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Wendas
Guest
Posted: 30 Jun 2004 12:00 pm Post subject: Guidelines for
Counselors & Scouts on Merit Badges
Here is a doosy to start this forum off with a bang.
Are there any OFFICIAL Guidelines for Merit Badge Counselors &
Scouts doing Merit Badges? That is about the general practice,
not the merit badge itself.. But guidlines that address
specific questions, not a 2 paragraph generic blob of "Follow
the requirements in the book".
I am currently putting together 2 paperworks one advising the
Counselor, and one advising the Scout.. Both are similar, but
orientated slightly different. My source guide is my memory
from attending a Merit badge class at a scout University 2
years ago.
MOST Merit badge Counselors are wonderful, they are either
trained in the scouting program and know the philosopy of
scouting, or are parents of scouts with basic common sense of
what makes for a good experience and have the wish to do their
best.
BUT... without guidelines, the good people can go astray, and
there are a few that should just not be counselors.
example of a good counsoler going amuk, is a counsoler who was
running a large group for personal fitness. In order to make
sure that each scout did his own work all discussion questions
were changed to writing a report on each question. The scouts
finished the 3 mth tasks and were signed off, but were not
doing the reports.. and were not doing the reports.. finally
in frustration the couselor threatened that if the reports
were not in by next week, he would cancel the merit badge &
they would all have to repeat the whole thing INCLUDING that
which was signed off. (I never found out what the outcome was,
but I would hope either he cooled off & rethought his action
or someone explained his mistakes.)
example of bad counsolers I have seen are counselors who
delight in making the scout feel incompetent, not worth their
time, will not sign off on an task no matter how well it was
accomplished.
When I talk to scouts or parents of scouts, who have
experienced less then wonderful experiences I find a common
thread of the scouts feeling they have no rights. They are
helpless, or worse yet it is their fault. If they are doing an
Eagle required, the scout has come close to quitting because
they feel they have painted themselves into a corner that they
have no way to get out of. They can not get Eagle without the
meritbadge, but they are stuck with a counsoler that will
never allow them to get the badge. They never realize they
have the right to switch counselors. That they can look for
counselors outside the troop if need be. They also should feel
secure about knowing the proper chain of command in order to
speak up, so that leaders in the troop can react to any
problems before other scouts have the same experience.
Of course there are those scouts who sit around and wait for
someone to come to them and lecture them and babysit them thru
tasks, and they are frustrated it is not happening. Or will
only do meritbadges at camp, missing out on the great
opportunity of the meritbadges outside of camp, but they
simply do not know how to navigate in this world.
There are also Parents with great knowledge and personality,
they would make great counselors. But, they do not want to
leap without knowing what they are getting into, and there is
no written guidelines over what is expected of you if you sign
up to be a counselor.
I just feel a burning need for written info that will impower
the scout, so that he knows what his responsibilities are, and
what his rights are. But is my info from my course OFFICIAL,
or just good advice from the policies of the speakers troop
policies? Is there OFFICIAL. The world according to BS rules
is always better then my own personal interpretation &
veiwpoint.
I have specific questions I am trying to answer, that I can
post, if anyone is interested. I do not know if I could email
my documents to any interested parties for them to critique.
If there is nothing official I will go with what I got. I am
having the necessary troop leaders read it & give their stamp
of approval, so at the very least it will be official Troop
policy.
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wendas
Guest
Posted: 30 Jun 2004 01:37 pm Post subject: PS.
Just in hind-sight, I did not post this with the intent to
hear any horror stories. I am sure there are a few. But,
overall I feel everyone would agree that 99.9% of the
counsolers are volunteers that are worth alot of thanks and
graditude. Of these some of them without proper guidence can
make a error in judgement (ie. my example, a really great,
counselor.. but working without any guidence.)
I do not want this to be a post to add gripes to. It will
belittle the great achievements of the majority, by
highlighting the actions of the few.
Instead, like youth protection. I just want to find the right
way to protect our scouts by giving the counsolers a proper
guide. And also giving the scouts knowledge so that they can
see a problem and address it when it is small, before it
mushrooms into something large. And also to give them guidence
on how to navagate merit badges out of the summer camp or
workshop setting (which is an environment similar school and
familure territory for them). There is so much a scout can
learn in the different type of environment of individual
counseling, more self-motivated & requiring more independant
thinking. These skills will prepare them for their eagle
project, college & careers. It is a shame for it to be a
missed opportunity for some scout, because they lacked the
proper guidence.
So please no horror stories, just constructive advice.
Thanks
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steelgirl
Guest
Posted: 30 Jun 2004 06:19 pm Post subject: MERIT BADGE
COUNSELING
There is a great resource at
http://usscouts.org/usscouts/mb/intro.html
and http://usscouts.org/boyscouts/MBCounseling.htmland
http://usscouts.org/boyscouts/MBC_training.html These
materials can be reproduced and used locally by scouting
volunteers. We copy them for all of our merit badge counselors
and is VERY helpful. I also review them in person with any new
merit badge counselor that I recruit (I am the advancement
chairperson). These should be VERY useful to you.
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optimist
Advancement Chairman
Joined: 27 Jun 2004
Posts: 148
Posted: 30 Jun 2004 09:28 pm Post subject:
Great first post!
In addition to the resources mentioned above, you will also
find several excellent resources in BSA Program Info section
on this web site. Here is the address:
http://www.meritbadge.com/info/
P.S. I moved this from the Business and Industry to The
Campfire. I hope you don't miss these great responses
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wendas
Tenderfoot
Joined: 01 Jul 2004
Posts: 11
Location: NH
Posted: 01 Jul 2004 05:07 pm Post subject:
Thanks for the help, I looked it over briefly at work, and I
am now going to check it in detail at home, I may be back with
some unanswered questions. But in brief I already pulled out a
few good ones.
Partial Merit Badges being good until the Scouts 18 rather
then a 1 year / 2 year cut off.. I was right, but have argued
with others over this.
Merit badges changing requirements while a scout is in
mid-stream. I was wrong. I was of the understanding that the
scout must fufill all requirements of the NEW Badge.. I like
the policy that it is the scouts choice, but was following
misguided information. The only scout I have hurt with this
is my own son & his best friend who were mid-way on the
cooking merit badge when it changed.
In on-line merit badge counsolors I had a question. It states
the counsolor must be registered with the scouts council. My
son has not done on-line, but has gone to BS camp as a
provisional in neighboring states. Those counselers were not
from our council, one camp had Yellow "Blue Cards" which they
pre-sent to my son, so he had the Scout Master sign those. My
son thinks these cards are cool because they are different.
But they would have really stuck out when we turned them in to
council. Our council has never even raised a question over the
validity of the merit badges. Is this policy to register in
the scouts council specific to "on-line?" counseling? I am not
sure where I heard it from, but I remember being told that as
long as the counselor was registored somewhere & the card info
stated his council so our council could track it, we were ok.
I'm sure I will be back with more questions..
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optimist
Advancement Chairman
Joined: 27 Jun 2004
Posts: 148
Posted: 01 Jul 2004 09:34 pm Post subject:
wendas wrote:
In on-line merit badge counsolors I had a question. It
states the counsolor must be registered with the scouts
council. My son has not done on-line, but has gone to BS
camp as a provisional in neighboring states. Those
counselers were not from our council, one camp had
Yellow "Blue Cards" which they pre-sent to my son, so he
had the Scout Master sign those.
Maybe a better way to have stated that is the Scout must work
with a counselor registered in the council they are working
with. When a Scout goes to another council camp, he is working
through the other council to acheive his goals. When signing
up for camp, he has signed up to take part in that council's
program.
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wendas
Tenderfoot
Joined: 01 Jul 2004
Posts: 11
Location: NH
Posted: 02 Jul 2004 01:39 pm Post subject: Wrapping it up
read thru the info. Thanks it helped me be more informed
before asking questions. There still are gray areas left
unanswered that I think the answers are debatable & I will set
out seperate new posts for them.
I agreed with all of it, but for one item.
Why does it state the scoutmaster will choose the merit badge
counselor? First, if the troop has an advancement coordinator
they seem to usually hold the list of meritbadge counselors.
Second, I always thought the boy had some say in the
selection. If the troop has more then one councilor the scout
should be given all the names of valid councilors so they can
choose, and they are always made aware that they can make a
choice outside of the troop (even if a counselor is available
in the troop.). That is provided the councilor is approved by
council/district to teach the merit badge. Then the
scoutmaster has final approval when signing the merit badge.
(I know our scoutmaster will make sure a boy is not ALWAYS
going to the same councilor, And the boys parents being his
councilor raises question as to if this is the best solution.
Am I wrong in thinking the scout has more of a say in who he
wishes to work with?
Everything else is great provided we live in a perfect world.
There are no provisions for what to do when all is not
perfect. (as stated I will make seperate queries about these
items.)
There are some info I would like to add that I THINK is good
advice, and would not raise debate from anyone.
1. Scouts should keep the stub of their blue card after
successfully completing a merit badge. (the council is not
perfect and can make human error (I know of two)) If the
council does not have something on record the scout needs to
prove the completion of a merit badge. The merit badge itself
is no proof as it can be easily bought. The blue card stub is.
2. Scouts should keep all the work to meet requirements of a
merit badge while the merit badge is incomplete. Even if a
requirement has been signed off by the councilor as completed.
Something may happen where they will need to change councilors
before the merit badge is complete, and they will need to show
their work to a new councilor.
3. Troop should ask their council to do print off from
TroopMaster on all their scouts advancement records. No more
then once a year. They should compare it to their records on
each boy, and then have the scout look at it and verify it.
Again the council can make a mistake. Catching it early, will
make it easier to fix. Catching it 5 years later when the boy
is just about to turn 18 and is going to the Eagle board can
be a disasterous.
PS. I forgot to mention in my last post. I thought I had
posted originally under Intermediate Advancement (Star/Life).
I thought this was a good spot for general inquiries into
merit badges. Sorry if I did not, & it was in a specific
MeritBadge area. I am not sure if Campfire is the best place
for this though. Because I think I am sticking to the
guidelines of asking questions pertaining to Scouts
advancement, and not off on some unrelated subject. Could we
get a forum for Merit Badge Counciling advice?
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optimist
Advancement Chairman
Joined: 27 Jun 2004
Posts: 148
Posted: 02 Jul 2004 05:47 pm Post subject:
Ask and yea shall receive... The new Merit Badge Counseling
forum is up.
wendas wrote:
Why does it state the scoutmaster will choose the merit
badge counselor?
The following is a quote from the BSA's Boy Scout Requirements
book:
Quote:
Pick a Subject. Talk to your Scoutmaster about your
interests. Read the requirements of the merit badges you
think might interest you. Pick one to earn. Your
Scoutmaster will give you the name of a person from a
list of counselors. These counselors have special
knowledge in their merit badge subjects and are
interested in helping you.
Personally, I don't think its a major issue. It's my guess
they just want to make sure the Scoutmaster is involved in the
process and that there is a process with the Scout putting
thought into it.
As for your three suggestions, I think they are all excellent,
the foundation of a well maintained advancement program.
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ScoutmasterBob
Counselor
Joined: 07 Jul 2004
Posts: 79
Location: Woods Cross, Utah
Posted: 07 Jul 2004 02:25 pm Post subject: MB Counsellors
I have seen a handbook for MB counsellors at our local scout
shop.
All of our MBC are registered scouters.
_________________
Bob Torkelson
Scoutmaster Troop 538
www.wx5troop538.homestead.com
Live The Oath!
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optimist
Advancement Chairman
Joined: 27 Jun 2004
Posts: 148
Posted: 07 Jul 2004 09:43 pm Post subject:
A few of important notes:
All merit badge counselors must apply specifically for the
position of merit badge counselor whether or not they serve
in any other position in Scouting. If your counselors are
not registered for the merit badge they are teaching, the
BSA may not approve the work completed for the badge.
Merit badge counselors who do not hold any other position in
Scouting get free membership in the BSA. Anyone who is
already a registered Scouter can apply to be a merit badge
counselor at no additional cost. (Actually, that's true for
applying to serve in any secondary position - membership is
only paid once.)
Merit badge counselors must go through the same adult leader
application approval process that every adult leader goes
through. This means that in order to be a merit badge
counselor, they must fill out two forms, the normal Adult
Volunteer Application form and the Merit Badge Counselor
Information form.
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