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BSA’s merit badge program allows Scouts to learn about specific subjects to determine if they would like to further pursue them as a career or avocation. Originally, the program also introduced Scouts to the important life skills of contacting an adult they hadn’t met before, arranging a meeting and then demonstrating their skills, similar to a college or job interview. Increasingly, though, merit badges are earned in a class setting at troop meetings and summer camps. Each merit badge has a set of requirements to be completed to earn the merit badge. These requirements are updated periodically by the BSA. The requirements a Scout completes for the merit badge are the set as published when he began the merit badge. BSA publishes a booklet containing the requirements and information about each merit badge. The troop library contains many of these available for checkout from the troop librarian. There is also a wealth of information online.
BSA currently offers over 130 merit badges in areas like sports, crafts, nature, science, trades, business, and future careers.
Rank Advancement
Completing a certain number of merit badges is required for some rank advancements. Eagle Scouts are required to earn 21 merit badges, 14 of which are required. There are some that have choices, only 1 from that group will count for your 14 required, you can earn the others as merit badges but won't count for the requirememt. Earning 21 merit badges requires the Scout to earn 10 more than the 11 already earned through previous rank advancement requirements. The Eagle-Required merit badges are listed below:
Camping
Cycling or Hiking or Swimming (Choose 1)
Citizenship in the Community
Citizenship in the Nation
Citizenship in the World
Citizenship in Society
Communications
Emergency Preparedness or Lifesaving (Choose 1)
Environmental Science or Sustainability (Choose 1)
Family Life
First Aid
Personal Fitness
Personal Management
Cooking
Merit Badge Workshop:
Merit Badge Saturdays at Pikes Peak Council
Council offers opportunities once a week to earn Merit Badges. Different badges are offered each week. For more information and current schedule, click here.
Merit Badge Saturdays at Cell Exhibit (Denver)
The Cell offers opportunities once a month to earn Merit Badges. For more information and current schedule, click here.
In short, the procedure is as follows: Scouts meet up with a scoutmaster or assistant scoutmaster and receive a “blue card” for the merit badge. The Scout then contacts an adult who is registered as a counselor for that merit badge in order to learn which badge requirements they must complete before meeting up with the counselor. Once these requirements are completed, the Scout meets with the counselor to demonstrate that he has completed the requirements. The counselor then 'signs off' on each requirement. After completing the merit badge, the Scout receives the badge at the next troop meeting, and the completed blue card and white card at the next court of honor. There is no time limit for completing merit badges, other than the age of 18.
A chart describing each step can be found in the files below. A complete list of Troop 110 Merit Badge Counselors is also included in the files at the bottom of this page. The BSA links below also contain more information.
BSA Introduction to Merit Badges Includes requirements, resources, and links to online resources for each.
Merit Badge Requirements Info from Boy’s Life Magazine, the official publication of the BSA. Includes requirements, resources, and links to online resources for each.
Meritbadge.org An excellent wiki providing worksheets and resource links.
USSSP Merit Badge Home Another great wiki containing worksheets and resources, as well as handy lists of revisions and much more.
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