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BD, I would estimate that half or over of his merit badges were earned outside our troop. Mainly summer camp or badges put on at the university. The others were done in the troop but I have not been a counselor for any of them. As 00Eagle brought up there is no list of counselors in our district to know who to contact. There are some I know personally but not many. I have read through the training guide but just don't remember it frowning on doing them with counselors in the troop. Can you expand on the downside of doing them with in the troop assuming I am not his counselor? It seems to be standard practice with most troops around our area. There are merit badge Blitz's but he has not participated in any of them at this point.

Interesting discussion. I have a 12 year son who is a Star scout and is on track to make Life Scout in January. He got Star 2 days before he turned 12. At the pace that "He" has set for himself it is entirely feasible that he will "EARN" Eagle before or just after he turns 14. He is extremely motivated and is setting his own goals. While I am a leader in the troop I have never signed off on anything he has done and refuse to. I will likely have to on some merit badges as I am the only on in the troop who is a counselor for them but they will be done with a group of scouts rather than one on one so to avoid any concerns of favoritism. Some seem to think a youngster of this age can't possibly have it together enough to earn Eagle the right way. He is motivated and is a straight A student. He plays on a travel soccer team and last year asked to take the course to get is reffing license. He is a grade 9 ref and works games on a weekly basis to earn his own money. He was given Historian as his POR and has begun a project of putting together the history of all the prior Eagles in the troop. He has contacted (with moms approval) and tracked down and received pictures of the Eagles going all the way back to 1972. He has been able to obtain pictures for over half the eagles so far. He went through the training class and became First Aid/CPR certified rather than just do the first aid merit badge. The bottom line is he is very ambitious and has a goal in mind and is working hard towards that. Thankfully the troop leadership see that and wont try any nonsense of holding him back due to their own preconceived notion of when a scout is old enough to be eagle. Our troop has a couple more that will likely earn Eagle by 14 but we also have some that have turned in paperwork with only hours to spare. In my opinion as long as the troop leadership is doing their job from the beginning while the scout is working his way towards Eagle then there should not be a question of whether he has Earned it or not.

My first year at Summer camp and really enjoyed it. The weather was rough. Low nineties almost every day with high humidity but everyone got through it. I thought the food was sub-par but all the boys said it was way better than lat years camp. There was more than enough food. Really enjoyed the adult training available. Did have a couple issues. Each camp had an "Indian Pump" for putting out the fire and were told to use it. Ours had a leak in the hose at the base so you could not pump pressure and use it. It was reported 3 different times and it still was not fixed wen we left camp at the end of the week. Most of the staff were awesome but we did have two that were not. One didn't feel like putting any effort into teaching the merit badge and just gave out assignments and then sat back and played with her phone. The boys ended up with only about half of a badge completed when it all could have been done. The other taught archery and didn't bother making sure the younger boys new what their point totals were so they could come back during the free hour and work on their point total. On the last day she said everyone had completed the badge and dismissed them early only to give several partials because they hadn't gotten the 90 points required. Interestingly these two counselors were sisters. Over all a great week and looking forward to going back next year.