Welcome! This forum has a treasure trove of great info – Scouters helping Scouters! Just a heads up, though - all content, information, and opinions shared on this forum are those of the author, not the BSA.
Have found a couple of issues due to the changes made to merit badge counselor handling in Scoutbook.
When a scout turns in his blue card from a merit badge clinic, I find that I can no longer assign that merit badge clinic counselor to the scout’s merit badge record.
After importing the merit badge completion report from scout camp, there is no way to add the “EBSR Camp Staff” or actual staff member name as the merit badge counselor to the scout’s merit badge record. The camp only provides the merit badge reports via Black Pug software, not on paper.
A council approved merit badge counselor is connected to a scout through Scoutbook. Counselor records the requirements completed and completion date on the blue card but not through Scoutbook. It appears that we have no way to indicate in Scoutbook that the counselor signed off on the merit badge for that scout.
Is there a workaround to these three items other than just adding a note for each completed requirement in the scout’s merit badge record.
@DavidRounds, If the Merit Badge is already complete and you have the Blue Card, or an equivalent, there is no need to connect a Merit Badge Counselor to the Scout. Your unit Advancement Chair, or other authorized leader can mark the Merit Badge Complete. Then use the Note field at the bottom to indicate the name of the Merit Badge Counselor, or that the MB was earned at [abc] Scout Reservation.
If I understand your response correctly, we can no longer print “complete” blue cards for merit badges completed at Scout Camp where the data was imported via the Black Pug import. After camp in the previous two years, we were able to assign the “E.B.S.R. Staff” merit badge counselor and have the info print on the blue card. So apparently, we have to give each scout a printed copy of the Black Pug import data so they have a record of the completion at scout camp.
