Who Stewards the Unit Copy of a Blue Card

[Basementdweller 608]

my council requires it turned it.......so that leaves only the scouts copy which is returned to him with the merit badge at the COH.

[ZScout5 12]

Are the councils that do not require turn in of blue cards the same councils that require a scout to turn in a photocopy of his blue cards with his Eagle app or to bring all his blue cards to the Eagle BOR?

[T2Eagle 902]

Zscout,

 

Our council doesn't require that we ever turn in blue cards. We do turn in advancement reports or do internet advancement, and these days they strongly encourage internet advancement.

 

When and if it comes time for Eagle the council checks scoutnet. As a troop we make this part of our process for Eagle also, occasionally we find hiccups we have to correct. The scout never has to bring blue cards, photocopies, etc. to an EBOR.

 

I'm curious, what do you do with all the paper? Someone else did the math and came up with over 18,000 blue cards a year. I can't imagine trying to accurately file that much paper and I can think of a lot of things I'd rather the council spend money on than that.

 

Other than strict adherence to a policy, what purpose would you say it serves?

[Oak Tree 15]

Are the councils that do not require turn in of blue cards the same councils that require a scout to turn in a photocopy of his blue cards with his Eagle app or to bring all his blue cards to the Eagle BOR?

 

Well, I can't answer for all councils, but I can say what ours does. Ours does not require turn-in of blue cards at advancement time, nor do they require a photocopy of blue cards with the Eagle app, nor do they require blue cards at the Eagle BOR. The blue cards are never required beyond the unit. A lot of our badges are earned at a neighboring council's summer camp, and they don't issue blue cards. So our Scouts don't even have blue cards for a lot of their badges.

[ZScout5 12]

That is a very interesting question - What happens to all the blue cards and paperwork the council collects?

I have no idea, but the volume is mind boggling, especially with our council being rather large.

One might think that the council is checking blue cards to be sure they were earned with registered counselors. However, the majority of them are nearly unreadable. Plus it is the unit's responsibility to make sure their scouts are going to registered counselors.

I think I might try to find out where it all goes.

Z

[John-in-KC 311]

ZScout,

 

In my Council, the Shred-It Truck comes by twice a year...

[J-Stroke 10]

Every time I start thinking I know it all I get a good dose of humility. I have a blue card issue and thought I'd see what folks on this forum had to say about it. I saw this thread and thought "this is silly, there is no unit copy of a blue card". To my surprise, I was wrong - again. As District Chairman I guess it is better to learn here than while in front of my full committee (though I'm sure to prove my ignorance in some other way.

 

In my council the portion of the blue card that doesn't say Applicant's Record or Counselor's Record must be turned in to council. Otherwise the merit badge won't be recorded and you can't buy the corresponding merit badge. It has been this way since the earth was molten and is so engrained in our system I never thought about the sentence that says "Applicant will turn in this portion to his unit leader for record keeping purposes."

 

So, I dig out my standard issue BSA Advancement Committee Policies and Procedures manual, go to the Record Keeping section, and sure enough, there is no such requirement that council receive, or even get to peek at, any portion of the blue card. The language is clearly unclear on the specifics of what must be done, leaving enough flexibility for a council to require this procedure or not. Perhaps that is why it is the only portion that has no title. It is a "Unit's Record" in some places and a "Council's Record" in others. Just scribble in the words best suited for your council.

 

 

 

 

[eisely 13]

It never occurred to me that some councils might want to collect the blue cards. Ours does not. In my mind the main value of the third portion of the blue card is as a backup record to be kept at the unit level. If some council wants to see it turned in, so be it.

 

Backup records matter only when it comes time to process an eagle scout rank application form. The council program office has to sign off on this. In our council this consists of a records check to ensure that the council has records of prior ranks and possibly merit badges earned. We still encounter errors that are usually easily resolved since they are merely paperwork errors. If one does not have complete records at the unit level it is very difficult to help the eagle candidate resolve these matters.

 

So, as some prior respondent wrote, the first thing to be sure of is what the council is actually requiring to be turned in. If the council wants only the advancement reports listing the merit badges and not the blue cards, then the troop advancement coordinator should be retaining the blue cards. In any case the troop should be maintaining parallel records since the council cannot be relied upon to be correct.

[acco40 95]

Folks - "blue" cards are not official anything. Yes, they are an "item" that may be purchased by from the BSA (Merit Badge Application #34124) however, councils are not required to recognize, nor use them.

 

Therefore, all this talk about who should keep what is more of a common sense debate, not "rules" debate.

 

As a Scoutmaster, I told the boys to always keep a copy because if bumbling adults - MBC, Unit, or Council screwed up, they were out of luck. In our troop, the Scout kept a copy, the MBC was encouraged to keep a copy and the troop advancement chair was encouragee to keep a copy.