Mount Vernon Optic-Herald

Boy Scouts James Bell and Daniel Hicks have completed the requirements for the Personal Management Merit Badge. This is one of the more demanding merit badges and one that is required for Eagle.  The merit badge focuses on learning how to manage money and time.
In February, the boys spent a Saturday afternoon at First National Bank with Ken Greer and Frankie Cooper.  Ms. Cooper taught them how to evaluate a loan application and took them through the lending process at First National. 
Mr. Greer talked with them about how to manage a service business and how managers build a corporate culture that attracts customers and produces low employee turnover.  Along the way they learned about the business of banking and how such institutions make a profit.  Then the Scouts got a behind-the-scenes tour of the bank.
Another step in the process was to learn about the stock market.  The scouts read some of the Wall Street research on the current market environment, including the likely consequences of public and private debt that is accumulating in the U.S. and several European countries. For more information, see the May 20 edition of the Mount Vernon Optic-Herald.