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What is a Blue Card?
The blue card is the record of your MB application, progress, and completion (like a mini grade book). You can keep your own blue card as you work on it (once it has been approved), or your MBC might keep it for you until complete. Bring it to Mrs. Dait to record it when it is complete. She will give it back to you to keep as an important record for your Eagle binder.
TroopMaster for Tracking Progress:
Look for an email invite to login to TroopMaster. It is where we update our rank advancement, earned merit badges, activities, and awards. http://www.troopmasterweb.com/Tacoma299. Mrs. Dait also recommends setting up access to Scoutbook.com for keeping your own scout records and logs. Checkout our website for links on most everything else!
Adult MB Counselors:
1. Register as an adult leader with the BSA. Get form from BSA and send to Matt Carlin
2. Complete Training as an adult leader with the BSA, as a volunteer with the Archdiocese of Seattle, and as a BSA Merit Badge Counselor (not all needs renewing).
A. BSA online YPT (youth protection training)
B. Archdiocese of Seattle, Virtus training.
C. BSA Merit Badge Counselor training
3. Register/renew your badges with the Pacific Harbors Council Scout Office. Some badges require additional BSA safety training. Link: Pacific Harbors Council - MB Registration Renewal
Merit Badges:
Scoutbook - MB Requirements.
https://www.scoutbook.com/mobile/references/boy-scouting/merit-badges/
Steps
1. Talk to your scoutmaster about your interest and get a signed blue card
2. Ask your scoutmaster or advancement coordinator to connect you with a merit badge counselor who is registered in that area.
3. Contact the merit badge counselor to share work you have done or intend to do. He/she will give you feedback on the requirements.*
4. Work to complete the badge requirements; this is more fun to do with other scouts.
5. Meet with your merit badge counselor, and have him/her record and sign off completed work on your blue card.
6. Return the signed blue card to Mrs. Dait to be awarded at the next Court of Honor.
*ALWAYS MEET COUNSELORS WITH A PARENT OR ANOTHER SCOUT; ALL COUNSELOR COMMUNICATION SHOULD BE cc'd WITH A PARENT
Scout Progress:
Troop 299 uses Scoutbook to record scout advancement, service, and activity. If you discover that your accomplishments are not yet recorded, especially after camp and outings, meet with your advancement coordinator to get your records updated.
Scoutbook
For tracking camping nights, hiking miles, and work on rank.
More on MBs:
MeritBadge.org - Worksheets for rank, merit badges, and awards.
http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Merit_Badge_Worksheetshttps://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Boy_Scout_Awards
"MeritBadge.org is operated by the US Scouting Service Project, Inc. . . .an independent non-profit corporation operated by volunteers as a public service."
A note on using merit badge workbooks
The use of worksheets for rank or merit badge use is neither encouraged nor banned by BSA, but their use should be clarified. The following comes from a BSA leader blog. I've linked the article below.
"In a sense, taking notes on one of these merit badge worksheets should be no different from taking notes in a spiral notebook. A Scout wouldn’t turn in his notebook to fulfill a requirement, but he should be allowed to use those notes for a discussion with his counselor."
-from "BSA discourages use of unofficial merit badge worksheets" Bryan on Scouting. Jan 13, 2015 https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2015/01/13/merit-badge-worksheets/
Plan Ahead
Several badges can take months complete; others can be finished in one day; others require a certain combination of outings and leadership roles, so plan ahead to find opportunities to start, demonstrate, and complete your skills.
Some badges must be earned in settings like camp: shotgun shooting, swimming, kayaking, wilderness survival, or climbing, for example.
If you get a "partial," we will keep it for you to complete with another counselor at a later date, but we may not have all the resources or counselors needed to guarantee completion for every partial badge if started elsewhere.
Let your interests be known. When we have a few scouts with a shared interest, we can work parts of the badge into our meeting or outing goals, but you will need to work with someone registered as a counselor in that area to complete it. Seldom do we have more than one or two adult counselors per badge in our troop. This makes signing off on merit badge work different from work toward most rank requirements.
Merit Badge Counselors:
Scouts can frequently work on merit badge work independently and bring evidence to their merit badge counselor, but only adults registered as counselors in that area can judge work and sign blue cards. Other troop leaders or family members can NOT sign blue cards.
If interested, our troop asks parents to sign up as counselors in areas they have strengths in. There is no scouting registration fee for adults who are merit badge counselors only, but they must fill out the adult registration form and complete the youth protection training. We also suggest merit badge counselor training.
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