Troop 201 Merit Badge Page

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What are merit badges?
A merit badge is an award that is presented to you when you have learned a merit badge subject and have completed the requirements associated with it. The badges cover a wide range of subjects, including safety, fitness, citizenship, art, craft, hobby, sport, trade, profession, agribusiness, service, and self-improvement areas. Working on merit badges should be both fun and educational. The knowledge and skills you learn will help you be prepared for both Scouting and life. Earning merit badges is also a Boy Scouts of America requirement in order to advance through the higher ranks.

What are the subjects and which are required?
A list of the approximately 120 merit badge subjects is provided in your Scout Handbook. (The list starts on page 188 in the 11th edition.) A Scout must earn at least 21 merit badges, including a minimum of 12 out of a particular list of 15 badges, as part of the requirements to earn the honored rank of Eagle. These particular subjects are:

	Citizenship in the Community
	Family Life
	Personal Management
	Citizenship in the Nation
	First Aid
	Environmental Science
	Citizenship in the World
	Personal Fitness
	Camping
	Communications
	Emergency Preparedness OR Lifesaving
	Hiking OR Swimming OR Cycling When do I work on earning a badge? It’s up to you to take the initiative to work on the badges. You make your own arrangements to work on them. You work to your own schedule, usually on weekends and nights. Try to pace yourself so you earn at least 21 badges by the time you are about 17 years old. Feel free to join up with a buddy because working with a buddy usually makes the projects more fun. You are welcome to ask your Scoutmasters for advice, but earning badges is something you do mostly on your own or when you team up with other scouts. Where do I work on badges? Before you start working on the requirements for any badge, you must team up with a counselor who will coach you on the subject. (More about counselors in a moment.) You and the counselor talk on the phone and make arrangements to get started. Most counselors will want to meet with you before you start working on the badge, and all need to meet with you to finish earning the badge. Make an agreement with the counselor about where to meet. It might be at a public library, a local McDonald’s, your house or the counselor’s house. To be safe, you must never meet with the counselor when you are alone - always take a parent or a buddy along. All the counselors have been told that this is a requirement, so they should always understand and quickly agree to this requirement. Most of the time you will do most of the work at your own home. You are welcome to work on a badge while you are also learning the subject for another reason, such as for a school project. For some topics (such a sailing) you’ll need to make arrangements to use particular equipment (such as a boat) or go to a particular place to do some of the requirements. Your parent and counselor will help you make those arrangements. Again, you are welcome to ask your Scoutmasters for advice. How do I get started? The details are in your Scout Handbook, but here’s an outline. Come see the Scoutmaster to ask questions anytime. Select a subject for which you want to earn a badge. Come see a Scoutmaster to get a ‘Blue Card’. A Blue Card is used to sign you up for the subject, for keeping track of your progress on the subject, and for your & the troop’s records that you have completed the requirements and earned the badge. He will sign the card to show that you have permission to start working towards the badge. You’ll have to fill out some blank lines on the card with your name, the merit badge subject, and such. You must team up with a counselor before you start working on earning the badge. Adults associated with Troop 201 and from many other troops all over the area have signed up to be counselors for nearly all of the merit badge subjects. Scoutmaster / Assistant Scoutmaster will give you a short list of names and phone numbers. Call these people to ask them about being a counselor for you. Talk with them on the phone a little to get to know them, and to learn where they live and where you’d meet them to discuss the merit badge requirements. You don’t have to use the first person that says yes to your request. Keep calling until you find a counselor who is available, whom you think you’ll be comfortable working with, and who lives not far away. How do I finish and get the badge? Your merit counselor will coach you on what you need to learn and do to complete all the requirements to earn the badge. All of the requirements and most of the instructional information you need are provided in the subject merit badge booklet (learning guide). Most counselors require that you read the complete merit badge booklet. The booklets are often available to borrow from the Troop Librarian, or you may buy your own. When your counselor agrees that you have learned the material and have completed all the requirements needed for earning the badge, he or she will sign off on the Blue Card. The cards have three portions and the counselor will choose to keep the counselor portion for her or his records. You should bring all remaining portions to me or one of the other Scoutmasters so that we know you have completed the badge. The Troop Advancement chairman will record that information in the official Troop records. Once that has been done we will return your completed “applicant’s” portion of the Blue Card to you for retention in your personal records. Your portion of the Blue Card is your proof that you have earned the merit badge. You should carefully keep these for your records until you have either earned the rank of Eagle or you are 100% positive you no longer care about earning the rank of Eagle. We’ll present the actual badge to you during a Court of Honor! Please contact a Scoutmaster if you have questions about how to earn badges or to get a list of counselors for subjects in which you are interested. Remember that it’s up to you to start to earn badges!