Are we able to look up MBCs outside of our Council if the MBC has turned on working with registered Scouts worldwide? At one time this was possible, but now I only see counselors in my Council. This would be extremely helpful for Scouts taking merit badges with online counselors. Otherwise we have no way of verifying the legitimacy of the counselor. Thank you.
It worked just fine for me just now with a MBC I know outside of my council.
Are you checking the “Include worldwide outside of council”, removing the ZIP code, setting the distance to “Any distance” and setting availability to “Both”?
ETA: I assume you’re using the MB Counselor List for the search. Are you looking somewhere else?
Thank you, Charlie. I don’t see “Include worldwide outside of council”. There is a drop down with our Council name, but there are no other choices. I did the rest of your suggestions, and I am using the MB Counselor List for the search. I even looked up you, but did not find you! Would you mind letting me know which badges you used to find your out of Council MBCs?
@CarolWeinrich - you can also try looking me up Stephen Hornak
Thanks, Stephen. Still no results.
@CarolWeinrich - here is what I see in search
@CharleyHamilton - can you search for me
How are you getting to the place where you’re searching? Is it:
Scoutbook → My Dashboard → Administration → My Units → Troop XYZ → MB Counselor List
For me, the option shows up right here:
That’s not actually surprising. I’m not generally set to Worldwide visibility.
I searched for Stephen, actually. I left badges set to “All Badges”.
Maybe a hard refresh of the page will bring up the Worldwide tickbox?
ETA: Ayup, already done, @Stephen_Hornak.
Thank you Stephen. I do not see:
This is what I see:
I am a Council Admin. Would that have anything to do what I am seeing? I checked with another Council Admin and she see the same me.
@CarolWeinrich - that might be it… you can only see your council.
MB Counselor List, which appears at the top of Council Admin Scoutbook dashboards is different than MB Counselor Search which appears on unit pages.
MB Counselor List is restricted to your Council as it is not intended for use by units but only by Council Admins to quickly validate members from their council.
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Thank you, Ed. I appreciate your response. I wish we did have access to MBCs outside our Council with their preferences set to world wide so we would be able to verify those counselors if need be. Thanks again for your help.
All unit leaders have the ability to see Counselors outside of their council. They are the ones who should be verifying if an individual who signs a Blue Card is actually an MBC. If the MB was MBC approved in Scoutbook, the MBC is properly registered so no verification is needed.
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The only time this process breaks is when the MBC was properly registered at the time, but disappears at some point later (either due to a data entry error or due to lapsed registration/YPT).
Assuming that the MBC was connected and used Scoutbook for the sign-offs, that information isn’t lost (and you know they were registered at the time of the sign-offs). If you just get a blue card later (hardcopy or PDF), it becomes a bit more work as a unit scouter to verify the MBC was properly registered (if they are not listed now).
And if the Scout believed the person who signed the Blue Card is/was an MBC, the Guide to Advancement says the Scout should still receive the MB. There is a limited number of reasons a MB can be taken away from a Scout when the Scout believed it was received in good faith. One example would be a Scout earned the Personal Fitness MB 60 days after registering when the MB requires 90 days of tracking.
I’m aware of the Guide to Advancement language, and I concur that it’s the relevant info for the scout being credited. The intent on my end is not to “deny” the scout credit for something they did in good faith. My concern is the proliferation I’ve seen of organizations offering “MB classes” who don’t, in fact, have a registered MBC running the classes (or even involved).
Since it’s unit-level scouters who are seeing the blue cards come in, being able to verify MBCs that we didn’t recommend to the scout (e.g. the scout/parent found a MB class online) are/were valid is valuable for keeping councils abreast of organizations/folks who are making these offers. Ensuring that the scouts are actually working with properly vetted counselors is the overarching goal here. Since we’re not allowed to prevent a scout from working with the counselor of their choice, I want to help minimize chances that they’re “choosing” someone who isn’t a counselor (e.g. by reporting folks who are offering to counsel MBs but aren’t so registered).
It’s even been useful (in a couple of cases) for me to reach out to scouters I know are active who’ve slipped off the list (e.g. due to data entry errors, etc).
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If it is a Printed Blue Card they had to have been a valid MBC at the time
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