Another mb question

[Scoutforlife]

I will add my two cents because at this time we have a boy in our troop who has started working on his Eagle and I am not confident that he truly did the work on the merit badges and not his mother. Not being in a position of ultimate authority I do not have the right to deny anything to this scout all I can do is express my reservations. If I am following the threads correctly your son will at most have taken 3 or 4 MB from you, I would not see that as excessive in any way.

[Hedgehog]

They do have such a list- of registered merit badge counselors. There are two of us (unless new people have registered in the past couple months) . There isn't a list of non-registered merit badge counselors' date=' which is why it's very hard to figure out who does what.[/quote'] Thee is no such thing as a non-registered merit badge counselor. All merit badge counselors must be registered with the BSA (using an adult application) and approved by your council. Further, it is Council's responsibility to maintain list of registered and approved merit badge counselors. Read pages 48 and 49 of the Guide to Advancement that I put in my earlier post. Someone who is not registered and approved cannot be a merit badge counselor. As a result, their signature on the Blue Card is worthless and the merit badge cannot be awarded. I also would double check which list you got from your council. It may just be the list for yourTroop. Merit Badge counselors can limit themselves to scouts in a particular troop. However, those counselors still need to be registered and approved. Also, the list could be for one particular merit badge. It doesn't make any sense that a Council has two merit badge counselors.

[christineka]

I'm just a mom. I go with what my son's scout leader tells me. His scout leader is the assistant district commissioner, so he has access to all sorts of information. He was the one that related to me that there were only two registered merit badge counselors in the district, which is now why I'm so popular with Family Life. I wish i'd known it was eagle required, when I put it on my list! I had originally only wanted to sign up for bugling because I know no one else does it in the area, but my dad (old guy scouter) encouraged me to sign up for more.

 

Scoutmaster told me and dad that he didn't know of any merit badge counselors in the area other than me, which makes me wonder how the scouts are earning all their badges! (I know they are earning badges.)

 

In case this is confusing- we're lds. My son is 11, so he does scouts with an 11 year old leader and other 11 year old boys (11 year old patrol). Scoutmaster is primarily over the 12-18 year old boys.

 

In googling, it seems the council discourages boys from using the same merit badge counselor for more than 5 badges.

[Bloop]

For what it's worth, I will only sign off on my son's merit badges if he attended a session with me with other Scouts. If his access to me is primarily due to me being his mom in his house, I won't sign. Scholarship and Reading are good examples. We can talk about and practice the skills, discuss quality of work, etc, but I think he still needs to pick up the phone and call a counselor that never saw him in diapers. I think Buguling would be an exception. It's time-consuming and there's soooo few people teaching and going for the badge. If you're the only one in a 50-mile radius, he shouldn't be excluded from the opportunity that you offer. Maybe he can learn the calls with you over the course of a few months. And then he can demonstrate and get them signed off by someone else in council or at camp. That would be the slightly out of his comfort zone that's the unofficial benefit. All that said, it irks me when people make up rules that don't exist instead of saying what they really mean.

[Hedgehog]

IIn googling' date=' it seems the council discourages boys from using the same merit badge counselor for more than 5 badges.[/quote'] With 21 Merit Badges required for Eagle and only two registered and approved counselors with 5 badges each in the District, that would seem to leave the scouts 11 merit badges short. All kidding aside, something doesn't add up. Two merit badge counselors in a District for all merit badges is absurd. Our District list is at least 10 pages long and has hundreds of names covering most of the merit badge. I wouldnt trust what the SM is telling you. Especially when he is signing off on merit badges he isnt approved for because as a Asstant District Commissioner he should know that is contrary to the advancement rules. Call Council and ask for a list - I'd bet you will be surprised.

[Twocubdad]

If a parent is the only counselor for some MB should be perfectly acceptable for a Scout to work with his/her parent under those circumstances.

 

Christine -- I'm calling BS on you leader/ADC. A district with only two MBC's isn't possible. Has anyone made Eagle in the last year or so? If you're one of the two and you just started, your telling me the other counselor is doing ALL the MBs in the district. Right. Like I said, BS.

 

And Assistant District Commissioner is no great shakes. That your SM is trying to throw that around tells me a lot more about the situation.

[christineka]

The assistant commissioner/scout leader told me that the rest of the merit badge counselors are not registered, which is why they weren't on the list, but boys have been going to them. (I know it took him about a month to figure out who was counselor for chess and game design.) The ass. commissioner's wife is doing pet care, so not sure if she's now registered or he just picked her because she knows a lot about caring for pets. Or maybe it really is a simple case of not having a list of registered merit badge counselors and they are registered and there's a whole lot, but for whatever reason this information is secret? The scoutmaster has been in for over a year and he didn't know of any merit badge counselors until I told him I was one. I don't think the troop has had any eagle scouts in that time, but I can't imagine that the only badges they've earned were at camp. my son and I visited a community troop, where the sm said no merit badge counselor was needed for most badges. He told me he even signed off a boy for bugling (who I tutored and happened to know could barely bugle one call) because once upon a time, in his youth, he'd played trumpet. I think I will make some inquiries. I've still got to figure out if they'll do the merit badge counselor training at the next leadership training night.