How often do you see this?

[Mrw]

We have a patrol that decided last fall to work on the Communications merit badge together. OUt of the 7 boys in the patrol, five of them thought they were ready to be signed off.

They contacted a merit badge counselor from the list for a merit badge day list (not who I would have chosen myself since I know one of the other folks on the list and have been to them before).

The guy came to our meeting last night to meet with the boys. He spent half the meeting talking to one boy and half with another. Those two were signed off, but he never got to the other three at all and they went home very disappointed.

I would have thought he would have met with them as a group since he knew there were five boys who did the requirements all together.

Any comments?

[diamondbackAPL]

This is Shane, and why didn't he meet with all five of them? If he knew that 5 of them were ready to be signed off, that sounds kinda stupid, and I know I would be dissappointed.

[Lynda J]

If I was counseling a badge for 5 boys I would require that all 5 boys meet with me for at least the first meeting. I don't consider the badge started until I have met with the boy.

[ASM-142]

To me it looks like the counselor was verifying that each do satisfied the requirements individually which sounds right to me.

[wagionvigil]

That is how I would have done It. One by one!

[616kayak]

It shouldn’t take that long. Some people just have problems with logistics. Unless, the boys had lots of questions and were very interested in communications.

[Mrw]

They had talked to the guy on the phone previously about how he wanted some things done. He did take about 45 minutes with each of the two boys he talked to.

[616kayak]

I face this problem both with Scouts and JROTC best thing you can do is talk to some one higher up and mention how they are taking up so much time for something that should be completed much faster.

[ASM-142]

This MBC is doing things the correct way by meeting with each boy to ensure that he (and not the group) knows the requirements. If you are just interested in awarded badges to boys then you should use a different MBC.

[Lynda J]

I misread the post. I thought he had started all the boys on the badge but had only actually met with two of the boys. I understand now that he was actually meeting with each boy one at a time.

Normally if I am doing a group of boys I will meet with all of them together to go over what I expect, get their blue cards. Then if necessary meet with them a couple at a time.

[Mrw]

I think I was mainly a bit ticked off as he really didn't even talk to the last couple kids at all, even to say he couldn't get to them and set up another time.

I wouldn't use him again, but really only because there are people we have worked well with in the past who are closer and a bit more personable.

It has helped the boys and the ASM who works with this group understand a little better too how they should go about getting in touch with a counselor. It was really their first experience getting a badge on their own and they didn't really go about it the best way they could.

[Mad Dog]

The MBC can take whatever time he feels is necessary to verify that the boys have completed the requirements. That being said. If he did not have sufficient time to meet with all the boys he should have at least spoken to the others to arrange for another time to meet. We had a skiing MBC in the other night and he spent over an hour with two boys but he also spoke to the others that he was not able to meet with and arrange an alternate time. I have also seen MBC who work with the boys as a group and read over a lot of the requirements from the pamphlet to the boys. That is not the same as them having an understanding of and meeting the requirements. That is more like a MB dispenser which I am totally opposed to.

[Scouting179]

The boys should have started with an MBC, not found one after the fact. Was the SM aware of all this while it was going on?

[616kayak]

He really should meet with all the boys at the same time. There is no harm. In fact they will learn better in a small group than they will in a one on one situation. That is if they are all actively participating of course.

Theses scouts had planned on their patrol doing the badge. As an SPl I
would not be to satisfied with the wasted time.

[Mrw]

The boys did contact him early on to talk about what would be acceptable for the requirements to lead either a COH or campfire program since there were 7 boys that started the badge together and it the time to do that could be very long. I think if he had siad they each had to individually lead a campfire, they would have picked another badge that could be worked on together and finished in reasonable period of time. We had just had a COH the week before they picked the badge to do.

It was also pretty clear they didn't have any idea that he would talk to them one by one.

They did not finish the badge without talking to the counselor and then expect everything to be signed off just because they said so. The ASM that works with them helped them find the counselor though, and they should have asked me as I would have gotten them someone better to work with. He is the one who will get the lecture on the right way to do things, not the boys. They will just get help finishing up.

I got another phone call today from one of the boys who wasn't spoken to or rescheduled looking for a different counselor.

[FrankJ]

If you read the advancement book, it say the boys should be individually reviewed & tested even in a group situation. That should be no surprise to anyone. The counsilor should insure that he has adequate time to do this or work with the boys to reschedule. That is part of the commitment of being a counsilor.

[616kayak]

Individually revised and tested, but not individually taught. That is why my troop usually writes down theses things on the merit badge booklet.

[deweylure]

As a MB counselor I do not think I will ever have a group session. It seems members of the group are along for the ride to try to get a free badge. It does not seem fair to the scouts who read the book and prep-are the requirements.

The SM of our troop recently invited a MBcounselor to conduct a badge.We had 3 counselors due to group size.
It took three sessions plus a few boys will have to re schedule since they did not attend all sessions. This was the right thing to do.
Deweylure

[FrankJ]

I do not have a problem with group sessions. Some material works very well in that regard. If the group is small enough, round table discussions with everone sharing their experierences are great. The scouts still need to be individually tested. The merit work sheets, though not required, can be used for this. Some requirements for a lot of badges require working indivually with the counsilor in addition to whatever group work done.

The Commuications merit done right is not an easy or quick badge to earn. It deals with one of the most important life skills and well worth the effort. Since the scouts in this case have been working on it since the fall, they probally understand the effort required.

[EagleBoy62204]

I teach Family life and communications m.b. i find it very challenging to council a group for those badges. individual sessions for some if not for most of the requirements is alot easier and most of the time neccessary for these two badges than in a group session.

It just depends on the preference of the councilor. He could take all five on, but the person may feel more confirtable doing one on one.

But why are your boys pending on meetings to do badges? Why cant they call the councilor and set a meeting up during the week or on the weekend?