MB requirements not met?

[EagleInKY]

Hunt, I think you captured the essence of what I was trying to say very simply. You said " I have to think that most scouts will want to do the MB over, or at least do the missed requirements and show you that he can do them.". That's our thought as well, and why we approach it just the way you described. I'm not talking about retesting every Merit Badge, I'm talking about the clear cut examples where we know the work was not completed. I've never had a scout say "I know I didn't do the work Mr. J, but I want the badge anyway". I'd be very disappointed in a scout who did.

[Hunt]

I just want to clarify that I wouldn't necessarily suggest that the scout do the MB over, or treat the old one as a partial and have a new MBC sign a final one. If the lack is relatively minimal (ie., something they "couldn't do" at summer camp because the facilities were inadequate, say), I might suggest that the Scout simply do the requirement and tell the SM or another leader, so he knows in his own heart that he has done the requirement. If the defects in the MB were really egregious, however, I would expect a trustworthy scout to do more than that.

[jr56]

Actually, I wouldn't penalize the boys for a situation beyond their control. The advancement policies state plainly that the decision of the merit badge counselor is final. If in your opinion, the merit badge counselor did not do a thourough job of making sure the boys met all the requirements, take it up with them, not the boys.

[Hunt]

"If in your opinion, the merit badge counselor did not do a thorough job of making sure the boys met all the requirements, take it up with them, not the boys."

 

I agree with this in terms of the technical rules of advancement, but I find it hard to accept in terms of the values that we are supposed to be teaching. I'm not talking about disagreeing on a judgment call (such as what swimming in a "strong manner" is, for example). I'm talking about a requirement that simply wasn't done. I think we'd be remiss if we didn't point out to boys in this situation that there's something wrong about leaving the requirement undone and claiming to have earned that MB. Furthermore, I'm not advocating investigating or reviewing MBs, either--but this kind of information does come into your possession, especially after summer camp--sometimes it's volunteered by the scouts. I think the scout has an ethical obligation to fix such a problem, and I think the adult leader should point it out. (Let me add that I'm not suggesting that you shouldn't take it up with the MBC too--you should. That might not be so easy to do, of course, if you only find out about the problem months after summer camp.)

 

[Lynda J]

You might take the problem up with your District Advancement Chair. If there is a MBC that is not having the boys do the requirements then either the AC needs to talk to that counselor or that person needs to be removed from the list of approved counselors.

I took over doing the Safety Merit Badge last year at Merit Badge College. Was told that the previous counselor basically signed off on the badge for everyone in the class. And there were leaders complaining. With about 10 complaints they talked to the guy and he basicall told them that he would run the badge as he saw fit. They removed him from the list of counselors approved by not only the district but the council.