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New merit badges "coming soon"


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So I was at the Scout Store today, which was undergoing major changes in item placement and shelving (which had me walking in circles trying to find what I needed).

 

Anyway while I was browsing I saw four empty slots in the merit badge shelves with "Coming Soon!" cards placed in them - Advanced Computing, Biometrics (a "major Fingerprinting update!"), CAD or Computer Aided Design (a "major Drafting update!"), and Multi-Media. I was also told there was a "Life Skills" badge in the works, but without a proper name yet.

 

Better get those Fingerprinting badges earned while it's still easy, lol.

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According to this, http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/merit-badge-calendar/, Advanced Computing, Multi-Media and Computer-Aided Design have been in the works for at least five years.  I actually thought they had been out for a few years, because I must have seen them on a list of "upcoming" merit badges and did not realize they had been removed from the list.  They are back on the list now, I guess.  I had never heard of the Biometrics merit badge before.

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According to this, http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/merit-badge-calendar/, Advanced Computing, Multi-Media and Computer-Aided Design have been in the works for at least five years.  I actually thought they had been out for a few years, because I must have seen them on a list of "upcoming" merit badges and did not realize they had been removed from the list.  They are back on the list now, I guess.  I had never heard of the Biometrics merit badge before.

 

According to that same calendar, CAD, Multimedia and Advanced Computing were all removed from the list.  CAD and Advanced Computing were removed in May of 2015, and Multi-media was removed in April of 2014.

 

I did not see anywhere where they had been added back.

 

In Bryan's blog post announcing Exploration MB in February, he mentions that it was the first new MB since Animation in May of 2015, and:

 

"It also could be the last new merit badge for a little while. The BSA’s Merit Badge Maintenance Task Force has shifted its focus to improving requirements for existing merit badges."

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According to that same calendar, CAD, Multimedia and Advanced Computing were all removed from the list.  CAD and Advanced Computing were removed in May of 2015, and Multi-media was removed in April of 2014.

 

I did not see anywhere where they had been added back.

 

Well, I was assuming that Latin Scot's Scout Shop (say that five times fast) didn't put up those signs at random.  But I guess we'll find out soon enough.

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In Bryan's blog post announcing Exploration MB in February, he mentions that it was the first new MB since Animation in May of 2015, and:

 

"It also could be the last new merit badge for a little while. The BSA’s Merit Badge Maintenance Task Force has shifted its focus to improving requirements for existing merit badges."

 

Don't get me going about Cooking merit badge. :mad:

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Anyway while I was browsing I saw four empty slots in the merit badge shelves with "Coming Soon!" cards placed in them - Advanced Computing, Biometrics (a "major Fingerprinting update!"), CAD or Computer Aided Design (a "major Drafting update!"), and Multi-Media. I was also told there was a "Life Skills" badge in the works, but without a proper name yet.

 

Better get those Fingerprinting badges earned while it's still easy, lol.

 

Very interesting. The Bryan on Scouting blog has an update page where, nearly two years ago, they down graded "Advanced Computing from "coming soon" to not even being on the list of to-be published MBs. Make you wonder how old those signs were. According to that blog, Advanced Computing has been pushed back a few times, then removed. Same for CAD. Multi-media was removed from coming soon list a few years ago.

 

All that seems to have been updated as of 2/23/17. Now, of course, it would not be the first time BSA said one thing and did the complete opposite.

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