Scouts contacting MB counselors

[Trevorum]

For those of you who are merit badge counselors, I'd like to hear a bit about your experiences in this matter.

 

In response to a fairly rare opportunity, I organized a workshop type event in which scouts could complete several requirements for a "specialty" merit badge (ie., not typically offered at summer camps). Our council media person helped me advertise the opportunity. The notice read, in part, "... interested Scouts should contact [me]."

 

I've had a very good reponse to the opportunity, with more than 80 inquiries. However, all but 3 of these inquiries were from parents telling me that their little Johnny would like to participate. Only 3 inquiries were directly from scouts themselves!

 

Do scouts no longer contact a MB counselor themselves?

[evmori]

Being a MB counselor for 10 badges, yes the Scouts contact me directly. If a parent calls & says little Johnny wants to work on a badge I counsel I tell them great have little Johnny give me a call & we can set up a time to meet!

[Trevorum]

Ed, that's precisely how I replied to all those parents. I expected some hovering parents to reply to the notice but I was simply flabbergasted by the ratio of parents to scouts.

[RememberSchiff]

Where was your class advertised? Did they text scouts or post on the council website frequented just by adults?

 

Ditto what Ed said - Scouts have to contact me. Scouts need to develop the initiative to contact mb counselors. In doing so, they develop communication skills and self-confidence needed later.

 

Mostly, I too find parents care more about advancement than scouts, but we cannot allow them to micromanage their son's Boy Scout advancement as they likely did in Cub Scouts.

 

Good luck with your class. Thanks for being a mb counselor. We seem to have a shortage.

 

 

 

(This message has been edited by RememberSchiff)

[Lisabob]

I'm a merit badge counselor for 4 badges, of which 3 are "eagle required" and so I do get a fair bit of traffic. Maybe because most scouts who do the badges I counsel tend to be older, I seldom get contacted by parents. When I do, it is almost always young scouts who haven't had much experience with merit badges yet. At that point I explain to the parent that I'd love to work with their child and that he should contact me to arrange a meeting. After that point, I hear back from maybe half of the boys - apparently the other half weren't as interested as mom and dad thought.

 

 

[Nike]

What do we expect when we (society) send conflicting messages to kids? On the one hand we scare the daylights out of them about possible sexual predators lurking behind every tree, around every bend, and flagrantly disguised as kind, interested youth activities volunteers. And, then we want a twelve year old to call someone he may know only vaguely or not at all?

 

Plus, I am always finding more wonderful oppurtunities than my son ever wants to take advantage of. I am convinced that 13 year old boys are actually inanimate objects.

[allangr1024]

I signed up to be a MB councilor for Environmental Science, mainly to help scouts in our troop get the badge. Since this one requires boys to do stuff outside in the field, I never had any of our scouts finish. (they took the badge later on at summer camp).

 

I have never been contacted by any scouts outside the troop. Should the council maintain the MBC list and give out my name and phone number to interested parties? I am not sure how that works. I have never gotten a call.

[Lisabob]

Allan I don't know how your council does things but in mine, when I signed up to be a MBC, I had the option of choosing to work only with my troop, or to be available for any boy in the council. I chose the latter. (I'd encourage all posters to do likewise, or else every single troop ends up needing to come up with their own pool of MBCs and it is a hugely inefficient use of resources.)

 

Every SM in our council gets an updated copy of the council-wide list a couple of times a year. So yes, if a boy in another troop wants to do "my" badge and the SM gives him my name and #, I might get contacted by someone outside "my" troop. And in fact it happens occasionally, usually from other troops in my area where the SMs and I are friends, and seldom from some random boy in a far-flung corner of the council.

 

(However, for 1 MB, I'm the only registered MBC in the whole council. It doesn't appear to be a highly sought after badge though, unfortunately, as in 4 year, no one has contacted me about it.)

 

 

[shortridge]

(However, for 1 MB, I'm the only registered MBC in the whole council. It doesn't appear to be a highly sought after badge though, unfortunately, as in 4 year, no one has contacted me about it.)

 

I'm trying to guess now...

 

Veterinary Medicine?

Textile?

Pulp & Paper?

Dentistry?

Composite Materials?

American Labor?

 

Am I even close?

[OldGreyEagle]

Nike, I see the issue you are pointing out, but I also understand what the others are saying. If the scout is following the Scouting rules, he is going to the Merit badge counselors house with a buddy. He never goes alone, there isnt a reason to not contact the counselor themselves.

[John-in-KC]

Trev,

 

I think Lisa has a point. If the contact message went out to Scouts, I'd certainly expect Scouts to respond.

 

If the message went out to parents, well, it's our job to educate them to have the youth contact us!

[Nike]

I think it's more the fear factor (strangers, rejection, disappointing others, etc.) with younger Scouts and the procrastination factor with older ones.

 

 

[Lisabob]

shortridge: American Cultures

[clydesdale115]

Son came home from summer camp with a partial MB. A Scouting acquaintance is counselor for that MB so I did email him just to see if he'd prefer my son to call him or email him about making meeting arrangements. My son doesn't know the man, so it'll be a good experience. We have encouraged him to reach beyond the troop to other MB options.

Up to now, most MBs he has were done in-Troop and I agree that it is hugely inefficient and not ideal. After summer camp, the SM in our troop encouraged the adults to get registered as counselors for several MBs the boys had partials for. Huh?

That being said, I am MB counselor for 4 non-Eagle MBs and have never been contacted (I put that I was available to all of council, not just our troop).

Oh well.

 

clyde

 

[raisinemright]

Minor thread hijack in progress.

 

MBC's, I'd like to get your opinion on something. Our council has several districts. We happen to live outside the district our troop is in but in the same council, as do several of our scouts. I managed to get a copy of the MBC list for the district I live in and have asked the SM to recommend these guys to some of our boys. He told me that he wants to use MBC's in our district, most of whom are 20-30 miles away while some of the local ones are literally walking distance.

 

Thoughts?

 

Oh, changing troops is off the table.