Lost Merit Badge Cards

[Prairie_Scouter]

What to do about lost, partially completed merit badge cards?

[NWScouter]

I as MBC for Leatherworking, if the scout came to me and said he had lost the card, this is what I would do and have done. I would ask him to bring his projects (or evidence of them), go over the verbal requirements to see if he remembered them and then go on to those he needs to complete.

Basically I would work with the scout and try to reconstruct what he has done and go on from there.

If it is camp partial, I know our camps and most other camps keeps attendance and requirements list (ours in computer data base besides just paper). I call up the scout office of the council that owns the camp and get a copy of it.

 

[evmori]

Depends on the merit badge. There are some that can be completed easily & others where the Scout would have to start all over! What merit badge did the Scout lose the card for?

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[LongHaul]

Prairie Scouter,

Depends on what you mean by what do you do. Are you asking from the position of Scoutmaster, where the boy needs a new Blue Card to complete the badge? From the stand point of Merit Badge Counselor where the boy wants credit for achievement he cant substantiate? From the stand point of parent that wants their son to get credit for requirements completed? The Scoutmaster can attempt to verify or recreate the missing card by contacting the original merit badge counselor. The parent should contact the Scoutmaster or Advancement chair. As a Merit Badge Counselor you have to follow the requirements as written in the Requirements publication. You cant sign a completed card if the boy hasnt completed the requirements and you dont know that he has if he cant produce a partial but wants credit for past work. As NWScouter said we can give credit if we think the requirement was fulfilled as in showing us the project used to complete the requirement. I counsel Swimming merit badge can I take a boys word that he has passed the basic swimmers test if he has no documentation or partial? Should I just let him jump in the pool? I feel I need to have him do the test again as a safety concern. Which position are you asking about?

LongHaul

 

[Venividi]

Just had this recently - was approached by a scout telling me that he had lost his for First Aid. I had a chat with him and told him that i believe a scout is trustworthy, and I believed him. I explained to him that I was also expected to be trustworthy, and when I put my signature on a new card, I was being trusted to have verified that the requirements were complete. I then did as NWScouter suggested, and gave him the chance to demonstrate first, and then I would teach and help him with those skills which he may have forgotten.

[Prairie_Scouter]

I'm guess I'm asking from the standpoint of both the SM and and MBC. As an MBC, I've never had it come up, so I was curious as to what the policy, if any, was. As you've all commented, you can't sign off someone unless you can verify that he's done the work.

 

As the SM, I had a Scout come up to me and say that he's lost the cards for both Camping and Hiking (of course, they WOULD be badges that are more difficult and time consuming to complete ). I and a couple of the ASMs can verify that he did complete the tasks he had on his partial because they were done on Troop activities that we were a part of.

 

As an MBC, personally, I'm thinking that that would be sufficient to reconstruct the partials, but I'm wondering if that's just me, or if that would meet the standards of other MBC's as well in similar situations.

 

Thanks for the input, by the way. Appreciate it.

[Hunt]

I would just like to point out that for many MB requirements, you have to take the boy's word for it that he really completed the requirement. For these, I don't see much difference in whether he did them for you or for a previous counselor. For example, if a boy tells me he and his family had a family meeting, I'm not going to ask his family to verify it (at least, not unless I have some other reason to doubt the boy's truthfulness). On the other hand, if the requirement calls for something to be shown to the counselor, I guess I'd want to see it too.