who keeps the "blue cards"?

[cad-guy]

Is the scout responsible for keeping up with the blue card that is signed by his merit badge counselors, or do the counselors keep them until all requirements are finished. Thanks for any info you can give.

MKH

[wagionvigil]

The Scout or Sm

[Mrw]

Generally the scout, but I do know a couple counselors who keep them until they are signed off. I am sure theses people would be willing to give them back to the scouts as partials if the scout wanted to finish with some one else.

[lifescoutforlife]

I let them chose if I keep it or them.

[Hubert]

We have what we call "The Troop Box". Inside it we keep those, so they dont get lost. Its not our job to get them, its the boys job to get them to us, we however do keep them so they dont get lost. We dont track them down though, if they loose it, thats their problem.

[scouter01]

Your parents or ur self

[pipestone1991]

the scout

[Fibonacci]

Guess I'm the "odd man out" here. As Advancement Chair, I keep the partial blue cards & enter the information into TroopMaster. I keep these blue cards in my box & bring them to every meeting, so a Scout can ask for a partial card anytime.

However, if a Scout wants to keep his own partial blue cards, that's also fine. I suggest that he "loans" the card to me for a week so I can enter the information, but it's his choice.

If a Scout is working on a MB with a counselor, then the counselor keeps the blue cards. I just keep the partials from Summer Camp, Merit Badge Weekend, MB Clinics, etc.

[Hubert]

I feel left out though. My council still uses the "Green Sheets." They are monsters that are the size of a standard peice of paper. We get weird looks (like what you have now I assume) whenever they ask for the "blue cards" and we hand them a "Green Sheet." I think we are the only council who uses them.

[Lynda J]

Each boy in our troop has two files folder in the cabinet one for complete and one for incomplete. The finished, awarded cards are given to the scout. We furnish them with baseball card holder sheets to store them in.
The troop retaines one copy. But it is the Scouts responsibility to keep the completed ones. As a counselor I take the cards when a scout first comes to me. Once they are filled out I give them back to the scout.

[evmori]

It's up to the counselor. Either the counselor or the Scout. Can't see why the SM would be responsible for them. He isn't taking or teaching (unless he's the MBC) the badge.

As a MBC, I have the Scout keep them. Good responsibility item for them.

[optimist]

We use notebooks with trading card inserts to hold blue cards and advancement certificates. Other important documents are also stored in there. Each Scout has his own notebook in the Scout Hut.

[RWSmith]

Our local Council's Scout Shop actually carries them (trading card thingies for binders)... Yep. Quite handy.

[WVBeaver05]

My preference is for the Scout to be responsible for the cards.

By that I mean, to request them from me (parent won't work), to fill out all the parts that they can, and to control them until turned in complete. Depending upon the Counselor, "control" may mean turning them over to the Counselor while working on the badge.

Most "incomplete" cards come from Summer Camp, and I get the cards or similar sheets late on Friday night before we return on Saturday. I keep these until we can review them together at the next meeting. And, in this case, if the Scout asks me to, I will hold the incomplete cards.

I consider the Scout handling the cards to be both a learning experience about "paperwork" and an exercise in responsibility. Now, I dislike paperwork as much as anyone, but in our society it is a fact of life and preparing the Scout to deal with it is pretty important, and getting more so!!

Those are my thoughts on the subject.

YiS

[Chief J]

We have merit badge counselors who will keep the blue cards while the scout is working on the badge. We also have merit badge counselors who make the scout be responsible for bringing the card to each meeting.

I prefer the scout keep them. Teaches responsibility, and I am not responsible if the card gets lost. As a counselor, I do keep a spreadsheet with each scout and what he completed so if the card gets lost I can complete a new card for him.

Chief J

[mhjacobson]

I slit the difference. Partials are kept by the scout who is actively working on the MB, and completed cards are kept in a baseball-type holder for each scout in the advancement file -- eliminates problems if the council can not find a MB record for advancement and the scout has lost his Blue Card. We issue MB cards for the scouts to keep.

[Chief J]

completed cards are kept in a baseball-type holder for each scout in the advancement file -- eliminates problems if the council can not find a MB record for advancement and the scout has lost his Blue Card. We issue MB cards for the scouts to keep.

I like that idea. We currently staple the section of the blue card that the scout keeps to the MB card and provide both to the scout to keep. We stress to them to keep these cards for future documentation, but...

I held an Eagle Candidate Seminar just this last week. This is where I talked to all the Life Scouts and gave them some guidance and tips on how to proceed from Life to Eagle. Told the Scouts to get their blue cards together so when Council verifies the dates on the Eagle Scout Application, we can verify any questions. Had at least 2 Scouts give me a funny look.

It was like "BLue Cards? I was supposed to keep Blue Cards?"

Hopefully there will be no problems when we send the Eagle application for review.

Chief J

[mhjacobson]

One of the reasons why we keep the copy that is stamped by the council (returned with one copy of the advancement report) is that it has the name of the MB counselor on it along with the date. That part of the Blue Card, along with the advancement report has made the difference, more than once, between a person having to wait for a detailed research into his requirements and having the BOR proceed in a timely manner.

[ASM-142]

One of the reasons why we keep the copy that is stamped by the council (returned with one copy of the advancement report) is that it has the name of the MB counselor on it along with the date. That part of the Blue Card, along with the advancement report has made the difference, more than once, between a person having to wait for a detailed research into his requirements and having the BOR proceed in a timely manner.

As long as you keep a copy of the advancement report there is no need to keep the blue cards.

[Mrw]

I double check merit badges dates with the ScoutNet records long before the Eagle application is filled out so that there are no record-keeping issues to hold up the Eagle application and BOR process.

We tell the boys to keep the returned part of the blue cards, but they really don't serve a purpose once the badge has been recorded on an advancement report.