Merit Badges – What? How?
The BSA Merit Badge Program (National info here) has three loosely organized "groups" of merit
badges. 1) One group is known for its 12 (out-of-15)
Eagle-required MB’s which center on
advanced Scouting skills and the growth of individual/personal responsibility.
2) Another group involves the interests, hobbies, talents, and personal growth of the Scouts with MB’s such
as Art, Astronomy, Model Building, Railroading, Reading, Sports, etc. 3)
Another group centers around beginning career
exploration for the Scouts with MB’s such as Architecture, Business,
Computers, Dentistry, Engineering, Law, Medicine, etc.
There are several
excellent Website’s dedicated to MB’s on the Internet, one is at www.USSCOUTS.org. Merit Badges (in color) displays
the patch awarded for each completed MB and will note if there have been recent
req’t up-dates, as well as listing the all the Requirements for the MB. There
is also a forward to ‘Merit Badge
Worksheets’ which can help a Scout step-through the MB. Always CHECK FIRST with the local MB
Counselor to make sure those are what he/she uses. (Scroll through BEFORE
hitting the PRINT BUTTON, some of them run to 12 – 16 pages.)
Working on the MB’s: Troop/Crew 55 Scouts usually
work on their MB’s in two ways. 1) A Scout can participate in a small MB study group during the break-out time of the
weekly Troop Mtg’s with one of the Troop’s BSA-registered Counselors. They are
also offered outside the Troop Mtg’s, as announced by one of the Counselors
through the Troop Mtg’s or Website Updates. Merit Badges are EARNED, and
usually take some time, requiring such things as outside assignments, presentations, and possibly a fieldtrip or a 12-week diary. 2) Or, a Scout along with a
friend (the Buddy System) can make his own
arrangements with a BSA-approved Merit Badge Counselor to work on a
specific MB totally outside the Troop Mtg’s.
Many of your Leaders have the Potawatomi (local) and NEIC (Council-wide)
list of MB Counselors for these more individual interest MB’s.
Access to our list of
MB Counselors, HERE.
Before you begin, please
read the information BELOW with your Parents, so everyone understands the process of choosing, beginning, and
then completing a BSA Merit Badge.
How it works:
1) All Scouts and all
MB Counselors will follow the ‘BSA Youth Protection Guidelines’ at all times -
no exceptions. That means the
Buddy System for the Scouts and Two-deep Leadership for the Adult Counselors.
2) Only a Council-approved
BSA-registered MB
Counselor for a specific MB can sign-off the requirements for
that MB.
Troop 55 has a list of BSA-registered Counselors (Troop 55, District, and
Council) available for the Scout & his family, knowing that transportation
issues may be involved.
3) Each Scout has a
personal responsibility to check-out each of the requirements of a MB -- that he can complete them -- before he asks for a blue MB card
from Leadership to commit to starting an MB. (That beginning-signature tells
the MB-Counselor that this is a registered Boy Scout.) In addition to the Internet, our Troop
Librarian has a reference book, called the Boy Scout REQUIREMENTS, which
lists the requirements for all the current MB’s in the BSA Merit Badge Program
or see www.USSCOUTS.org.
Note: If a Scout or his family feels he cannot
complete the requirements of an Eagle-required MB, then he or they need
to discuss the situation before he begins the MB/ER with the District Advancement Committee -
with the extenuating circumstances in writing from a doctor or school counselor
- so a different MB can be substituted. BEFORE means well in-advance-of . . . .
Eagle-required MB’s are NEVER ‘modified’. A substitute MB will be found.
4) Each Scout is
responsible for buying his own merit badge
booklet from a
Scout Shop or borrowing it from our Troop
Library, the Glenview or Northbrook Public Libraries, or
sharing with a fellow Scout. He is responsible for keeping his booklet
and any other materials he may have done for the requirements (such as letters
or a ‘diary’) in a safe place until
they can be signed-off by his counselor – school folders are very
useful. An extra copy of these
documents might be wise, too.
5) Each Scout is
responsible for reading his MB booklet. In addition to his MB booklet and MB counselor, a
Scout can ask for assistance from his
parents, leaders, teachers, librarians, and friends, to help him along.
6) Each Scout is
responsible for every
requirement needed to complete the MB, whether he works on it with a group of
fellow Scouts or by himself.
"Learning" can take place in a group;
"show" is done one Scout at a time.
7) "Partials": A Scout may continue to work on a
partially-finished MB until the day before his 18th birthday,
remembering that all requirements for that MB must be signed-off by an approved
MB counselor for that specific MB. Note: some MB Counselors will require a ‘review’ of the
previously completed reqt’s, especially if a great deal of time has passed
since it was started/they were completed.
A merit badge/patch can be awarded after the Scout’s 18th
birthday, if it was signed-off before his 18th birthday.
8) MB’s which have
been newly revised:
If a Scout is caught "mid-MB,"
he may complete any revised non-Eagle MB’s using either the old or the newly revised
requirements, at the discretion of his MB counselor. Once the local Scout Shop has the newer version in stock,
MB counselors will start-off any new Scouts with the new requirements. However,
revised Eagle-required MB’s switch to
the new requirements immediately. Most
of the older requirements will be contained in the newly-revised version,
probably re-numbered, with several new Reqt’s added-on. The Scout and
his MB counselor can figure out what has already been done, re-sign them off,
and work-on from there to finish the MB/ER.
9) The signed-off blue MB card is the BSA-legal proof
that the MB has been completed. After it’s been turned-in to your
Scoutmaster and recorded on your Scouting Record - and then returned to you - make
sure you keep it in a safe place. More than one Eagle
Candidate has had to prove an MB was completed!
