Merit Badge entry missing and unable to add

I just discovered that the Swimming merit badge is missing as being complete or incomplete for a scout. I feel sure that it was in there and disappeared, but I was going to just add it back. I started the process to add the requirements’ completion dates and ran into a limitation. The badge was started in 2020. I did the “Start a New Merit Badge” and put in an approval date in 2020. For the Quick Entry, it only allows me to do it for the 2023 version. The scout obviously did not start the badge with that set of requirements.

BSA Member ID: 133437683

If no requirements are entered you can change version

It won’t let me select the scout with the 2014 version selected.

I can setup a quick screenshare to see

Okay. What do I need to do?

The Scout most likely has one or more requirements marked off under the newer version. In order to change version years, you have to remove all of the requirements that are marked off.

I was able to add a couple of requirements to the merit badge with the 2014 version. Now the Quick Entry has it available to do the rest.

The scout did have multiple requirements marked off under the correct version. They disappeared.
There were, and are, no requirements marked off under the 2023 version. I did not remove any requirements that were marked off of either version.

If no requirements are marked off, then you should be able to select the version year by using the tabs at the top of the merit badge.

In the picture below, the 2023 version is currently selected, but you can select the 2014 version by clicking on the 2014 version year tab:

I did not see that when I started the process today, including the Initial Unit Leader Signature that is in the screenshot. I did find that I was able to go to that page, select 2014, and mark a couple of requirements complete with date and Notes. After doing that, I was able to go to Quick Entry and continue as desired with the 2014 version.

The problem is that the Quick Entry did not initially allow me to select the Scout with the 2014 version until after I went through some of the ‘slow entry’ process.

A unit admin might be able to see who modified the records by looking at the “Audit Log Report” under the troop reports. They would toggle off everything except the “Advancement” piece, and set the date ranges and groupings (e.g. select just that scout’s patrol to minimize extraneous data) accordingly.

I would suspect that is the system assuming that “no work had been done” (i.e. no requirements signed-off) prior to the new MB requirements taking effect. Therefore, the scout was being mandated to work on the new requirements (rather than being permitted to finish under the older MB requirements as described in the Guide to Advancement). Adding one or two requirement completions (prior to the effective date of the new requirements) would overcome that type of programmatic logic (again, assuming I’ve guessed right about what’s happening).

That is what I am assuming happened also. That is fine for a default version selection. However, it should allow the proper version to be selected. This is especially the case when the Initial Unit Leader Signature is dated to be within the bounds of a different version. Something for the developers to affect.

That’s probably a program (not programming) question that has to be addressed by whoever defines what “started work” means. Is a leader signature on a blue card enough? Connecting to a counselor? Work submitted to (but not yet approved by) a counselor? I suspect it’s not quite as straightforward as it seems like it should be to us as users.

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