Leaderboard

*sigh* The ultimate question is: Was the person who signed the Blue Card, Approved The Merit Badge, a bona fide registered in the Council Merit Badge Counselor when the card was signed? Make the phone call(s). If the answer to the question is "Yes", shake the Scout's hand and wish him well. If "No", then smile, hand him some more Blue Cards and give him a list of approved/registered Merit Badge Counselors for his desired subjects. See you on the trail....

My experience suggests that this was more common to do when districts were smaller and Eagle applications -- especially at age 17.9 -- were rarer. Then, registration constituted a handshake by the district commissioner, and an "until death do we part" phone list. Our council advancement chair does tell us that applications are flagged when the counselor has the same last name as the scout for too many MBs. Having MBCs registered is quite new, and the purpose of registration is for background checks, not Eagle applications. The "gate" for scouts is supposed to happen at the time of issuing

It still sounds like a bad idea. One of the time-honored "methods" of scouting is adult association. Staying within the same small circle of known adults severely limits a scout's opportunity to learn new ideas and experience different subjects with people who are true "experts" in their field. I would not let my kid join a troop that insisted on using unit-only counselors. Our troop does have a couple counselors who are real "experts" in badges they counsel....but we don't have 'em all, and I'm very grateful that there were fair-minded scouters in other units with the altruism to offe

It is that time of year again (actually, Im a little late this year....) BSA is mixing things up this year for Leadership Challenge. The summer session is held at Summit and the fall session is held at Philmont. July 5-11, Summit-Bechtel Reserve: http://www.scouting.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/2020-SLC-Flyer-v2.pdf Sept 20-26, Philmont: https://www.philmontscoutranch.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/2020PLC2.pdf The official description is My description is: Philmont in the fall is amazing. Ive never been to Summit but Im looking forward to learning som

Short answer is NO. If the Scout sold Popcorn for his unit, all the proceeds go to the Unit. The unit, in it's wisdom, can allocate an appropriate portion to the Scout in the form of a "Scout Account" that may ONLY be used for Scout things. If the Scout raised the money for "Scout " support, he/she cannot send the money off to another entity no matter how worthy. It's got to be used for Scouty things, not personal things, not charitable things. The BSA has been all over this, the IRS has been all over this. The local Council should (if they have not been apprised of it already) should

When did singing become a bad thing per se? 😩 It can be misused to put an individual "on the spot," but many otherwise ok things can be misused.

Thanks a lot for the course info. I've been intrigued by it for a while now. It's good to get a bit more context. Sadly the Summit course conflicts with the families summer vacation.

LOL - no. None of that. You are in uniform when you arrive at the course and you are in uniform for the closing ceremony/banquet. Otherwise in activity uniform (tshirts provided). No inspections and no playing games. This is all about the participant experience. There is a "songfest" during crackerbarrel one night but it is campfire type songs. There is no song for the course and the one you already know is not sung even once (at least on the 4 courses Ive been involved with). There are no totems. Crew identity is very down-played. There is a project similar in purpose to

Yes, you can do that. But be prepared for him to tell you that a bunch of people on the internet approved his merit badge. Turnabout is fair play.

Couldn't decide between a 'like' or a 'laugh' here. There are a couple things going on here. On some, the previous person approved/wrote a counselor, on some it was me who gave the counselor name. On those cards, the new counselor was written over the top. On a few, they were issued for summer camp, so no counselor was written in when they were given.

That's nonsense. Most boys join scouting just to have fun. They neither know about or care about the details of the scouting program. It's only the most die-hard scouters (who eat, breath, and sleep scouting) who care to scrutinize and religiously adhere to every nit-picking detail of the program, making scouting activities boring and tedious for the rest of us.

Well, Park, I'm with you on the spirit of fairness, but I sure wouldn't support any "rules" that are not in crystal-clear black and white. If it's in the merit badge requirements, great, then the "no more, no less" guideline applies. If it's in the BSA's official "Guide to Advancement", great, that's the rule that should be followed. Beyond that, it's a slippery slope that really shouldn't be defended. Scoutmaster (or committee) imposed "rules" or "policies" should be thrown out. In my years of scouting, I have yet to see ANY rule proposed or stated that has actually been a good

My thoughts the other day (in another thread) about having unit-only merit badge counselors doesn't sound so bad now, does it?

My pedantic mind always goes into logic mode. Sure, the MBC isn't registered at council this year. The cards are all dated last year by the MBC Signature. Was the MBC listed in the BSA last year and during that time period, were they registered as MBC for those badges. If they weren't, the whole set of blue cards aren't valid. Which is a tough thing to tell the Scout. If they were, you can't retest. All you can do is advise that this will be noticed again and could be questioned. You have to accept the cards as valid (with the exception of the one card with the subject line crossed

This falls apart on multiple levels. Uncle Jack, who has been taking his nieces and nephews to his favorite fishing hole since they could walk, is not going to stop just because they are now scouts. Bobby the babysitter with a driver's license is not going to stop driving the kids to events just because they are under the auspices of the BSA. And certainly not when she turns 18. Jane, who is in college someplace awesome to hike is going to invite her younger brother and scout buddy to stay at her dorm the night before some cool scouting expo on her campus. A half dozen boys are going to meet a

Bigger troops are not the issue. My ideal troop size is 35 to 50. Baden-Powell said 32, but corrected for society changes, I think larger troops of 75 to 100 are okay. One great benefit is to do more campouts / activities and a greater variety of campouts / activities. The issues are ... Not recognizing long-term existing BSA policies, etc. MBC is not a troop position and has never been a troop position. MBC has always been a council approved position. MBC app allows to say what troops to mentor, but also has bold stating counselors are encouraged to work b

I wouldn't single out BSA. Our society doesn't trust male leaders.