Troop 16 Policy on Merit Badges – 2/17/2006 

There is a highly recommended path toward earning any given Merit Badge.  Following these steps ensure the scout will minimize any frustrations or roadblocks.

1. Choose the badge you wish to work on by studying the requirements.
2. Talk with a Troop 16 Merit Badge Counselor, or the Advance Chairperson, to learn what they have to say on the best course to earn the badge. Get a Blue Card and a Unit Leader Signature from whoever issues you the card.
3. Perform the requirements.  Keep any paperwork, pictures etc during the process.
4. Meet again with your counselor to review and attain the Signature of Counselor.
5. Turn in the appropriate blue card portion to the Troop Advancement Chairperson.

Boy Scouts of America is a bureaucratic organization.  A scout that earns a full Merit Badge, or partial, at any event outside the troop (MBU, OEC, civic group, school) must keep the paperwork given in conjunction with any requirements.  Until the scout receives the badge from the troop counselor, it is incumbent on the scout to have any and all supporting paperwork to show the counselor or Advancement Chair.

The two versions of the Blue Card 

The Standard Blue Card is easy to understand once you read each of its three distinct portions.  The first portion is the Application for Merit Badge portion, the second portion is the Applicant’s Record, and the third portion is the Counselor’s Record.

When a Counselor signs the card it is separated into its three portions.  The Counselor will keep the Counselor’s Record portion.   It is the responsibility of the scout to forward the Application for Merit Badge portion to the troop Advancement Chair.  That is the portion that the troop uses to purchase your Merit Badge from the scout office and to have the scout office record for your trail to Eagle.  The scout keeps the Applicant’s Record in his own personal file.

Standard Blue Card-front

At any point in the bureaucracy, the Application portion can become lost, or for some reason questioned.  At that point, the scout can be asked to produce his Applicant’s Record, which has the signature of the counselor and the requirements enumerated.  It will be recognized then in place of the original Application portion.  Should the scout not have that portion handy, the final back up is the counselor’s portion.  If all three are unavailable, the badge is not earned.  Though Merit Badges are rarely questioned or lost, it is highly recommended that each scout collect his Applicant’s Record, and be able to produce them if necessary.

The TroopMaster Blue Card will be printed by the troop from time to time and is very similar to the Standard Blue Card.   TroopMaster software, as used by the Advancement Chair, can easily produce the blue cards for such events as summer camp or MBU’s.   The primary difference is that since they are printed on standard 8.5×11 paper (the Advancement Chair will use blue paper when possible but white is acceptable), their separations are not perforated.  These cards will be issued to the scout for incomplete badges, and then can be used to finish the instructions and testing with a counselor.

Troopmaster Blue Card

When a Counselor signs a TroopMaster Blue Card, it is separated into its three useful portions.  The Counselor will keep the Counselor’s Record portion.   It is the responsibility of the scout to forward the Application for Merit Badge portion to the troop Advancement Chair.  That is the portion that the troop uses to purchase your Merit Badge from the scout office and to have the scout office record for your trail to Eagle.  The scout keeps the Applicant’s Record in his own personal file.  Any remaining portion of the TroopMaster card can be discarded.

Counselors

It is the policy of Troop 16 to recognize any merit badge earned by its member scouts that have submitted a signed blue card by an approved counselor listed on the Cornhusker Council web site for our unit.  The reason we accept only the signatures from these individuals is to ensure the integrity of the process- that the badge earned has been checked by a counselor that understands-

✤The requirements for any given badge are written in language simple enough that the scout knows whether he has passed every requirement and has demonstrated the requirements to the counselor.
✤The counselor’s duty is to make sure every requirement has been met, not more than was being asked, but not less either.
✤It is understood that a scout will discuss a badge with the qualified counselor before he embarks on earning the requirements.

In some rare circumstances, signatures from truly bonafide experts in the field of the badge will be accepted if the credentials of the expert are established in advance, and that expert has signed off each requirement.  At that time, the Scoutmaster may sign the blue card. Parents are encouraged to participate and when necessary certify that certain requirements have been met, but the counselor will review with the scout to be sure all requirements have been fulfilled.

The troop encourages every adult leader, and any parent who may wish to participate also, to sign up with the council as a counselor.  We have a large troop and the need for counselors is growing.  Any adult should sign up for badges that they have some familiarity or expertise to offer.  Counselors are expected to know and follow the tenants of BSA’s Youth Protection program which is available online.  The troop desires to have scouts earn badges from adults other than their own parents when possible.  Counselors can be fully registered adults, or adults that register as counselor’s only, no fee.  Parents can always help and participate, but the scout should have a counselor other than his own parent when possible.  Ask the Advancement Chair for a Merit Badge Counselor Application, or click here.

MBU, OEC  and Scout Camps

Any Merit Badge requirements presented to a scout, away from your troop counselor, will be considered as an instruction phase.  Your counselor is the testing phase and the final arbiter of whether a requirement has been earned.

Merit badges that are fully or partially presented through officially sanctioned scout sponsored events (Camp Cornhusker, Laramie Peaks, Camp Cedars, Ben Delatour, Philmont etc) are generally accepted by the Scoutmaster or Advancement Chair as fully earned, but each scout should be prepared to review if necessary.

Presentations through Camporees, Merit Badge University, or civic organizations will be recognized as the instruction phase as well.  Again it is the troop counselor that will check the knowledge of the scout to be sure the effort was complete.  Too often in the past, these events produce incomplete, confusing and poorly documented records.  The Advancement Chair, the Patrol Advisor or the counselor are charged with making out blue cards based on the records received from the sponsoring organization.  But a troop counselor is to review as many of these as they deem necessary with the scout before the counselor will accept the requirements presented at these events as being properly and fully earned.  Although a blue card can be made out indicating the requirements were presented (at an MBU as an example) it is the counselor that signs the card that is responsible to ensure that all of the requirements have been earned.

Time Limit

The requirements for any badge that are in effect on the date that a Unit Leader signs the front of your blue card, are the ones that you will be held to.  So long as the scout keeps his blue card in his possession you have until your 18th birthday to finish.  BSA national does update requirements on Merit Badges.  These updates are made in January of every year, if they are deemed necessary.  You can check the requirements at www.scouting.org and you will find the most current list.

Older Merit Badge pamphlets that are in the troop’s library or at the Lincoln City Libraries, can still be useful even if they do not exactly match the current requirements.  They often have the necessary reference and background material needed and are free of charge.   The OEC Trading Post is the other source of these pamphlets and once you purchase and use one, donating it to the troop library is appreciated.