Unregistered merit badge counselors will be removed from Scoutbook on Feb 1. Merit badge counselor positions will no longer appear on unit rosters in Scoutbook.

[fred8033]

12 minutes ago, CynicalScouter said:

What units found out was that they could designate ANYONE they wanted as an MBC and skip the "based on the list the SM got from district/council" part. That flaw was kept when Scoutbook was bought by BSA and BSA is now fixing it so units will have no ability to do this anymore AND it will integrate with Scoutnet to confirm the MBC a) is registered and b) YPT compliant.

Yeah.  That should have changed a long time ago.  How tools work is effectively another training mechanism.  If ScoutBook allowed units to register their own MBCs, that exactly the same as BSA saying units can manager their own MBCs.  That was never intended.  

[fred8033]

6 minutes ago, elitts said:

What WOULD stop that, would be a requirement that a MBC include a valid BSA registration number along with their signature on a blue card in order for it to be effective.

I'm absolutely supporting YPT, registered MBCs, but I hope never to have to see that.  It's hard enough to keep unit records straight.  I can easily see having to record a six month old MB, but the person is not registered anymore as a MBC.  It would create real nightmares.

BSA needs to rethink / redesign the role and process of MBs.

[elitts]

42 minutes ago, fred8033 said:

I'm absolutely supporting YPT, registered MBCs, but I hope never to have to see that.  It's hard enough to keep unit records straight.  I can easily see having to record a six month old MB, but the person is not registered anymore as a MBC.  It would create real nightmares.

BSA needs to rethink / redesign the role and process of MBs.

Well, I only meant a "valid" number, not necessarily an "un-expired" number.  And mostly just so that you need to be registered to be an MBC.  I wouldn't suggest actually trying to match up registration dates with MBC signature dates and all of that.  The only things I'd throw out would be people who put down 8675309 or 3141592 or something.

[Eagledad]

One of the ways we were able to track MBCs in our district was require them to come to our training once a year. The training was a half hour long. Now, things are more complicated and challenging, but I threw that out there for ideas. 

Barry

[CynicalScouter]

A partial update to this:

So, this caused a mini-panic in my council as dozens of unregistered MBCs started coming out of the woodwork.

The result was two fold.

1) MOST people I've heard from are trying to do the right thing and get registered/get the paperwork in. Of course Council is already flooded trying to do unit recharters, this won't help. But hey, at least they are trying to come into compliance.

2) At least two units I know of are taking the "Screw National" approach and either a) going to keep using their unregistered MBCs and use paper blue cards or b) the MBCs themselves are balking at having to fill out the paperwork/take YPT ("takes too long/I have no time for this").

So, yeah.

Edited January 27, 2021 by CynicalScouter

[mashmaster]

1 hour ago, CynicalScouter said:

A partial update to this:

So, this caused a mini-panic in my council as dozens of unregistered MBCs started coming out of the woodwork.

The result was two fold.

1) MOST people I've heard from are trying to do the right thing and get registered/get the paperwork in. Of course Council is already flooded trying to do unit recharters, this won't help. But hey, at least they are trying to come into compliance.

2) At least two units I know of are taking the "Screw National" approach and either a) going to keep using their unregistered MBCs and use paper blue cards or b) the MBCs themselves are balking at having to fill out the paperwork/take YPT ("takes too long/I have no time for this").

So, yeah.

I am happy the see the #1's.  The #2's are acting like #2 IMHO.  YPT doesn't take a long time and is important to stay up to date.  It takes 1 hour online and is good for 2 years.

[Eagle94-A1]

Well the wife and I got an automated notice stating:

Quote

Your council has recently uploaded a new list of council-approved merit badge counselors. That list does not include your name or other information which allows Scoutbook to determine that you are an approved merit badge counselor. This could be for any number of reasons, including different spellings of names.

At this time Scoutbook is no longer listing you as a merit badge counselor. If you feel that you have received this email in error, please contact your local service center. Once your status is updated by the council, your status will also be updated in Scoutbook.

 

I contacted the registrar about the issue, especially since I will work with any Scout in the council and not just my unit. Registrar stated this happened automatically to ALL  registered MBCs in the council. She is working on fixing the problem, but it will take some time.

Wife is absolutely furious over this, and has decided to do #2 approach at the moment. Remember she has had registration issues in the past. This is the Scouter who has  completed and submitted 6 applications (one of which was hand delivered to the council office),  and had served over an 8 year period as AWDL, WDL,  ADL, CSDC Staff, and MBC while being officially unregistered because NONE of the applications were processed until last year. She  was "ineligible" for a Heroism Award for saving someone's life because she was "not registered" despite having submitted two applications and serving as a AWDL at the time of the rescue. I am hoping she will cool down and laugh the matter off once the problem is rectified.

[qwazse]

1 hour ago, CynicalScouter said:

A partial update to this:

So, this caused a mini-panic in my council as dozens of unregistered MBCs started coming out of the woodwork.

The result was two fold.

1) MOST people I've heard from are trying to do the right thing and get registered/get the paperwork in. Of course Council is already flooded trying to do unit recharters, this won't help. But hey, at least they are trying to come into compliance.

2) At least two units I know of are taking the "Screw National" approach and either a) going to keep using their unregistered MBCs and use paper blue cards or b) the MBCs themselves are balking at having to fill out the paperwork/take YPT ("takes too long/I have no time for this").

So, yeah.

I'm trying to nudge my people to path #1 because they are really capable and would enjoy helping any scout who would get sent their way.  That won't happen for them until they push the paperwork (again).

They seem to want path #2 because in their mind, registered, trained, and paid (to be Committee or SM/ASM, and for some once-upon-a-time MBC) is good enough for our boys.

From their perspective, they don't see asking them to do more than what they've already done will help youth protection.

Edited January 27, 2021 by qwazse

[qwazse]

What do you all think about an auto-eligibility for any adult who is registered in any other position (besides MBC) and completes YPT (and whatever other state-mandated paperwork is required)?

I could imagine an E-memo going out from a district inviting someone with completed paper work to take a few more steps involving watching a MBC-specific training video and filling out an online form asking which MB's they'd like to counsel. The memo could be sent to all eligible scouters or Key-Three could be sent a link to the list of eligible adults in their unit, and they could check off who should be invited to become MBCs.

Edited January 27, 2021 by qwazse

[CynicalScouter]

9 minutes ago, qwazse said:

What do you all think about an auto-eligibility for any adult who is registered in any other position (besides MBC) and completes YPT (and whatever other state-mandated paperwork is required)?

I could imagine an E-memo going out from a district inviting someone with completed paper work to take a few more steps involving watching a MBC-specific training video and filling out an online form asking which MB's they'd like to counsel. The memo could be sent to all eligible scouters or Key-Three could be sent a link to the list of eligible adults in their unit, and they could check off who should be invited to become MBCs.

Many councils are moving to this: not only must MBCs be YPT/registered they also have to be position trained (the 35 minute course on training.scouting.org)

I expect that will be the next wave of unregistered MBCs going below ground (or staying there).

But it also upend MBCs. MBCs are suppose to be a) district positions that are d) district recruited and c) subject matter experts.

Not already burdened unit leaders pressed into service.

Of course, that ship already sailed...

Edited January 27, 2021 by CynicalScouter

[fred8033]

3 minutes ago, CynicalScouter said:

Not already burdened unit leaders pressed into service.

So so true.  

[qwazse]

1 hour ago, CynicalScouter said:

... MBCs are suppose to be a) district positions that are d) district recruited and c) subject matter experts. ... Not already burdened unit leaders pressed into service.

It's always been a mix. There are precious few people who hike and camp as often as the average SM. My SM was a church organist, so he counseled me for Music. (The downside: we always returned to the scout-house by 8:30 AM Sunday.) I earned 1st Aid from a neighboring SM who was also an EMT. Dad was happy to drive me and a buddy through the countryside to his house -- which was down the street from the least expensive barber in the county. A couple of my other counselors had responsibilities as cub leaders, etc ... so being "already bothered" wasn't an issue. Adults had room for "one more boy."

The crux of the problem is the modern paperwork burden. One hour a week is fine when directly working with a couple of scouts. That's 12 hours a month. But when you pile on an hour of training and an hour paper chase on average every year, and reduce hours of availability because you need to align schedules to fulfill youth protection -- it deprives volunteers of the coveted time mentoring a youth. So instead of 12 youth helped, its 8-10. On the district side, the commissioner goes from collecting a handshake and contact info to making sure a half dozen t-s are crossed and i-s dotted. So, instead of the commish and his/her buddies going around neighborhoods shaking hands with dozens of prospective adults every month, they are probably pushing paperwork for a fraction of the people who they would have on-boarded for the same effort in the past.

So, instead of recruitment being a fun exercise of growing a fellowship of caring adults -- it has become an administrative hot-potato.

[InquisitiveScouter]

13 minutes ago, qwazse said:

it deprives volunteers of the coveted time mentoring a youth. So instead of 12 youth helped, its 8-10. On the district side, the commissioner goes from collecting a handshake and contact info to making sure a half dozen t-s are crossed and i-s dotted. So, instead of the commish and his/her buddies going around neighborhoods shaking hands with dozens of prospective adults every month, they are probably pushing paperwork for a fraction of the people who they would have on-boarded for the same effort in the past.

So, instead of recruitment being a fun exercise of growing a fellowship of caring adults -- it has become an administrative hot-potato.

And there is zero desire to conduct a process improvement team here...

We did this with the council's L2E process, with great success...project and application returns to candidates is way down...

Our MBC process is WAAAYYYY broken.  But there is no incentive seen to fix it...everyone seems to have implemented their own "county option" to it.

The worst is this...in Scoutbook, unit admins can approve any merit badge.  Skip the counselor, and just award Jimmy the badge when you think he has done the requirements.  I have talked with unit leaders from other units who, frustrated with council and district inability to get MBCs signed up, use this "stroke of the pen."

[Treflienne]

52 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

The worst is this...in Scoutbook, unit admins can approve any merit badge.

And unit admins can approve any rank advancement stuff, too.

This is a design flaw of scoutbook.com

This makes it imposible to tell whether the person who marked it "Leader Approved" was the person who actually approved the work., or merely the person who is transcribing the information from the scout's properly signed (paper) blue card or (paper) scout handbook.  

Sometimes you can tell if you know the troop:  Mrs. AAA and Mr. BBB are the paperwork lteam and never actually approve scouts work, but have been given permission so they can transcribe stuff into scoutbook.  But what about ASM Jones, who sometimes is approving the scouts work, and sometimes simply copying signoffs into scoutbook.com?

[Eagle94-A1]

6 hours ago, Treflienne said:

And unit admins can approve any rank advancement stuff, too.

This is a design flaw of scoutbook.com

We had that problem with advancement reports. I know for a fact some SMs signed off for MBs I taught that their Scouts did not complete.