National Outdoor Challenge

[evilleramsfan]

Our DE has sent the information out to encourage us to see if we qualify for the National Outdoor Challenge. The guideline states that you have to show one outdoor related merit badge per boy in the troop. The problem I have is that we are barely under based on the merit badge list that is given. However, we have boys who have earned Kayaking, Skating, Sports, and Small Boat Sailing which would put us over the limit, but these are not listed as "outdoor". However, they consider First Aid and Emergency Preparedness as outdoor merit badges. I have a call in to the DE about this, but does anyone else have experience with it? Can I use those which are not listed, but are obviously outdoor?

[Hueymungus]

This was a topic on Linkedin. Here is the response from the BSA:Specialist at The Boeing Company As a follow up to this question, I finally recieved a response from bsaoutdoors@scouting.org.

 

 

The question is here:

 

"According to requirement 5 for this Award (http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/430-016_WB.pdf), “The troop earned at least one outdoors-related* merit badge per Scout.†Further down on the application it lists the merit badges:

 

Backpacking, Camping, Canoeing, Climbing, Cooking, Cycling, Emergency Preparedness, Environmental Science, First Aid, Fish and Wildlife Management, Fishing, Fly-Fishing, Forestry, Hiking, Lifesaving, Orienteering, Pioneering, Rowing, Scuba, Snow Sports, Soil and Water Conservation, Swimming, Water Sports, Whitewater.

 

Is this list supposed to be all inclusive for this award or is it guidance? Canoeing and Rowing are acceptable; what about Small Boat Sailing. I guess one could earn Small Boat Sailing at an indoor pool with a big fan. I am also not how sure why Wilderness Survival wouldn’t be on this list either. Maybe there are Troops having Scout build shelters indoors and staying the night in them. There are plenty more merit badges that I would argue that are “outdoor-relatedâ€Â

 

I know what my logic tells me, but I wouldn’t want to change the requirements. Has anyone received clarification on this?"

 

THE ANSWER:

 

 

"In my email I specifically asked about Geology, Small Boat Sailing, Search and Rescue, and Wilderness Survival.

 

The response that I recieved from the Chairman of the National Camping Task Force (Jim Blair) was that: "The merit badges mentioned above certainly qualify as outdoor-related. The Troop does have the leeway to identify these outdoor-related merit badges. The principles of good judgment and encouragement of outdoorism apply."

 

 

 

The whole thread can be viewed here.

 

https://www.linkedin.com/groupItem?view=&gid=44601&type=member&item=5808931533129551873&trk=groups_search_item_list-0-b-ttl&goback=.gna_44601

[qwazse]

Jim's reply makes sense to me.

 

More broadly, this ain't Eagle. This is an opportunity for the boys to reflect on their year. My suggestion is to put this to your PLC, or your entire troop. Have your boys hash out if THEY think they deserve the award.

 

If they are letter-of-the-law types and don't think they should apply for the award, ask them if they are still proud of what the troop accomplished last year.

 

Then give them national's opinion, and ask them if this makes them feel better or worse for applying for the award. (Some boys might feel better because they aren't breaking any hard and fast rules, others might feel worse because this leaves some wiggle room for troops to not pursue some really worthwhile MBs.)

 

Ask them if ribbons like this are really important to them, and if they should tweak your program to make sure they don't "just barely" make it next year.

 

In other words, make sure the boys are in the loop and are using things like this to spark conversation on how to shape their program.

[evilleramsfan]

Thanks for the reply! I got essentially the same answer from the DE. There are many merit badges that could be considered outdoor related and am glad that they allow leeway. We have a very active outdoor program, but that doesn't always equate to having a big haul of those types of merit badges each year. In our troop, we may do an introduction to a particular merit badge, but the boys don't do them as a group and it is left to them to earn them individually....so in our case, tweaking a program won't make a difference. I would say that of the merit badges listed, most of our boys have earned at least half of them. We have 29 boys in our troop and had to go over the advancement reports from this year to figure out where we were on the numbers. It made me feel food to see where we stood and what they boys had earned overall.

[Hueymungus]

Earning Merit Badges isn't the goal of the BSA. Going out, having fun, learning and using skills is the goal. If the Scout understands that what he normally does within Scouting can count for Merit Badges and other bits of cloth, and gets the understanding that this can happen because of his activity.

 

Sounds like a great Troop and the boys are out having fun!

[Eagle92]

My comments.

 

1) Unit award seems very easy to do. If the troop isn't doing this already, I think there is a problem.

 

National outdoor awards:

 

Camping:

 

2) OK you need to earn 3 Eagle required MBs to get this. WHY? let's add some fun ones like Wilderness Survival, Backpacking, and Pioneering.

 

3) 25 days and nites of camping, why don't you add some more?

 

Hiking.

 

4) I can live with.

 

Aquatics

5) Again why requiring 2 Eagle required MBs. rest I can live with.

 

Riding.

 

6) I can Live With.

 

Adventure

 

7) Maybe I'm reading it wrong, it may be a typo as 4-10 may be the 3A-g mentioned later., but some folks cannot afford multiple HA trips. I was lucky enough to get 1 as a youth.

 

Achievment Medal

 

8) Don't like the WFA requirement since you have to go to an outside agency in order to do it. And some of those agencies have minimum age requirements. I know some places say 16, others 18.

 

9) Also do not like the LNT trainer requirement as A) another outside agency and B) there is another age requirement. (14)

 

10) Don't like Requirement 7 as the unit should already be doing this.