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.
I have tried and tried to get the merit badge counselor positions corrected within Scoutbook. They all say expired.
I have contacted council/district leadership and scoutbook support, separately and then together. (I went to the scout office in Fairview before it closed)
Scoutbook says council needs to upload the list. District/council folks says they uploaded the list and it’s a scoutbook issue.
Our DE says our merit badge counselors have been approved. They can serve as MBCs. But MBC won’t show up as a current position within Scoutbook so scouts can’t link to them to work to work on a merit badge.
Your Council Admin in Scoutbook should upload a new list. There was an issue fixed last week that caused some uploads to fail. They can also download a list from Scoutbook to see if anyone or any badges are missing.
Honestly, I’ve been having the same problem since my council first started uploading our MBC list about a year ago or so. They say I’m approved on their list, but Scoutbook still lists the position as expired. There are several of us all in the same situation, and we’ve gotten the same responses from both sides. Unfortunately, there’s not much that the folks at Scoutbook can do, assuming it’s not a bug in the upload scripts. Similarly, if the folks at your council doing the upload aren’t particularly tech-savvy, it’s hard for them to recognize the issue as it occurs.
There is a bug. I can’t add MBC position for my husband. But when I searched on a counselor for American Labor he showed up as a MBC. I did a search for a merit badge that I am a MBC for and I don’t show up at all. I cannot add MBC to my list of positions. I am an admin and have the admin rights to make position changes. I went to the council office before they closed and Charlene made changes on the spot. But they didn’t take. Tyler our DE says we are approved as MBCs. It is not limited to just the two of us. I only use the two us as an example. Who can fix this problem?
If your council uploaded the MBC list you cannot make any changes to it, only the council can. If your Council uploaded the MBC list once and has uploaded it again, changes made since the last upload are not reflected in Scoutbook. You will have to find out from your Council if they have uploaded the list and if so, the last time it was uploaded.
Ooh. Can I ask about San Diego Imperial Council (#049)? It would be great if this info was available in a semi-public place so that we as leaders can tell when the council last updated, and ping them for new info if relevant. For example, an update date > 6 months old might indicate some folks have become counselors and others may have dropped off voluntarily or for lack of YPT
Urk… Thanks, @DonovanMcNeil. I’ll ping my council, because I know we’ve had changes since then. I’ve had at least a couple of adults just associated my troop decide to drop as MBCs as they’re moving from semi-retired to really-retired…
That is why I have instructed my council NOT to upload - a better solution is needed. Councils need to be forced to add what merit badges are taught by each MBC to ScoutNET and not use their own systems. Then it could all be automatic
I just pinged my contacts at council about getting our list updated. If I hear anything back from them about their access, I’ll let y’all know. I wouldn’t be surprised if ScoutNET has restricted access somehow, but I’ve been surprised by BSA-IT before.
I’m the guy at my council who put merit badge counselor into ScoutNET which is used to feed ScoutBOOK… One thing at council that I do is when I add the specific merit badge to a counselor’s record is that I didn’t put in an expiration date just the date of the approval. and then the registration as merit badge counselor determine if he is a valid counselor. if you put an expiration date then that overdrives the registration.
Merit badge counselors are not unit positions but are registered at the council level. They have been put in my district leader list since my council did not have a place to put them. It screwed up my training numbers since none were trained. If you are approved by the council then don’t worry if you are registered as a unit leader even. Those who are only merit badge councilors do not have to even pay to register.
Merit badge counselors are registered and approved on the district level and all applications must be approved by the district merit badge counselor coordinator before the application is entered into the BSA membership system.
Reregistering merit badge counselors must complete a new Merit Badge Counselor Information form annually for approval, but a new application is not required.
My opinion
This policy and procedure is not new.
For many years my council offered classroom training for MBCs but the training was not recorded in ScoutNet because the focus was on training top direct-contact leaders.
MBCs are not counted for troop JTE training evaluation.
There is confusion where MBCs are registered and where they chose to serve. (At least one council is requiring all MBCs to serve Scouts council-wide.)
I encourage MBC old-timers with unrecorded MBC training to submit a copy of their training certificate to their district training committee so it can be recorded in the BSA training database.
I’ve run into this as well. Are you able to tell me if my council has uploaded the MBC list into Scoutbook? All the MBCs I check show expired as of 3/23/2020.
