I Wish Someone Had Told Me About
Advancement Tracking

As a Den Leader, it is important that you track the progress of your Scouts and recognize when they have completed all of the requirements for a rank advancement or other awards and recognition (e.g., Webelos Compass emblem or compass points, activity pins, Arrow Points, Belt Loops, etc).

When a Scout is due to receive an advancement or award, the Pack must purchase the appropriate items from the Scout Shop. In addition, advancements and certain awards must also be reported to the Council office so that they can be entered on the Scout's permanent record.

Advancement is to be reported to the Council office using a three copies of the completed Advancement Report form or by using 3 copies of a similar form produced by the Packmaster software.

In order to streamline the process for Den Leaders as much as possible, Pack 356 has adopted the following method of tracking and purchasing advancement and awards:

1. One volunteer within the Pack serves as the Membership/Advancement Chairman. This individual is provided with a copy of the Packmaster software and a current set of data files covering all Scouts in the Pack.

2. Using Packmaster, the Advancement Chairman prints a copy of the Advancement Report for each Scout in each Den and provides the printed copy to the appropriate Den Leader. The report looks like this:
   

3. Den Leaders are to mark this report to correct erroneous information and to report new achievements. For example, when the Scout whose Advancement Report is shown above has completed Cub Scout Day Camp and returns in the fall, his Den Leader will mark up the report to show the summer activities plus achievements completed in the fall:
   

4. Marked up advancement reports are to be turned in to the Advancement Chairman no later than one week before a Pack meeting in order to have required awards at the Pack meeting. During holiday weeks, the report may be required more than one week in advance. Den Leaders should make a copy of the report for their own records before turning it in.

5. The Advancement Chairman will enter the marked-up data into Packmaster and will print the Advancement Reports that need to be taken to the Council Service Center. (IMPORTANT - READ NOTE 1, BELOW)

6. The Advancement Chairman (or Cubmaster or another Pack Committee Member) will take the Advancement Report to the Council Service Center and process the forms. They will then go to the Scout Shop and purchase all of the required patches, pins, belt loops, and advancement cards.

7. Finally, the Advancement Chairman will package the awards in small envelopes for each Scout and will sort the envelopes by Den. The packaged awards are presented to the Scouts at the Pack Meeting. Den Leaders should arrive early at Pack meetings to verify that all of the awards that they requested are available and to sign rank advancement cards. If an award is missing, it is possible that it can be packaged at the last minute from the Pack's 'spare stock' or an 'I O U' can be packaged (not perfect but certainly better than not being called up at all.)

NOTE 1: It is important that the Advancement Chairman carefully enter the dates for the Advancement Report into Packmaster when creating that report. The dates should cover all of the time from the last Advancement Report up to the date that the current report is created. If the report dates do not extend all the way back to the previous report, some awards that were entered right after the last Pack meeting will not be included. (If the report dates extend back prior to the last report then some awards may be requested twice.)

For example, image a case where awards are turned in by Den Leaders on Monday, Sept 23, 2002 for the Sept 2002 Pack meeting. The information is entered into Packmaster on Sept 25 and an Advancement Report is printed. Awards are purchased on Sept 26 and presented on Monday Sept 30, 2002. However on Sat Sept 28, a Den Leader turns in additional advancement (too late to include in the Sept 2002 Pack meeting).

In October, advancement is due on Monday Oct 21. The information is entered into Packmaster on Oct 22. When the Advancement Report for October is created, it is very important that the Advancement Chairman ask for a report covering the period from 9/25 (the date of the last report) to 10/22. If the dates used are 9/30 to 10/22, then at least one Den's awards will never be purchased, because they were dated 9/28. If the dates used are 9/22 to 10/22, then some awards (in fact, most awards) may be duplicated because many were dated 9/23.