Court of Honor Rank Advancement Ceremonies

In my short tenure as Troop 16’s Scoutmaster we had three Court of Honor ceremonies. There are plenty of ceremonies for Eagle Courts, but it seems there are only a few floating around for “regular” Court of Honor rank andvancement ceremonies. And I’ve done all those and/or don’t like them. So, I put together a different rank advancement ceremony for each of the three Court of Honors we had. They’re available here in both Word and Acrobat formats.

Something you’ll find in common with each of these is that I ask the Scout two questions: “what was the toughest requirement?” and “how did you complete it?” It’s also worth noting that I divy up parts of the ceremony to other adult leaders in the Troop.

You might also be interested in a brief outline and some planning tips, assembled in how I like to run a Court of Honor.

Ceremony 1: Themeless

This ceremony is almost complete: everything is spelled out for the Second Class, First Class, Star and Life ranks. We didn’t have any Scouts receiving the Scout or Tenderfoot badges, so I kind of glossed over them. Certainly you can fill in the blanks, though.

This is a fine ceremony, though rather disconnected. I assembled it by pulling a little from here and there. There’s no “glue” to tie the Second Class part to the First Class part, for example.

Download: Microsoft Word .doc file, Adobe Acrobat .pdf file.

Ceremony 2: Baden-Powell

This one is quite incomplete, containing only Second and First Class advancement. One day maybe I’ll do some more research and complete this ceremony, though, as it is my favorite.

I solved the problem of Ceremony 1 by tying everything together with “early Scouting” ideas, particularly from Scouting’s founder.

Download: Microsoft Word .doc file, Adobe Acrobat .pdf file.

Ceremony 3: What is a Boy Scout?

This ceremony is complete, featuring specifics for Scout, Tenderfoot, Second Class, First Class, Star, and Life ranks. Also, a closing by an Eagle Scout is included that helps tie it all together.

This ceremony is a little different from the previous two. 1 & 2 (and most other ceremonies I’ve seen) focus on the Scout’s advancement with little/no introduction. This ceremony is primarily “introduction,” citing the What is a Boy Scout? excerpt from the First (1911) Edition of the Handbook for Boys and follows up with a succinct advancement part.

Download: Microsoft Word .doc file, Adobe Acrobat .pdf file.

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