Advancement – Troop 949

Advancement in Scouts BSA is not homework. It is a trail of real skills, real leadership, and real service, walked at your own pace. Nobody advances for you, and nobody holds you back. This page is for our current scouts and parents who want to know how the trail works.

The seven ranks

Scout
Learn the basics: the Scout Oath and Law, a few knots, and how the troop works. Most new scouts earn this in their first month.
Tenderfoot
First of the three outdoor skills ranks. Camping, fitness, first aid, and tools, mostly signed off on campouts.
Second Class
Navigation, cooking, swimming, and safety. Tenderfoot through First Class can be worked on at the same time.
First Class
The milestone. A First Class scout can take care of themselves outdoors and help take care of their patrol.
Star
The focus shifts to leadership: merit badges, service hours, and a real position of responsibility in the troop.
Life
More of each, at a higher standard. Life scouts are usually the ones teaching everyone else.
Eagle
21 merit badges, a service project you plan and lead yourself, and a record that follows you for life. Eagle projects from this troop have served our own Chicago neighborhoods.

How a requirement gets signed off

Learn it, usually from an older scout at a meeting or on a campout.
Do it. Show the skill, hold the position, complete the service.
Get it signed in your handbook by a youth leader or the Scoutmaster.
At each rank: a Scoutmaster conference, then a board of review with the committee. Not a test, a conversation.

Bring your handbook to every meeting and every campout. A requirement done but not signed is a requirement not done.

Who leads the troop

Star, Life, and Eagle all require holding a real position of responsibility, and this is the map of them. Hover over any position to see what the job actually involves; on a phone, the descriptions are written right on the cards.

Senior Patrol Leader Elected by the whole troop The top youth leader. Runs troop meetings and the Patrol Leaders’ Council, sets the agenda with the patrol leaders, and is the person the Scoutmaster coaches through. Everything below this box reports to a scout, not an adult.

Assistant Senior Patrol Leader Appointed by the SPL Fills in whenever the SPL is absent and supervises the troop staff positions in the bottom row so the SPL can focus on running the program.

Patrol Leader Elected by their patrol Leads one patrol: plans its part of meetings and campouts, keeps everyone involved, and speaks for the patrol at the Patrol Leaders’ Council. Each patrol also has an Assistant Patrol Leader the PL appoints.

Troop Guide Appointed, older scout Mentor to the newest scouts. Helps the new-scout patrol learn troop life, camping basics, and the trail to First Class during their first year.

Troop staff, appointed by the SPL and coordinated by the ASPL

Quartermaster Gear Keeps the troop’s tents, stoves, and group gear inventoried, in repair, and checked out and back for every campout.

Scribe Records Takes notes at meetings and the Patrol Leaders’ Council, tracks attendance, and keeps the troop’s paperwork moving.

Instructor Skills Teaches scout skills: knots, first aid, cooking, navigation. Usually an older scout who has the skill signed off and can prove it by teaching it.

Historian Memory Collects photos, keepsakes, and stories from troop activities and keeps the troop’s history alive.

Librarian Books Keeps the troop’s merit badge pamphlets and handbooks organized and lends them out to scouts starting new badges.

Chaplain Aide Reverence Leads reflections and graces at campouts and helps scouts of every faith live out the twelfth point of the Scout Law.

Den Chief Cub Scouts Works with a den in our linked Pack 3949, helping younger kids with activities and showing them what the troop looks like ahead.

OA Representative Order of the Arrow The troop’s link to Scouting’s honor society: shares OA news and events with scouts who have been called out.

Webmaster This site Helps keep the troop’s web presence current, including the page you are reading right now.

Positions rotate at troop elections so everyone gets a turn to lead. Bugler and Junior Assistant Scoutmaster exist too when there are scouts to fill them. Ask the Senior Patrol Leader at any meeting if you want a job.

Merit badges

There are around 140 merit badges, from Camping and Cooking to Robotics, Welding, and Game Design. Fourteen specific badges are required for Eagle. The rest are free choice, and the free choices are where scouts find careers and lifelong hobbies.

How it works in Troop 949: pick a badge, tell the Scoutmaster, and he will connect you with a registered merit badge counselor. Requirements live in Scoutbook and on the official Merit Badge Hub. Requirements for more than 80 badges were updated effective January 1, 2026; if you started a badge before then, you may finish under the old requirements or switch to the new ones.

The Eagle-required fourteen

Every card links to the official requirements on scouting.org. Three of the fourteen slots are choices, marked in gold.

Camping Cooking First Aid Citizenship in the Community Citizenship in the Nation Citizenship in Society Citizenship in the World Communication Family Life Personal Fitness Personal Management Emergency PreparednessPick one of 2 LifesavingPick one of 2 Environmental SciencePick one of 2 SustainabilityPick one of 2 SwimmingPick one of 3 HikingPick one of 3 CyclingPick one of 3

Slide for more →

Where your record lives

The troop tracks everything in Scoutbook. Parents and scouts can log in anytime to see progress, signed requirements, and what is left for the next rank. If your login does not work, email the troop inbox and we will sort it out.

Official resources

Stuck on a requirement?

Ask your patrol leader first. That is not a brush-off; teaching it is how they finish their own trail. If you are still stuck, grab the Scoutmaster at any meeting.