Merit Badge Questions

[scoutldr 732]

KS,

 

What I meant was, we make the district list available to the Scout. It is up to him to make a successful connection using that resource. We do not "assign" him a counselor.

[KoreaScouter 13]

I've not seen it done that way. My Scouts have always gotten the counselor's name and contact info from me. Am I "micro-managing" this?

 

KS

[scoutldr 732]

I don't know if I'd call it "micro-managing". I just figure the more names the scout has to work with, the better chance he will be able to make a connection without having to come back to the SM for a new name. If he is "assigned" a name, and the person turns him down, that can be discouraging. As I said in another post, most of the names on the district list are "Troop XX Only", so that doesn't leave much to work with anyway. I guess I don't see a problem with it either way.

[evmori 11]

KS,

No you are not micro managing. In the SM handbook it says the Scout is to get the name of merit badge counselor from his SM.

 

Ed Mori

1 peter 4:10

[LauraT7 13]

Our council doesn't have such rules limiting the number of badges you can counsel. BSA doesn't set a limit, so i don't see why a counsel, district or troop would override their decision.

 

there are many areas of knowledge cover more than a fixed number of badges - conservation and nature badges being a large area, for example.

 

There are also badges that aren't in high demand - I'm a counselor for Textiles, and in three years, no one has asked me about it, nor have I seen that badge on any badge sash. this gives me ample time to cover Photography, Pets, Dog Care, Communications and computers - as well as many others.

 

our District and council have been promising us a 'list of counselors' for years. they never seem to get their act together. From the old list available - we have a difficult time getting people - phone numbers have changed, people have died or moved, or they no longer have boys in scouting themselves and are no longer interested. So we made an effort to actively recruit adults and parents to be badge counselors. We also try to 'overlap' badges, having 2 or more counselors of specific badges so that we can share the load. We work mostly with our own troop - but ARE signed up with the council, and most of us would not turn down any boy that requested us. To make things easier for boys to finish up a badge - when I have signed off on something at a district or council event, summer camp, etc - I always write my e-mail and phone # on the blue card so boys can contact me to finish up later, if they are not in my troop.

 

As for the badge book being 'required' - they are NOT required, but they are very helpful. I especially find them useful on some of the badges that have not been recently updated. For example, Camping and Computers.

 

Most of the 'camping' book was written in the 70's and there is some outdated info in there - I could think of a number of different tent types, but would never, on my own, come up with the particular 5 they name. They also talk alot about Down fill bags - and for most of the boys, I would recommend synthetics, which have come a long way in 30 yrs!

 

the computers book - well, NO ONE can keep up with computers nowadays! But the Answers to the badge requirements still must be answered! We aren't allowed to add or change requirements, remember?

 

laura