Limits on MB Counselors

[FireKat]

What do you do if the council doesn't send you a list of approved councilors? What if they lost paperwork on the MBC but have no policy to acknowledge that a person is Ok'ed to teach, only if they are rejected? Is he/she in the wrong for teaching, not knowing the paperwork was lost, in this no list system.

 

As to limits on numbers a person can really be qualified to teach:

How can you limit a person with a much varied life in favor of a kid of maybe 18 to teach some of the more in-depth badges? There are a few of us strange birds that can cover many subjects extremely well. Here is a short bit of my life experience. Count how many MB subjects it can cover:

Daughter (and major tagalong growing up) of an internationally know forester who received many awards on environmental protection before it was a buzz word.

Degrees - BS and MS in biological science , minor in chemistry

Award winning artist in multiple media

Award winning photographer

Webpage designer/ computer geek

10+ years as a Vol. firefighter with training in hazardous materials

20+ years vol. EMT with years paid work on ambulance.

Part-time College Biology/ A&P/ Microbiology instructor

I could list more and there are some of the general life things like cooking, swimming and on that I don't even count. Yes I am a strange, esoteric bird, one not found often. Should I be limited to 7 only if I can help some scouts get the hard to find councilors for MBs? I cannot sit on the sidelines when I feel I can help.

Sorry for going on so much but others input into how to be a good councilor is very important to me and I am such a strange case.

Thank you all again for your points of view!

K

(note: yes, I can drive my husband & kids crazy )

 

[SemperParatus]

FK,

 

Someone has the list somewhere. Talk to your District Advancement Chair and he will put you in touch with the Dean of Merit Badges.

 

If you made application and received no notice of rejection, then you should be qualified as a counselor whether the district list exists or not, or whether your name is on it (many times, the MB Dean only updates the list once a year). Keep a copy of your application for documentation.

 

In spite of your vast and varied experience, and your dedication to helping youth, if you were in our District you would be limited to 7 merit badges. That would be a shame. It may be that your district has no such limits and you are free to do as many as you desire.

 

In fact, I think being a merit badge counselor for 30 different merit badges would round out your extensive resume rather nicely...don't you?

 

 

 

[EagleInKY]

Semper - Some districts just don't run that way. Our district has no list. The DAC is with a huge troop that is essentially an Eagle Mill. They don't need anyone else's counselors, so he doesn't see the value in doing it. It makes it challenging for the smaller, less experienced troops. And it makes it darn hard to operate under the traditional system espoused by so many on this forum.

 

Whenever we get a counselor that is not registered (often a spouse, relative or friend of someone in the troop), we do all the paperwork. They are never notified of acceptance. In fact, I'm pretty sure that nothing happens other than the background check. I'm sure we would be notified if it did. The only question is whether we (the troop) or they (the counselor) would be notified if the background check came back bad. If they just notified the counselor (which I doubt), we'd be totally in the dark.

[SemperParatus]

EagleInKy,

I don't think I have ever heard of a counselor application being rejected, although I am sure it could happen. Our District is pretty organized, we send in our applications but never hear a peep as to accept/reject. Our Advancement Chair calls the MB Dean to make sure he received them, but rarely gets a return call. At one point, he said if you don't hear from him then everything is okay. My suspicion is that they are not running background checks, but most of our troop counselors are already registered as adult leaders.

 

If I were in your shoes, I would run my own background checks (maybe even register the new counselor as a MC too), make sure I keep a copy of the application that is mailed on, and send the applications certified return receipt. I would then feel comfortable having done everything on my part in registering a counselor. If the DAC doesn't do anything with it, then that would not be your problem, but his. With 99% certainty, I can say that there is never a question raised by anyone (for advancement purposes) as to whether a counselor is properly registered.

 

Sorry to hear about your problems though.

 

 

[FScouter]

If you cannot get a list of approved merit badge counselors, your district advancement chairman is not doing his job. If you're getting no response, take your request to the district program chairman, district chairman, district executive, and district commissioner. Troops have enough to do without having to recruit merit badge counselors.

[Fuzzy Bear]

Recruiting many MB counselors for an approved District MB list instead of having just a few doing many badges helps the overall program.

 

How:

 

It reaches out to the community and brings in new people regularly. Since most Districts need new blood all of the time, this is the kind of opportunity that should not be passed up. Once accepted as MB counselors, they can be recruited to work in District activities and recruited to District or unit support roles.

 

It gives the Scouts a varied program taught by many instead of learning how one MB Counselor works and then loading up on badges from that one. It allows Scouts to learn to communicate and gives them many opportunities to learn common courtesy. These skills are useful when they meet employers and are interviewed for any number of things, such as college programs.

 

Recruiting new people through the MB Counselor list helps bring in new ideas and resources that would not be available otherwise. This is such a great way to build a better District and unit program that it should be the number one secret of having success in Scouting.

 

 

FB

 

 

[KoreaScouter]

"Better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness"...

 

We don't have a current MB counselor list here either. Person responsible has 3 jobs; the other two are more important. I got tired of working off the existing list and Scouts getting frustrated, and also tired of asking when it would be updated. We have a Troop list, carved out of TM, mostly unit leaders but some outsiders. It works great and my blood pressure's waaaaaay down.

 

Eagle packages don't require blue cards when turned in, or at the BOR either. The dates and other pertinent information is all verified by the registrar in ScoutNet when the application is turned in (one of the two more important jobs, and I agree!). If anything's amiss, there won't be a BOR until it's straightened out. The blue cards, advancement reports, and 8X10 glamour shots are just icing on the cake.

 

I'm with the other posters who wonder why we build in all these artificial restrictions on # of badges, # of counselors, and so on. Isn't life complicated enough? Here's something I'd love to deal with (not) as a SM: "...okay, lessee, I can assign Mr. X to you for Personal Fitness, but not your brother, 'cuz he's already had Mr. X for Sports and Athletics, and there's a 2-badge limit. So, you'll have to find one other Scout to meet with you and Mr. X for Personal Fitness, and your brother will have to find one other Scout to meet with him and Mr. Y, who hasn't counseled two badges with him yet. And oh by the way, you'll have to arrange two sets of transportation to two different meeting times, since they're on different schedules and live in different parts of town..." Are you tearing your hair out yet? If my district tried something like that, I'd be drafting a strongly worded letter to Irving...

 

For pete's sake, if you think some counselor's cutting corners, stop assigning them to your Scouts. Enough with the unnecessary rules.

 

KS

[FScouter]

"We don't have a current MB counselor list here either. Person responsible has 3 jobs; the other two are more important."

 

You have to work with what you have, and it's understandable that the counselor program takes a back seat. The counselor management function is still there, but instead of having one person in charge, it's been divided up amongst all the Scoutmasters in the district. This is another reason why I believe one of the most important responsibilities of a district is to recruit qualified individuals for each district job, and only one job per person. How many districts out there have active functional nominating committees?

[Eagledad]

Hi all

 

>>For pete's sake, if you think some counselor's cutting corners, stop assigning them to your Scouts. Enough with the unnecessary rules.

[Hunt]

When I look at the blue cards for the boys in my son's troop, it is obvious to me that nobody could ever question, or even investigate, whether the MBC's were properly registered. Many of them are from camp (out of council), illegible, from other councils before a boy transferred, 6 years old, or all of the above. Has anybody ever had this questioned at an Eagle BOR?

[jeepone]

On a related question about MB counselors:

 

Our Council recently told us that they had found out in training by National that all MB Counselors had to fill out both a MB Counselor as well as an Adult Leader Application EVERY YEAR.

This does not make sense to me. The Scoumaster, etc only have to fill out an application once and as long as they are rechartered each year they remain registered. But having MB counselors fill out both pieces of paper each year and getting the required signatures, and contacting the references, and mailing it into the Council office is time consuming. I am the Troop Committee Chair and this takes up a lot of time that I could be using for other troop needs.

Has anyone else out there been told this same thing? If you do things this way have you find ways to streamline the process? Does anyone out there have an idea why all the extra work for MB counselors that isn't required for leaders which work much more hands on with more boys on a weekly basis?

[Hunt]

Are you sure about this (MBCs reregistering every year)? We had the situation where we learned that people who were already registered in troop positions had to also register as a MBC--I never could get a good explanation of why this had to be done, but of course I obeyed.

 

[evmori]

The only way a MB counselor would have to register every year is if he/she changed the badges they were counselors for.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Hunt]

Here, even changing badges doesn't require a new BSA registration, just a new (separate) MB form for the council/district. The BSA registration for doesn't even have a blank for what badges you're going to counsel.

 

[EagleInKY]

Another example of a vague rule creating inconsistencies. We, too, have been told that to be an official MBC, you have to register for it every year.