Issue 659 – December 8, 2020

(Have a question? Facing a dilemma? Wondering where to find a BSA policy or guideline? Just drop a line to me at askandybsa@yahoo.com)

THIS IS FOR ALL SCOUTS…

• Never believe anyone who claims you don’t “deserve” your next rank! Only YOU can request—and absolutely expect to receive—your Scoutmaster conference and your board of review! ALWAYS make your requests known and don’t take anything but “Yes” for an answer!
• Think your service project proposal isn’t good enough and think you’ve gotta add stuff? Present it anyway! And never let anyone paint their own ideas into your picture! This is your project, not theirs.
• Don’t think the President of the United States will answer your letter? Send it anyway!
• Your only limits are what you believe you can’t do. Never self-reject. Believe in yourself— ALWAYS!

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Hi Andy —

This one’s about Scouts who don’t follow the BSA procedure for starting and earning merit badges.

I counsel Environmental Science Merit Badge. I’m counseling a Scout on his last merit badge before Eagle. When he and I first met, he told me he’d found some worksheets online, and did the work and filled out the forms. This created two problems…

The first is that, as a counselor for this merit badge, I happen to be an environmental scientist of long experience and some national repute. None of my knowledge or insights could get passed along to the Scout along his journey—this being one of the most important duties of the counseling role (it’s why this volunteer position isn’t called “examiner”—that’s not what we do!).

The second problem is that he’d picked an online workbook that isn’t BSA-authorized. (Actually, there are no BSA-authorized workbooks!) Sure, it’s the work of a dedicated Scouting volunteer. But that was several years ago. Now it’s out-of-date and he didn’t cross check against the most current requirements! This means he’s done two obsolete requirements, and he hasn’t done one added in 2015 and another added in 2020. (He’s working on those last two with my guidance now, and he’ll ultimately do fine.)

Thinking about this, I searched online, entering “bsa environmental science merit badge.” This gave me over a dozen citations; “Scoutbook” was third in line and “Scouting.org” was 16 down from the top. All others were non-BSA sites.

The printed merit badge pamphlets are also a challenge. The Environmental Science pamphlet changed in 2015. But you’d know this only if you noticed a turtle added to the cover artwork. Of course, it’s now out-of-date because the 2020 requirement is missing.

I’ve long counseled “from the book” and referred Scouts to the pamphlets. But more and more, Scouts don’t read these, whether paper or electronic. Instead, they dive right into any old worksheet. Part of this is understandable, since everything is immediately available via Google…but the results often come out all wrong!

So what’s the best way, nowadays, to counsel Scouts for merit badges?

It’s a given that we counsel each Scout to follow the current requirements. But that’s if they contact a counselor before they start in on their own. It would sure help if Scoutmasters would guide Scouts on this issue!

I guess we can’t tell Scouts to buy the pamphlet. If we did, we’d be forcing Scouts to spend money where it’s not mandatory. We can’t make a Scout buy the pamphlet because incurring this expense isn’t part of BSA advancement.

Sometimes, troops keep small “libraries” of merit badge pamphlets. But a lot of troops don’t do this. So the only way it works is if the troop Librarian buys a current pamphlet each time they’re published and culls the old ones each time.

Any thoughts on this would be really useful. (Dedicated MBC, Patriots’ Path Council, NJ)

It looks like there are two issues here…

The first is how search engines work. When you enter a search word or phrase, the first citations are ads. After these, the rest are usually in order of previous “hit-rate”—The more hits, the higher in the hierarchy. My own search today (I used Google and your exact phrase) produced “filestore.scouting.org” in first place. Yay!

But trying to get all non-BSA online merit badge requirements and workbook authors to get current and consistent with the BSA would likely be a fruitless endeavor. But that’s not really where the cause of the symptom you and this Scout arose. It arose because his Scoutmaster was unsuccessful in directing him to contact you as the very first step.

Since you know this Scout’s troop ’cause it’s on the front of his blue card, you can reach out to his Scoutmaster, ask how this big hiccup happened, and pass on how best to direct future Scouts. (If you get resistance, please take time to contact the District Commissioner—this isn’t “tattling;” it’s the first step in correcting an injustice to the Scouts of this troop.)

At the district level, this is an issue that can be emphasized in commissioners’ troop visits and it’s also an excellent Roundtable topic.
(The key here is to convert any troop handling this some other way to the way Scouting intends!)

In addition, an “alert” sent to all counselors from the district’s coordinator or advancement committee chair can (a) describe the problem and its drawbacks and (b) offer a “script” for any counselor who runs into this procedural hiccup.

Also, make this an important part of Scoutmaster/ASM-specific training and new counselor training too. (Someone will probably need to either counsel or cull any current counselors follow the “fill out the workbook and come back to me when you’re done” approach.)

These steps need collaboration among each district’s commissioner cadre, the district’s training team, and the council’s counselor vetting team or coordinator.

Stay safe, stay healthy, and stay positive!
Happy Scouting!
Andy

When you write to me, please include your name and council. If you’d rather be anonymous—if published—just say so and that’s what I’ll do. Also, although these columns are copyrighted, you have my okay to quote or reproduce any column or part, so long as it’s attributed: “Ask Andy” by Andy McCommish.

[No. 659 – 12/8/2020 – Copyright © 2020 Andy McCommish]