I know the requirements and merit badge are available in scoutbook.
But, does anyone know when the Rank requirements will be updated to include this Merit Badge?
IE: Star, Life and Eagle. The list shows the merit badge doesn’t flag as Required.
So, can they use it for STAR and LIFE prior to July 1 as a required merit badge?
Currently the merit badge is flagged as an elective.
It is an Elective till July 1 @BrianSackmann - but it is a good question and I sent it off for clarification
It seems like a reasonable interpretation that it is only an elective for those scouts who could finish Eagle prior to 1 July 2022. For example, a scout who is just starting Star (i.e. just completed First Class BoR) or Life (i.e. just completed Star BoR) would not be able to meet that deadline. Therefore, it does seem reasonable (IMHO) be able to consider Citizenship in Society to be one of their Eagle-required badges, since by the time that they are able to earn their Eagle rank, it will be required. I realize that’s potentially a stretch, since it is not (as @DonovanMcNeil points out) technically Eagle-required yet. Hopefully the national advancement folks agree. I’d like to be able to use this as a carrot to get some of my scouts working on the new merit badge.
My concern is that a Scout working toward Star or Life would not be able to use it to satisfy the Required MBs for each of those ranks until July.
Understood. I tend to think that they should be able to use it sooner (since they can’t possibly complete Eagle prior to the deadline), but we’re kinda stuck waiting on the official interpretation. Hopefully that will be one of the “coming clarifications” that were promised in the initial news release through Bryan on Scouting.
All MBs are electives for any rank under Eagle. Scouts can count any MB in meeting the needed number for those Ranks.
The only become Required at Eagle. They could have been earned while a Tenderfoot.
When you get to Eagle you essentially re-count all the MBs earned during a Scout’s entire career. If it totals up to 21, and includes the 13 (now 14) required badges the requirements have been met.
Don’t over-think this.
@PeterTownsend perhaps you need to read the requirements - for Star rank - 4 Eagle Required MBs are needed and the rest can be electives. For Life 3 Additional Eagle required are needed, then electives. That is the very good question - can CIS be counted as an Eagle for that purpose, before it is required for Eagle on 7/1/22
News out on this - YES CIS can be used for Star/Life staring now as an Eagle Required MB - we have asked for official release as well
Correct, i know better. The last comment however is that CIS could be one of the electives for the earlier ranks if enough other required’s were there, but is automatically counted as a required for Eagle.
The biggest problem you should be seeing is that National with it Eagle requirement starting July 1st, 2022 is going to hurt a bunch of Scouts that are working on Eagle at this very moment and will be cutting it close to begin with. We all know and have had that one Scout that turned in their paperwork a week or less before they turn 18. Any other time they made a merit badge required the Scouts were given a 1 year grace period including cooking when they took it away from Eagle and then made it required again. Every Scout should be given that same consideration on this merit badge. Especially when you look around and we have no counselor’s for this merit badge as of yet and word is they will be very strict on who can be a counselor. Then lets see what it does to membership, I don’t know about the rest of you but I’ve had parent’s already asking me about the requirements so they can decide if Scouting is still a program they want to be involved in. You try to email or contact anyone at National and they basically pass it off with a auto reply email to contact your local council, who can’t do anything about it anyway. As usual national waits till the day of release to put any information on it out, so we as leaders can’t even explain it when we get hit with questions that same day.
I don’t see why this should be the case as they are merely facilitating the conversation and not a subject expert.
Actually, I am now a registered MBC for this merit badge, and didn’t have any special hoops to jump through from my council. I’m just an engineer, so clearly not a subject-matter expert. I did take the BSA’s DEI training course and reviewed the counselor/scout materials that have been put out. I’m actually looking forward to counseling something in which I’m not a particular expert, as I figure I’ll likely learn as much or more about it over time than the scouts will.
As @JohnGeiser noted, our role as counselors in this case is primarily as facilitators, rather than (necessarily) having any particular expertise to contribute. While I’m waiting for “customers”, I’m working on identifying local resources who might be able to serve the scouts as part of completing requirement #7, since I suspect that the scouts may not have much of an idea who to reach out to. I’m also planning to add the folks that the scouts identify to my “list” so that it’s self-expanding as they identify people about whom I may not have known. Hopefully, it can serve as a resource for scouts in my area who are having trouble thinking of someone with whom to speak, but don’t want to rely only on a historical figure, which is the other option to complete this requirement. If it seems useful enough, I can share it with other local counselors to help out the scouts they are serving.
Right now, I’m working only within my district, since I anticipate demand may be high enough to keep me busy there, but once we have more counselors and/or the demand falls to the “regular” levels for an Eagle-required MB, I may start opening up where I counsel a bit more.
@CharleyHamilton - well stated and good for you. I was considering becoming an MBC as well. Having lived through the riots in Newark, NJ and experiencing things that most youth do not… any opportunity for growth and thought in our youth is a good thing.
I can see why, given that some people will come into being an MBC on this with an agenda, based on whatever their personal beliefs on this area are. I know no one SHOULD, but we all know Scouters who will.
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