The Troop 44 Merit Badge Process
You can learn about sports, crafts,
science, trades, business, and future careers as you
earn merit badges. There are more than 100 merit badges.
Any Boy Scout may earn any merit badge at any time. You
don't need to have had rank advancement to be eligible.
Pick a Subject.
Talk to your Scoutmaster about your interests. Read the
requirements of the merit badges you think might
interest you. Pick one to earn. Your Scoutmaster will
give you the name of a person from a list of counselors.
These counselors have special knowledge in their merit
badge subjects and are interested in helping you.
Scout Buddy
System. You
must have another person with you at each meeting with
the merit badge counselor.
This person can be another Scout, your parents or
guardian, a brother or sister or other relative, or a
friend.
Call the
Counselor. Get a signed
merit badge application from your Scoutmaster. Get in
touch with the merit badge counselor and tell him or her
that you want to earn the merit badge. The counselor may
ask to meet you to explain what is expected of you and
to start helping you meet the requirements. You should
also discuss work that you have already started or
possibly completed.
The complete list of counselors for
the Troop is available from your Scoutmaster or
Advancement Chairman.
Unless
otherwise specified, work for a requirement can be
started at any time.
Ask your counselor to help you learn the things you need
to know or do. You should read the merit badge pamphlet
on the subject. Many troops and school or public
libraries have them or they can viewed online at the
links below.
Show Your
Stuff. When you are ready,
call the counselor again to make an appointment to meet
the requirements. When you go take along the things you
have made to meet the requirements. If they are too big
to move, take pictures or have an adult tell in writing
what you have done. The counselor will ask you to do
each requirement to make sure that you know your stuff
and have done or can do the things required.
Get your BLUE CARD Signed
– this is your official record of completing the merit
badge. One Third of the Card you keep for your records,
One Third of the Card you give to your Troops
Advancement Coordinator on the Committee, and One Third
of the card your counselor keeps – NOTE: IF YOU DO
NOT HAVE A SIGNED BLUE CARD YOU HAVE NOT EARNED THE
MERITBADGE. WORKSHEETS SIGNED BY COUNSELORS IN PLACE OF
A BLUE CARD DO NOT REPLACE THE BLUE CARD AND WILL NOT BE
HONORED
Get the Badge.
When the counselor is satisfied that you have met each
requirement, he or she will sign your application. Give
the signed application to your Scoutmaster so that your
merit badge emblem can be secured for you.
Requirements.
You are expected to meet the requirements as they are
stated—no more and no less. You are expected to do
exactly what is stated in the requirements. If it says
"show or demonstrate," that is what you must do. Just
telling about it isn't enough. The same thing holds true
for such words as "make," "list," "in the field," and
"collect," "identify," and "label."
The requirements listed in this publication are the
official requirements of the Boy Scouts of America.
However, the requirements on the following pages might
not match those in the
Boy Scout Handbook and
the merit badge pamphlets, because this publication is
updated only on an annual basis.
If a Scout has already started working on a merit badge
when a new edition of the pamphlet is introduced,
he should continue to use the
same merit badge pamphlet and fulfill the requirements
therein to earn the badge.
He need not start all over again with the new pamphlet
and possibly revised requirements.
Click on name for a link to
www.usscouts.org
to see detailed requirements for that Merit Badge.
