Troops and Merit Badges

[OldGreyEagle]

The posting on the Hiking Merit Badge got me to thinking about a subject of much debate in our local area. How are the rest of you handling merit badges anyway? Are most boys earning them in your own troops, do you require they earn them outside of normal scout meetings, do you have a limit of how many may be signed off by a single counselor, or do you have some other merit badge statement you would like to make.

[eisely]

Like most large troops we maintain our own roster of merit badge counselors. The district also has a list. Not every parent in our troop who has signed up for this wants to be on the district list, and we honor this request and do not provide those names to the district.

 

Occasionally we will do merit badge work during regular meetings, if we have a special guest available as part of the meeting program. Most merit badge work is done outside of regular meetings.

 

I think we presently limit counselors to five merit badges.

[sst3rd]

Eisely is again on the mark. Even though our Troop is small, we have a Committee member working merit badge counselor issues. Since we are limited in adult leadership for merit badge counselors, we actively seek the parents out, as well as folks from our church sponsor. Our Troop counselor list is quite extensive. Our District has a list as well, but we rarely offer it to our Scouts unless it's something unique.

Our Troop has an "Open Advancement" time during our regular Troop meetings. Our Advancement Committee member coordinates the merit badge program, and makes sure counselors are qualified. This person also makes sure the Scout is working on a relevant merit badge, and explains the merit badge program process to both the Scout and counnselor. It works for us !!!! I do remember documentation somewhere about 5 merit badges being a counselor's limit. This was a while back.........

[yarrow]

We have lots of parents on our Merit Badge counselor list. Most with some expertise in those badges drawn from our troop resource survey. Our boy lead troop planning committee last year had a desire to have more badges within the troop meetings so there were two Merit Badge college sessions this year with about 4-5 badges offered to the boys over the period of one month each session. They wanted four sessions but there were not enough volunteers for the other two sessions. Some of the badges were Eagle required and others were based on boy interest and adult availability.

 

I did Entrepreneurship which actually did not work very well as a troop badge since most of it was left to the individual to accomplish, i.e. run a business. I encouraged the boys to consider service businesses such as lawn mowing, babysitting, mother's helper, petsitting,and a car wash due to their ages and lack of funds. Most were over ambitious and only one of 7 finished.

 

The problem I see in our troop is the troop policy restricting a scout from pursuing a badge by himself. The book requires a friend, relative or other scout to be with the scout, but troop policy requires additional scouts to be interested before a scout can do a MB. My boy has done several badges in which he had interest with a scout from another troop to fit the policy. These badges (Stamp collecting, Bird Study, American Heritage, Salemanship, Theater) have been offered to other scouts by posings on the board and through email, and announcements during the meetings, but no takers. There is not much interest in doing badges other than those offered at camp and Eagle required badges. I find this very frustrating and dissappointing. My boy learns so much from each badge that his future career changes based on the badge he is currently doing. Merit Badge Colleges outside the troop help but still wish I could drum up more interest within the troop. Anyone else have this problem?

[Rooster7]

If I understand correctly, your Troop does not allow a boy to pursue a MB unless there is at least one other boy in the Troop interested in the same badge. Maybe I'm missing something, but that sounds crazy. Any Scout should be able to pursue any badge he wants. Unless he's pursuing too many badges at the same time, or a particular badge isn't age appropriate, I don't understand why a Troop would want to restrict interest in a merit badge.

[scamp]

Our district maintains an extensive list of approved merit badge counselors. MB counselors must register with the district (no registration fee) and must demonstrate on the form some expertise in the MB area -- either as a profession or avocation. Only MB counselors on the approved list can sign off on a boy's merit badge card. MB records are checked by district advancement committee, especially when reviewing an Eagle package, and if a MB earned in our council is not signed by an approved counselor, there can be problems. Some parents from our troop are registered and MB counsellors can restrict their services to one troop only, but this is not encouraged.

 

As two the requirement requiring 2 boys to work on a MB, that may be the troop's attempt to deal with the 2 deep leadership requirement. Remember no Scout and MB counselor can meet together with just each other. There must always be a third person, either another scout or adult. We solve that problem by asking the parent to come with the Scout when meeting with the MB counselor.

 

I'll bet most troops do some MB work as part of troop meetings and some outside of troop meetings on their own depending on the MB. Whatever works best in a given situation should be done to help the boys earn MBs.

[k9gold-scout]

Last year I started 3 merit badges; American Business, Entreprenurship and Salesmanship together. The business we started was selling mistletoe as a troop fundraiser. 17 scouts started this project and about a year latter 7 earned all 3 badges, 2 earned 1 badge. It was a good learning experience for the scouts, not to mention a lot of work for me to supervise, but the troop earned little money because the scouts had to do everything themselves; the parents were not allowed to help.To make money we need the parents help, but I decided the hands-on work was more important for the scouts.

[Mike Long]

Our boys typically persue merit badges outside of the troop meetings. Usually they meet with the counselors at the meeting room before the meeting starts.

 

Sometimes we offer a meritbadge to the whole troop if it is one that lends itself to group participation (canoeing, physical fitness, pioneering ect.) or one that the boys have a hard time finding a counselor for (crime prevention, emergency preparedness ect.)

 

We also require a scout to work with another scout when earning a badge. If a boy wants to work on a badge and he can't find a buddy then he needs to have a parent present (or someone) to satisfy the two deep requirement.

 

We try to be flexible.

[yarrow]

Regarding the troop policy to have at least two boyw on a badge......Our troop still requires an additional adult to be present for the two deep leadership. I think they are primarily interested in using their resources well by insisting on two or more boys working on a badge. One of the MB advisors is hard over on this rule and will not give out a blue card to my boy unless another boy is interested in the badge and the other is ok with it as long as an attempt has been made by way of postings and emails to find another boy. Then if none are interested he is allowed to do the badge. It's really a pain.

[Rooster7]

Have you considered attending a committee meeting and recommending a change in policy? Maybe our Troop has been blessed, but we allow a single Scout to pursue a badge and it hasn't hurt us. Your Troop's policy doesn't seem fair. Some boys (particularly in a small Troop) will not always find a boy to share a particular interest. Why penalize a kid for being unique? He may even be gifted...but yet, due to a Troop policy he cannot pursue it? I realize I'm preaching to the choir, but you might consider fighting this one.

[Mike Long]

Yarrow that policy (as described) is unnecessarily harsh and rigid. I really don't see a justification for it to be so. I would fight to change it.

 

Our major reason for us trying to get the boys to work in pairs is to stregenthen the buddy system and to get more boys to advance. The boys with more initiative help along the more retiring boys and it does work. But I just can't see not allowing a boy to persue a badge simply because his interests are different than most of the troop.

 

Someone doesn't realize that kids are not popped out of a common mold.