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Scoutmaster lost sons Blue cards (4 of them, 2 Eagle)


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I advise my boys that the only official record of their advancement is their Scout Handbook and Blue Cards and it is their responsibility to keep them safe, duplicated, stored or whatever.  But if they lose them they are on their own.  The adults may keep records too, but those aren't official and adults dealing with a number of boys may not get everything recorded properly.  The only way to keep track of their advancement progress is up to them.  They get this "lecture" when they first start in scouts and it is repeated ad nauseum throughout their scouting career.  I have only had a couple of sticky wickets along the way, and we got those resolved rather quickly.

 

SO TRUE!  I've had multiple encounters where a council's records were incorrect because the person imputing the data was using the date they were placing the reports into the computer and not the date the award was actually earned.  Also encountered where the council records were never inputted the data at all, but that is mostly on the Cub Scout side of things but still affected one Eagle I know.

 

In all instances, the Boy Scout Hand Book advancement sign off pages, or photocopies in my case ;) , were used to correct the council's records. Took over a month after passing my EBOR to get the council's records corrected, and forwarded to national for approval.

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Well ... At least the guy's consistent. So, son should call his Cit. Nat. MBC and ask if he/she wouldn't mind sending a copy of his record. Lacking that record, son can ask him if he/she can sign if s

I don't usually post a lot. I read a great deal. I get confused sometimes in this forum because most of the time I have learned that consulting the official scout documents is always the way to go. La

If it helps, we have our new scouts use the baseball card holders you can get at Hobby Lobby to store their rank and blue cards. My son got in the habit a long time ago of using the iPad to take pics

.... WHen I was a struggling Cubmaster with a pack of 150 (15 dens and  5 Webelos Dens). .....

off topic, but Holy Smokes!  from my perspective that is one huge pack!  I had my hands full as CM in a lot smaller pack than that...... but then I couldn't get any help, either....

 

sorry, back to the topic of Blue Cards....

Edited by blw2
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I know, shouldn't kvitch without offering to help. Committee member has offered to take advancement off SM's hands.  SM up to this point has refused help.  Often only has boys go camping only when he is available no other ASM will do.  Limited time to go camping.

 

I believe all MB's have been filed with other troop (majority) of cards.  the 4 missing with new troop have NOT been entered into system from what I understand.  So, I guess it will just be the case of showing sons BC's and getting credit for the merit badges.  Not sure if he saved his card that he received the actual badge on at COH in the past.  He is VERY responsible and has everything else, even the work books from the MB's.  Good thing.

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I know, shouldn't kvitch without offering to help. Committee member has offered to take advancement off SM's hands.  SM up to this point has refused help.  Often only has boys go camping only when he is available no other ASM will do.  Limited time to go camping.

 

I believe all MB's have been filed with other troop (majority) of cards.  the 4 missing with new troop have NOT been entered into system from what I understand.  So, I guess it will just be the case of showing sons BC's and getting credit for the merit badges.  Not sure if he saved his card that he received the actual badge on at COH in the past.  He is VERY responsible and has everything else, even the work books from the MB's.  Good thing.

 

If it helps, we have our new scouts use the baseball card holders you can get at Hobby Lobby to store their rank and blue cards. My son got in the habit a long time ago of using the iPad to take pics of his blue cards and rank cards and store them on his online account. That way, God forbid, the house burns down he's got all his rank and merit badge stuff.

 

Personally I would be advising my son to meet with the scoutmaster, provide a printed copy of his blue cards, and politely request he enter those in to the troop system or report them to council. I would even have him offer to take the copy of the cards to council himself it that would help the scoutmaster.

 

I feel like crud when I forget something a scout asked me to do. Does not happen often but happens every once in a while. I apologize and make sure that scout is at the top of my list to get done, and I pledge to get it accomplished withing 24 hours. I hope your scoutmaster realizes he's made a mistake and does the same.

Edited by Krampus
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Several posters have talked about Council having records, losing records, wrong dates etc.  Just to clarify, "Council" is no longer the keeper of the records.  I believe this is universal although I could be wrong.  The BSA has a national database, Internet Advancement, that is where all ranks, merit badges, and special awards are entered and the records maintained.  If you ask your council for a report of either a particular scout or an entire troop's advancement this is the database they will pull from.  Someone, or several someones, from your troop should also have access to this system.  If you want to know the details: ranks, merit badges, dates, etc., for a scout or unit it should take about as long to get the information as it took me to post this.  

 

 

For scouts who are closing in on Eagle we find it worthwhile to double check this before they get too close, just in case there have been any data entry errors.

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So, if nothing has been enterred into this data base yet, as long as my son has his BC's he should be okay?  Hubby went onto troop master yesterday and all that is showing is simply an engineering badge, no rank no nothing.  

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Several posters have talked about Council having records, losing records, wrong dates etc.  Just to clarify, "Council" is no longer the keeper of the records.  I believe this is universal although I could be wrong. 

 

According to the latest Guide to Advancement: "As stated in Reporting Advancement 4.0.0.2, all advancement must be reported to local councils."

 

Step 11 of the merit badge process: "The unit reports the merit badge to the council."

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Now I am getting more nervous than before.  This kid has been working his butt off and doing things by the book, hubby and I made sure.  Other scouts, we have seen them have their daddies sign off their cards and just get pencil whipped.  I just really dislike all the red tape.  Wished that it could just have been taken care of. Oh well, guess this is just par for the course.  Son will probably handle this much better than myself.

 

I will encourage son to copy blue cards front and back, take them to his SM at next meeting and politely ask him to help him get them recorded for him.

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So, if nothing has been enterred into this data base yet, as long as my son has his BC's he should be okay?  Hubby went onto troop master yesterday and all that is showing is simply an engineering badge, no rank no nothing.  

 

Yes. As Stosh said his handbook and blue cards are his official record. Blue cards prove the merit badges he's earned or has as partials. His handbook proves what ranks he's had signed off. With those you can walk in to my troop and we will accept them and enter those in to our system.

 

Troopmaster is a unit's tool for managing scouts. It does not always reflect what is in his book OR what has been reported to the council OR input in to Internet Advancement (the national online reporting system). Sounds like your new troop has not input his records from your old troop. Two ways to get that in. First, if your old troop uses troopmaster just have them export your son's records. That file can be imported in to your new troop's system. The second method is old school: Give them a copy of your handbook's rank pages and merit badge cards and let them input it.

 

We provide every scout in our unit who moves away an electronic and hard copy of his troopmaster record. That way he has his handbook and cards, our electronic file and a hard copy of his file. With that, no one can deny them anything.

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