Merit Badge Classes

[Gary_Miller]

Horizon, "Part of the BSA Troop Meeting Guide includes skills instruction - I have no problem if, during that portion of the meeting, MB Counselors want to meet. We also let Scouts meet with the MB Counselors during pre-meeting time as well."

 

Skill instruction time is a time for other scouts to instruct the troop in a skill related to the months theme, usually presented by the assigned patrol.

 

Pre-meeting is a time for the scouts to get ready for the meeting while at the same time having a little challange of some kind to work on while others are arriving.

 

It is not a time for a MB Counselor to meet with scouts.

 

Horizon, "An entire meeting - no. But, to get some of the volunteers to fit us in, they ASK that they have time during a Monday night meeting."

 

Its time to learn how to say "no" to these MB volunteers while at the same time teaching them the purpose of the troop meeting. Help them understand that when they come to the troop meeting they are pulling a scout out of an important meeting in which he should attend. You can encourage this by helping them understand that the scout needs to come to them and not them to the scout.

 

Horizon, "The Scouts also ask for more opportunities on Monday nights as well. I would argue it is Counselor led AND Scout led driving the offering."

 

I would argue that your PLC is not trained enough to understand what is suppose to be happening at the troop meeting, and your meetings are starting to lean toward MB Training sessions.

 

I would suggest giving the PLC a copy of the troop planning work sheet to use during in planning the troop meeting. The PLC will quickly see that there is no time for MB training sessions during the troop meeting.

[Navigator]

I just held my first merit badge class yesterday.

 

I'm an ASM for an established troop of about 30 scouts. We have about a half dozen leaders who have been through woodbadge and 8 active scouts who have been through NYLT. We are boy run and led about 95% of the time.

 

About a month or so I told the SPL that I wanted to offer some merit badge opportunities on Saturdays. He thought it was a good idea so he "recognized" me at the weekly meeting to make an announcement. I explained that I would be offering the cooking merit badge in 2 sessions, this Saturday and again about a month later. I announced it at two meetings and had the SPL announce it for me and pass around a sign up sheet last week. I intentionally resisted the urge and did not call anyone on or off the list to remind them or send emails.

 

Although only 5 scouts showed up (out of 10 that signed up) I overcame that disappointment with the realization that the ones who came really wanted to be there. There were two older and three newer scouts. I was pleasantly surprised the SPL was one of them. Also pleasantly surprised the SM showed up and helped by tending to the charcoal and giving some great stories about dutch oven cooking. We had a great time!

 

I was able to cover Req.'s 1,2 and 8 (mostly safety, nutrition, and careers). We had a break so the boys could play some kickball before we transitioned into cooking. Then we prepared dutch oven chicken pot pie and apple cobbler.

 

The boys were very hands on in the cooking process. I used EDGE method and after me, then each boy cut a chicken breast, diced a potato, etc. With the dutch ovens cooking away, we covered another topic.

 

We enjoyed a great lunch that we cooked together, learned some cooking skills, and learned a few things about each other. The scouts are making plans to complete the other requirements (menu planning and cooking) at the next camping trip, in part because they want to earn the badge but more importantly because they want to eat better food than they've had in the past.

 

I've seen a lot of talk in these forums about adults "taking over" and that's why I don't think this works as well during an evening troop meeting. I've also heard some criticism about Merit Badge classes on weekends. It seems that the criticism is toward more 'forced' or mandatory activities.

 

If Aviation MB hadn't been offered in this way to me 42 years ago then I would have never had the experience of flying a plane across central Florida as a 13 year old! That was something I'll never forget.

 

So I guess I'm looking for feedback if this is a good thing or not. Some of our scouts can't afford summer camp. The theme of my woodbadge ticket is advancement so I'd like to make these opportunities available should the boys wish to take advantage.

 

[sst3rd]

Navigator,

 

I like what you did, how you did it, and when you did it. You made a simple offer. They chose of their own accord to participate. Class time did not conflict with Troop/Patrol activities. You made no extra effort to "push" the signees. And you had a great program for those Scouts that came.

Of course, when next time you make this offer, more Scouts will sign up, and more of those signed up, will come. And it builds a better Troop/Patrol program. I bet you had as much fun as they did. When a plan comes together.............. and I'm sure you touched base with the SM prior. This is how it should work.

 

sst3rd

[SeattlePioneer]

Congratulations on a fine program, Navigator!