MB Counselors???

[iaeagle]

In reading through a number of different posts, in all areas, I am seeing a concerning theme - members of the unit doing the MB Counseling.

 

I ask you, are you looking to individuals outside of the unit (experts in the field) to do the counseling for MB's? I am not saying you are not the expert in the field for a few, but when a leader says he is qulified to teach more then 3-5 MB's, I would question if they were providing the entire program to the boys and holding them accountable for the entire MB.

 

I know there are some units who are very good at building a resourse of "experts" outside of their typical unit leadership.

 

This spurs my next question - I am currently in a Council, where pretty much every MB counselor is only registered to counsel the youth of a particular unit. Are there any suggestions for correcting this? We have tried multipule times at the district level to have a MB Counselor Coord. positon who was to gather the information from the unit leaders and compile them into a booklet, but this has failed and left many Scouters dissatified with Scouting and the reluctance of Scouters to share their knowledge and resources.

 

Any ideas are welcome.

 

 

 

[Bob White]

Have you read the Advacnement Committee Policies and Procedures manual for the BSA's recommendation on how to organize the MB counselors in your council or district?

[evmori]

I think this probably happens a lot. If the SM is assigning only in Troop MB counselors, then maybe suggesting to him to assign a few outside the Troop might work. And you could do a little research up front by finding a few outside the Troop who would be willing to counsel the Scouts in your Troop.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Hunt]

From what I observe in our district, I suspect that few scouts are calling counselors from the district list, but are getting most if not all of their MBs from troop-based counselors, summer camp, and organized merit badge days. I have been registered with the district for a couple of years now for several MBs, and have never received a single call from a boy outside the troop--and I haven't heard of any of the other adults in the troop receiving any either. So I think part of the problem is that most boys can get "enough" MBs without making those calls. This leaves the adults affiliated with a troop in somewhat of a bind--do you encourage boys to go outside the troop by not offering important (i.e., Eagle-required MBs) within the troop? I suppose you could be more proactive in urging boys to follow their interests. (One hybrid approach--the district Jewish Scouts association holds a merit badge day open to all scouts--but to register, the scout must call the counselor directly--and this does get a signficant response--perhaps the fact that it is connected with a scheduled event makes it easier.)

[madkins007]

Those danged meeting-time MB classes!

 

We have about a 10-20% completion rate from those, and Scouts complain bitterly about meetings that are too much like school- yet any talk of trying to change things is met with a howl from the Scouts and old-timers.

 

We tried to do them in ways that met the requirements buy were also fun- only to have virtually no one ever do the 'at home' parts.

 

One time we did 'Citizenship in the World', and the guy who usually ran it begged off after the schedule was set. No big loss- he ran it pretty lamely, but no one else wanted to step up.

 

I tool it on as a challenge and managed to get the Scouts pretty interested by taking an odd tack- I had them figure out which countries we could take over with our troop.

 

They had to find a country that we would want, that had no strong diplomatic ties to other countries that would step in and beat us up, etc., etc., etc. They had to figure out how the World Court, UN, etc. all would come into play and so on.

 

It was great... for a couple sessions. Some kids did some homework and found wonderful targets (Tulolu?) Others just whiffed it (Ireland?) We had some good insightful discussions, and then... about 1/2 way into the scheduled sessions, attendence plummeted. Out of 20 Scouts, only about 3 earned the badge- even though several only had a requirement or two left.

 

Our completion rate is only a little higher for MB days and summer camp if there is any 'do on your own' type work involved.

 

I am more and more convinced- we should NOT TEACH MB's in Scouting (with a few exceptions). Scouts should tackle them on their own based on their own motivations and interests. We can certainly test them after they've done the work, and we can teach the skills involved in other kinds of activities, but I am not sure it is our best use of resources to hold classes- especially when, in some units, the classes become 'earn the badge through sheer attendence'.

 

 

[Hunt]

In my son's troop we haven't done any MBs during regular meetings, and they still can get "enough" without ever calling anybody on the list, just by going to MB days, camp, and asking adults affiliated with the troop.

[scoutingagain]

Since we have stopped doing MBs at troop meetings we have fewer scouts earning MBs(no suprise) but there is a wider variety. Occaisonally we still do an MB as a troop, but it does not take over the troop meeting.

 

With the availability of MB Universities, Summer Camp and the occaisional troop MB, scouts can earn 6-8 MBs/year without ever directly having to contact an MB counselor. Most never do.

 

As far as I can tell from discussing this issue with other local troops this is the way most other MBs are earned as well.

 

 

SA

 

 

[EagleInKY]

I've expressed this beef before, our district doesn't have a MB Counselor list. If we are to get outsiders to do MB Counseling (and we have), we have to build the list ourselves.

[Bob White]

Or, request that the council/district Advancement Committee fulfill their job responsibilities so that you are free to do yours.(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[EagleInKY]

Bob - I totally agree. But I haven't had any luck on that track. Our DAC is a great guy, I've known him since I was a scout. But, he works with one of those mega-troops we all talk about, that pretty much runs their own program. Therefore, they seem to think every other troop ought to do the same. I keep hoping it will change, but until it does, we make do with what we have.

[Bob White]

Untrained leadership is again our big problem. Your swell advancement guy doesn't know his job. Get him a copy of the Advancement Committee Policies and Procedures manual.

[Eagledad]

>>Therefore, they seem to think every other troop ought to do the same. I keep hoping it will change, but until it does, we make do with what we have.

[frankj]

Our district publishes a merit badge counselor list indicating which couselors do not want to counsel outside their own unit. (Frankly, I don't understand that one, but whatever...).

We do some MB work at meetings. Without it the boys in our troop would stall out, in my opinion. We have no qualms about doing some of the MB stuff w/in the troop because we know we adhere to the standards. I have observed the merit badge mills -- on a Saturday, "Hey, get your merit badge right here, in the next 45 minutes ... Hey you, Scout, whattdya need ... " No thank you.

 

I have also observed some of the badges offered at summer camp. I think it is wonderful that young counselors are there for the boys, but the fact is, they just do the best they can, and they are not necessarily experts in the particular discipline.

 

As to whether the boys would pursue MBs on their own, within or outside the troop, my observation, based on our troop is NO. This is based on my experience with simply getting them to complete the "partials" earned at camp. We now have two years worth of partials, 2004 and 2005 to deal with.

 

Here is my question for forum participants: Given that Scouts are going to come out of summer camp with "partials," what would you do in your unit to encourage completion? Where are you on the scale from "whatever" to "here's what you need to do and this is when you're going to do it"

 

Thanks.

[mdutch]

We are pretty close to the "whatever" side. We may make a general announcment once or twice reminding scouts that they may have partials they want to complete, but that is about it. what happens occasionally, however, is that one or two scouts will schedule a meeting with the MB Councelor for all scouts who have a partial in that badge. Whether they are pushed by Mom/Dad to do that, I don't know, but it seems to happen once or twice each year.

[EagleInKY]

Barry - I've talked to a couple of other troops about the concept of having a "shared MB counselor list". I think it's a decent approach given the lack of a district list.

 

Frankj - We assign a MB counselor for the different areas of camp. One adult takes nature, another handicraft, another scoutcraft, etc. The scouts are told who they are and that's basically it. They can choose to go to another authorized counselor, if they prefer. We do remind them periodically - like when a boy completes a partial and we present his MB at circle-up, I may say "here's a fellow that's finished a partial from camp, how many of you have partials left to complete?". We also enter the partials in Troopmaster, so it is included in every status report we give them, and it's on the BOR materials. Sometimes the BOR will ask the boy how he's coming on completing the xyz Merit Badge. So, I guess we're a little more than "whatever", but far from telling them "what, when, who and how".