District Has Set Limits (7-MBs/Counselor & Max 5/Eagle)

[evmori 11]

The following is on the answer sheet for the quiz in the link OGE posted.

 

A counselor may be approved for as many badges as he or she is qualified. Since this

is up to the members of the approving body to decide, they also may decide how many merit

badges they feel it is necessary for a counselor to coach based upon need within the district

or council.

 

Seems to say that whoever approves MBC's can restrict the number of badges one can counsel??? Seems contradictory what is in the Fast Facts section.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[John-in-KC 311]

This has now been said and cited several times before in this thread:

 

The National Council Advancement Literatures says nothing about a limit on the number of merit badges a Counselor may choose to support.

 

In fact, it says there is no limit, as ajmako pointed out.

 

GIVEN THAT, Dluder's Council has chosen to override this limit.

 

The only advice I can offer Dluders if he chooses to take on the task of changing this in his Council is this:

 

Be prepared to surrender your Scoutmastership to serve on the District Advancement Committee or the Council Advancement Committee. From the Scoutmaster's Handbook, we understand being a Scoutmaster is time intensive. In fact, it's so time intensive it should be the only Scouting job held during the tenure!

 

I suspect Dluder's will be invited to join one of the Advancement Committees. I suspect it will be on a "put your money where your mouth is" basis.

 

I wish him well. As for me, I think I can live within my Council's imposed limit of six MBs per Counselor.

[SWScouter 34]

John-in-KC, you are correct that the, "National Council Advancement Literatures says nothing about a limit on the number of merit badges a Counselor may choose to support." However, as Ed points out, it also says that councils can stipulate what qualifies a person to be able to counsel a merit badge. There is nothing stopping a council from disqualifying a potential counselor based on how many MBs that person is already a counselor for. You can decide whether this is contradictory (as Ed once again mentioned) or not. Personally, I think that this gives the council the authority to decide who can be counselors and for how many MBs. I don't think this says anything about how many MBs a scout may earn from any given counselor.

 

SWScouter

[John-in-KC 311]

SWS,

 

I agree with you in point of fact.

 

As I said elsewhere, for me, this is something not worth time, effort or resources to pursue.

 

If Dluders wants to, that's his call... but I also know folks who own "rice bowls," and many of them would rather have the dissident in th house... where he can be watched closely.

[FScouter 24]

Its abundantly clear that merit badge counselors are to be selected and approved based on the individual knowledge, training, and experience of the applicant. Some may have broader background and subject matter knowledge that others and may be well qualified to counsel a lot of merit badges. A blanket rule laid down for everyone that says 7 or 4 or whatever is the limit completely ignores the qualifications of the individual counselor.

 

It also perpetuates the notion that the chairman, the committee, the DE, or whoever else claims power, can make up rules that clearly have no support from our BSA. That's reason enough in itself to challenge the "rule".