moosetracker

I guess, maybe Woodbadge needs some certification (athough even there, why?). But, I don't see why we would kick anyone out of a training. They just would have to be happy with the training for self satisfaction, or work something out with their organization as to what it would count for.. I have not yet had a non-registered take my course, but I know some non-registered parents who have taken the IOLS course. So if we can let in non-registered parents to our trainings, we should be able to allow any non-registered.. Pay up, show respect for the trainers in the course and other participants.. Here's a training card which is worthless to you, but hope you learned something helpful.. Bye, Bye.. Nice meeting you.. We at least charge to defray the cost, so what is the problem.. I could see if the district or council was paying for the food, location etc, and you got free moochers.. What is the big deal? Edited to add : We currently open up the video training for two purposes 1) so new Adult Leaders can get a jump start before they get their membership # 2) so that anyone can utilize them if they see something beneficial..(This message has been edited by moosetracker)

Oh, if the COR gives the CC (or anyone else in the unit) marching orders marching, then those will trump the committee.I guess a COR can say in our units we don't take a committee vote, the CC is King/Queen, but that would be a very rare exception to how troops are run. A CC can not make up policy and rules for the unit, all by themselves. (unless appointed King/Queen) They either have to follow the requirements of the IH/COR or of the committee by vote. Then they have the power to carry out these orders and make sure there is follow through.

Seems to be a virus, as this assumption has been going around. There was someone else only a few weeks ago who mentioned the CC stated an ASM who came to a committee meeting was not welcome. They were told they should not attend by their Unit Commissioner. When the SM asked the UC, he verified that is indeed what they told the CC. I would try to pull the info, but don't remember enough about the title to get a solid match, maybe someone else can. Anyway, the general consensus on this board was, that although ASM (as well as SM's) do not have the right to vote on the committee, the board should be open to them as most of them are active parents. The only time for a closed board would be for sensitive items, otherwise like all the rest of BSA nothing should be secritive.. Our board encouraged our ASM's to come, but they never did out of protest of not having a vote. But the SM as well as ASM's were important to hear the viewpoints of when making any decision that effected thier program. Even if it wasn't setting policy in the program it would effect it. How much to budget for next year's program and how much to allocate in funds to equipment, awards, events etc. Who should take on the role of Outdoor Coordinator or Advancement Chair. What type of fundraising events to pursue in the upcoming year (usually which involved the scouts doing the legwork.) If though your ASM's never came to committee meetings, and now ALL want to go to the next meeting, it sounds like you are planning some type of group stance on a certain subject. Is your CC attempting to react to a percieved threat? "She only wants to do it her way" If you wanted to bring up complaint to the COR about her staying in this position, this may be what she is doing most wrong. The CC holds no power on their own, their power comes from the group vote of the committee. Of course sending her committee through "Troop Committee Challenge" should not threaten her feeling of keeping the committee in the dark over where the power lies, the training is worthless except to tell you what is expected of a secretary position, or treasury position. Cub Scout version is much better in teaching overall function of a committee. Anyway if she is making all the decisions, or coercing the committee to her opinion before holding a vote, and not letting the committee hear differing views (ex. not allowing SM/ASM to voice their opinions) she is overstepping her bounds.. If the committee is making rules that are specifically program related (ex. choosing your events, deciding how the patrols will be formed etc.) the whole committee is overstepping their bounds with her at the helm. Does your Troop have a good relationship with your COR? Maybe this is where the SM & ASM should go to as a group to voice their protests over the way she is running the committee.

OK.. not much to have us discuss with that one, unless you are in Troop 613.. So I will add to it.. I saw a Troop yesterday, invited to the COH before summer break. They had a nice picnic before the COH. Differences from the Troop I was in: 1) When scouts cross over they give them a temporary neckerchief. Most had gotten Scout badge at this COH, so with that badge they are given the Troop neckerchief. I guess they are expensive, and were giving them out to loose scouts in the first month. Therefore they wait until they get the Scout Badge and seem commited. 2) Our Troop brought up everyone who earned a certain rank, and parents in a line and awarded the rank as a group. They did each scout & parent separetly.. The scout was pretty long seeing they had about 15 make this rank. 3) Their advancement was like you get after Summer camp. I was impressed until I remembered them say something about scouts going to a merit badge university. I still hope some of those were earned on their own. Then there was one thing that really impressed me. I don't know how much was scout, learning within this troop, or this scout was NYLT trained or a camp counselor. (We had a scout like this and it was all his personality.) Anyway the scout got up and on his own chose to praise the efforts of another scout.. Something about going above and beyond scout spirit in the troop. He whipped out a nice new neckerchief that was not like the troop one, with writting and a picture.. Don't know how personal the picture was, but the word were to this newly created the award.. The humorus thing was the scout giving the award, had chosen the award to be named after him.. So if his name had been Timmy Turtle.. The award he created was the "Timmy Turtle Scout Spirit award".. He had the audience in fits of laughter over it.

TAHAWK - Alabama, stated this is for a partial. The MBC doesn't get the blue card stub until the meritbadge is completed.. I haven't done so for a while, but I use to keep track of what I signed off for what scout on partials in case they did loose the blue card. I figured they would come to me with wide eyed expectation that I would remember what they did & didn't do, even if I hadn't seen them for 6 months to a year and I had x amount of other scouts I worked with.. But after a time, the scouts never did loose them, and I figured my keeping track was babysitting anyway, so I stopped. It is up to the scout to hang onto the blue card partials until it is signed off, and should not be held onto by the parents, or the troop. I do disagree with his troop forcing a scout to use their chosen councilor, and no one can change to a different conucilor mid-stream.. People do find some people difficult to work with. If the MBC does not treat the scout fairly due to his dislikes, or the scout is timid or intimidated or whatever due to something about the MBC, they are not going to have a beneficial relationship thoughout the course of the MB.(This message has been edited by moosetracker)

nldscout - It would not be the Advancement persons business had he just picked up a merit badge, but it is if he is filling out paperwork that he should not be. It is a red flag to Council if there are scouts earning merit badges & rank advancement who are not registered in the troop. (Father put his name on form as the youth scout). They would be contacting the troop, since they can't log the advancement because no youth is registered in the troop by that name. So either registration paper work was passed in and lost and needs to get corrected. Or the troop needs to know that a scout can't advance until he is registered. Had the name of son & father been the same, there probably would have been some confusion as to why they are putting in another Advancement form for a merit badge that they had already sent in previously, but Oh well, it's been logged.. It is also of concern to the troop if a parent is sneaking in advancement under false pretenses.. So, they should be concerned over the issue, but allow Mr. towerflower a chance to explain before accusing him of wrong doing. If Mr. Towerflower was falsifing his sons advancement, well for a troop that would be considered the crime of the century.. (We have few mass murders & rapists in each unit, so small things can become the crime of the century).. But, if he is innocently getting a 2nd patch of one the son has already earned, it should be a small slap on the wrist not to do it again.. Council level, this would be small potatoes.. District, depends on how busy the District Advancement Chair is. My husband is District AC, he would take interest enough to follow up.. May even remember your name if someone brought it up in conversation for a few months to a year. Then go to name sounds familure, can't remember why, until not recognizing the name at all.. I think once the dust settles, and you get a chance to explain yourself, you will survive this fisco. (This message has been edited by moosetracker)

If by other leaders in the troop they were key-3 (CC,SM,COR) then the advancement chair did correct. If it was a broadcast to all the members on the committee, or everyone in the troop, then he did wrong.. The key-3 are to be contacted in these types of situations, but then should keep the matter private between the 4 of you until they can come to a conclusion of what happened. If the Council/district contacted them about the matter, then they would need to keep them in the loop, it is not them escalating the matter, the council is looking for answers from them. But, they should not draw a conclusion you are guilty and respond to Council/District with that answer, without having a discussion the issue with you. Then rules to tighten up security may hit the committee (hopefully) with details omitted as to why, (although rumors do run rampant in a small community).. If the store clerk handed you the advancement forms and told you to fill them out. They were wrong, and put you in this ticklish situation. I doubt they will own up to the part they played in this though as they would put their job on the line to do so. Really the wording on this form, might allow the uninformed to think you were within your rights. It only needs 3 signatures for rank Advancement BORs (which this was not), for a merit badge, it only needs one, and does not specify that that signature needs to have any certain authority. In my opinion, the wording is weak here, but may be your out.. We did have an ex-CC of our troop pull the fast one of sneaking in paperwork for his son's advancement for several MB's without proper signature and with the mother listed as MBC. For this reason, the advancement form should only be filled out by those in the troop with authorization. In our troop, after this incident, we handed the council a very short list of who had authorization from our troop to fill out the Advancement form. If the troop has already given out the merit badge to your son, they should have a record of it, and the council should have a record of it on a past advancement form. Also it should already be listed in the advancement at the council office.. So it should not be hard to prove your son has correctly been issued this MB in the past.. Then the blue card with the name/date of issuance should back that up. If so, it should not be taken away from him. (I am unsure if they did take the bogus MBs away from the ex-ccs son, I think they did not, although if gained through proven falsification, I would think they could (and should).) Ignorance only takes you so far. What do they say "Ignorance doesn't make you any less guilty".. Although the forms do not have any statement of who is authorized. There is a definate understanding within the unit, District & Council, that it is a form only authorized people can(should??) sign.. I wish you luck, but you did step in some powerful dog-do. (This message has been edited by moosetracker)

Our WB does not, unless implemented recently. Son was the last one to go through it last year. I think one or two rogue TG gave a gift when each member of their patrol recieved their beads. Just from comments made.. But, it is not asked or expected that the TG do this.

Our troop didnt have a drafting counselor so he put it aside for later! Have your sonh ask about the district list of Merit Badge Counsilors.. The SM or the Advancement Coordinator should have a copy of it.. If not, you should be able to find the District Advancement Chair on your council Web site and ask them.. You probably never will get a drafting MBC in your troop as it is a specialty Merit Badge.. But with one drawing to go, I would imagine this will not take long for a MB counsilor to finish up. The only time my son didn't finish up a Merit Badge from camp was for horseback riding.. All the councilors in the district for that subject were "Troop Only"... We knew years later to then ask other districts, but by then he had thrown out the blue card he was so discouraged..

Have your Pack think about doing a handme down day.. If the hats, slides and neckers aren't lost before you go up a rank, you pass yours down, and get first dibs on the rank up who are passing theirs down. No guarentee that there will be enough from the rank up to pass down to the rank below, but it is a thought. Yeah some stuff makes you wonder why they still allow BSA to be a non-profit organization. They definately are trying to turn a profit where ever they can. Your non-profit small unit have to come up with ways to battle that and keep the costs down.

I don't think Kudu is really profiling Hispanic either. More just picking on our CSE who chose to type cast Hispanics and change our program to include those that fall into his steriotyping for them. Therefore they are being flushed down the toliet with Mazzuca by association.

I found this comment strange also, but it came straight from our CD.. Maybe he was tripping over his own tongue and meant something else in the list he rattled of of "What won't change". but said that. Once we "build" the new system we will have a small server box with a local wireless so that 3 or 4 of us can share the same database & file content. I doubt it this will have enough power to get from the scribe area where the meeting is of those organizing the Scouts Own. But, maybe just a laptop and a thumbdrive? Yeah the lack of internet put a kink in the building of they system. They would have liked it more on a secured Internet so that many could access the data before the course started, then just continue at the course, but the lack of internet, means downloading it to this server and taking the data self contaned with us to the course. Then uploading it when the course is done. You started me talking to my husband, who was once on staff, then is a yearly kitchen elf (can't get the time from work to be on staff more often). He would hang out with the scribes before they moved them to a more secure area. I did find out our paper is much smaller 1 page back/front most times, maybe a 3rd page. Few pictures, but most will be on the video show cd we hand them at the end of the course not the paper.. And the cut off time for us he thinks is still Lunchtime. Meaning shorter blurbs from them & more time for me to input. I saw the size you quoted for your Gazette, and looked at some on the internet (some of 12 pages) and thought over the years since I took the course (about 6-7 years back) it had mushroomed. I know the handbooks did, those were in a 1/2 inch binder now it is a 1 1/2 inch binder. When I read that & the 8pm deadline I thought no wonder people are up until 12am or 1am! Now I am back to perplexed why our group stays up so late.. Maybe we have a slower printer?? I have been pestering our CD for the Gazette from last years WB for about a week now. Which he has, but I guess they are too large to email, so he will get them to me on a CD. I also emailed a copy to the other Scribe, so hopefully it will open conversations between him & I and lead to questions we hadn't thought about for the CD. Really it is the CD we seem to have meetings & more contact with.

Thanks - it did give me alot of insight.. Somethings I know will be different and 1 question. Q. You didn't mention the typing up and printing of the participants "Scout's Own" service. We have two Scribes Head Scribe & Asst. Scribe that are considered "on staff".. I am in charge of the Gilwell Gazette, he took the Scouts Own.. I figured I got the bad part of that deal, but would have figured that the Scouts Own would have merited at least a paragraph of mentioning.. I figure it works out though other scribe has the bulk of the preprinting. He is doing all the handbooks and other things that are printed in bulk. I just have anything coming from the database.. Name tags etc.. Other scribe I think is going to have more fun during woodbadge.. *sigh*.. I am sure my partner will be involved in photo selection, and he will be the one that will be overseeing laptop & projector for the presentations. We have two elves.. Photo guy and Data guy.. Between myself & Data guy we are trying to rebuild the program used to store & extract the data info about this course, and the past course.. So both of us will hopefully get the bugs out before the event, but will both be there to fix the bugs on the fly.. I am sure that data guy will be of help with the Gazette maybe he can type up some of the articles that I can then just copy & past in.. Any way for me.. Thanks for the helpful hints about the Gilwell Gazette! I am suppose to be getting old copies of our Gilwell Gazettes from the last course. I am told some things dont change, like Message from Course director etc. I would imagine the schedule starts out per the course book, then changes due to working around weather or some other unforeseen thing. The staff info additions/changes I am told will be minimal.. Some things I know will be different.. 1) Where we hold WB, there is no cell phone or internet service.. Once there, no outside contact, unless you want to climb the highest mountain peak.. 2) Scribes are out of the normal hub of participants.. We are in a cabin that will be where the Staff sleeps, but also has areas good for offices.. It is close to the goings on, but not in it. So I doubt we would be first Aide station.. Good thing.. My first aide help is I dont want to see it!!..

As Calico states, I think it is up to the MBC.. For me, it would be odd if I didn't accept it.. Probably if the work was not done right I might have him do a redo.. Otherwise, I would probably pick up where he left off. Admitedly I had a reason to sign off on a scouts blue card for a 3 month chart for family life that was done before I took it on as MBC. The original Counsilor accepted the scout (they even did have one meeting), he started and finished the 3 month chart and she refused to sign, because she felt he had to get the "start" date from her, and she didn't give it.. I looked at the date the MB was started and the date the 3 month chart was started. He had started it after the blue card was signed. The chart was done correctly.. I signed it, and he finished the MB with me. What if a scout was close to done with a 3 month chart (or anything else) but before he gets to meet with the MBC, the MBC seriously gets ill or passes away?? Does the scout start over, what if he is down to the wire and close to his 18th birthday?(This message has been edited by moosetracker)

Thanks, I'm going to be the Scribe for our Fall Woodbadge and can really use the helpful hints.. Hopefully we will not be up until 1 am (as I have been told is typical), if we can get alot of it done ahead of time.

That's one of the responsibilities of the district advancement chair to keep the list and make sure all the SMs know who is on it as MBC is a DISTRICT Position of responsibility. The District Advancement Chair can only do so much. As stated it is a known fact that many Troops just organize their own MB list of people, and don't bother to register them.. This started due to the fact that the council software started flaking out with the tracking of MBC's. The council lost all MBC's, then two years later the council lost all MBC's again.. Since then the council will keep this councilors and not those councilors, our registrar is pulling his hair out. He can delete MBC's and add new ones. The next day some of the MBC's took, some did not and some of the MBC's who he deleted have returned.. Troops started using MBC they thought were valid, found out they weren't but the council did not say anything about their use.. They got frustrated signing up, then resigning up, then resigning up.. To find they never make it to the list, or are on for six months then tossed off.. They found out there is no way to track that they are not using valid MBC's, and they are not going to use an MBC they think are valid have scouts use them, find out they fell off the list, and make the scout retake the MB because the MBC fell off and no one knew.. This moved into just not even trying to register the MBC.. Then add to this mess the added requirement of YPT.. And more troops saw the easier path of not registering their MBC's.. Even if my husband wanted to do spot checks, he has no history of who was MBC's, just knows who is MBC's.. So he could punish the scouts who got a merit badge in the last few months with an MBC who isn't in the system.. The scout has no idea of who is and isn't an MBC, they go to someone trusting that they are following things right.. So you end up punishing scouts for the problems of the adults and National's software.

BasementDweller - Some how I already knew......... I suppose you support merit badge universities too. I take it that was directed at me, since I said my son went. So he had to call an Environmental Science MBC.. and work on his prerequisites.. Actually ended up being a Science teacher he had previously had.. Call a Citz & World MBC.. and work on his prerequisists.. Call a Communication MBC.. and work on his prerequisists.. Ok, he did not finish the MB with them, but did have to go through the calling & setting up meetings and working with them.. Besides that out of our troop, he is probably the scout who moved outside our troop to work with MBC's the most, everyone else was summer camp, or in troop MBC's.. His physical Fitness was fun, there weren't many and so we ended up going twice a week for all 3 months to someplace where I had to drive 45 minutes from work to home to pick him up, then drive about 1hr 15min.. to meet with the MBC.. The troop was going to do physical Fitness as a group class, he did not want to do it that way. Our MBC list is not updated much, so he would take a list of all the MBC's for a badge, and play a game of how many calls he would need to make, before he found an active MBC.. Most were not active, many never returned the phone message, sadly a few had passed away 5 or 10 years back.. So my son got Merit Badges at camp, and by contacting strangers.. I don't care too much for the MBU's.. I did like one that was run by our troop one year for four weeks (Saturdays, not troop meetings) in March.. With expectations the scout did alot of work between meetings.. Son was the only one who earned the Astronomy one, because the other boys did not do the work between meetings.. Other then that, I don't like ones who take shortcuts and we never did them.. Also with any summer camps that we found did short change the MB, we would have him complete the MB on his own.. One year he got the fishing MB without catching or cleaning a fish.. Well the catching a fish was no problem.. But, we were wrong making him clean the fish when none of us knew what we were doing.. The torture of the poor fish, had him effected him so much that he never went fishing again..(This message has been edited by moosetracker)

My son went to two.. First one was a waste of time.. Well he did get small boat sailing which was a 2 period course.. One thing signed off on cit. & World.. Did service projects for the camp (his following someone elses orders was to help prepare him for his own eagle project.. Like being a participant of 10+ other Eagle projects, didn't give him the same viewpoint this one did..).. Next year went to a different camp. By then 80% of the required MB were done, but he had such a lousy time at the one Trail to Eagle, he wanted to wash it away with a good trail.. Alot of pre-work with counsilors outside the Trail to Eagle course while he worked on the pre-requists of the first camp.. Then the pre-reqs of the 2nd camp that were not the same as the first camp.. Which is why 80% of the MB's were done before he arrived in the 2nd camp, with different counsilors.. So what did he get out of the course?.. Similar to Woodbadge, alot of commeradery, talking to other boys about their journey to Eagle, talking about each others Eagle projects, or ideas for Eagle projects.. Something was there that he had wanted to go ever since he was little and in provisional camp which neighbored the Trail to Eagle, and he was always fascinated with the older boys and the program he saw over on the other side of the fence.. No Family Life offered.. Not sure about the other 3 month charting programs, but if they did their charts before comeing to camp there is enough other things in those courses to offer something.. But, once when dropping my son off for provisional, I did hear one mother go up one side and down the other of the leader running the course of how awful it was they did not offer Family Life, when that was one of the courses her "little Johnny" needed The next year my son did a provisional at the same camp that ran the 2nd Trail to Eagle.. Because he saw that program while he was in the other course, and that one looked good to him.. A total Aquatics camp.. They did everything and anything water related, some were badges he already had, so he earned a second time.. Some were new badges, some didn't have any badge relationship at all.. If done right, the Trail-to-Eagle will still not short-change the process, and they can offer other benefits..

The way I see it is in this day in age of the drop & go parents. Then anyone who chooses to offer help to a program to help the youth, deserves that youths respect.. Some troops are overrun with too many adults, but the majority fail due to not enough adult support.. Or not having the right adults in the right positions.. Sure the adults may not have the right idea about how to run the program correctly, but that means they need to be educated.. Educating adults will not come from a youth who is doing so in a disrespectful manner. Also if too many of the youth of the program try to lead change and take control of their program by being Hooligans.. Not only will the adults they have leave the program, to the point it will be discontinued.. The "right" type of person who could have been a great SM, will likely never think to get involved.. The problem with troops with too many adults is they don't have enough to do so look for things, and most likely take things the kids can do away from the kids.. BUT.. normally these people have a large enough pool to attract someone who will make a good SM, and might be able to keep the other adults out of the program area.. The problem with troops with too few adults, is they may not have enough adults to even recharter. Or the pool is so small the first warm blooded, semi-breathing adult who doesn't run away fast enough when selected becomes SM.. He most likely will not have a clue (or interest) in running the program right.. In general thank the adults who do volunteer, and hope for a SM who can control the adults helpfulness, or if the youth have to wrestle the program away from the adults, they still need to do so in a way that will have the adults listen to them, and be impressed by their ambition, maturity, and independance..

Sorry Maple - the social skills comment was to simplify the whole thing about your first post sounding like there was no personal interaction between you and your patrol mates that could be concieved as friendship. Rather they are an expirement, your boys, a large group to organize and divvy up leadership tasks to, more into the analyzation on the computer then the interaction within the group.. There was no warmth when talking about the group, no references to a friend or friends within the group.. etc.. Also as stated in the other post, you remind me of my own son. So some of my personal image about the type of kid you are comes from that comparison. His attempt to be an adult before his time, made him more hang out with the adults on outings and he had a hard time dealing with his own age as they did not always act mature. Though he did have social skills with the adults, they always needed to shoo him back to his own patrol, where he would stay for a while, then meander back to the adults.. He has finally grown into both being able to socialize with his age group as well as adults, as his age group matured and he is accepted as an adult in most groups now, so can mingle with all ages. As stated you smoothed over your rough first entry in your following posts. Although in the first post you mentioned that the APL you are going to mentor as your replacement is young, and not taken seriously be the older scouts yet (giving us the mental picture of a patrol with varying ages).. In your second post, I got the idea that the majority of your patrol are very young scouts.. So that explains somewhat the more paternal attitude, and why maybe although you see yourself as a good leader for them, you may not quite see yourself as their friend.. Too much of an age gap. (This message has been edited by moosetracker)

Scoutfish - It's always my husbands fault(rain, cold, Monday mornings). Does that mean I can sue him?

Basement - Having been on both threads.. Don't know if any of it applys to me. But just so that you know where I stand.. 1) I don't think either are trolls. I don't think either post was done to incite.. They were both questions of the normal sort. 2) I didn't rip the first scout a new one.. I first posted very friendly. Then asked for a response before I answered again.. Then ripped Kudu on new one, because he got in telling the lad to rebel against injustice.. Don't mind telling youth to respectfully work towards change, but not encourage them to rebel or be disrespectful.. 3) IamCalvin, didn't give us much to go on, so it caused us to guess.. MapleScout gave us a whole lot to digest.. 4) We did sort of come down on Maple scout, his next post he is back sincerly appologizing, and correcting where himself where we read into it, some genius bureaucrate with few social skills.. And his second post was sincere and not trying to stir the pot or incite.. BP - I will remain gullable.. I will be swayed that a newbie trying to cause civil war amoungst us.. Neither did, just a normal every day squabble in one.

Morning MapleScouter - (knowing you are from California and have a 3 hour difference then us on the east coast.) Actually you didn't put me off.. Impressed me to the max.. Sort of reminded me of my son (who soon will be 21, and hopefully will relax a bit).. He isn't the writer you are, couldn't impress me with his writing, but that drive & determination to be an adult NOW.. was there when he was 5 years old and building ever since.. I always thought I was raising an odd duck.. But, I am told that is really very common now in younger folks.. But, you impress me that not only do you have the drive, but the vocabulary and the writting style of an adult. Just I can't see your talking like a PhD graduate as the best way to talk to your patrol.. I figure you don't or they would not have voted for you. Your patrol who knows you personally have utmost confidence in you.. Trying to move to eventually split the group is a great thing to do.. Empower the other youth of your troop, then set them free.. I am sure you know that : 1) The reason for patrols size of 6-8 is that it is harder to lead larger groups. 2) Though you may give them jobs in the patrol, the only patrol job that goes to advancement will be yours.. So your APL's will also need to hussle up a troop job or project to get to advancement.. With a troop of 60 I am sure that it is hard to find positions for everyone wishing to advance. 3) Your ability to empower others to take lead will make you shine much more brightly then your ability to lead 17 scouts.. So bottom line all this organization to your patrol is to get them out on adventures.. Correct?.. Good.. Still would like to know "Why" everyone flocks to your patrol, since you just became PL, what makes your patrol unique must be something that has been going on for a while now.. Also so that some of our forum members can get excited about your activities, do you have any ideas on what type of patrol outings you would like to take?

Buffalo Skipper - You can speak for your own council.. Your council never used the blue cards.. Our Council did (along with the required Advancment Report).. As Beavah, stated some councils use them. They created their own procedures. I forget which part went to the council. I believe it was the Troop that lost their section, because the scout always got his, and I know MBC's (including me) would rip off their section.

Our Council use to hand the blue cards to the District chairs stapled in a plastic baggie to the advancement report. When they went to computerized advancement reports, they stopped the practice of taking the stub of the blue card.. Husband when he started as District Advancement chair got 2 months of reports with the blue cards attached.. I am glad they are not there because less for my packrat of a husband to store up.. But there are disadvantages too.. For the entire time that the historical badges were offered, no one in our district signed up to be an MBC for any of them.. Yet we processed many, many, many troops earning the Merit Badges, some troops had their boys earn all of them.. Who did they use for MBC?? That was a time when the blue cards would have come in handy to open the plastic bag, see the name and challenge the troop or Counselor on it.. But, currently we just know many troops are using whoever they want for MBCs not going through the process, and we just have to shrug it off. No way to track it.