The merit badge program of the Boy Scouts of America is a wonderful way to introduce boys to new hobbies, sports, crafts, and even possible careers. The awards require a Boy Scout to meet new people in the community who are the merit badge counselors. The counselor, who is knowledgeable in the badge subject matter and approved by the local Scout Council, works with the Scout to complete the badge requirements. When the counselor is satisfied that the Scout has completed the requirements he or she sings the merit badge application, commonly referred to as the blue card. The Boy Scout gives the card to his scoutmaster or troop advancement person who records it with the Scout Office.
As I stated earlier, the local council approves all merit badge counselors. Each counselor must fill out a B.S.A. application and a merit badge counselor form. He or she must also complete the online Youth Protection Training course. It is the council’s responsibility to keep an updated list of counselors.
The council may set restrictions on counselors. For example, twenty years ago , my council had a rule that a person could be a counselor for only six merit badges, and that a Boy Scout could only earn two badges with any counselor. Ten years ago, a person could be a counselor for as many badges as he thought he qualifies for, if the council agreed, and a Scout could go to a counselor for any of those merit badges.
At a recent roundtable the subject of merit badge counselors came up and I was surprised by the latest change. Our district will only allow a person to be a counselor for five merit badges. The reason for this guideline was to get the Boy Scout to meet and work with a larger variety of people within his community. While I understand the reasoning behind this, I am not sure I totally agree with it since I am involved with a Boy Scout troop located in a city of only 33oo people. How far should we expect a Scout to travel to earn a merit badge?
I was a counselor for six merit badges. Then I was able to increase that number to eight. Now, it looks like I will have to drop three of them to get down to five. I plan to drop Backpacking and Wilderness Survival, two merit badges that I have never had a Scout come to me to earn. I think I will also drop Cinematography. The ones I plan to keep are Camping, Citizenship in the Community, Collections, Hiking, and Scouting Heritage. I was once thinking about being a Chess merit badge counselor, but I guess that is no longer an option unless I drop something else.
Does your council or district have guidelines for merit badge counselors? What are they? Post a reply to this article and share them with us. I am curious to see what others are doing.
We have something similar, but the council was willing to work with me, as I teach earth science professionally that gave me like 8 merit badges, and that was before I got in to my interests. But as some were a little different they were happy to keep me on the list.
Our concern was in certain troops you could get all of the right merit bades from 2 people in the troop.
Our council has no such restrictions, which I’m grateful for. I enjoy being a counselor for the various ones I help with and wouldn’t want to give up any of them. I help boys in my troop, other troops and teach at merit badge colleges about once a year. Being a counselor for a number of merit badges really helps with that.
Honestly, there aren’t any restrictions at the national level – or notes/rules in the boy scout advancement requirements. While I agree with the spirit of the law (trying to get someone to reach out to more people), I don’t like it much when folks at the Council, District or Unit levels start to impose restrictions on how they think it should run. One of the main tenants of being a merit badge counselor is that we can’t add to or take away from any of the requirements, regardless of our personal views. Councils should follow the same advice.
Our council’s official limit is 6, but since they (or our district) never publish counselor lists, most troops have their own lists that may or may not follow those rules.