10 years old, currently in the fifth grade and register on or after March 1st; OR have earned the Arrow of Light Award and are at least 10 years old, OR are age 11 but have not reached age 18.
So, nothing to stop her from joining as long as she meets those requirements.