The Patrol Method
Lessons and questions of Scout leadership and operating troop program
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LATEST POSTS
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By InquisitiveScouter · Posted
Correct. And that is why I would decline to sign the card if the Scout had not completed the requirements. -
Thus, the unit leader signs the blue card again after the counselor completes it. That's the check the merit badge is earned. -
By InquisitiveScouter · Posted
No. Please read Guide to Advancement, 7.0.4.7 "In most cases, with a fair and friendly approach, a Scout who did not complete the requirements will admit it. Short of this, however, if it remains clear under the circumstances that some or all of the requirements could not have been met, then the merit badge is not reported or awarded, and does not count toward advancement. The unit leader then offers the name of at least one other merit badge counselor through whom any incomplete requirements may be finished. Note that in this case a merit badge is not “taken away” because, although signed off, it was never actually earned. " -
This isn't an opinion, it is policy. If the blue card is signed by the counselor, then the scout has earned it. Your "beef" is with the camp / counselor, the scout should still be awarded the badge. -
By InquisitiveScouter · Posted
This. ----------------- In the National Annual Report, https://www.scouting.org/about/annual-report/year2023/ they should change the verbiage from "earned" Merit Badges to "awarded" Merit Badges. There is a difference... Consider Camping Merit Badge. (For which, even after much advice and counsel, several of our Scouts still sign up every year at Summer Camp.) Including the subordinate items, there are 30 different requirements to complete for the badge. How many are "outdoors" requirements? 5: 8 (d) While camping in the outdoors, cook ...[three meals]... [It's funny that they even have to preface this one.] 9 (a) Camp a total of at least 20 nights... 9 (b) On any of these camping experiences, you must do TWO of the following... [so, counted as two...] 9 (c) On any of these camping experiences, perform a conservation project... And of these five, I would posit that all should be done with the unit. Also, of the five, which usually are completed at Summer Camp? (I'll let you answer that one yourself.) The rest of the 25 requirements are academically oriented. Discuss, describe, explain, plan, etc... Some could be made into activities, but generally are not. Many "sessions" I have witnessed involved an instructor (under 18, so not the counselor...) lecturing to kids sitting around a picnic table, and then marking off a requirements for them. The Scouts endure this torture just to get the piece of cloth... ----------------------------- Before signing a blue card, I ask Scouts about the activities they did for the badge. I always found discrepancies for a sizeable number from Summer Camps,. When I pointed these out to the Scouts, most admitted they had never even read the requirements. They just relied on the instructor to teach them what they needed. Less than a fourth of these Scouts would take me up on my offer to finish the requirements as they were written, so that they actually "earned" the badge. Discussing this with the committee, I was dispirited that many of the parents held the same view... that if the instructor/counselor signed off on it, it was good enough. I told them I would decline to sign blue cards if I found that a Scout had not completed the requirements. The committee accepted this. But, there are other "unit leaders" who did not agree, and those leaders are the ones who signed blue cards or would mark things completed in Scoutbook. I am only responsible for my own actions. After filing about 8 reports https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/512-800_WB.pdf with zero feedback or questions from the camps we attended, I realize that time was wasted, and those reports went into file #13. I call this the "dirty little secret" of BSA Summer Camps... the wide-ranging lack of integrity in the Merit Badge program. The consequences of this are visible across the board, IMO. Scout skills are abysmal. Summer Camp is supposed to be about unit long-term camping and doing activities that units do not normally have the expertise to put on for themselves. Summer Camp is not about Merit Badges. But we have corrupted the "camping" and turned this experience into something it is not supposed to be. And Scouts, parents, leaders, staffs, "counselors", and professionals turn a blind eye. Why? Because Merit Badges generate revenue.
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