I am in the process of taking over the Advancement Coordinator for my local Troop. The outgoing Adv Coord has told me that our District/Council has routinely been very slow on approving new MBCs / uploading them to Scoutbook, and that this has gotten even worse lately due to some transition of responsibilities between the two. Two examples: a) I applied to be an MBC last November and have still not been told yes/no, or had my role updated in Scoutbook, b) the most “updated” list of MBCs our outgoing Adv Coord has is from 2017.
We have tried explaining to our local District/Council how difficult this makes it for us, but so far nothing has been done.
I don’t want to “throw these people under the bus”, because I know they are wrestling with a lot of issues. But this is becoming a real problem for Scout advancement.
Does anyone have suggestions as to how I can get the attention of our District/Council, or alternatively ideas for a workaround?
There is no workaround. Effective February 1, 2021 the ONLY entities that can put MBCs into Scoutbook are a) national/ScoutNET or b) councils doing direct uploads into Scoutbook itself.
I do not show you as registered as a merit badge counselor. Scoutbook won’t show you as a MBC until you are registered as one. My suggestion is that you contact your local council registrar directly.
Are you able to use the MB Counselor List search from your main troop page?
Yes. That list is also outdated (showing individuals no longer associated with the Troop) and has not been updated to show those who have applied for (and presumably been approved for) MBC status over the past several months.
The MB Counselor List search is not limited to your troop. It will show any MBCs within the paramaters that you set and also based on MBC list preferences.
Anthony
I sent you a direct message, click on your icon in the upper right and the envelope.
I am the Advancement Chair for my Troop. Just before Summer Camp I looked up our various MBC’s to gather info for the scouts coming back with partials. I am very glad I did! I found that at least 3 of our MBC’s were not in SB and a different one had 5 of 6 MB’s not listed. We contacted the person in our District who handles MBC’s and all but one has now been restored. I encourage each Troop to look up their MBC’s and make sure everyone is listed and that all of their MB’s are correct.
The system will work but it has to be thorough from top to bottom. The most important thing is that MBC , merit Badge Counselor, are not a member of a unit, but of a district or council. My council passes this back to the district as some of our list are large.
Work with your district or better yet council Advancement Chair as this has to work from the top down.
Do not worry about council access to ScoutBook. It is extremely little. Most of the work is done in Scoutnet going over to my.scouting.org ( I have heard by end of the year)
I am hoping there will be an access for MBC Deans to enter MB into system. This would cut our council’s registrar work load by great numbers.
I would be nice if some of those details get shared back to the councils so we know what is happening.
Please remember MBC can work only with a certain unit(s) if they want, but they are a member of that council/district when they sign up.
John Heuchan
BAC MBC Dean
Chesapeake MBC Dean
