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.
Your council has recently updated its list of approved merit badge counselors and shared that information with unit leaders on Scoutbook. Your approved badges are now:
Merit Badges: Geocaching, Inventing, Radio, Programming, Digital Tech
I asked my council why Photography wasn’t included (they were all submitted simultaneously on the same form) and received the following reply:
I do show you down for photography.
You have to sometimes Sync it and I don’t know why or how. You can always ask https://help.scoutbook.com and see if they know why or how to fix it.
I’m assuming then that I’ll just never be a counselor for Photography. My council can’t / wont fix it and from past experience I have no reason to believe this post will help.
If Scoutbook is the official way to interact with BSA it needs an actual dedicated support team that you can communicate with (chat, email, etc.). Not just “send this off into the ether and never expect an answer”.
@JamesBrown13 - when you log into scoutbook.scouting.org > my dashboard > my account > my positions does it list the MBC position with the merit badges listed. Additionally, which council is this for ?
Your council last uploaded an MBC list on 8/14/2020. They will either need to upload another MBC list with Photography included for you or add Photography to your record in ScoutNET.
No, that’s the point. It doesn’t show in SB and it wasn’t in the list SB sent me when it said I was added. However, my council (Crossroads of the west) insists they put it in.
I assure you that’s not the case. I applied 12/17 so I guarantee these were added long after 8/14. I received the following email from SB (note the date):
From: Scoutbook <[scoutbook.donotreply@scouting.org]>
To: James [redacted]>
Subject: Your Merit Badge Counselor Status on Scoutbook
Date: Saturday, December 19, 2020 11:07 PM
Hi James,
Your council has recently updated its list of approved merit badge counselors and shared that information with unit leaders on Scoutbook. Your approved badges are now:
Merit Badges: Geocaching, Inventing, Radio, Programming, Digital Tech
Since you already have a Scoutbook account, there is no action that you need to take at this time. Thank you for everything you do for Scouting and for your support of Scoutbook.
We have requested your positions be synced again from ScoutNET. If Photography MB is listed in ScoutNET for you, it will be added to Scoutbook overnight. If it is not added, ask your Council to look in ScoutNET to validate that it does in fact contain Photography MB for you.
The quoted e-mail does not mention ScoutNET. Many Councils have multiple sources of MBC lists. ScoutNET is the one that is the source for Scoutbook sync. Unfortunately the SUAC does not have visibility into ScoutNET so we cannot determine if Photography MB is in your list there. This is why we need the Council to specifically look in ScoutNET.
I can ask again but given that the other MBs on the same form were in SB and the council only records MBCs in ScoutNET, I’m (rashly) assuming that it’s in ScoutNET. Also, the fact that she specifically mentioned syncing with SB makes me think she’s looking in ScoutNET.
I’ll wait until tomorrow to see if the sync tonight gets it updated. If not, I’ll have her grab a screenshot of the ScoutNET page with my MBs on it so we know it’s in there.
If you applied on 12/17, and your records were entered into ScoutNET in time to be uploaded to Scoutbook on 12/19, then consider yourself lucky to have a diligent registrar in your council.
