Re: merit badge discontinue and new
Bruce E. Cobern (bec@PIPELINE.COM)
Tue, 7 Nov 1995 09:55:12 -0500
On Nov 07, 1995 06:11:34, '"Settummanque, the blackeagle (Mike
Walton)" <mwalton@ALPHA.COMSOURCE.NET>' wrote:
>One question that I get a lot from Scouts that read (or have their
Scoutmasters
>or Advisors to write me for them) our list is "Can I still work on a Merit
>Badge which is not listed in the (Scout Hand)book if my Council approves
it?"
>The answer, from the BSA's Program Division, is a YES. Even though the
Merit
>Badge has been discontinued, local Councils still have the authority to
approve
>Merit Badges with two and only two conditions: that they still have the
actual,
>official badge to present and with the Council Scout Executive (or his
designee
>in larger Councils)'s approval.
That's an interesting opinion because it is 100% contrary to what I was
told only a week or two ago by John Dalrymple at the national office. He
emphatically stated that the policy now is the same as it has been for the
last four or five groups of changes and that is that if the Scout has
already begun to work on the mb he can continue to work on it until his
18th birthday but that NO SCOUT COULD START ON ANY OF THE DISCONTINUED
BADGES AFTER 9/1/95. I specifically asked about the "as long as they have
the badge" concept and was told there was absolutely no truth to it.
To further support the position, the local Scout Shop was specifically told
to remove all of the mb books for the discontinued badges from the shelf
because while a Scout could still complete the badge he could no longer
start it and the assumption was that anybody already working on the badge
would have purchased the mb book already.
I, for one, would not want to have a Scout of mine risk using one of these
badges earned a significant period of time after 9/1 of the appropriate
year on an Eagle application for fear of challenge.
--
Bruce E. Cobern
Advancement Chairman
Dan Beard District
Queens Council, NY
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
