Question About Service Hours - Merit Badge Vs. Rank

[JillKB]

Am I correct in assuming that if you have done service hours towards your rank, that those same service hours can not be counted towards the Citizenship in the Community merit badge required service hours? (i.e. 6 hours needed for star and 8 hours needed for citizenship... so a total of 14 hours must done to complete both advancements... Would that be correct?)

[evmori]

That is completely up to the merit badge counselor.

[fgoodwin]

Service hours toward the MB require prior approval of the MBC; service hours toward rank require SM approval.

 

There's nothing saying they couldn't be the same hours, but different approvals are required.

 

Note that service hours for the MB must be done while working on the MB; that tells me if a Scout has service hours for rank advancement, but did them prior to starting the MB (e.g., he hadn't gotten a SM-authorized blue card for the MB prior to doing service for rank purposes), then those hours cannot count toward the MB.

 

"No adding or subtracting from the requirements . . ."

[Venividi]

Hi Jill,

 

I like to think in terms of what is best for the boy. In this scenario, I think the scout gains more by participating in separate service hours for each. 14 hours isnt very much, and would hope that the scout participates in more than that in the normal course of activities that considering applying 6 hours of service to both star and MB, wouldn't even come up.

 

Dont know the context of your question, - if it is a scout that is asking, a conversation about the duties of citizenship might be beneficial to the scout.

[scottteng]

The idea is to get them hooked if you have to fish em like a bonefish do it that way if they are hitters expect more from them. Rank wise I expect them to have their service hours recorded in writing preferably on a letterhead of the organization with a signature of the supervisor that way it becomes part of the book they should all be keeping of their scouting career. Around here they have a much more onerous 125 hours I believe requirement to graduate from high school. We do let them double dip those with proper documentation.