I’m looking for a Skating merit badge counselor, however I can’t figure out how to search for local merit badge counselors in https://advancements.scouting.org/.
Any help would be appreciated, thanks.
@RyanHendrickson What are your registered positions / functional roles in the troop / crew / ship?
I have one with “Connection” for my son and a second one as a “Committee Member”.
As a committee member you do not have the default permission to search for a MBC. Your Scout should be speaking the Scoutmaster or someone the Scoutmaster designates to find a MBC.
Let me check-in with the Scoutmaster, he had advised me the new system required/allowed parents searching. To confirm, so I have the right information, - in advacements.scouting.org, the new system, only a Scoutmaster role can search for merit badge counselors?
Thanks
Permission to search for MBCs can be given to additional leaders by the Key 3, however, the Guide to Advancement says the Merit Badge process starts with the Scout meeting wi to the Scoutmaster or designee to get contact information for one or more MBCs
I appreciate the additional information, thank you!
@RyanHendrickson - once your scout has contact information on an MBC and they agree to work with your scout you should be able to connect that counselor via the merit badge page where it says assign counselor.
I understand this, but here’s the real life problem. Many times, when contacted, if the MBC’s aren’t in a scouts troop, they don’t respond. This can be a problem for many of the more obscure badges. It also creates an undue burden for the Scoutmaster who has to search and coordinate with the scout and their parents to find someone to work on the badge(s).
Once the Scoutmaster gives the approval for a scout to work on the badge, the parents of that scout should also have the ability to reach out to a MBC. It’s the best real world solution.
If your scoutmaster wants to delegate that responsibility to you specifically as a registered adult, that’s fine, but the whole list will not be made available to all parents.
Yet it was available for years in the previous SB version. I’m still not 100% sure why it changed.
There is a bug that prevents some leaders that can search for MBCs to see the contact information. The workaround is for the Scoutmaster to provide that information to the Scout until it is fixed.
Watch Scoutbook - Scoutbook Plus Change Log - Scouting Forums for an announcement of a fix.
Not for non-registered-scouter parents, based on my experience. The issue came up all the time in my troop about having to come in and talk to someone about finding an MBC.
It was visible to all registered scouters in classic SB. Scouting America made the decision to limit to the Key 3 and anyone specifically delegated by the Key 3, presumably to be consistent with what they had in the Guide to Advancement. As Ed noted, there are ways to designate other scouters to access the list, but there is currently an issue for which the only workaround is having of the Key 3 (or a Key 3 delegate, since I can still see it from my account) look up the information.
