MB Councilor approvals

[scoutchallenge]

Does anyone know the process that a submitted application goes through for council approval?

I sent my form in with a cover letter on January 27th. When do you think I should hear back.

Is this a form that needs to be brought before a monthly meeting or is a person at council level usually approving the forms?

[scoutchallenge]

I am refering to the "Merit Badge Counselor Information" form.

[optimist]

The "process" can be a little different depending on your district/council and depending on whether you're serving a specific unit or all units. However, in the long run the decision is the responsibility of your Council's Advancement Chairman. After a month and a half, it might be worth giving them a call to find out where things stand.

Our council's process is as follows: If you're going to work with a specific unit, you fill out an adult leader application and a merit badge counselor application and give it to your troop committee for approval. The troop committee chair then makes sure the paperwork is in order and properly signed then forwards the paperwork to the District Advancement Chairman (DAC). Assuming you are qualified, the DAC approves your merit badge counselor application then sends it to the Council Advancement Committee and sends a copy to you to let you know you are approved. Your adult leader application is sent to the council offices for processing like any other adult application. The only difference for non-unit specific merit badge counselors is the applications are sent directly to the DAC.

You may have noted that the Council Advancement Chairman is not making the approval decision, the DAC is. In a large council like ours, a single person would be overrun if they had to handle all the applications by themselves so the Council Chairman has assigned that responsibility to the DACs. Any questionable applications are reviewed at the Council Advancement Committee meetings. As far as how much time it should take, if the application is hand delivered a decision is generally made immediately upon delivery.

[riverwalk]

Here it works a little like a money earning thing...I guess. Because you don't get anything back. At least the MBC doesn't. It's more a case of hearing only if there's a problem, like the fundraising example. I am sure our Council wouldn't send back something since we have about 16,000 adult Scouters, plus MBCs in Council. So get to work on the Badges, haha.

[Lynda J]

For our district. Each unit gets new forms filled out each year. They are turned into the Advancement Committee. Who goes through them and compiles a list, and of whether they will counsel any unit or just theirs. Then they are turned into the Council. Once you get the aproval of the district committee you are approved. We sent out the list to each unit.
But as far as getting back to the counselors themselves we don't.

[riverwalk]

I imagine that's our procedure too. I just knew as a MBC, I didn't recall getting anything personally.