The scoutmaster and merit badges...

[gwd-scouter]

Yes, in a perfect world the only person to sign off on a blue card for a merit badge would be the registered merit badge counselor. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world.

 

First, from reading many posts over the years, it seems that not all councils require, nor do units use, blue cards.

 

Second, and speaking only from experience in my district, Troops handle merit badges on their own. In all the years I've been in Scouting I know our District has tried to compile a list of merit badge counselors. Haven't seen a list yet. Each Troop relies on its own list to help the boys work on merit badges. Usually that list is composed of parents and leaders in the Troop. Many times, those folks are not actually registered as merit badge counselors.

 

I can't speak for other Troops, but in ours we do at least try to get folks from outside the Troop to counsel badges - i.e., a trainer from the YMCA is working with three of our guys on personal fitness, band teachers for music, etc.

 

Some day I suppose if our council ever requires evidence of a completed merit badge other than an advancement report or a troop master report, then we will have to do it the right way.

 

 

 

[evmori]

I think registering all the SM's as camping MB counselors is stupid! Just because this person is a SM doesn't mean they know what they need to know about camping! We all know what happens when we ass-u-me!

 

 

[skeptic]

Ed, while "some" SM's may not be qualified, we would hope that they would have enough integrity to refer their scouts to a listed counselor that was, or work with a qualified assistant to assure the proper fulfillment of the badge. When I first became a SM, I referred scouts to another more qualified counselor until I felt my knowledge and experience was satisfactory. Now, I own the camping badge in my troop unless there are unusual situations. They can work on requirements at summer camp with the offered badge, but I hold the final word on the completion. If a troop has a SM who "does not camp with his boys", then they need a new leader. Since so much of the badge requires direct knowledge of what the scout does on outings, and so on, it simply makes sense to hang that responsibility on the leader, while making it clear they need to only undertake it when they are qualified.

 

Still, there will always be leaders who do not uphold the integrity of the program. Hopefully they are few and far between.

[John-in-KC]

Blue cards aren't required in fact.

 

What's required is:

 

Scoutmaster assigns Billy a MB Counselor.

 

Billy and the Counselor visit once to several times. I used to like a starting session and an evaluation session. Coaching sessions should be available as needed.

 

The Counselor, having been shown the work as appropriate, approves that Billy knows his stuff.

 

The Scoutmaster receives completion and the adult side of the paperwork gets underway.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

My personal opinion is the SM shouldn't under most cases counsel the Scouts of his own Troop. They are already getting Adult Association from him. They need the chance to meet other people and learn to work with them.

 

My firmly held belief is that if a Scoutmaster has not cross-registered as a MB Counselor, he has not business doing anything with a MB other than "I approve, and here's your Counselor", and "Thank you, I'll give this to Mr/Ms Advancement person."

 

My thoughts.

[Nachamawat]

I do not understand the concept that if a parent signs off on their own son's Merit Badge it is somehow showing favoritism. If they are registered as merit badge counselors why not, after all a Scout is Trustworthy.

 

My wife is an educator with a Master's Degree in Education. If she were to sign up as the counselor for scholarship and reading merit badges why is she less qualified to counsel her own son? Why can't a father sign up to be a MB counselor for home repairs and not counsel his own son when they work together on home improvements (and help to develop that bonding thing at the same time)?

 

It is my experience that parents are actually more stringent with their own children than others.

[Lisabob]

BSA rules do not prohibit a parent from counseling their own son.

 

The problem tends to occur when others perceive a parent as going lighter on their own child than on other children. Whether that perception is true (as it sometimes is) or false (as is probably more often the case) is almost irrelevant. The perception alone causes all sorts of trouble for a unit, especially if the adult in question also holds a position like SM, CC, or advancement chair. Most units do not want to invite such trouble.

 

The other issue is understanding and utilizing the adult association method of scouting. Chances are good that by the time a boy reaches his teens, he has had PLENTY of interaction with his parents. Having a connection to other adults can be a strongly positive thing, which he will not get or will get less of, if he works with mom & dad all the time.

 

Still, a parent can counsel their child, in keeping with BSA rules.

 

 

[Nachamawat]

Lisabob,

 

I did not mean that the boy should not reach out and experience adult association. I certainly did not imply that parents should counsel all his merit badges. I think that in an area of special interest, that has few merit badge counselors, the Scout will be made to suffer the consequences. Oddly enough there are only two or three reading counselors in our council (depending on how current the list is) and they all live 45 miles away. Who should be responsible for recruiting more counselors? Oh well, I guess there are a hundred different badges so the scout can simply pick another one! Rather than be counseled by his own parent.

[Beavah]

We disallow parent committee members from sitting on BORs for their son, eh? Even though a parent is trustworthy, yada yada. Heck, on a BOR there are at least a couple non-parents to balance it out, but it still isn't allowed. Why? Because parents can be too lenient, too strict, or the interactions between parent-child are just so different (and so much stronger/overpowering) than between committee member and boy. Same argument applies to parents as MBCs to my mind. We never stop being parents, which means it's hard to be MBC's.

 

And Lisabob's right, eh? Parent MBC's or parent SM's signing things off for their own kid are a recipe for conflict within a unit, kids perceiving favoritism, etc.

 

Oddly enough there are only two or three reading counselors in our council (depending on how current the list is) and they all live 45 miles away. Who should be responsible for recruiting more counselors?

 

Yah, that's the job of the DAC, eh? And it's a hard job. Most new DACs ignore it in favor of educatin' all the other troops about how their old troop did advancement "right", or settin' up some new paperwork for the Eagle project process. That process can always use more paperwork.

 

Reality is that a good troop which discourages parent MBCs should go out of its way to recruit a different MBC if a lad asks to do the badge. That usually isn't too much trouble. If dad is an attorney and junior wants to do Law MB, dad can probably recommend another attorney who can be recruited, eh? Reading and scholarship are pretty easy to recruit for. And in these days of electronic communication, a counselor that lives a ways away isn't that big a hurdle, at least for those badges.

 

Beavah

 

[Nachamawat]

"And in these days of electronic communication, a counselor that lives a ways away isn't that big a hurdle, at least for those badges."

 

Beavah

 

What an interesting twist that is Beavah. I bet that makes for some meaningful adult association. I will get send him/her an email and get all my work done. Seems like a silly comparison to the discussion here.

[Lisabob]

Nachamawat, you seem to be in a contrary mood here. Really no need for that as I don't think I'm disagreeing with you. You asked for explanations, and I offered two of the more common ones. Feedback is a gift, you know

 

Boys should not be prohibited from working on a particular MB due to their familial ties to the district's one-and-only MB counselor for that particular badge. On the other hand, the reading MB is not rocket science, and if a boy wants to work on it, maybe he could go up to the local public library, talk to the librarians, and ask one or more of them to register as MBCs. Or his English teacher, or school librarian (if you have one). Or the kindly neighbor.

 

While Beavah's right that recruiting MBCs falls under the district advancement chair's duties, there is nothing saying a scout can't help out. Most of the time, all a boy has to do is ask.

[Beavah]

What an interesting twist that is Beavah. I bet that makes for some meaningful adult association. I will get send him/her an email and get all my work done. Seems like a silly comparison to the discussion here.

 

Yah, don't your kids Skype? Online videoconference chatting has been around for a while now. If you're really in a rural area, I bet there's a good shot da high school or county schools authority has some advanced classes that are offered by video / distance learning.

 

It wouldn't necessarily be my first choice, but it could be really interestin'. First choice, though, is what Lisabob said, eh? Just go find a counselor.

 

Beavah

 

[John-in-KC]

Rural HS?

 

EagleSon went to a suburban, near urban core HS, and his Principal was finding ways to leverage VTC technology for a wider offering of "explore" classes. We have a couple Nisei kids in that building. Japanese is kinda sorta rarely taught out here in flyover country. VTC got them a source.

 

I do agree with Lisa: When Mr Smith is the only MBC for Composites in the council, Billy Smith his Star son doesn't have a choice... he sees Mr Smith/Dad as his MBC.

 

The goal for Advancement Committees is to make Mr Smith more than 1 deep on the depth chart.

[asm 411]

Adult association ... enough with my boy without being a MBC for him ...

 

I treat all the Scouts the same. I believe in varied adult association so I will council one merit badge with each Scout.

 

My son chose cycling. We were already signed up to do the local MS-150. The training rides worked into the merit badge perfectly. Cycling is the only thing that I do that I have as much passion for as I do for Scouting. Many of the training rides were done with friends of mine so he got a good dose of cycling experience from other adults who put in 2000 to 3000 miles a year.

 

Personally I think sharing a passion with your son through a merit badge is great. Some will abuse the system or there children in the process which is unfortunate.

 

I would like to note that my son has also earned swimming merit badge and at the rate he is going he will have more than enough elective merit badges for Eagle if need be. I wonder if he will ever get started on the school room six (Citizenships, Personal Management, Communication and Family Life)

 

 

[wolfmama500]

Yah, don't your kids Skype? Online videoconference chatting has been around for a while now. If you're really in a rural area, I bet there's a good shot da high school or county schools authority has some advanced classes that are offered by video / distance learning.

Beavah, I think the rural comment is out of place, assuming where are the people involved located... Now, that's opening another can of worms with the hole internet involvement on this, is not good all the time and teaching a young lad to use this technology can backfire. be carefull what you say...

When you live in an area when people come and go as a military base and the MBC's list is not always up to date what are you going to do, bother that person that can be 1,000 miles away because Council doesn't have another counselor listed or sign up a parent who at first will benefit in his or her son's advancement but can help many others as well in the same troop or geographical area?

[Hal_Crawford]

Parents who are registered as MB counselors can counsel their boys but it should be done as an exception rather than standard practice. It begins to smell fishy to others when the parent counsels multiple merit badges for their son. One maybe two might not raise any eyebrows but eventually others begin to wonder.

 

We had a scout whose dad signed up as a counselor for a lot of merit badges. He subsequently signed off on about 7 or 8 merit badges for his son. Few if any of these were done in a class setting. Son would bring completed blue cards to SM for signature. SM was not a confrontational sort so he signed. There were ultimately questions about whether the scout had met all requirements for all the badges and the concerns extended to other scouts counseled by this counselor. The counselor was ultimately dropped from the district counselor list, the district instituted a policy limiting number of merit badges that a counselor could counsel and our SM set a strict policy of assigning counselors to the scouts. SM signature on the blue card before any work done. Parents who want to counsel their boys are urged to do it in a class setting with other scouts.

 

There was a whole lot of ugly along the way. Nasty e-mails, yelling arguments. It was a big mess in the unit and the district. The boy quit scouts at 14 with 21 merit badges and (as I understand it) no one from the DAC that was willing to work with him on an Eagle project. The kid was really a victim of his dad's ambition.

 

This is an extreme example but it illustrates the danger of the slippery slope of parents as merit badge counselors. It is all a matter of degree and of perception.

 

On a related note, it is disturbing (but not really surprising) that some parents lose all interest in counseling a merit badge once their son has earned it.