ywfox 10 Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 What do you do when you know....that a unit is not registering their merit badge counselors with District/Council and that they conducted a shooting merit badge at the unit level without an NRA Instructor, approved merit badge counselor or in a safe place? I don't want to start problems but I am concerned about two things....1 is the safety of th boys and the 2 is the validity of the merit badges these boys are earning. To add to the problems I used to be a member of this unit and have left because of the way they run the unit - more of a boys club than a boy scout troop. Link to post Share on other sites
scoutldr 732 Posted July 17, 2005 Share Posted July 17, 2005 Your District Advancement Chair is the one who has cognizance over these matters. If the troop is not using registered MB counsellors, then those MB earned are invalid. Link to post Share on other sites
ywfox 10 Posted July 17, 2005 Author Share Posted July 17, 2005 I thought that was the case but do I report them to the District Advancement Chair or let it slide? I would hate to see a boy get to eagle and then have something happen that brought attention to these merit badges earned under a MB counselor that the kid was told was okay by the troop but isn't. It is not the kid's fault that the adults in the troop feel the rules don't apply to them. Link to post Share on other sites
Bob White 20 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 These are really not an advancement situations, these are safety and Youth Protection matters, and they should be reported to the council Scout Executive. Link to post Share on other sites
NJCubScouter 1389 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 I have to strongly agree with Bob here. If you know that shooting activities are going on without proper training, without certified supervision and not "in a safe place," you must report it immediately so it can be stopped. You are talking about deadly weapons that can (and do) kill people due to a split-second of carelessness. Who cares who gets a merit badge? Let's make sure we minimize the chances of someone getting shot to death, first. Link to post Share on other sites
evmori 11 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Bob is absolutely correct. Link to post Share on other sites
Eamonn 61 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 I can almost feel the love in this thread. While Bob is on the money. Having Bob, Ed and the gentleman from New Jersey all on the same page at the same time! I love this Scouting stuff!! Eamonn. Link to post Share on other sites
evmori 11 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Group hug? Link to post Share on other sites
Prairie_Scouter 10 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 I agree as well. This is more a safety issue than a MB issue, and you really need to get it reported before someone gets hurt. So, before you can do a group hug, I suppose you'll have to fill out either a Local Group Hug Permit or a National Group Hug Permit, at least 2 weeks in advance of the proposed "hug event". And, 2 of you will have to have up-to-date "Safety While Hugged" training Link to post Share on other sites
EagleInKY 14 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 Actually, the MB counselor aspect of this is not that unusual. Many districts operate under this approach. Ours is one of them. We only hae to register MB Counselors who (1) are not active scouters or (2) want to counsel for other troops. But, since they don't publish a MB Counselor list, #2 doesn't matter. I agree that this is more of a safety concern than anything else. scoutldr, have you ever heard of a situation where a scout wasn't qualified for Eagle because of unapproved MB Counselors? I've never heard of such a case. Link to post Share on other sites
ywfox 10 Posted July 18, 2005 Author Share Posted July 18, 2005 EagleKY - I am concerned because the District Advancement Chair has been stressing the registration of MB Counselors with the District/Council. Apparently there were 3 serious eagle issues at the Council level - no mb issues. But the DAC was concerned that if council had to look over a packet because of a problem they may then really start to nitpick on everything including the mb's earned and if the counselors were legit. As for the safety issue - yes I agree it is one. However, I thought a roundabout way to change this and not come down to hard on the unit would be to stress the mb counselor issue. A qualified mb counselor would then take care of the safety issue for future badges. The majority of the leaders in this unit want to do the right thing. The problem is that there are a few who think the rules do not apply to them and unfortunately one of them is the Committee Chair. Link to post Share on other sites
EagleInKY 14 Posted July 18, 2005 Share Posted July 18, 2005 If the DAC says you should do it, then I definitely would. Just as in our case, we're doing what the DAC instructed us to do. Link to post Share on other sites
SWScouter 34 Posted July 19, 2005 Share Posted July 19, 2005 So if "Bob, Ed and the gentleman from New Jersey" are getting together for a group hug, who's gonna ride shotgun? Link to post Share on other sites
evmori 11 Posted July 19, 2005 Share Posted July 19, 2005 So if "Bob, Ed and the gentleman from New Jersey" are getting together for a group hug, who's gonna ride shotgun? WHEELER, FOG & juris! Link to post Share on other sites
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