From: brock.man@comcast.net [mailto:brock.man@comcast.net]
Sent: Thursday, December 16, 2010 06:05 PM
To: 'Wilson, Joel', 'Williamson, Stephanie', 'Weiss, Anthony', 'Stanley, Stephen',
'Sadler, Darnell', 'Morrow, Alex', 'Livingston, Walt', 'Buck, Steve', 'Beauvais, Blake'
Subject: Merit Badge Counselors
Hello Leaders,
Once a Boy Scout reaches the rank of First Class, advancement is up to his initiative. To earn any additional rank up to including Eagle he has to earn merit badges.
If you are new to Scouting and don't know what merit badges are, they are awards for demonstrating knowledge or skill in a particular area. They are like college courses where some are hard and some are difficult.
Like college courses Scouts have to earn certain required merit badges to become Eagle. In total he must earn 21, eleven are required. The remainder are those of his choosing.
There are more than 100 merit badges covering just about every subject imaginable. Attached is a listing of the current merit badges. If you go to the website www.meritbadge.com you can find the requirements for each merit badge.
To earn a merit badge a Scout must complete the requirements as prescribed by the merit badge pamphlet. He then must consult a counselor who will review his work. Prior to this, the Scout comes to me or one of the other Scoutmasters and we will give him a blue card which is sort of a permission slip saying he can test for the merit badge.
Once the counselor is satisfied that the all of the requirements have been completed, the counselor signs the card. It is returned to us and we then record it and award the Scout the merit badge normally at an awards ceremony.
To become a merit badge counselor you can read the requirements at www.colbsa.org and to go to Advancement and then go to Boy Scout Advancement and the to Merit Badge Program and then to Become a Merit Badge Counselor.
However, right now if you are interested, I can sign you up by you simply telling me what merit badges you feel you are qualified to be a counselor for. As an example, my prior aviation training qualifies me to be a counselor for the Aviation Merit Badge. Mr. Beauvais would be natural fit for the Citizenship Merit Badges and the Law Merit Badge.
Mr. Joel Wilson would be an excellent candidate for the Computer Science and Entrepreneur Merit Badge. While there is no limit on the number of merit badges a counselor may be qualified to sign off, I would recommend no more than six to seven.
You can have your option to be a counselor for just our Scouts or you can sign up to be a counselor for any Scout in the district. I can provide more detail at our leaders meeting on Saturday, but review the merit badge list that is attached and let me know if you are interested. Mr. AW has informed me that I can register without the headache of all the normal paperwork if I can get your name in time.
There is a critical need for an ample supply of merit badge counselors and in my capacity as the chairperson for the District on merit badge counselors, I would appreciate your support if you sign up to be a counselor.
Thanks
Yours in Scouting,
J.R. Brockman Scoutmaster Troop 133 609-381-9981 http://phillyscouts133.blogspot.com/
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