council education/conservation coordinator

[n8turldy]

all of the american merit badge pamphlets are being re-done this year to include color photographs. wonderful, but how will this addition add more continuity and substance to the information already provided? some of the merit badges could be combined more logically, without diluting them. i.e. fish and wildlife management, soil and water conservation, and environmental science have overlapping requirements. forestry is an excellent lead into pulp and paper. scouts are seeking out additional information via internet, educational materials to supplement the merit badge pamphlet to fulfill the requirements. is this the purpose of the pamphlets, to serve as a springboard for information? if this is the case, eliminate the paper pamphlets, and make the information available online, save the trees.

[OldGreyEagle]

See, I dont know why we would want to curb paper use. Paper is made from trees cut from Pulp farms. Paper does not come from the timbering of old growth forests, it comes from tree farms where the trees are planted, pruned and developed to become paper, much as corn, tomatoes, potatoes etc are farmed. Then once the trees are harvested, they are transported to mills, the paper is made and then transported to the printer. To eliminate paper means we put the forester out of work, the truck driver taking the wood to the mills, the millworkers, the truckers that take the paper to the printer and then the print shop employees and subsequent distribution workers. To eliminate paper means to put all these people out of work and I dont want to do that.

 

If paper production required that old growth trees be harvested, I woud agree but the paper industry is reusing land to grow trees just as we grown our food(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

[scottteng]

Rather than free online of which there are already good sources for worksheets how about a yearly cd with the pamphlets on the cd available with the requirements book for printing or other electronic distribution. I have no objection to nationals piece of the pie that they need to operate but selling books as cheap as they sell them can't be very profitable.

[skeptic]

Somewhere I believe I read that they are planning on offering the pamphlets through regular bookstores, such as Barnes and Noble. A good reason to make them more attractive visually, even if the content remains the same. Time will tell, but sounds like a good idea to me.

[hot_foot_eagle]

To some extent merit badge pamphlets were my wikipedia when I was growing up. When I wanted a basic overview of a topic (whether or not I was interested in earning the merit badge)the MB book was a great resource. Encyclopedias didn't have any really useful info when it came to things like wilderness survival.

 

It would be great if the MB pamphlets could be broadened in scope and content to appeal to a mass market. The merit badge requirements wouldn't need to change, but information beyond the basics would add another dimension to the product. It would be a great public resource, good marketing, and make a scout's merit badge library an asset worth holding on to.

 

 

[shortridge]

I was a bit confused by the title of this thread. Is there a council-level education/conservation coordinator position out there, and is what n8turldy suggests one of their proposals?

 

I think it's a great idea to snazz the pamphlets up and market them to a mass audience. I just hope they redo the line drawings and reshoot the art. (How many Scouts go rappelling or do pioneering in an official polo shirt?)

 

There is already a lot of substance to the pamphlets beyond the BSA-produced content - check out the resource lists in the back. The problem is those require constant updating, as books go out of print and gradually become unavailable in libraries, and as Web sites change or go under.

[Apache Bob]

It would be nice if National put all the merit badge in a loose leaf binder. Then a unit could get all the badges at one time. If the requirements for a badge changes then the unit could just purchase the pages that changed. Or they could be online for the taking.