My name is Tim Heiliger. I have just recently taken over the position of
Advancement Coordinator at my church and was wondering if I could get some
guidance on something that I feel is not quite right at our Outpost.
Our Outpost is fairly new and is trying to very much start producing GMA
recipients. They have set up a special class for several boys to only do GMA
each week. These boys (4)were pulled out of Trailblazers and they spend each
week going through their folders trying to pass off advancements and Merits
with two commanders. At first I thought it was a good idea because that way
a boy who really wanted to reach GMA could put his heart into it, however
over the past 6 to 8 months I have noticed some things about this
arrangement that bothers me and am not sure how to approach the rest of the
staff about it without stepping on toes.
Two of the boys in this group are mine. My oldest will get his GMA within
the next 4-5 months. We are new at this church(a little over a year) and he
reached his Trailblazer Master rating and had about 16 merits when we moved
here from the Potomac District. At his last Outpost, advancement was left to
the boy and he had to search out the commander and asked for signatures on
his advancement. I have noticed since he was put in the GMA group he no
longer works on his advancement on his own time. He just waits for them to
spoon feed him on Wednesday nights. They want to eventually set up a program
that would produce a GMA achiever every year. I feel that a boy that decides
he wants the GMA will no longer need to be spoon fed the information, he
will go out and find it himself (with a little guidance from a leader).
There has also been a wedge driven between the other Trailblazers and these
boys as the GMA boys are given more privileges. We have lost two boys to
youth because they say that they should be able to get into the GMA group
and the other leaders don't think they deserve to.
Does anyone know whether this has been tried somewhere else and found to
work? If so what are we doing wrong or what could I do to change it to make
it work? If it didn't work is there something written down that I could use
to persuade the others that it won't work here either? I have searched the
NET and found no reference to this.
My personal feeling is that we should put the GMA boys back into
Trailblazers and make them the gold bars or something. The boys that are now
in Trailblazers do not have any boys that are willing to lead the rest. They
are all just trying to do what they can to pass off enough requirements to
get into GMA. If the most advanced boys were the Guides and Ast. Guides the
rest would be able to learn from them and eventually catch the dream to move
further up the trail to achieve GMA.
Any comments or help would be greatly appreciated.
In Him
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