fred johnson

Just looking at one point of one of the merit badges, I really think it could be drastically simplified to make it more useful. CURRENT ... 1. Health and safety. Do the following: a. Explain to your counselor the most likely hazards you may encounter while participating in cooking activities and what you should do to anticipate, help prevent, mitigate, and respond to these hazards. b. Show that you know first aid for and how to prevent injuries or illnesses that could occur while preparing meals and eating, including burns and scalds, cuts, choking, and allergic reactions. c. Describe how meat, fish, chicken, eggs, dairy products, and fresh vegetables should be stored, transported, and properly prepared for cooking. Explain how to prevent cross-contamination. d. Discuss with your counselor food allergies, food intolerance, and food-related illnesses and diseases. Explain why someone who handles or prepares food needs to be aware of these concerns. e. Discuss with your counselor why reading food labels is important. Explain how to identify common allergens such as peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, wheat, soy, and shellfish. POSSIBLE NEW 1. Health and safety. a. Earn the first aid merit badge. b. Discuss - cooking hazards and precautions - first aid for cooking injuries - food handling and storage - food allergies, intolerance and related illnesses - reading food labels If you need more than that, put it in a guide for the MBC to use.

I should mention. Cooking is just an example. I've been looking at rank and merit badge requirements since 2004. They keep growing longer and longer. I don't think there is more content. It's just more pedantic and tightly bound.

Requirements need to be manageable for the scouts. IMHO, the current requirements are more for the merit badge counselor to think about what to talk about. They are by no means something you should put in front of a scout. Requirements should be short, simple and straight forward.

Okay. I'm hijacking the thread topic for a minute. IT issue. Very basic. That really really really really upset me today. Why did BSA SEA BASE email an invoice that I need to give to the treasurer where the invoice shows MY PASSWORD !!!!!!! That is extremely unprofessional and extremely bad. I want to submit BSA SEA BASE to a web site that reflects unsecured web sites. #1 They should not be able to recover my password. #2 They should not put my password on paperwork for everyone to see !!!!!! #3 They should not put my login username on paperwork for everyone to see !!!!!!

IMHO, those requirements are only written for people who passed the bar. Not a scout who wants to be active and learn.

Beavah is right. There problem between the concept of a merit badge counselor and how it's really happening these days. BUT ... When I started this thread though, it was because I see 11 and 12 year old scouts looking at earning a merit badge with requirements written like below. It's out of hand !!!! COOKING MERIT BADGE Requirements 1. Health and safety. Do the following: a. Explain to your counselor the most likely hazards you may encounter while participating in cooking activities and what you should do to anticipate, help prevent, mitigate, and respond to these hazards. b. Show that you know first aid for and how to prevent injuries or illnesses that could occur while preparing meals and eating, including burns and scalds, cuts, choking, and allergic reactions. c. Describe how meat, fish, chicken, eggs, dairy products, and fresh vegetables should be stored, transported, and properly prepared for cooking. Explain how to prevent cross-contamination. d. Discuss with your counselor food allergies, food intolerance, and food-related illnesses and diseases. Explain why someone who handles or prepares food needs to be aware of these concerns. e. Discuss with your counselor why reading food labels is important. Explain how to identify common allergens such as peanuts, tree nuts, milk, eggs, wheat, soy, and shellfish. 2. Nutrition. Do the following: a. Using the MyPlate food guide or the current USDA nutrition model, give five examples for EACH of the following food groups, the recommended number of daily servings, and the recommended serving size: (1) Fruits (3) Grains (5) Dairy (2) Vegetables (4) Proteins b. Explain why you should limit your intake of oils and sugars. c. Determine your daily level of activity and your caloric need based on your activity level. Then, based on the MyPlate food guide, discuss with your counselor an appropriate meal plan for yourself for one day. d. Discuss your current eating habits with your counselor and what you can do to eat healthier, based on the MyPlate food guide. e. Discuss the following food label terms: calorie, fat, saturated fat, trans fat, cholesterol, sodium, carbohydrate, dietary fiber, sugar, protein. Explain how to calculate total carbohydrates and nutritional values for two servings, based on the serving size specified on the label. 3. Cooking basics. Do the following: a. Discuss EACH of the following cooking methods. For each one, describe the equipment needed, how temperature control is maintained, and name at least one food that can be cooked using that method: baking, boiling, broiling, pan frying, simmering, steaming, microwaving, grilling, foil cooking, and use of a Dutch oven. b. Discuss the benefits of using a camp stove on an outing vs. a charcoal or wood fire. c. Describe for your counselor how to manage your time when preparing a meal, so components for each course are ready to serve at the correct time. Note: The meals prepared for Cooking merit badge requirements 4, 5, and 6 will count only toward fulfilling those requirements and will not count toward rank advancement or other merit badges. Meals prepared for rank advancement or other merit badges may not count toward the Cooking merit badge. You must not repeat any menus for meals actually prepared or cooked in requirements 4, 5, and 6. 4. Cooking at home. Using the MyPlate food guide or the current USDA nutrition model, plan menus for three full days of meals (three breakfasts, three lunches, and three dinners) plus one dessert. Your menus should include enough to feed yourself and at least one adult, keeping in mind any special needs (such as food allergies) and how you kept your foods safe and free from cross-contamination. List the equipment and utensils needed to prepare and serve these meals. Then do the following: a. Create a shopping list for your meals showing the amount of food needed to prepare and serve each meal, and the cost for each meal. b. Share and discuss your meal plan and shopping list with your counselor. c. Using at least five of the 10 cooking methods from requirement 3, prepare and serve yourself and at least one adult (parent, family member, guardian, or other responsible adult) one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner, and one dessert from the meals you planned.* d. Time your cooking to have each meal ready to serve at the proper time. Have an adult verify the preparation of the meal to your counselor. *The meals for requirement 4 may be prepared on different days, and they need not be prepared consecutively. The requirement calls for Scouts to plan, prepare, and serve one breakfast, one lunch, and one dinner to at least one adult; those served need not be the same for all meals. e. After each meal, ask a person you served to evaluate the meal on presentation and taste, then evaluate your own meal. Discuss what you learned with your counselor, including any adjustments that could have improved or enhanced your meals. Tell how planning and preparation help ensure a successful meal. 5. Camp cooking. Do the following: a. Using the MyPlate food guide or the current USDA nutrition model, plan five meals for your patrol (or a similar size group of up to eight youth, including you) for a camping trip. Your menus should include enough food for each person, keeping in mind any special needs (such as food allergies) and how you keep your foods safe and free from cross-contamination. These five meals must include at least one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner, AND at least one snack OR one dessert. List the equipment and utensils needed to prepare and serve these meals. b. Create a shopping list for your meals showing the amount of food needed to prepare and serve each meal, and the cost for each meal. c. Share and discuss your meal plan and shopping list with your counselor. d. In the outdoors, using your menu plans for this requirement, cook two of the five meals you planned using either a lightweight stove or a low-impact fire. Use a different cooking method from requirement 3 for each meal. You must also cook a third meal using either a Dutch oven OR a foil pack OR kabobs. Serve all of these meals to your patrol or a group of youth.** e. In the outdoors, prepare a dessert OR a snack and serve it to your patrol or a group of youth.** f. After each meal, have those you served evaluate the meal on presentation and taste, and then evaluate your own meal. Discuss what you learned with your counselor, including any adjustments that could have improved or enhanced your meals. Tell how planning and preparation help ensure successful outdoor cooking. g. Explain to your counselor how you cleaned the equipment, utensils, and the cooking site thoroughly after each meal. Explain how you properly disposed of dishwater and of all garbage. h. Discuss how you followed the Outdoor Code and no-trace principles when preparing your meals. **Where local regulations do not allow you to build a fire, the counselor may adjust the requirement to meet the law. The meals in requirements 5 and 6 may be prepared for different trips and need not be prepared consecutively. Scouts working on this badge in summer camp should take into consideration foods that can be obtained at the camp commissary. 6. Trail and backpacking meals. Do the following: a. Using the MyPlate food guide or the current USDA nutrition model, plan a menu for trail hiking or backpacking that includes one breakfast, one lunch, one dinner, and one snack. These meals must not require refrigeration and are to be consumed by three to five people (including you). Be sure to keep in mind any special needs (such as food allergies) and how you will keep your foods safe and free from cross-contamination. List the equipment and utensils needed to prepare and serve these meals. b. Create a shopping list for your meals, showing the amount of food needed to prepare and serve each meal, and the cost for each meal. c. Share and discuss your meal plan and shopping list with your counselor. Your plan must include how to repackage foods for your hike or backpacking trip to eliminate as much bulk, weight, and garbage as possible. d. While on a trail hike or backpacking trip, prepare and serve two meals and a snack from the menu planned for this requirement. At least one of those meals must be cooked over a fire, or an approved trail stove (with proper supervision).** e. After each meal, have those you served evaluate the meal on presentation and taste, then evaluate your own meal. Discuss what you learned with your counselor, including any adjustments that could have improved or enhanced your meals. Tell how planning and preparation help ensure successful trail hiking or backpacking meals. f. Discuss how you followed the Outdoor Code and no-trace principles during your outing. Explain to your counselor how you cleaned any equipment, utensils, and the cooking site after each meal. Explain how you properly disposed of any dishwater and packed out all garbage. 7. Food-related careers. Find out about three career opportunities in cooking. Select one and find out the education, training, and experience required for this profession. Discuss this with your counselor, and explain why this profession might interest you

IMHO, we will see drastic changes in how schooling is provided in the next 10 to 50 years. More online. More flexible. More cafeteria set of options instead of one monolithic school year. Scouting will adjust. Perhaps instead of sending 30 to 50 kids from one troop at the same time, scouts will form groups that go at different times. Perhaps another option. We will see many many changes over the next 50 years.

Yeah this is less about a specific boundary and more about what people believe. IMHO, this should be like other recent membership changes. BSA should be open and accepting and let the charter partners choose their membership based on their beliefs and objectives.

Another thread has made me think about what some districts do and that ... I believe ... Girl Scouts do. Why doesn't the district hold in Oct or Nov an evening at a central location where all the local troops come and Webelos can come to visit the troops? Is it a numbers size that there are so many troops and so many cubs that it would overwhelm a gym? Or is it a different issue?

Another thread has made me think about what some districts do and that ... I believe ... Girl Scouts do. Why doesn't the district hold in Oct or Nov an evening at a central location where all the local troops come and Webelos can come to visit the troops? Is it a numbers size that there are so many troops and so many cubs that it would overwhelm a gym? Most schools will rent their gyms to non-profits at a very cheap price. Or is it a different issue? Such as those running district activities are often tied to troops. As such, things that might happen once or twice fall off the radar as the volunteers are not highly motivated to market all troops? I'm just sort of wondering. I hear it is nice for Girl Scouts to go to one spot to form units. Why not a true troop shopping night ???

At least in our council, it's really a council function as it is a matter of membership registration. Districts can be disorganized, but the council must have a way to provide that info to the right person. It's fundamental information to the whole advancement program for all units. If desperate, you can always go to the registrar and see if they can look up registrations for the badge. ... but that's the scoutmaster's job.

Times have changed. Not much GSUSA could do beyond protecting their own brand names. BSA could do it with a simple membership application change. Instead of having girls join now at 13/14 into a crew, let them join three years earlier into a troop or six years earlier into a pack. Let them earn Eagle. Let them participate. Or just change exploring to be an earlier program that starts younger. Most of this stuff is already happening within the existing limits. IMHO, it is a injustice that girls can't earn Eagle. If GSUSA wants to let boys earn Gold, fine. But I really think we need to let girls in crews earn Eagle. Many units would fail if we did not have moms helping as leaders and admins. So we need the moms, but we won't accept the daughters?

Beavah is right in his answer. The only caveat I'll add is scoutmasters take time to learn their role. In the most ... absolutely the most friendly way possible ... ask the scoutmaster if he has contacted the district or council to get a merit badge counselor list so that he can share those names with the scout. Scout works with scoutmaster, but the scoutmaster isn't guaranteed to know the answers either. A friendly help to the scoutmaster can help ... if done right.

I think we are all saying the same thing. GTA 9.0.1.4 and 9.0.1.5 are about the application. Before he turns eighteen, he must still get the project workbook report signatures and complete the SMC. The scout has time for the application after 18. Not forever though ... I try to avoid those details when discussing it with the scout because he starts eating into the three month window of easy processing.

Time sensitive is both the SMC and the signature on the workbook. The scoutmaster signature on the workbook is an indicator the project is done. It needs to be signed before the scout is 18. There is some flexibility in disputed situations and some workarounds can be done, but generally ... if not strictly ... the signed date needs to be before the scout turns 18. So as said immediately, designate the appropriate ASM to sign the workbook and do the SMC. Even with the SM on vacation, text, email and phone the SM so he knows what is being done. Let the CC and COR know too. That's the best way to minimize confusion. What's sad is with the right leaders and the right district, this screw up by the scout is survivable. With the wrong ones, it could end is Eagle journey on a bad note.

Coed troops will eventually happen. Girls should absolutely be able to earn Eagle. It's just a question of when and how. It's part of moving scouting into the future.

There is no single answer for this. I've been in units that do almost every combination you can think. Usually, unit pays for membership and person pays for camp, food, etc. The paid membership is more like "thank you" than covering significant cost. More importantly ... I'd ask ... What do you want to encourage? - Need more adults helping out? Pay for their registration. - Need even more adults? Subsidize camping? - Have too many adult leaders? Adults pay their own membership. The one that I've never liked is where scout fundraising goes to subsidize adult camping. Okay on enough adults to make the event work. But I never care for when the camping is subsidized and there is 20 scouts and 20 adults. It seems like fundraising money is being wasted in that case.

Communion as transubstantiation, consubstantial or sacremental union. These are all philosophical differences whose precise meaning reflects very very small differences. IMHO, the different terms are used mainly to divide the groups than to provide any meaningful difference. Heck, Catholics each and every week use consubstantial in our creed in another view. IMHO, focusing on these differences is best done over a beer and a smile. It has no practical use other than to divide people.

Yeah, but I've camped at scout camps. Safety of guest scouts is emphasized. Safety of staffers is often ignored with a wink and a grin ... in the name of promoting fun for the campers. Staffers standing on unstable benches and tables causing falls from significant height. Clearing out brush causing many staffers to catch lymes disease. Staffers generally doing stupid stuff to be the cool staffer. "Nature just developers a better idiot." ... and then they come back the next year as the favorite camp staff.

For those of a different pet religion...

Wow ... Glad I dropped out of this thread days ago. Yikes. Can I recommend ... ??

Well said !!!!!!!!!

It's a none issue. Unit and district leaders should accept it just fine. Unfortunately, answers vary as districts are wildly different and volunteers have different views and objectives. To resolve this, just ask your unit leaders and your district advancement committee chair. Go to your council web site and find the district you are in. Using that, find the district advancement committee chair. That's really the only easy answer. Even then, there is very little different between the March 2015 and the Oct 2015 versions. Very little. Also you can use the guidance BSA gave in their Aug/Sep 2014 advancement news. "Clarifying Use of the Eagle Scout Service Project Workbook" http://www.scouting.org/filestore/advancement_news/2014_Aug-Sept.pdf The workbook is supposed to be a tool to help the scout. The paperwork is not the requirement. The project is the requirement. As leaders, we are supposed to guide the scout to have a safe, successful project that is a positive experience for the scout. So with that view, I'd ask how redoing paperwork helps the project? All the concern I see is about how adult leaders and/or adults on his EBOR will re-act. IMHO, at that point, the fix needs to focus on correcting the EBOR members, not the paperwork. I've had scouts ask me to sign earlier versions of the workbook. We work through it and then I ask them for the next section to go after and use the later version of the workbook for that section. Perhaps if it was the 2011 or 2012 version, I'd ask them to update it first. But generally, let's move forward to have a positive experience.

Agreed. Years ago I raised my eyebrows when I heard that a local scoutmaster would award the canoeing merit badge to all the scouts that went on the troop multi-day canoe trip. Back then I was surprised as it did not check off all the requirements. But on the flip side, they did many many miles and probably 20+ hours in the canoe. It seems only right. IMHO, at that point it's up to the counselor to cover the appropriate things. The requirements should be as simple as go on a 30+ mile overnight canoe trip (or something similar). During it, the merit badge counselor can mentor all the skills and techniques. IMHO, that's better than the current 47 categorized requirements.

It's funny. Many people talk about raising the bar for Eagle so it means something more than it does now. I very very much would like simpler requirements, but there is one change I would like to see. I'd like to see camping go from 20 nights (one long term week) to just 40 or 50 nights. IMHO, I've seen many of what others call paper Eagles be the guys who skim by on the camping requirement. That's the whole place where you learn to help others, learn your own independence and where you grow. IMHO, I would not mind seeing the camping requirements look much more simple but increase the nights to 40 or 50. I'd like to see all ther verbose stuff moved to a counselor guide too. Keep the scout facing requirements simple.