Earning cooking merit badge

[Marcey]

Do you know if Scouts need a merit badge counselor for the cooking merit badge? My son wants to work on that one and I heard that troop leaders can hand this one out but another friend of mine told me that's not true. Any idea which way this works?

Marcey

[wagionvigil]

Our council will not accept a card unless it is signed by a registered counselor.

[Guneukitschik]

I think a lot of counselors will accept a note from a scout leader stating that "Johnny" completed certain requirements on an outing, etc. But no scout leader is allowed to just hand them out. Only trained merit badge counselors who have specifically registered for Cooking Merit Badge may sign them off. Ask your Troop Leadership for a copy of your local merit badge counselors list or check with your local council office, they should be able to supply this to you! or at least give you the name of a counselor for your scout to contact and arrange to complete the merit badge.

[scoutmasterbob]

The Scoutmaster can sign off the Cooking MB.

If there is a Cooking MB counselor I would suggest you use them, however, In my Troop I am the Cooking and Camping MB counselor, because a majority of the requirements are done on a troop campout it only makes sense that the Scoutmaster or Assist. Scoutmasters be the counselor.

If you use the Cooking worksheet from meritbadge.com
http://www.meritbadge.com/files/mb-docs/Cooking.doc

It has pages to recrd when you completed certian items. In addition to this worksheet, the blue MB card has a place to record when individual requirements are completed. This is one of those MBs that are all about record keeping.

[PaulSWolf]

ScoutmasterBob wrote:

The Scoutmaster can sign off the Cooking MB.

That is true IF and ONLY IF he has registered as a Merit Badge Counselor for the Cooking Merit Badge.

There is NO rule that says "The Scoutmaster is automatically a counselor for ___ merit badge"

[dparker]

In our council, the decision was made to automatically make all Scoutmasters counselors for the Cooking, Camping, Hiking and Backpacking merit badges. Our MB counselor list actually has an entry "Scoutmaster" in each of those MB's. I have never seen any official BSA documentation to say that this should always happen, but rather it appears to be a locally-implemented policy. If one is unsure, then a call to the council office is in order.

[optimist]

That is an interesting policy and one I would tend to agree with for those specific merit badges. Members who are not in dparker's council may wish to contact their Council or District Advancement Chairman and see if there is a local policy like this one in your council. If not, you may want to bring this thread to their attention.

[Guneukitschik]

I think this is a great idea...however, the Scoutmaster should (most probably already have) complete the MBC training.

[optimist]

All members should complete all training for every responsibility they have

[Guneukitschik]

I agree completely....and if a Council were to follow the above idea...all Scoutmasters that have not yet completed the MBC training should.... in fact all Scout leaders should complete MBC training. This would only benefit the scouts...

[dparker]

I agree completely....and if a Council were to follow the above idea...all Scoutmasters that have not yet completed the MBC training should.... in fact all Scout leaders should complete MBC training. This would only benefit the scouts...

Unfortunately, in my council they do not require or encourage the Scoutmasters to attend MBC training. As far as I know, they don't even hold that training. I am a counselor for several merit badges and I have never been officially trained, although I have attempted to do this on usscouts.org and other sites to make the MB sessions better. I would be interested in the training, so maybe I will call the council office and check into that.

[Guneukitschik]

Merit Badge Counselor training is not that difficult of a course to teach. I would hope that your council would be able to help you out.
It basically explains scouting and the MB process to non-scouters who wish to be a MB Counselor. However, it's a great course for every Merit Badge Counselor. Even if it just refreshes and reinforces the whole process.

[RWSmith]

FYI... http://www.usscouts.org/boyscouts/MBC_Training.html. Good info.

[dparker]

FYI... http://www.usscouts.org/boyscouts/MBC_Training.html. Good info.

Yeah, as I said in my previous post, I did check out the ussscouts.org site previously. I found the information very useful.

[evmori]

In our council, the decision was made to automatically make all Scoutmasters counselors for the Cooking, Camping, Hiking and Backpacking merit badges. Our MB counselor list actually has an entry "Scoutmaster" in each of those MB's. I have never seen any official BSA documentation to say that this should always happen, but rather it appears to be a locally-implemented policy. If one is unsure, then a call to the council office is in order.

I wonder what National would say about this. Cooking isn't a "slam dunk" merit badge! And I am sure there are Scoutmasters in your council that can't even boil water!

[dparker]

I wonder what National would say about this. Cooking isn't a "slam dunk" merit badge! And I am sure there are Scoutmasters in your council that can't even boil water!

I don't know what a "slam dunk" MB is...maybe one like fingerprinting, but regardless I can see your point. They are doing a "blanket" endorsement of the SM's in the council as Cooking MB counselors and that could be bad. I certainly won't try to defend the policy, but the requirements look pretty straightforward to me. I can see both sides.

[RWSmith]

And I am sure there are Scoutmasters in your council that can't even boil water!

Now, Ed... I'm sure you didn't mean a thing by that. But, everbody, please...

Folks, let's all remember that we are guests here. This is board is provided by a dedicated Scouter (namely, "Optimist") for our benefit, our edification. This is not a Cracker Barrel; nor is it a Roundtable. We have 13-year olds logged onto this system (and their parents, too) who monitor and judge our behavior, (frequently) based upon our tone, our posture. And "tone," my friends, is often difficult to convert into the written word.

Hey, I've done it, too. We all could stand a little "Netiquette" sometimes. What is Netiquette? Netiquette is defined as, "Using technology effectively to communicate with others both personally and professionally with knowledge, understanding and courtesy." For more information about Netiquette, here's a GREAT site: http://www.onlinenetiquette.com/netiquette_101.html.

I'm going to repost my portion of this in the General Info. and FAQs, where it (more appropriately) belongs.

Thanks for listening.

[don]

In our council, the decision was made to automatically make all Scoutmasters counselors for the Cooking, Camping, Hiking and Backpacking merit badges.

Does not a counselor have to fill out a application to be a Merit Badge counselor? Is this application not completely different than the application to be a ASM or MC?
I believe that it is.
I sure hope the council has required all (highly unlikely) SM to fill out the correct paperwork.

[cballman]

the applications for all adult leaders are the same but in one section there is a code to mark what position you are applying for. just as a committie person would fill out with their own code.

[scoutmasterbob]

Paul Wolf wrote:

ScoutmasterBob wrote: Quote:
The Scoutmaster can sign off the Cooking MB.

That is true IF and ONLY IF he has registered as a Merit Badge Counselor for the Cooking Merit Badge.

I looked at the adult application to be a volunteer leader and there is a box and a code, code 42, for a MB counselor, but I could not find a place to list which MB you would be counselling.

I am a counsellor for a number of MB and I dont think I have ever been registered with the council, local or national to be a MBC for a specific MB.

The District my troop is in, recently held a drive to try and get all MBC registered in our district, I dont rcall having to list the MBs they would be counselling, only to get them registered.

Correct me if I am in error.