With all the advancements regarding scouting's "Web Presence" I'm really surprised that there isn't an official "Merit Bagde Site" for the Boy Scouts. It could be the one stop spot for what badges are offered, listing what requirments are offered, etc. Heck even have buttons to order the books and any other resrouces needed to complete the badge. That way though when supply division comes out with a newer MB Book it'll get published there and you can see the changes. I've taught classes for some time now and usually the first time I know about a new book is when a scout brings a copy into the class.
I'm afraid I don't see what you mean. To me when it says to seek truth, fairness and adventure in the world means that "I as a Venturer will look for people and places that promote/show Truth, Fairness and Adventure in the world"
It seems to me the focus is to discover these traits in others rather then saying the world shows these traits. We all know that not everyone in the world exemplifies these qualities.
The main reason I'm voting no on this is because facebook is too uncontrolled for the purposes of scoutings in my opinion. Besides as of today the new Scouting Community has been release out of beta and is ready for heavy use. I'd recomend looking into that. It's got the possiblity of being a great community of scouters for scouters.
BTW since I had to be told where it is at first you can find it at http://community.scouting.org/
Promoting fitness is always a great idea, but we have one major flaw in that. The scouting program teaches a learn by example concept. Yet now adays I see most adult leaders are less then physically fit themselves. Why should a should listen to his SM / Adult Leader when they dont' follow their own advice.
It's not a perfect solution I know but if we all tried this it might get a better following.
The problem with that is that with sites like Youtube and Facebook there is adverstiments up and down the sides that you can't control. So a kid goes to look up something for scouting. Then he finds it, reviews it, then starts clicking an add which takes him to a page where he might click another add, etc. While it's a bit of a stretch it's not that inconceivable for a youth to find something inappropriate eventually. Why? Because he was "just looking into a scouting page?"
We could always use some newer technology to catch up with times and National seems to be embracing it slower then we may want but we're still starting to move to new frontiers. Give us time and we'll get there.
An interesting idea but I don't like forcing the council/professional’s goals onto the scouts. Not to get nitpicky but the job of the professional is to raise money, not the scout. The Scout's "job" if you will is to among so many other things enjoy scouting and have fun. Sure leadership and life experiences are part of that process and there is some merit in introducing them to finance raising I'm just afraid they're too young to truly appreciate this. That and it might scare them away if they don't get their eagle cause they didn't raise enough money.
I know it's a bit to extreme in this example but I hope I conveyed my point.
While I do agree that MB Counselors should be registered, have a background check, and take youth protection online. I don't think we should be charging them $5 registration per year. Asking these people for money would most likely, in my opinion, discourage them from wanting to be Counselors in the first place. As it has been said by Pat & others before me some of these people are volunteers who give up their own free time to work with kids (so making them take YPT and CBC is a good idea) however if we start making them jump through too many hoops then they may not want to keep helping out.
As for rosters and such our council was lucky enough to have a volunteer create a database program that keeps track of all the data for us. We're working out a system that involves our registrar processing each application then giving it to the district executive who turns around and hands it to their District Merit Badge Committee. They maintain the roster and provide the office with current lists. Each this committee contacts existing registered people and confirms they're still interested in being counselors. It might seem like a bit but it's actually easy enough to do. I'm curious though about what other councils / districts do.
I'm in agreement. The Board of Review is and always has been a part of showing scouts a proper interview environment. In my own troop as a scout we would conduct boards that went on for at least 10-15 minutes. My own Eagle Board was approximately 30+ minutes as well.
Another program that introduced / reinforced was JLT which is now NYLT. We were interviewed by staff in order to participate and go through the program, we had to be interviewed and give a small presentation to get on as staff, we were taught and practiced in teaching (not exactly the same but similar in that it involves speaking confidently) as NYLT Staff to help us when it was our turn to interview and teach.
All of that being said it is something that I've noticed that eagle applicants bringing in their applications don't seem to be able to speak confidently or even communicate basic ideas about what going on.
Out of all three of those ideas (and I'm not saying they all don’t' have some merit) Idea #2 would be a great way to help out professionals. Though most of our professional staff already knows this it could in theory help out new professionals who are taking over positions or district committee / commissioners as well.
As a webmaster for my local council it would be helpful to have a section of either the scouting.org site or somewhere else (private or public) just for council webmasters. This area could be as simple as national provides sets of standard clipart, resources, and recommendations for how to present your council site. Having a dedicated source for new things to put up on our sites would be nice especially if we could give feedback as well. Such as, there's a National Jamboree coming, here's a flash video to stream on your site to generate interest or please use these banners with the new 100th anniversary logo on them. Better yet here are some editable files so you can customize them and fit them into your own councils website.
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