Merit Badge pamphlets now FREE on scouting.org!

[MikeS72]

Saw this earlier this morning!

 

All Merit Badges A-Z | Boy Scouts of America

[InquisitiveScouter]

15 minutes ago, MikeS72 said:

Saw this earlier this morning!

 

All Merit Badges A-Z | Boy Scouts of America

That, my friend, is WONDERFUL news... thanks for the notice.

[Chisos]

Woah!  Most excellent!

[Tron]

This is great, this is what we need from national to make the program more accessible!

[fred8033]

WOW !  That is a exciting change.  IMHO, I see nothing but good by having these available online. 

• Great marketing by showing the high quality merit badge program. 
• Maybe more MB pamphlets will be sold because the on-line content is so impressive.  Sounds inverse to the immediate action, but I would not be surprised if it happens.
• Might market scouting to new audiences and thus drive more involvement.  For example, home schooled families may borrow the pamphlets.  Then, parents seeing scouting as an easy next step to supplement home schooling.
• If nothing else, this allows scouting to influence other organizations.

 

Edited 9 hours ago by fred8033

[mrjohns2]

Now, all we need is the Scouts to read them! 

[RememberSchiff]

Free is Great but maybe this technology is 10-15yrs too late to attract current teen eyeballs and attention spans. Youtube? TikTok?

My $0.02,

[fred8033]

Do the scout stores stock the new "Scouting America" branded MB books?  Wondering if free PDFs online is a reflection that it's cheaper to make free online than to stock all the scout stores. 

[RememberSchiff]

Or perhaps merit badge pamphlets are printed outside the US? 

[SSScout]

Ya got three kinds a Scouts.  Those that want Merit Badges and those that want to EARN Merit Badges, and those that just wanna go camping and hiking.  

We will not discuss those that are not Scouts, but in the "civilian"" group, you can find the same approximate type of kids.

Merit Badge Books are great middle school introductions to the subject, we all know that.  The bane of the MBCounselor's existence is the WORKSHEET.  Whoever developed those is not someone who wants MBs to be EARNED so much as Wikipedia'd . Cut and paste. Fortunately, many MBs can't be work booked.... Knots and lashings have to be DONE.  Bugles have to be played. You ever get the impression when you ask that leading question (Socratic Method?) that the Scouts are sort of waiting to discern what answer YOU want to hear? 

The ebooks are a great leap into the great compooter world to come (has arrived?) .   Stock preprinted books for a price,   or get a iPad or Kindle thingy, or print it out yourself?  "That's alot of paper and expensive ink !!" Yes but.... Lithium batteries,  or $15. book?   ummm  ebook can be edited with a keystroke. Shades of the Ministry of Truth..... Permanent paper book can't be changed . My 1960ish MBbook is a historic artifact, reflective of the society.  My Hilcourt 1956 Fieldbook shows a shirtless Scout correctly felling a 20" diameter Poplar (I think)  with a nice axe. I tell my Woodtools class at IOLS that we don't have enough trees for our Scouts to practice correct, safe felling , hence today's Fieldbook doesn't have such a picture.  But come the nexr  Carrington Event.... 

Oh, don't get me wrong, if the iPad reader is handy for the Scout to read (!) the MBbook, and learn thereby, go for it.  All 138 MBs in one handy Lithium Manganese battery packed Apple core, great.  Maybe the signal will be better on THAT rock face.... 

[mrjohns2]

4 hours ago, fred8033 said:

Do the scout stores stock the new "Scouting America" branded MB books? 

I was only looking for a couple last week, but I did buy my daughter horsemanship and it was Scouting America branded.