Who maintains the list of Merit Badge Counselors ?

[Trevorum]

In past threads, I've become aware of a variety of ways in which the names of approved MB counselors are made available to Scouts. If I understand correctly, the preferred approach seems to have all counselors registered as such with the district (in addition to and separate from their unit registrations) and a master list is then maintained by the district and distributed to troops.

 

But how common is this really?

 

In our district there is no such list. Each troop finds it's own counselors, generally from parents within the unit, and maintains its own list, with minor overlap (if any) between troops. If a troop is lucky enough to have a parent who is a nuclear physicist (say) then the troop has a counselor for that MB. Other troops have no such counselor and that MB is effectively foreclosed. If a gung-ho scout wants to pursue that MB, then another parent is recruited, maye a high school science teacher.

 

I've thought about volunteering to help our district organize a master list, but I'd like to hear from you folks first. Does this model work or not? Is it better? Is it worth the extra effort? What difficulties may be expected?

[EagleInKY]

My district sounds like yours. I know of other districts in our council that follows the district mb list approach, and folks there seem to like it. Of course, they have a very active, dedicated District Advancement Chairman who coordinates it.

 

Our district's excuse is that we are geographically dispersed, as compared to the districts in the city. There is some validity to that. You can drive well over an hour from one side of the district to the other. But I think our district's real issue is that the DAC (who I really do like), is part of a mega-troop that has all the resources it needs. They don't need a MBC list, so why should anyone else?

[FScouter]

It seems like a huge burden to place on a troop, the responsibility of recruiting qualified counselors for every MB boys want to pursue. It is much more efficient for one person on a district level to maintain a district wide counselor system. Units have so much to do already without having to mess with that too. Maybe I'm spoiled. Our troop has no in-house counselors and never has. I don't have time to take on that responsibility too. Our district has a great network of counselors and any boy in the district is only a phone call away from almost every MB in the book. From my point of view its the only way to go.

[Trevorum]

FS - well, that's what I would think too. But does anyone have a clue as to how to go about shifting from a troop-based model to the district-based model? My spidey-sense sees all sorts of resistance and roadblocks.

[ScoutNut]

Your Council should have a list of all of their merit Badge Counselors.

 

Per the Merit Badge Fact Sheet at National BSA Website - MB Counselors "are selected, approved, and trained by council and district advancement committees".

 

A Merit Badge Counselor Application must be filled out by EVERY prospective Counselor. This application does NOT go to the Unit. It goes to the Council, & is approved, & kept by the Council. The application is not permanent & should be renewed each year.

 

There is a place on the application to indicate if the counselor wants to work with one unit only or all units. In order for a Counselor to work with all units, the Council has to have some method to let the units to know who is available.

 

My Council has a list of all current Merit Badge Counselors, their badges & their contact info on the Council website. It is available to all & updated regularly.

 

[Trevorum]

ScoutNut,

It sounds like your council is already there. I'd like to know if there is really better than here, and if so, how the path winds from here to there.

[OldGreyEagle]

According to the BSA publication "Advancement Committe Policies and Procedures" #33088D page 9 it lists the responsibilities of the District Advancement Committee, one of the items is

 

"Maintain a current list of merit badge counselors"

 

 

 

 

[evmori]

In my district, the Advancement Chair & Committee keep the list of merit badge counselors current.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Trevorum]

Our committee is not doing this. Several years ago I was on the Cmte for Cub training, but I am no longer there and don't know the Advancement Chair. I think this would be a good objective for next year and am seeking ideas on how to proceed.

[msnowman]

Our Council is one of those who maintains a merit badge list by district. As a matter of fact I just called them this morning to get a copy of my district and a neighboring one emailed to me. With the size of our home district, there will be some badges that a counselor in the neighboring district will be geographically closer....and with the price of gas......lol

 

 

Michelle

CM - P102

[SemperParatus]

Our district maintains a list...at last count there were over 700 different counselors on the list, with all merit badges accounted for. Some badges had only two counselors, while others had over 40 different counselors to select from. The list and applications are maintained by a single designee of the District Advancement Committee, known as the Dean of Merit Badges. Recruitment of new counselors is essentially done at the unit level, with applications going through each unit's advancement chair (who, at least in our unit, maintains troop related counselor information on Troopmaster) to the dean. Some applications are taken from 'scouting friends' who know about the merit badge program and want to offer their help, but most apps come from the units. To get from 'here to there', speak with your District Advancement Chair and District Commissioner...find a volunteer to be the merit badge dean (I think the Troopmaster folks sell a separate program to track a large database of counselors)...get on the Roundtable circuit and share what you are doing, requesting each unit's list of 'registered' MBCs and copies of the apps...I know in our District a MBC is able to designate if they want to counsel for their unit only or for anyone (most are willing to counsel outside their unit). Accumulating the info will probably be a chore and frustrating and take some time. This job is probably best for someone that doesn't have a lot of unit responsibility, because it may prove to be a very time consuming project. Keeping it current seems to be difficult as well - with dropouts, address changes, phone number changes, new counselors. Our district puts out an updated list semi-annually, but I have some experience to suspect that 30% of the list is not current.

[acco40]

My district goes by the book. The district advancement committee keeps a list of MB counselors who have choosen to teach merit badges for others (i.e. not just their own troop). All MBCs are registered with the district but not all agree to be publicly listed.

 

I highly encourage the Scouts in our troop to use MBCs OUTSIDE of our troop.

[Trevorum]

Semper, thanks for the advice. I think the first thing will be to find out exactly WHY our district is not doing it this way. Maybe it's history, maybe personalities. In any event, I suspect it'll be like turning a battleship (as my dad used to say). Good advice too about this NOT being job for a unit Scouter. If this isn't solved by the time I give my SM coffee mug to the next fellow, maybe I'll take it on then. In the meantime I think I'll just snoop around and build my case. Who knows? Maybe someone is already on it.

[Oak Tree]

Trevorum,

 

I'll lend you some moral support. I grew up and was a Scout in a district that had the list. It was a handy thing to have. But it was a reasonably small town, so we knew lots of the people by reputation, and it was natural to depend on one another.

 

I'm now in a much bigger district that runs the same way yours does. All the units maintain their own merit badge counselors. And it's not that hard - I don't think we've yet had a Scout ask for a merit badge that some parent wouldn't counsel. They might not be getting the benefit of having a real expert in the area, but you don't need to be an expert for most of the badges.

 

So I've considered the question of how you'd get a district to switch. Or conversely, how did it get to be this way in the first place? I suspect that in our large, suburban district, most people wouldn't know any of the other counselors on the list. They'd tend to gravitate to the parents from their own troop. Parents who agree to be counselors would want to serve their own unit first. They're generally in Scouting just because of their son, not because they just wanted to give back.

 

And maybe nobody really wanted to maintain the district list. Could be a bit of work. And if it turns out to be work that no one appreciates or uses all that much, then people will find other ways to volunteer. But I'd start by asking around your district and seeing what you can find out. Could be educational for some of the rest of us, too.

 

Oak Tree