Blue Cards

[Apache Bob]

I have read everything I can find on Eagle Boards of Review.

 

Where I am located the Council Advancement Committee has made it a policy that when a Scout comes before his Eagle Board of Review he must have in his possession all of his blue cards for Eagle. Without them the board will not be held.

 

Is there any way around this since this is not Nationals policy but a local one?

 

[OldGreyEagle]

The smart aleck answer would be to ask the person where thats written and until it can be found, it wont be done. The other tactic is to fond out why such a request is thought to be necessary and go from there.

 

Bottom line it can't be done, well actually it can be done because as you have seen it was done. But its not right. Again, find out why

[jr56]

My guess would be that if they tried to deny the boy his Eagle because of lack of blue cards, it would be overturned on appeal to regional/national.

[kraut-60]

Keeping the originals is at best very unlikely and I see it as unrealistic to expect a Scout to retain all the MB apps he has earned. The Advancement Detail Report I get from our local service center/scout shop shows all the ranks and merit badges a scout has earned and kept on record with council, providing of course, that the advancement reports were/are kept up to date. This is the paperwork we use to check and ensure an Eagle candidate has all his rank and MBs on record for the EBOR and to verify nothings missing.

[emb021]

Once a scout has submitted his 'blue cards' and received the merit badge and merit badge cards, what purpose do the blue cards serve? None. If done properly, the council should have on record the scout's merit badges. This is why most councils require an advancement form to be submitted before the give out merit badges and cards.

 

Furthermore, in most cases the paperwork the scout submittes, which listes all his merit badges, is usually checked by the council office for any errors BEFORE the scout goes to his BOR. So any issues should be caught and corrected before the BOR. I don't seen the reason or purpose of requiring any eagle candidate to bring either blue cards or merit badge cards to a BOR. A request (request, mind you) to bring his sash would be nice, as a starting point for discussions about the badges the boy earned, etc.

 

 

Get a copy of the "Advancement Guidelines" book. This gives the National policies regarding advancement that council advancement committees must follow. Anyone can purchase a copy from National Supply, and most Scout Shops have copies. Be adviced they do put out a revised edition about every year. Having your own copy goes a long way to stop such nonsense.

[Horizon]

1) It is a great idea for the Scout to keep his portion of the Blue Card. My son stores his in a baseball card / business card plastic sleeve that goes into a 3 ring binder. He puts the blue card in first, and when he gets the advancement card he puts that in with it. If and when our Advancement Chair misses something on the list, he can show her the blue card so that his advancement is properly recorded.

 

2) Everytime we go to the Scout shop he asks for a print-out of his advancement record. He then checks that against his blue card / advancement card records to see if the computer shows any problems in dates, etc. We had an Eagle in our troop that had to have several parts of the record corrected. Remember, data entry is often done by volunteers.

 

3) Some summer camps do NOT use blue cards. My son has four advancement cards without the corresponding blue cards because his first summer camp did not use them. If he was found lacking at his Council BOR, he would certainly win an appeal with no problem.

[croushorn]

Do they ask for proof of having the cards before they will schedule it? If he has them, show them. But I'd still inform them that isn't a documented national policy and request they still schedule it.

If he doesn't have them, go ahead and schedule it anyways. If it comes up during the BOR, then would be the time to inform them that it is not national policy and explain why you don't have them.

It just may be bluster to require them. They may just want another opportunity to review and discuss the Scout's advancement history.

I wouldn't make it an issue unless they do.

[scoutldr]

Once the COuncil registrar signs the Eagle application, that certifies that the records are complete and accurate. That is all I look at when I sit on an EBOR. Most scouts have their blue cards in a binder, but I don't waste time checking each one.

 

Only reason for a blue card would be for proof if the Council didn't have a record of it. Believe it or not, some Council records have been found to be, shall we say, incomplete.

 

In my opinion, of course.

[evmori]

I have run into situations where my council never recorded the MB's earned & the blue cards verified they were earned. But to require a Scout to bring the to an EBOR is adding to the requirements.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[John-in-KC]

Some Scoutmaster needs to ask the Council Advancement Chairman to read a few pages out of Advancement Committee Policies and Procedures.

 

One specific thing the Scoutmaster should ask to be shown is this requirement in the BSA literature.

 

I'd recommend a SM with an Eagle candidate coming up call the Council Advancement Chair at home. Promise the man that if the kid is failed Eagle over lack of blue cards, the SM will obtain all manner of assistance in drafting the Appeal to the National Advancement Committee for violation of National policy.

 

I would urgently recommend a blunt statement to the SE, the Council President, and the Advancement Chair, from the COR: "Do you really want to have National overturn each EBOR on an appeal?"

 

I do not know why your Council Advancement Committee is running off the reservation, but it's blindingly obvious they are.

[scottteng]

It is left to the scout to maintain his own records whether those be blue cards or printouts from summer camps. How would one correct records otherwise. What if one was not entered properly. How would the candidate show he had earned mb? that was not in the computer's records. I am all for tech tools but the scout must know what his accomplishments are or suffer the consequences. A computer is only as good as the person inputting information into it and especially in these times of multiple nicknames the scout must keep his own records to "be prepared".

[Gold Winger]

" I see it as unrealistic to expect a Scout to retain all the MB apps he has earned."

 

Why? Is it unrealistic to expect them to know that they have homework to do? Is it unrealistic to expect them to carry their drivers license? Is it unrealistic to expect them to go to baseball practice without you having to remind them?

 

Maybe today it is and that is the fault of the over-indulgent parents.

[croushorn]

He may not have the blue cards, but he should know his advancement history. That's not too much to ask of anyone up for this award.

[NeilLup]

One practical reason I can see for the BOR to have blue cards is to learn which counselor approved which merit badges. If, for example, Mom and Dad approved 18 of his 21 merit badges, it might be a topic of discussion.

 

Having said that, REQUIRING the blue cards is, as others have said, adding to the requirements. I do believe that the Scout is required to document that he has earned the merit badges. This was presumably done at the time the advancement report was originally submitted to the council. If the Troop uses them, the Scout should have cards for the merit badges. Not the blue cards, but the cards one buys in the Scout shop. The records should also be in the council advancement records.

 

I also agree that if the Scout has reasonable proof of his merit badges and is denied a Board of Review, an appeal would be upheld.

[FScouter]

I do like to glance over a candidate's blue cards: dates earned, who signed (SM, dad, or the same guy over and over), summer camp stamp, etc. It gives a little bit of a picture of the boy's history and a possible lead into discussion. If he doesn't have them it's no big deal.