Merit Badge Submission Info From National Office

[scoutmasterbob]

I was curious if the National Council published info from the advancement dept about new MBs that were under consideration and ones that were rejected and why. So I called the National office and asked. I was directed to Terry Lawson the director of the dept that considers new MB amoung other things and asked him.
Terry was very helpful and very nice while asked him about new MB ideas.

I thought I would share some of the things Terry told me.

The committee that considers new MBs meets 3 times a year.

The new MBs need to promote a hobby or career intrest and promote the aims of Scouting.

When submitting an idea, you need to include the rationale behind the idea, as well as potential sample requirements for the badge.

Sadly, nearly all of the ideas for new badges are turned down for one reason or another, very few get tabled for consideration. He gave me two reasons for this.
First, there are 120 MBs and instead of growing that number to 200 or 500 they want to keep it around 120, so if a new MB is considered another one is usually dropped.
Second, it takes around $75,000 to introduce a new MB mostly due to printing of pamplets and updating and printing of the Requirement books.

I hope this is helpful, I found it interesting and was suprised how considereate and helpful Terry Lawson was when I called. I thought I would be just another annoying call wanting to get his MB idea approved, but Terry did not make me feel that way at all.

I guess if you have a question, all you have to do is ask.

[PaulSWolf]

I guess if you have a question, all you have to do is ask.

Bob, thanks for posting your note. Can I use it on the page we have on the USSSP, regarding Proposals like this? <http://usscouts.org/mb/proposals.html>

[dparker]

Very interesting information, Bob. I wonder how 120 became the upper limit. Seems a pretty arbitrary choice, but I guess another call might get some more information as to why that number was chosen.

[Guneukitschik]

I wonder if there are grants available from companies to help cover the $75,000 start-up costs?

[scoutmasterbob]

Paul,
Feel free to use my post on the USSSP website.

I dont know why 120 is the number they picked, I dont think it is locked in stone, but can you imagine what the requirement books would look like if there were 500 MB to choose from. It would be like buying an encyclopedia every year.

I wonder if there are grants available from companies to help cover the $75,000 start-up costs?

Terry Lawson said that alot of the MB submissions came from companies, I wonder if the BSA is trying to stay away from that so a company cant promote itself through the MB, for example one of the newer MB is Flyfishing, what if the Orvis Company who makes fishing gear, wrote the $75,000 check to publish the MB info, just to help it sell more fishing gear.
(This is only an example and this did not occur.)
if it were a anonymous grant perhaps, but who knows.

Some interesting info non the less.

[Guneukitschik]

I don't think that a statement printed in the merit badge booklet saying "Start up funding for this merit badge was donated by ACME Co."
or something like that...would actaully be a bad thing or that big of a deal.

[PaulSWolf]

Paul,
Feel free to use my post on the USSSP website.

Thanks.

I dont know why 120 is the number they picked, I dont think it is locked in stone, but can you imagine what the requirement books would look like if there were 500 MB to choose from. It would be like buying an encyclopedia every year.

There would also be the logistics and costs of stocking all the badges and pamphlets at each Scout Shop and the National Supply Center.

[Guneukitschik]

Look at how long it takes them to update a merit badge now.....

Now imagine if the same group of people at national had to update 5 times that many? Many of the requirements would be outdated for a longer period of time.

[ASM-142]

Why go through the trouble of printing and stocking Merit Badge pamplets. Each council center should have access to National's web site and be able to print Merit Badge pamplets on a as need basis. Using this method would also allow printing of older versoins of Merit Badge pamplets if a scout lost it after starting on the Merit Badge. This process would save a lost of waste in printing and stocking fees.

The down side to this is that copies printed a council centers would be able to be reproduced easily and shared at minimal cost amoung scouts.

[wagionvigil]

Its all about $

[schneizenator]

Very interesting information, Bob. I wonder how 120 became the upper limit. Seems a pretty arbitrary choice, but I guess another call might get some more information as to why that number was chosen.

They probably realized how many MBs there were and decided that they shouldnt go any higher.

[Troop160]

The committee that considers new MBs meets 3 times a year

Who are the committee? Are they former Boy Scout (not adult, in kid age)? Where do committee live (in headquarter?)?

For committe to qualify.
1. Must be former Scout from youth time. Not from adult scout.
2. Must live in differ reginal part of USA. No bottle neck.
3. Must work with low rank of Scoutmaster (no scoutmaster shall work with Council or District, these people work as high rank).
4. Must work with boys. (no communication with headquarter).
5. Must decide to delete old merit badge. (keeping 120 count ?).
6. Must have new merit badge book in electronic format (easier to print than copy).
7. Must get vote from low rank Scoutmaster and kid scouter.
8. Must not serve if hard head. (Many high rank scouter adult are hard head)

Hope this will work better.[/quote]

[Mick Scouter]

Yes it is about $. However, it would be nice to have copies of MBs electronically. Unfortunately I am sure there are MB councelors that do not even have the MB books let alone require the scouts to buy and read them. BSA could charge councils, districts or even troops a fee for the ability to download MB books at a reduced cost. Or some other solution. I would enjoy reading some other books but I am problably not going to buy them just to read even though I have done that as well.

[ASM-142]

If you just want ot read the books you should be able to get them at a library or borrow them from another troop if your troop does not have them

[Lynda J]

Our troop has been working of building a MB pamphlet library. But the thing that drives us crazy it the constant changes make. Now I understand some of them. Updating Electronics, and, Computers, Things that change rapidly because of technology. But when a book becomes outdated because of a typo it makes it very expensive on troops. To be honest what I have been doing it is checking the books and making the changes in the books in our library unless it is a complete rewrite.

[ASM-142]

If it is only minor changes to the MB book, I will just print the updated requirements and attach them to the book itself. This way you have the current requirements along with the background information