National Medal for Outdoor Achievement (again)

Scoutbook Using Scoutbook & Scoutbook Plus
1

Coming back to this. I previously submitted this:

Scouts have until 12/31/2025 to earn the National Medal for Outdoor Achievement. The transition to Internet Advancement resulted in the loss of all of my notes/comments, all of the requirements (and their status) and the ability to mark it completed, to get an advancement report.

Internet Advancement has a blank drop down in “Requirements Version”, which is a required field.

When I mark it complete, with the date, I get “error - /0/awards/0/id - 1 is not greater or equal to 1”

Scout’s SB user id is 134518992.”

You guys advised me to create a paper advancement report and:

It is best to just have Councils enter this in their tools for you and Their tools will put in the scout record.

While the paper report did allow me to buy the medal, the Scout Shop and the Council Registrar are unable to enter the medal as “complete” or “approved” or do anything for us to get it into his BSA History Report.

Here is our registrar’s response:

Ken was correct; we are not able to record the National Medal for Outdoor Achievement as of this year. It has been removed from the system. We can file the application with the unit’s paper records, but we can not enter it electronically into (youth’s) profile.

When I try to mark it complete, I still get the same “error - /0/awards/0/id - 1 is not greater or equal to 1”.

An award that takes this much time and effort should absolutely be part of the youth’s record. The amount of time and follow up it is taking to make that happen is insane.

Please advise on how I can get his record updated. (Preferably, by enabling the ability to mark it complete/awarded.)

2

There is some fix being worked on is all I can say - watch the change log

3

@JenniferOverturf You can also ask your council to submit a help ticket to the Scoutbook Plus team. Please ask them to include:

  • Scout’s name
  • Scout’s member ID number
  • Name of the award
  • Date completed / earned
4

Is this truly something that needs to be EARNED by 12/31/25 or that is when a scout is unable to start the award? I have always been under the impression/understanding that a scout has the right to finish an award or merit badge, etc that they have been working on even if it is retired before completing it. My scout has been working on this award for three years at this point and now all the progress and notes are gone, his efforts essentially erased.
Am I missing something?

5

@Lynnette National can retire and end earning of any item when they choose - as all awards/advancements are nationals - on Merit badges, in most cases, you can continue work on previous versions if started on that version - but there are merit badge versions that have been retired and can no longer be earned.

1 Like
6

Is there anyone to contact about this to get clarity? That seems incredibly unfortunate to take three years worth of work away from a scout.

7

@Lynnette- if the medal is not listed at Awards Central | Scouting America then it is no more official than that

8

@Lynnette I would recommend going through your local council advancement committee and have them ask National for clarification.

2 Likes
9

They discontinued the medal on 12/31/2024 and gave Scouts a year (until 12/31/2025) to finish it. You can submit your feedback to National (outdoorprograms@scouting.org) - I did. I got a canned response non-answer - I’m not hopeful they’ll bring it back. It’s unfortunate, because this was a great way to encourage participation and keep older Scouts.

10

This topic was automatically closed 7 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.