lost blue card ?

[IM_Kathy]

the bare facts...

 

3 boys took lifesaving MB at summer camp and all missed the same part of their class. 2 boys were able to attend swim day last year and finished up their MB's that day. the other boy was able to attend swim day last month and I worked him through the skills that he had marked down from previous year that he needed to do. He was to bring his blue card to next meeting and I'd sign those off and he'd be finished. He can't find his blue card. I was not at that summer camp to witness in person him completing other parts, but other leaders were and the other 2 boys said he did all the stuff with them.

 

so, is "a scout is honest" enough or does he have to redo all those other tasks? I know this boy and the other 2 and am completely positive that he did do them, but I'm not sure what "policy" is.

 

I have told him to look, and relook, and repeat, to try and find his blue card. Hopefully he finds it and this is a dead issue.

 

thanks in advance.

[evmori]

Are you a Lifesaving MB counselor?

 

Have you tried contacting your council to see if they have any record of this boy completing those requirements?

 

And yes a Scout is honest, but proof of completion is required.

[NeilLup]

Hello,

 

1) If the "blue card" is what I normally think of as a blue card, It does not contain any information on partial completion. That is on a separate sheet. Perhaps your council or that camp uses a blue sheet for partials. But if not, then just have the Scoutmaster sign a new blue card and you're good to go.

 

2) There are several purposes to the merit badge program, as with advancement, as with all Scouting. Growth in citizenship character and fitness is the point of all of them. There can be an important lesson to be learned in responsibility by being told. "This is "YOUR" merit badge and your partial completion form. It's your responsibility to have it. If you don't, I'm sorry, but as a counselor it's my policy that I want personally to see you do everything and you'll have to redo it.

 

The boy will likely scream and yell and you'll hear "It's not fair!!!" The parents may scream and yell. But you can bet that the Scout will never forget the lesson learned. And particularly for youth today, the lesson of personal responsibility is a lesson that they rarely get.

 

There is a risk that the Scout will quit. But if you are courteous, kind and friendly, that shouldn't happen. Help him recomplete the requirements. But require him to do it.

[scoutldr]

If you are the Lifesaving MB counsellor who will sign off the badge, it is up to you to decide what you will accept. You can make them start over, or you can accept "a Scout is Trustworthy". It's all you now.

[Lisabob]

I think the stakes are a bit higher here because of the MB in question. I agree that the call is up to you as the MBC for that badge, but considering that the Lifesaving MB means a scout should be capable of (you know...) actually saving someone, I'd hope you would be sure he can actually do it. With no signatures from the summer camp MBC, how can you tell whether he met the requirements, or merely attempted to meet the requirements but needed additional work? If it were me, I think I'd be inclined to take the boys at their word that this scout participated right along side them, but that doesn't necessarily mean he got all the same sign offs that they did.

 

Life lessons about not losing important documents aside, I think the decision would be a little different if we were discussing the basketry merit badge.

[IM_Kathy]

thank you all for your views.

 

in relooking through the rest of the requirements that he did not do for me... they were rank level work of the very basic rescues which he's had signed off and in witnessing the tougher rescues I know he knows what he's doing... the rest that are left are discussion parts which I will sit down with him at a meeting and go over them with him again - since he's done them before it should be a quick review for him.

 

again I thank you all... and I asked for this specific case since it was a right now, but I also wanted to know in case it were to ever happen to my son or another scout. And I agree that with this merit badge it is more important to verify everything 1) it's eagle required and 2) it is such an important thing to know and to do correctly

[nldscout]

Yes, its the scouts responsibilty to keep track of his Card, however.

 

When we get the cards back on the last day of camp, we record completions and partials in Troopmaster before anything is given to the scout. So if the card is lost we know what was completed up to a certain point.

[Eamonn]

This really is something that the Scout and the MBC need to deal with.

If I were the SM I'd be more than happy to pass the buck.

As for the "Life Lesson"?

HWMBO does have a habit of moving things to where she thinks they need to be (Normally out of sight!). At times she forgets where she has put them.

One could of course argue that I'm to blame for not keeping them out of sight in the first place? Or that knowing she is going to move them have a designated place that she she put this stuff.

I'm wondering how many blue cards have ended up as a blue glob after going through the laundry?

Eamonn.

[scoutingagain]

As noted earlier as an MB Counselor it's basically up to you.

 

In the unit I serve, when I acted as advancement chair, I did not record partial MB accomplishments in Troopmaster. I only recorded completed MBs. Documentation for partials were given to the boys, with the advice of, this is YOUR record, don't lose it. If you want to complete the MB you will need to show this to the MB counselor who signs off on the remaining requirements.

 

Personally I agree with Neilup. There should be some consequences for lost documentation. It's a teaching moment. I probably would not hold up the MB for all the skill demonstrations I know the boy did, and were witnessed by others..but at a minimum I would have him go through all the "dicuss", "tell" etc. requirements. I would also go through those skills that were easily demonstrated, and didn't necessarily need a pool or body of water for.

 

But, your the MB counselor. It's up to you.

 

SA

[eghiglie]

We're fair but firm with the boys. We compare it lost work at school.

 

- If its a partial from Summer Camp we put that on the blue card and record it in Troopmaster.

 

- If the boy is working on a MB with a MBC actually in the Troop we ask that the MBC or boy tell the Advancement person what requirements are done. The info is put into Troopmaster.

 

- If the boy is working on a MB with a MBC from the district we ask that the boy tell the Advancement person what requirements are done. The info is put into Troopmaster.

 

In all cases the blue card is the boys responsbility. The boy keeps the blue card. If he loses it we have the data for what was done and can work out a method to replace the card for what we know.

 

The part that gets tricky is when some requirement has been done, but it wasn't recorded in TM.

 

At first we very happy to replace lost blue cards and quite a few were being lost. We since instituted a $3 charge with the first lost card free. Since we started charging no one has lost a card.

 

 

[IM_Kathy]

I'm so happy... he did finally find his blue card! So I signed off the things we did last month at the pool and he had it done.

[mdkeplers]

So glad your scout found his blue card.

In our troop, scouts are told up front that if a blue card is lost, they have to redo the requirements that were signed off on. Harsh, maybe, but it stress to the scout that it is HIS responsibility to keep the track of the blue card. Problems with lost blue cards are few and far between in our troop.