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 permission for activities that say "with your counselor's approval", or just generally discuss the merit badge subject. Hopefully the boys leave that first meeting with a plan in their heads for how to complete at least some of the remaining requirements. As the boys continue working on the badge, they can schedule additional meetings with you. When they have met all of the requirements (as written, no more and no less) to your satisfaction, you sign off two sections of their blue card, tear off the third section for your own files, and congratulate them. Each meeting you have with the boys could last 15 minutes or two hours, and you can get a badge done in one meeting or twenty. It really depends on the requirements of the given badge and the work that the boys are accomplishing at their own speed.

 

As far as required background, a merit badge counselor is essentially supposed to be a subject matter expert for the boys to use as a resource. Your background in each subject should be evaluated at either the council or district level for each badge that you apply to counsel. In my council, this is handled within each district by a specific volunteer with a job title of "Merit Badge Dean." Generally, they are looking for a professional or strong amateur interest in the subject, and from your brief descriptions above, I would guess you would qualify for those first 6 badges you mentioned. Its up to you to decide if you want to share your experiences about the hobbies that you are no longer actively involved in though. I have found it to be a good experience, however I do want to caution you not to get discouraged if your phone is not ringing off the hook. I don't believe any of the badges you listed above are among the top 15 most popular, so you might end up with limited interest.

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 worksheet is the least emphasized part of the badge for me: I spend a lot more time and effort on both the hands-on and discussion requirements of any given badge.

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 your time and make sure every scout has the time to cover every requirement. There is no particular clock on getting the MB completed, so just work through a few things each time you meet with the boys. Also, I suggest initially partials on their blue cards at the end of every session so that both you and the scouts are clear on exactly what has and has not been completed. Good luck!

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.

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 in about 2 hours I (and another counselor working together) have managed to sign off 3 of the 9 requirements as partials for each scout. We always make sure that every scout participates and speaks up for all completed requirements. At the end of the session, both counselors sign partials and offer up our contact information to allow the boys the chance to arrange the next meeting when they get more work done.

 

Its certainly not much of a council fundraiser, since I think the participating boys are charged something $4 to register for the event plus $2 per merit badge session. Since there are only 4 sessions offered total, no boy would even have the opportunity to spend over $12 for the whole day. That probably barely covers the expenses to run the event.

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 in about 2 hours I (and another counselor working together) have managed to sign off 3 of the 9 requirements as partials for each scout. We always make sure that every scout participates and speaks up for all completed requirements. At the end of the session, both counselors sign partials and offer up our contact information to allow the boys the chance to arrange the next meeting when they get more work done.

 

Its certainly not much of a council fundraiser, since I think the participating boys are charged something $4 to register for the event plus $2 per merit badge session. Since there are only 4 sessions offered total, no boy would even have the opportunity to spend over $12 for the whole day. That probably barely covers the expenses to run the event.

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 name of their old CNJC district. Most of the people I talked to seemed very happy to be there and I already heard some compliments about the level and variety of programs we have to offer our new members, especially compared with what they used to have.

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 involved. Of course, these ceremonies also happened in groups, as these units did not involve the LDS membership timing.

 

Have a quick discussion with the Scoutmaster involved, and perhaps ask other units in the area what they typically do. No one is going to get mad at you for a wrong answer on this, since there really isn't a wrong way to do it.

Took a survey about the new digital merit badge books. Will be interested in seeing how they turn out.

 

Christine--if you want "business" as a merit badge counselor, choose some of the less common Eagle required badges. Our troop, for example, is in need of more Family Life counselors.

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!

Some scouters get fed up with all of the "Byzantine bureaucracy." They get fed up of shelling out $ for pamphlets. I kind of agree. I would far prefer pamphlets that are low-budget, black-and-white books because that shows a good faith effort that BSA is trying to make scouting accessible to everybody. I'm not a big fan of worksheets, because ink and paper is expensive, and they could easily be produced for pennies on the dozen. So would it hurt the scout shop to have items that sell for a nickle? But they don't. So folks get fed up of MBs starting with a $3.50 purchase of a pamphlet, and chasing down adult applications, etc ...

 

But they they also miss the point of going outside of the troop for a resource, or calling somebody and maybe have them come and present their career/hobby to them, or maybe arranging a visit to a location related to a merit-badge. Scouting was never meant to be an insular, go-it-alone endeavor.

 

There are other missed opportunities. In this thread, the OP would like to be an MBC, and one troop basically shut the door on her. That's a shame. Because if one of those knuckle dragging boys would have said, "Mrs. C. would you like to council us on __ MB?" Maybe she would not be so apprehensive about the age difference between them and her son.

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 goal. Please take a look at the official description that I linked to above on BSA's own website when you get a chance. It really is a fantastic program when done right!

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 working on a single requirement. The system is designed that way to challenge the boy, but it is often best to let him concentrate on the Tenderfoot, 2nd Class, and 1st Class requirements early on to build up his skills and confidence.

 

As far as the lone scout being made to not "repeat the rank stuff", I cannot begin to express how much I disagree with that. The skills learned on the trail to 1st Class are the bedrock of a good scout experience, and should honestly be repeated for the scout's entire career. Learning enough basic first aid to pass the rank requirements as an 11 year old is a great thing. Retraining and relearning those skills year after year could mean remembering them in time to save someone's life one day. The same idea applies to essentially all of the skills needed to earn those ranks.

 

Velcro for the unit numbers is a very good option. If you look around, you can find velcro made in roughly the same tan color as the shirts, which works great if one troop has 3 digits in its number and the other has only 1 or 2 digits.

 

Green loops have been current for Boy Scouts for a couple of years, but there are still plenty of Scouts and Scouters happily walking around with red loops on their shoulders. At this point, it would actually be harder to find the red ones than the green anyway. Just don't go for yellow, silver, blue or orange!

 

By the way, for the necker and hat questions: those are up to individual troop decisions as decided by the youth members. If the LDS troop doesn't have any standards yet, your son may be able to start the discussion and help make the decision once he joins up. Of course, if he does end up joining both troops, he may end up needing two different hats and two different neckers to switch back and forth along with those unit numbers on his sleeve!

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.

Interesting discussion. I have a 12 year son who is a Star scout and is on track to make Life Scout in January. He got Star 2 days before he turned 12. At the pace that "He" has set for himself it is entirely feasible that he will "EARN" Eagle before or just after he turns 14. He is extremely motivated and is setting his own goals. While I am a leader in the troop I have never signed off on anything he has done and refuse to. I will likely have to on some merit badges as I am the only on in the troop who is a counselor for them but they will be done with a group of scouts rather than one on one so to avoid any concerns of favoritism.

 

Some seem to think a youngster of this age can't possibly have it together enough to earn Eagle the right way. He is motivated and is a straight A student. He plays on a travel soccer team and last year asked to take the course to get is reffing license. He is a grade 9 ref and works games on a weekly basis to earn his own money. He was given Historian as his POR and has begun a project of putting together the history of all the prior Eagles in the troop. He has contacted (with moms approval) and tracked down and received pictures of the Eagles going all the way back to 1972. He has been able to obtain pictures for over half the eagles so far. He went through the training class and became First Aid/CPR certified rather than just do the first aid merit badge. The bottom line is he is very ambitious and has a goal in mind and is working hard towards that. Thankfully the troop leadership see that and wont try any nonsense of holding him back due to their own preconceived notion of when a scout is old enough to be eagle.

 

Our troop has a couple more that will likely earn Eagle by 14 but we also have some that have turned in paperwork with only hours to spare.

 

In my opinion as long as the troop leadership is doing their job from the beginning while the scout is working his way towards Eagle then there should not be a question of whether he has Earned it or not.

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 ask of most youths, and quite frankly its a stretch for quite a few adults I know. This is not a flaw of the merit badge system, but a design feature, since it pushes the scout to overcome these difficulties at a young age. By bypassing this process via summer camps, merit badge fairs, and internal troop counselors, you are shortchanging your son and the rest of his troop from this important experience. I'm not blaming you, since its obviously a common practice in your area, but this is exactly the portion of the potential of the program that BD is referring to. Of course, changing things to the way its designed will likely meet with plenty of resistance from other scouters plus parents, none of whom may be comfortable with the difficulty this places squarely onto the scout's shoulders.

 

I've been a registered merit badge counselor for six badges for 21 months now. In that time, I've had exactly one scout contact me from out-of-the-blue looking to work on a merit badge like the program is designed for. As difficult as the requirements were (Automotive Maintenance is not an easy badge for a 16/17 year old with no practical knowledge of car mechanics), I honestly feel like his actions in contacting me will probably have a longer lasting effect on his life years from now. If not, at least he'll know how to change a flat tire!

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.

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 level. A much higher percentage that you would ever expect consist of activities that are too commercial, too much of a fundraiser, violate BSA safety policies, ignore Youth Protection requirements, consist of only routine maintenance, are of a simply unreasonable scope, violate basic zoning laws, or some combination of several of these factors.

 

Your only course of action should be to contact your District of Council Advancement Chair immediately! Explain the situation fully and apologize for your mistake. Suspend any further work on your project now. Submit your proposal and then wait until it is deemed acceptable. It is quite possible that changes to your proposal may have to be made in order for your district/council rep to deem it acceptable. In that case, you may have to go back and modify your project or redo some of the work you've already completed. Unfortunately, it is also possible that you might not get approval at all, in which case you'll have to start all over with a new proposal and a new project. Take action on this right now!

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 level. A much higher percentage that you would ever expect consist of activities that are too commercial, too much of a fundraiser, violate BSA safety policies, ignore Youth Protection requirements, consist of only routine maintenance, are of a simply unreasonable scope, violate basic zoning laws, or some combination of several of these factors.

 

Your only course of action should be to contact your District of Council Advancement Chair immediately! Explain the situation fully and apologize for your mistake. Suspend any further work on your project now. Submit your proposal and then wait until it is deemed acceptable. It is quite possible that changes to your proposal may have to be made in order for your district/council rep to deem it acceptable. In that case, you may have to go back and modify your project or redo some of the work you've already completed. Unfortunately, it is also possible that you might not get approval at all, in which case you'll have to start all over with a new proposal and a new project. Take action on this right now!

NJ,

 

Boonie hats are good, BSA even made one briefly. If my fat head could fit in it, the CS version would at the local distributor would be mine. But IMHO, the best all purpose hat is , and I may be committing sacrilege saying it, is the Expedition, aka Brimmed Hat. It's waterproof and crushable. I'm on #2 as the first one was stolen. I've gone through multiple storms, inlcuding hurricanes with them.

 

BUT, I love my SMOKEYS!

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.

What about those of us that have a position in one pack, another position in a second pack, and on the District Roundtable Staff? I can't really afford 3 shirts, and I don't really like my left sleeve looking like a giant strip of velcro (with badge magic behind the velcro)

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 the loop sides onto my sleeves and then sewed the hook sides onto the back of my office patches. I tend to make sure I have the right patch on my sleeve before I even put the shirt on, but I always keep the alternate patch in my shirt pocket in case I end up needed to "change jobs" while I'm out. The patch covers the velcro completely, so you don't see anything unusual until I peel it off. I do have another velcro hook patch on each shirt for my "Trained" patch, which it seems I've only earned with the District job so far. When I'm wearing the Council patch, I just pull off the Trained strip and stick it in my pocket. No one has ever said anything about the visible tan velcro on the tan sleeve, so I think it blends in pretty well.

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 encourage them to take some corrective action with the Camp MBC.

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