MBC reneges on blue card sign-off

[rdn51]

Dear Members,

 

I have a question about an MBC reneging on his approval for a merit badge requirement. My son is a Star scout, almost ready for his advancement to Life. He is also a Den Chief for the 5th grade Webelos and just finished 7 months as assistant senior patrol leader.

 

He began working with a MBC in our troop for Communications merit badge 6 months ago and just finished the last requirement 2 weeks ago. At that time the MBC asked him to show him the materials he had written for section 8 which the MBC had approved and signed-off on 5 months ago. My son finally met with the MBC last night and showed him the material he completed for section 8. The MBC told him that he had re-thought what he signed off 5 months ago, that he had done it when he was tired and now felt that it was insuffient to meet the requirement. He wanted my son to re-complete the entire section. (note: My son had written up a script based on previous courts of honor. This script was approved by the SPL, the scoutmaster and the church liason. During the next Court of honor, my son acted as ASPL, recited some of the script, handed out merit and advancement badges and lit candles etc. He also acts as an assistant at Cub/Webelo camping events (campfires) and assists the Cubmaster) It was insinuated that this was sufficient to meet the requirement. My son asked me to discuss this with the MBC. I asked him why he signed off on the requirement and did not explain in a more timely manner (a week, a month?) that he had changed his mind regarding this. He had no answer and got extremely angry. I then approached the Scoutmaster, who said that he could not interfere with the MBC process. Our PLC will not meet for another month or so and will not be in time for my son to work the next Court of Honor. The MBC has admitted that my son had gone above and beyond the requirements for all the other sections of the merit badge.

 

Right now my son is extremely discouraged and upset. What is our recourse here? I can tell you that as an educator if I would do something like this (ie. pass a student on a term paper, tell him just prior to the end of the semester, that I re-thought about his grade on the term paper, determined that he had now failed the paper (reneging the original grade) and this failure will not let him complete the course, I would be in the superintendent's office so fast my head would spin. Also, if I refused to accept my original grade, I would probably be dismissed.

 

Thanks

[jr56]

You could try your District Advancement Chairman, or go to another registered Merit Badge Counselor and have your son show them his work, see if they would sign off on the badge. Option 2 is pretty controversial, don't know how much success you would have with it. Merit Badge Counselors pretty much have the final say on what they will accept. Maybe the District Advancement Chair will investigate it for you. Good luck

[evmori]

Bad MBC!

 

Once a MB counselor signs off a requirement, it's completed!

 

It sounds like there is more going on here than we know, though.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[SemperParatus]

This is an interesting conundrum. I feel bad for the discourteous treatment that has been shown your son.

 

The MBC is in the wrong...changing his mind months after his previous sign-off, but until he signs off on the entire badge completion he is probably within his rights to go back and do a final review of the individual requirements that had been signed off to ensure that nothing had been overlooked.

 

While your SM is not directly involved in the MB process, he does have a vested interest when something happens in the troop that causes scouts to be discouraged and upset, MBCs to become angry and parents to wonder what the heck is going on. He should get himself involved to broker a satisfactory resolution to this matter. He is in a position to help and should, taking the 'hands-off' approach is a weenie way out of a what could become a very negative situation.

 

Your son has several choices; (i) fight the counselor to have him honor his previous sign-off (not recommended), (ii) be the bigger person and re-do the requiremnet to the MBC's satisfaction, (iii) finish the badge with another counselor.

[ScoutNut]

Does your son have an actual, phyiscal signature for that section? Is it dated?

 

He should first find out SPECIFICALY what this MBC felt was insuffient in his work on that section. Simply telling him, oops, I changed my mind, re-do the section, is not enough.

 

What other boys is your son working with on the badge? How do they find this MBC? Are they having problems as well?

 

Unless this guy can come up with something concrete that your son did incorrectly the first time around and some suggestions for him (he IS supposed to be teaching this after all), I would be inclined to go to a different MBC, explain the situation to him and show him all of the work done for the badge. I would then go to the District Advancement Chair & tell him what happened. If this guy isn't going to do this right he should not be doing it at all.

[Kaji]

I was always taught that the hard and fast rule in the BSA regarding signing things off is that once it's signed, it's permanently signed, and shame on the person who signed it if the boy didn't actually do the work, logic being that it's not fair to the boy to say he's completed something and then revoke it for circumstances that were beyond his control in the first place. Granted, it's not fair to just let him off without doing the work, but it's the lesser of two evils.

[John-in-KC]

Kaji,

 

The problems here are, in order:

 

- The Counselor concerned won't sign off on this Scout's work.

 

- The SM, who is responsible for unit program, won't get in the knickers of an IN-TROOP Counselor.

 

My read: If parents think the young man's work is up to par, then they should encourage their Scout to ask for assignment to another Counselor, and be done with it. Lesson for the Scout in question: Life isn't fair. (BTW, if the SM won't reassign him a Counselor, parents should then go to District Advancement Chair without delay).

 

Additional read: Parents concerned should report this particular Counselor to the District Advancement Chairman. The risk for parents and Scout is this may burn some bridges in the unit, so sadly it's a judgment call.

 

Sad all the way around.

 

(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

[Kaji]

> - The Counselor concerned won't sign off on this Scout's work.

 

> At that time the MBC asked him to show him the materials he had written for section 8 which the MBC had approved and signed-off on 5 months ago.

 

The card was signed, at least according to the first post. Therefore the signature is binding, no?

[frankj]

Once it is signed, it is signed. The original MB conselor sounds like a flake. Transfer to another MB conselor. Explain why you are transferring, bring the previous work with you, complete the badge under a new conselor. The SM needs to have a sit-down with the original MBC.

[John-in-KC]

Kaji,

 

It sounds to me that yes, he signed off on the requirement, but has reneged, and now will neither accept the work nor sign out the MB unless the Scout does new work.

 

That's called a Catch-22 in my book.

 

My recommendation is the post above, simply put, is: BYPASS the son of a gun. He's not worth the Scout's effort.

[NWScouter]

I hate to say this guys but the MBC in with in his rights to not sign off on the card. The grid on the back of the card is entirely optional. It can filled out or not. As a partial it can be accepted by a different MBC or not. He may retest or not. The MBC is stating by signing the blue card that the Scout has completed the merit badge requirements. The MBC is the final judge. If you believe that MBC is adding or subtracting to the requirements the only final recourse is to have the district advancement committee remove him from the list.

 

Now weather or not this MBC is wrong in this instance in going back on his word is a different matter. But only he can put his name on the card.

 

[Lynda J]

I wonder what happened in the 5 months from the time that the counselor approved the requirement as written and the final sign off.

 

Also this scout isn't tied into this counselor. Any approved counselor can sign of a Blue Card.

 

We have to do this all the time with badges earned at summer camp or at merit badge colleges.

 

I had a young man come to me last month. Had completed a badge but the counselor had moved.

He left his worksheet with me. I read over it then met with him and went over the work again with him. He had done a very good job on the requirements. I signed off on the badge.

 

[dan]

LyndaJ was the requirements signed off, if so why did you have the scout go over the requirements again?

 

IMHO very few if any counselor will accept another counselor sign off without having the scout go over it the requirements again.

IMO finding another counselor would be the same as using this one, a redo.