Tim in NJ

That's my council and district. I'm looking forward to hearing some more details about this from some friends close to Troop 368 over the next couple of weeks. I know the people that post on the Patriots' Path Council Facebook page, and they would not share a fake letter or story.

perdidochas covered the first part. You are thinking of the classic, historic method of boys earning merit badges, which happens to be the best method in my opinion. 1, 2, 3, or a small group of boys decide that they want to earn, say, the Engineering merit badge. They ask their Scoutmaster for blue cards and the names/contact info for a local counselor. They pick your name, contact you, and arrange a meeting or phone call of some type that works best for all involved. They may show you some work they've previously accomplished, ask questions about how to complete certain requirements, ask for

Personally, I hate the worksheets. This isn't school, I'm not a teacher, and assigning fill-in-the-blank homework seems to me to be pretty much the opposite of what scouting is supposed to be about. I consider the merit badge pamphlets to be a good reference, but not an absolute necessity. I'm a bit saddened to see how many boys show up to our first meeting for a given merit badge with a sentence or two written in each blank on a worksheet they pulled off the internet figuring that they'll get my signature on a blue card 45 minutes later. In reality, anything that can be completed on the w

Cooking MB presents one very unique challenge at the moment... two sets of requirements this year. As far as I understand it, by starting the badge in 2014, the scouts can choose whether to use the old requirements to earn the badge or the new ones that become mandatory January 1st. This means that when that scout does contact you (well done with pushing for that request by the way), you'll have to ask him which set of requirements they intend to use. I'm sorry I can't give you much in the way of specific guidelines for how to cover all of the requirements, but just remember to take you

We've had to cancel the first week of camp at some of our locations this year due directly the harsh winter New Jersey has been experiencing. So many school districts have had so many closings that many campers and staffers alike will not be able to make their normal start dates. The state mandates that all public schools have to be open for 180 days of instruction no matter what the weather causes, so to make up all of the lost days everything is going to be very backed up when June rolls around.

18 one year and 16 the other I believe. When some of the scouts contacted me afterwards to complete the badge, I never saw more than 2 at a time.

From what I have gathered, results may vary greatly depending on your location and local practices. My council does run a "Merit Badge Workshop" (phrased that way on purpose) every November. A handful of badges are offered, and with only one exception each class only allows the scouts to cover a limited amount of the requirements. The exception that offers a chance to earn a complete badge seems to be Fingerprinting, which really does seem to have a set of requirements that should not take much time at all. For the last two years I have introduced Engineering Merit Badge at this event, and

To put a bow on this, Patriots' Path Council hosted a miniature version of our annual Tradeshow of Scouting yesterday afternoon for transferring CNJC units. 38 out of our 48 new units attended, several bringing along multiple representatives. The biggest contingent I saw from a single unit was 4 adults and 5 youth from the same troop. As 00Eagle mentioned above, these units had been parts of 2 different districts in their old council and have now been placed into two of the already existing districts in PPC, with the biggest deciding factors being geography and school districts, not the nam

i'm not familiar with the typical functions of most LDS units on this front. For most of the "community" units that I've worked with, the crossover ceremony had the Webelos stay in their Cub uniforms. For most of these units, the Webelos were already wearing the tan shirts anyway as that seems to be the more popular option here in New Jersey. In many cases, during the crossover ceremony, shoulder loops were changed from blue to green and/or neckerchiefs and slides were swapped to boy scout versions. It all varied slightly depending on the traditions of the particular packs and troops invol

Bugling has been the least-earned badge nationally for the last few years. Family Life will probably be the source of most of your phone calls. I've been registered as a Safety MB Counselor for over 2 years now... still waiting for the first scout on that one!

Christineka: No, you do not need to buy the merit badge pamphlets, and any worksheets you find online are created by well-meaning people that are creating unofficial documentation. Its been 16 years since I have personally earned a merit badge, but I never used a worksheet for a single one. If you do become a merit badge counselor, your goal will be to work with the scouts in a way that gets through to them and allows them to understand the subject material. Worksheets might help some scouts, while others will benefit from different methods. You and the scouts work together towards the goa

Since I became a uniformed scouter two years ago, I have pulled my medal out of the box and pinned it to my uniform exactly twice. Both times were to attend an Eagle CoH. I wasn't the only adult wearing mine either time, and no one gave me a second look. I'm happy to wear the medal with pride when appropriate and welcome new members into our brotherhood.

In case you need it in writing: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/guidetoadvancement/themeritbadgeprogram.aspx I don't know what this "scoutmaster" is doing, but its not the Boy Scouts of America.

Contact your District or Council Advancement Chair. There is a process in place specifically for this scenario which will trigger the Eagle Board of Review even without the final Scoutmaster's Conference. 4 months is much too long to wait, 6 more months is ridiculous. If there really was some reason to hold up your son, the troop has plenty of time to bring up the issue in years past.

I haven't found anything official either, and the email I received was very light on details (I don't know exactly where this is being held, nor do I have a start time or end time). I'm waiting for a reply from our staff advisor that I hope will come soon.

Your son can technically start working on merit badges as soon as he becomes a registered Boy Scout, but as others have said it is not the most critical and can be somewhat overwhelming for a new scout. Merit badges involve asking the scoutmaster for a "blue card" and contact information for merit badge counselors, contacting those merit badge counselors to ask them for their help, and arranging a meeting between at least 3 people (the counselor, the scout, and the scout's buddy). That can be a very difficult series of steps for a youth to accomplish, and all of that happens before he starts w

I received an interesting email yesterday afternoon. On Sunday, February 16th there will be a Mini "Tradeshow of Scouting" for former Central Jersey units that will be joining Patriots' Path Council held in Edison. There was no mention of which units/districts/geographical areas are included. Earlier announcements from Central Jersey did not mention Patriots' Path at all, so I guess some agreement was worked out.

lechwe: One of the defining and most useful features of the merit badge program as its designed is the challenge given to the scouts to initiate contact with the counselors. As designed, a scout would need to pick a badge to work on, request contact information, and pick up the phone to call an adult stranger with the intentions of asking for a very big favor. He would then need to take the initiative to find a buddy (fellow scout or otherwise) to attend the meeting with him and have the courage to actually go out and meet up with this unknown merit badge counselor. Honestly, its a lot to a

Youth Protection training does not state that you need two adults at all times. See the list of "Scouting's Barriers to Abuse" here: http://www.scouting.org/youthprotection.aspx. Two adult leaders are required for all "outings", but a merit badge session is not an outing. The second bullet point applies: "One-on-one contact between adults and youth members prohibited." Youth Protection policies seem to often be interpreted to be more difficult than they really are. Don't add restrictions that don't exist.

Sorry, I wasn't on here for a few days. From reading some of the posts below, it looks like most of your questions have already been answered. As someone else mentioned, my opinion on your project doesn't actually count for anything. The only opinion that matters right now is that of your District or Council Advancement Chair who will decide whether or not to sign the book. Good luck!

Did you read your Eagle Project Workbook? Presumably you completed the project proposal first (which you should have had reviewed by your District or Council Advancement Chair) and obtained the other required signatures. Unfortunately, I can tell you from experience that between the Unit Leader, the Unit Committee, and the Beneficiary's representative, they often do not have a good sense of what an acceptable Eagle Scout Service Project actually consists of. I serve on my local District Advancement Committee and I see all of the submitted proposals, already signed and approved at the unit l

I agree with you on the Expedition Hat being a great all-arounder. Its the only Scout hat I wear these days, and I'm constantly wondering why I never got one back when I was a youth. Last year during the aftermath of Sandy and the snowstorm that hit New Jersey the following week, my Expedition Hat was my daily wear, even without any of the rest of the uniform. It just takes everything you can throw at it and is still ready to go.

I'm not associated with any individual unit, so the unit number area of my sleeve stays empty. I've been a member of my local district operating committee and district advancement committee for a while now, and I've gotten two shirts together for that purpose (one long sleeve, one short). When I got involved in starting up my council's STEM committee, I had no interest in buying any further shirts, but I did want the option of swapping my District Committee patch for a Council Committee one when appropriate. I bought some pre-cut velcro pieces from http://www.switchempatches.com and sewed t

If you become their subsequent merit badge counselor, you can accept or reject any of the signed off requirements according to your judgement. That's a very big part of the merit badge counselor job! Oddly enough though, the scouts do have the option of taking their partials to some other Cooking merit badge counselor, who might or might not share your same view of the signed-off requirements on their partials. At that point, you would really be out of the loop and have little recourse. You can describe the situation as you saw it right now to your Council Advancement Committee and enc

Position code 52 is Supernova Mentor. It is a no fee position, just like a Merit Badge Counselor.