The Boy Scouts of America has announced changes to rank advancement and  merit badge requirements effective January 1, 2023.  Scouts who have:

• Already completed these ranks or rank requirements are NOT required to re-complete them with the new requirements.
• Obtained a blue card and contacted a counselor for a merit badge listed below may continue to follow the old requirements until completion (per the BSA Guide to Advancement Section 7.0.4.3).
• Otherwise, the updated requirements should be completed as shared below.

UPDATED REQUIREMENTS

• Scout – First Class and Eagle Scout Rank Requirement Changes: Many of the changes made are minor wording changes, however Scouts should not the following key changes:
  • Introduction of “Citizenship in Society” as the 14th required merit badge to become an Eagle Scout
  • Additional focus on the “Leave No Trace” principles in the Scout – First Class requirements.
• New Merit Badge requirements have been posted on Scouting.org for the following merit badges:
  • American Business (2c)
  • Animal Science (1, Avian Option a, c, e)
  • Archery (1a, b, c, d, 3b, 4a, b, c, d, 5ac, 5af1cd, 5bc, 5bf1cd)
  • Architecture (1b)
  • Composite Materials (1c 3a)
  • Cooking (2c, d, 4a, 5b, d, e, g, 6a, f)
  • Cycling (1a, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Option A a1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, Option B a1, 3, b1, 2, 3, c, d, e)
  • Digital Technology (3a, 3e, 4a, 5a, 7c)
  • Disabilities Awareness (6)
  • Emergency Preparedness (3)
  • Environmental Science (3, 3f2, 5)
  • Family Life (6b1, 2, 3)
  • Farm Mechanics (1d)
  • Game Design (1b, 5b, 8a, b)
  • Genealogy (1a, b, c, 4a, b, c, d, e, 8b, c)
  • Geology (5d2)
  • Golf (3, 7g)
  • Hiking (2a, b, c, 4, 5)
  • Inventing (6b)
  • Mammal Study (3a, b, c)
  • Nature (4g2, 4h1, 6a, b)
  • Personal Fitness (4d)
  • Plant Science (8 Option 3 Field Botany A2, B, F1d, F3c1, 2, 3)
  • Programming (1b, 3a)
  • Reptile and Amphibian Study (3d, 5)
  • Salesmanship (2b, 2d, 3, 4, 6a3)
  • Small-Boat Sailing (6i, j)
  • Snow Sports (2b, 7 Downhill a, h, i; Cross country a, b, d, i; Snowboarding i, k; Snowshoeing e, i, j)
  • Sports (5)
  • Swimming (5a)

Scouts elected to Troop Positions in our November 6 meeting will begin their six month term on January 1, 2023 and will be officially inducted into their office at the January 3rd meeting.  Below is a list of our Troop Leadership for January – June 2023:

• Senior Patrol Leader: Patrick Horton
• Assistant Senior Patrol Leader: Adam Byers
• Quartermasters: Matthew Burr (Closet) and Solomon Roy (Trailer)
• Scribe / Webmaster: Solomon Roy
• Troop Guide: Dimitri Matusiak
• Order of the Arrow Representative: Orion Miller
• Den Chiefs: Jack Peterson and Matthew Burr
• Historian: Eliot Francic
• Outdoor Ethics Guide & Patrol Leader (Sideways Turtles): Jack Peterson
• Patrol Leader (Radioactive Pandas): Yorick Williams
• Librarian & Bugler: Ian Maloney

January 1 also sees several changes in our Adult leadership roles including:

• Committee Chairman: Mark Matusiak
• New Committee Members:
  • Jason Burr
  • Amanda Williams
  • Mike Francic
• Scoutmaster: Tim Maloney

Bruce Clark and Jason Stewart become Committee Chairman and Scoutmaster Emeritus.  We thank both Bruce and Jason for their many years of service to the Troop and their continued involvement in helping our new leaders transition into their roles.

Journey to Excellence is the Boy Scouts of America program to help units to plan, monitor and evaluate their performance and their ability to serve youth. There are specific criteria for the unit to plan and accomplish. These standards are reviewed each year and revised standards are published.

Troop 457 is pleased to announce we have earned the GOLD Journey to Excellence Award for 2022 (the highest possible rating).

View our JTE Scorecard

ITEMS OF NOTE

• The Troop achieved a top score in 4 of the 11 objectives (Planning & Budget, Building Scouting, Service Projects, Patrol Method)
• We expect to achieve gold in the 3 silver objectives
  • Webelos-to-Scout transition: Needed to have a Den Chief.  Two were selected in our latest election
  • Short Term Camping: We hope to have short term camping opportunities 10 of the 12 months this year.  This will be dependent on Scout interest and Parent availability.
  • Leadership & Family Engagement: We missed gold because we only had 2 Courts of Honor in 2022. We plan to hold 3 Courts of Honor in 2023.
• Our Bronze rated opportunities are primarily related to removing inactive Scouts from our charter.  We hope these changes will enable us to achieve silver or gold status in 2023.
• Finally, there is only one objective that we did not score on in 2023: Advancement.  In order to achieve Bronze, 40% of our Scouts must advance at least one rank during the year.  Only 23% of our registered Scouts advanced in 2022 (34% if we excluded our inactive members).  During 2023, we will focus on increasing this percentage.