Out of council Merit Badge Days

[ThunderingWind]

ThunderingWind - what are you going to do about Summer Camps? What about out of council summer camps? What about little johnny that wants more merit badges and does a second week of camp as a Provo? In many cases some "council camps" are merit badge mills because it helps get them campers and keep them full.

Summer camp, either the local or out-of-council, was not part of the original post. So I, too, am going to leave it alone.

As long as the camp is certified to be a BSA Summer camp and the program is certified, the signature on whatever form for records keeping used for summer camp by the summer camp will have to do for now.

I agree that some summer camps could be viewed as merit badge mills. But that is an entirely different discussion.

[smtroop168]

Can we elect to have the Eagle required Merit Badges be done in-troop with our counselors? Taicho

Back to the original post....answer is still no.

[wagionvigil]

what? are you crazy? no no no no no no no no no

[Mrw]

Can we elect to have the Eagle required Merit Badges be done in-troop with our counselors?

Taicho

We don't even have in-troop counselors for all the required badges.

[smtroop168]

We do but the scouts use a variety of counselors from outside the troop at Summer Camp and Merit Badge Colleges. We do find it useful in the case of finishing partials.

[FrankJ]

On the subject of requiring training for for merit badge councilors. You can cover the BSA requirements for merit badges in twenty minutes. Add another 45 or so for YPT. I would rather have councilors that are passionate about the subject than ones that have been trained in all day merit badge school.

On the subject of hiring a merit badge policeman. I would rather take the $50,000 plus it would take to hire some one & send 200 boys to summer camp. Or buy Wagiovigil some new ropes & hard hats for his climbing tower.

I am a big fan of being trained & training, but you need to respect people's time. A good advancement chair can cover the training when a councilor is recruited. It is really more about philosophy anyway.

[Fibonacci]

http://www.keystonebsa.org/registration/calendardetail.asp?orgkey=1314&ActivityKey=431450
This is the link to the MB College I'm running....any feedback?

smtroop168 ~ a few (picky) things
This is probably the 2009 Merit Badge College, not 2008. And the word you are looking for is "inclement" rather than inclimate.

It sounds like each Scout attends a class for 1 1/2 hours on the first Saturday, then works on the Merit Badge at home, returning a month later to attend the class for another 1 1/2 hours. Experienced Scouts can take four classes. Is this correct? I guess if Scouts really work hard, they can complete almost all the requirements at home. Has this been successful for you in the past? It sounds like a lot of work for a Scout to do in just four weeks!

[wagionvigil]

I see scouts from Many different councils over three regions during the year at Laurel Caverns. All of our counselors are approved by the local council. We never have any problems with other councils approving our programs. We do have trouble with troops that do not have a clue what a Tour Permit is or having an adult with CPR and First AId training with them. (Required under COS) that is for the troop to provide not the provider/counselor although we do have trained people but they are not a substitute for the troop requirement.
I have seen some bad counselors over the years in scouting like the Guy from WLA Council that required the boys to do the requirements in the order they are listed in the book for camping. I think that it would be a great idea that when someone allpies for MBC that they are at least given a copy of the MBC Training Guide to read through with a contact for questions if they have any. SOme of the worst counselors I have seen are not outside folks but troop leaders that like to tweak the requirements (you know they are only guidelines) to their own ideas.How many counselors are updated when the requirements change? you might be surprised.
We had a MB Camporee last spring and most MB's offered at it were the unusual ones as we had it at Penn State Fayette and they used the professors thee to do some odd ones. The favorite is plumbing and the boys get to do a bunch of soldering yes they meet the requirments.Chemistry is offered .Photography is offered. I went in and did music and bugling. We send out a list of preresequites about two months before and expect those to be brought with them. Had kids show up for music without their Instruments. Oh Well They got Partials.

[smtroop168]

smtroop168 ~ a few (picky) things
This is probably the 2009 Merit Badge College, not 2008. And the word you are looking for is "inclement" rather than inclimate.

It sounds like each Scout attends a class for 1 1/2 hours on the first Saturday, then works on the Merit Badge at home, returning a month later to attend the class for another 1 1/2 hours. Experienced Scouts can take four classes. Is this correct? I guess if Scouts really work hard, they can complete almost all the requirements at home. Has this been successful for you in the past? It sounds like a lot of work for a Scout to do in just four weeks!

http://www.keystonebsa.org/registration/calendardetail.asp?orgkey=1314&ActivityKey=431450
This is the link to the MB College I'm running....any feedback?

Thanks for the "pickys" or is it "pickies"?. I don't think the webmaster changed those yet.

You are correct in our process. This is year 6 of the MBC and we've offered 67 different MBs. Actually the scouts have from Oct 1 when they register until Feb to do the badge since they have the prereqs and counselor info. We do have varying degrees of completions depending on the badge but most are at least 75%. A number of scouts finish them later.