First Class Rank

Requirement 2 is one project, not five jobs

The sheet numbers it 2a to 2e. It reads as a list. It is a sequence, and four of the five parts name each other:

1. 2a, help plan a menu for one of the campouts in 1a: a breakfast, a lunch and a dinner, at least two of them cooked.
2. 2b: using the menu planned in 2a, build a budget and a quantity list to feed three or more youth, and secure the ingredients.
3. 2c. Show which pans, utensils and gear these meals need.
4. 2d: safe handling and storage of the perishables, and proper disposal of the rubbish afterwards.
5. 2e: on one campout, serve as cook, supervise your assistants, and prepare the breakfast, lunch and dinner planned in 2a. Cooking three good meals on a campout you did not plan for satisfies none of it. This is the requirement that most rewards being read as a whole before any of it is started.

Requirement 9c needs two outings

Take note of the trash and garbage you produce on a Scouting or family outing. Before your next similar outing, decide how to reduce, recycle or repurpose what you take. Then do it, and compare the results.

Two outings with a decision in between. It cannot be done on one trip, and it cannot be done retrospectively.

Requirement 8a is the end of a chain that started two ranks ago

• Tenderfoot 6a–6c: record, plan, track 30 days, improve.
• Second Class 7a: after Tenderfoot 6c, four weeks at 30 minutes a day, five days a week.
• First Class 8a: after Second Class 7a, four weeks again. Roughly three months of elapsed time in which no link may be started early or overlapped with another. If a Scout is held up on First Class, this is very often why.

Ten activities, not ten more

Requirement 1a asks for 10 separate troop or patrol activities since joining Scouts BSA, at least six outdoors, at least three of those with overnight camping. Second Class 1a asks for five, counted from the same starting point.

The ten therefore include the five. What First Class actually adds is five more activities, three more outdoors and one more night of camping.

Four points of the Scout Law, and now none of them may repeat

Requirement 11 asks for four different points, different from those used for previous ranks. With Tenderfoot 9 and Second Class 10 that is all twelve points of the Scout Law across the three ranks.

Three hours of service, and not the same three

Requirement 9d is explicit: the projects must not be the same ones used for Tenderfoot 7b or Second Class 8e. If nobody wrote down what those were, this is where it becomes a problem.

What this page is

The First Class rank, drawn so requirement 2 looks like the project it is. It is not a copy of the requirements: each step is a short label with the requirement number beside it, and the official requirements are what actually governs and are republished every year.