Earning Merit Badges without "Blue Cards"

[ScoutmasterBradley]

This summer our council is thinking about removing "blue cards" (aka merit badge applications) from the merit badge earning process at their summer camp. They are looking at getting a computer program called BadgeTracker (http://badgetracker.com/) to handle the paperwork and record keeping of this new system. At the end of the week Scoutmasters would simply receive a print-out of what badges were earned by their Scouts rather than receiving a stack of "blue cards". The council says this will reduce the chance of loosing a card, save the staff from having to spend Friday signing a stack of hundreds of cards and it will help save trees (and thus make the camp more "green").

 

So I was wondering what people thought of this approach? I always thought the "blue cards" were a necessary document in the process. It shows the councilor that the Scout has permission from their Scoutmaster to work on the badge, and it provides the Scout and the unit with a record stub to prove the badge was completed. Plus if a scout earns a "partial" (only completing some of the requirements), they can take their card to finish off the remaining requirements with another councilor (or bring it back to camp the next year).

 

So are the "blue cards" really needed? Or can a system like BadgeTracker be effective in the advancement documentation and record keeping?

 

[Eagledad]

It takes away the practice of learning responsibility and the process of follow thru. It is a convenience for the summer camp staff, which I can understand. But as a SM, I'm in it for the growth of my scouts. I would still use the blue cards and request the staff support my wishes.

 

Barry

[Hal_Crawford]

I think it is probably inevitable that this is the way it will be done in the future. The software website indicates that partials are documented. I suppose that the SM can use that printout to prepare a partial Blue Card for a scout going to a councilor to complete the MB at home.

 

The part I don't get is about sorting blue cards on the last night of camp. This is definitely a problem but I am trying to visualize all the data being inputted on the one or two out of date computers found at our scout camp (Goshen Camp Bowman). I suspect that our camp is as well or better equipped as most. They barely have the capacity to handle the camp accounts. Perhaps they envision computers at all of the program areas. I am not sure that all the program areas even have electricity. I can't picture running cat5 to all the program areas.

I know there are technical solutions but I wonder if they would really be practical or cost effective.

 

Meanwhile, prepare for the flaming response of some of our traditionalists.

 

Hal

[shortridge]

Like Hal, I can't imagine my camp using such a system, because of the technological limitations.

 

I also can't quite see how it's improving things for the staff. Instructors will still have to track the information, but instead of filling out and signing blue cards, someone will have to sit in front of a computer and fill out forms.

 

Neither system has to wait until the last night of camp. An organized instructor can keep tabs throughout the week of how the Scouts are doing, and sign off each requirement as they complete it. Simple and straightforward.

 

As a defense against losing cards... that I can understand and appreciate.

[John-in-KC]

What Barry said.

 

If the Professional Service staffer running the Scout Reservation said NO, and the SM decided this was important enoughthen at summer's end I'd ask my IH/COR to tell the SE: Thank you for your lack of support, Troop 123 won't be back.

 

Comments like that get the SE's undivided attention. Money talks ... and what we think is for the best of the kids sometimes need be couched in $$$ terms.

[BrentAllen]

Our council already does this at the camp we attend. At the end of the week, we get a print-out (one page per Scout) with merit badges attended and the requirements NOT completed. I assume the staff are inputting the data during the week as the Scouts complete the requirements. The one nice thing about the system is you can deal with mistakes by email. Last year, we had a couple of mistakes on some forms, and the Program Director was able to verify the information, correct the forms, and email them to me in a couple of hours. I'm happy with the system.

 

This is a pretty good size camp - they run somewhere around 800 - 1,000 boys per week, for 7 weeks, thru there. Even though the camp is a decent haul off the beaten path, they appear to have pretty good IT capability. They even have some terminals in the SM Lounge where adults can check email.

[Hal_Crawford]

The way that it could make life easier for staff is IF (and this is a big IF) the staff has the resources (mainly computers in program areas) to enter completed requirements as they go. Scouts would pre-register for MB classes so their names would already be in the system. Attendance would go straight into the computer and requirements are checked off in real time. A CIT could do the data entry in each area (thereby ensuring that they learn nothing about the things taught at that area). At the end of the week, data is uploaded and printed.

 

Our school system went to electronic grade books while my so was in high school. Prior to that the teachers were given a work day each grading period to sort out their grade books, average the grades and submit them to the main office to be entered into the report cards. Now, if the teacher has kept up through the grading period the process is reduced to a couple of mouse clicks. Of course their union contract still gives them the "work day" but teachers do work hard so I will not begrudge them that.

 

It could work on a camp level but it would take a lot of hardware, planning and a change in work process. Maybe if each scout was tattooed with a barcode....

 

 

 

 

 

[Beavah]

Yah, ScoutmasterBradley, yeh should know that blue cards have never been required official documentation from National's perspective, eh? They're just an optional form provided to help troops and councils if they want to use 'em. Lots of camps in lots of places have dispensed with blue cards in favor of multi-part forms and more recently digital stuff, eh?

 

As far as I know the camps that use other kinds of recordkeepin' do quite well with it. Even get a lot of complements from units because it tends to be more reliable.

 

Hard to tell overall, but I expect blue card use is slowly fadin'. Would be faster except that some folks think they're "official."

 

Beavah

 

[Nike]

My son has attended a few camps that did this. Usually, the Advancement Chair would write out blue cards for every completed and partial MB. Personally, I'd make the boys do it the first or last night at camp, put them in a baggie and fill them out at a casual summer fun meeting.

 

I suppose the counselors have to fill in some kind of daily report then transfer that to the computer on Friday afternoon.

 

 

 

[fgoodwin]

Question to those who favor the use of blue cards at camp (or at MBU, for that matter):

 

Do your boys show up at camp with their cards already filled out? I've only been to two summer camps (plus the 2005 Jamboree), but each had hundreds of boys in attendance from dozens of troops, and I don't recall EVER seeing a Scout present a blue card to the camp MB counselor to be updated.

 

As I understand it, in the "traditional" setting, a boy is supposed to select a MB to work on, fill out a blue card, and present it to his SM for authorization to proceed. The SM may (or may not) suggest a MB counselor to work with. And the boy takes it from there. He presents the blue card to teh counselor, not the other way around.

 

Do your boys take this same approach at summer camp? Or do you leave it to the camp MB counselor to fill out dozens of blue cards themselves? If the latter, I can certainly understand why the summer camp blue card is going the way of the dinosaur.

 

Would you expect a boy to show up at the door of a "regular" (i.e., non summer camp) MB counselor without a blue card, hoping the MBC would fill one out? I would never allow my son to impose on a MB counselor like that, but he didn't have blue cards at either summer camp (I asked in advance if he needed them) because both summer camps used the computerized approach mentioned at the beginning of this thread (and which is the same process used at our council-run MBU).

 

I teach Communications at MBU, and I will fill out partial blue cards for those Scouts who bring them, but I've been told by our MBU organizers that we don't give out blue cards as part of the MBU. Its all computerized.

[Hal_Crawford]

Our summer camps expects the scouts to bring filled out, SM signed blue cards to MB classes. I know that those from our troop do, if not the first day then the second (sometimes schedules change).

 

At home we try to avoid scouts shopping for MB counselors. The district counselors list is password protected and not intended for distribution to scouts. Some SM's may print and give the list to the scouts but ours does not. Scouts do know some of the MB counselors within the troop but the counselors all know that scouts are supposed to have a SM signed blue card before starting work. Within our troop, counselors who do not play by the rules do not get re-registered. Only had that happen once but that guy was seriously off the reservation and the experience taught the SM and me (I was CC at the time) a lesson.

 

As a MB counselor I will not start work with a scout who doesn't have a blue card.

 

Biggest problem is lost Blue Cards. It probably isn't the best practice but the SM keeps the partials from camp on file and issues them to the scout if they start to work with a local counselor. Still they get lost. Council keeps records so the lost cards can be reconstructed. It would probably be easier to deal with lost cards and errors with a computerized system.

 

Hal

[John-in-KC]

Fred,

 

If you read the MB Counselor orientation, the procedure is supposed to go like this:

 

Billy FirstClass: Gee Mr Scoutmaster, Orienteering sounds like a really fun merit badge. I'm getting interested in drafting maps, and I'd like to see how maps get used in competition.

 

Mr Scoutmaster: That's great Billy. I know Mr Northpointing Compass, he'd be a good counselor for you. Why don't you get a MB app from the Scribe and I'll give you his contact info.

 

Billy: Thanks!!

 

Some minutes later, Billy has filled out the front side of the app, and the SM fills out the contact info.

 

Key point: The Scoutmaster is the gatekeeper. Whether it's camp, during the program year, or a MB day program, the SM decides if the quality of program meets the standards of ACP&P and BSA Requirements, and authorizes MB Cards based on that decision.

 

In the Troop EagleSon was in, the SM or one of the ASMs would sit down with each kid as summer camp approached. The Scout would have an idea of the MBs he wanted to take. The SM would cross-check the calendar and the daily schedule, and if OK, the Scout would be given a stack of "white cards" (same thing as a blue card, but locally produced and cheaper to the Council) to fill out. When he was finished, the SM/ASM would have a signing session.

 

That all make sense?

[Apache Bob]

The camp our boys attended last year used the new program. It worked without a problem.

Try it before you down it. You might be very suprised.

[shortridge]

At the camp I staffed, we wouldn't take a blue card unless the personal/unit info was filled out and it was signed by the SM. Scouts had to bring them, but we always had a few extra blank cards in case they were misplaced. The instructors filled in the blanks for the requirement numbers, in part because we had a moderate number of Scouts show up with old MB books with outdated requirements.

[John-in-KC]

One note on internal procedure:

 

At the camps I've served, each staffer has two books. One is his "INSTRUCTOR or COUNSELOR" book. They're dirty, they have comments in them, they're not meant for leaders eyes. They are where the staff annotate completion of requirements, along with special comments for the Lodge director/AD.

 

The other book is the LODGE book. This is what is shown the leaders.

 

Finally, the cards themselves are annotated with "passed with flying colors" stuff the night before final testing, the items one of the adult MB Counselors or the Dir/AD had to re-evaluate personally are annotated after testing, and the afternoon of final campfire is a major time of paperwork for the staff.