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.
On Feb 1, I was removed from my merit badges/connections.
I have spoken with my Council to update and received an email stating: 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: Dog Care, Home Repairs, Pets, Stamp Collecting
I am a counselor for about a dozen more merit badges which all show up in Scoutbook though.
I was told by my Council rep that I would have to change my list preference from Council to Worldwide but when I attempt to do so, I get an error: Listing Preference: The Worldwide option is only available to council approved merit badge counselors. Please contact your council service center for more details.
Based on the abbreviated list, it sounds like your council didn’t upload all of the badges you have listed, so the system is confused. I would start by verifying what badges council has listed for you on their list. Being approved, but not for all of the badges you have listed in Scoutbook, may have found an edge case in the code.
I will double check on Monday, but when I called on Wednesday after being deleted from all the merit badges, I gave the membership chair the complete list and she manually added the ones not listed.
All the merit badges listed in Scoutbook are the ones I gave her. I’m going to venture a guess and say since the one’s she added are the ones not listed on the email that it may take a little longer to get that email?
Also, not sure if it matters or not, but prior to Feb 1 the merit badges I was approved for in SB had a green checkbox and now they’re all a blue checkbox?
OK here is my bet Kriste - I am Longhorn too - I told them NEVER to upload the old MBC list - before that is the only way you could set to Worldwide. I think removing the one time upload from allowing it is still in effect. We will check
If a council never uploaded the MBC list, then until February 1st this year any unit in the council could add MBCs to Scoutbook, and add their badges at will. They would not show up as “Approved by [Council]” but would still go through the Youth Protection checks before appearing on the counselor listing. Their badges should have had a green check box.
On February 1st, any counselor position on a unit roster but not a council roster in ScoutNET (i.e., actually registered in the position) was removed from the unit roster. Those that were registered in ScoutNET stayed on the list, but only in the MBC roster, and only those merit badges recorded in ScoutNET show up as approved, which should have the blue checkmark.
What’s not clear is how this works in councils that do not record the badge approvals in ScoutNET. I believe that they will have to manually upload their lists into Scoutbook. Anything that’s recorded or changed in ScoutNET gets pushed over to Scoutbook daily.
