Any adult, including scoutmasters, committee members, parents and adults outside of the troop, can be a registered Merit Badge Counselor within the Lakeview District/Longhorn Council.
The Merit Badge Counselor is a key player in the Boy Scout advancement program. Whatever your area of expertise or interest — whether it is a special craft or hobby (basketry, leatherwork, coin collecting), a profession (veterinary medicine, aviation, engineering), or perhaps a life skill (cooking, personal management, communications) — you can play a vital role in stirring a young man's curiosity about that particular topic. By serving as a merit badge counselor, you offer your time, knowledge, and other resources so that Scouts can explore a topic of interest.
Your role is to bring about learning on the part of the Boy Scout. Counselors are also a coach, examiner, and teacher.
Steps to Registering as a Counselor
Fill out an Adult Application form for a Merit Badge Counselor position.
Fill out a Merit Badge Counselor form to indicate the merit badge(s) you want to counsel.
Get the forms from Mark Whitman, or see the links at the bottom of this page.
Take the Youth Protection Training course and print a copy of your completion certificate.
Give all 3 forms to Mark. He will get committee signatures, update the troop database, and submit your application to the District.
Youth Protection Training
All adult volunteers are required as of June 1, 2010 to complete this BSA training course before working with scouts. This training can be done through the BSA's Online Learning Center at olc.scouting.org . BSA Youth Protection Training helps preserve a safe environment for young people and adult leaders so that they can all enjoy the Scouting program.
* YPT certification must be renewed every 2 years as of January 1, 2009.
Scouting.org. Official BSA website with requirements for every merit badge.
Current version
Requirements date (copyright) for merit badges here.
Revision history
USScouts.org. Ignore the tables of revision / copyright dates. Instead, select your merit badge in the left sidebar. You can see the text changes that were made, the Effective Date for the current requirements, and the Pamphlet Date.
NOTE: the "Requirements last updated in:" date refers to the official "Boy Scout Requirements" book that is updated annually.
Other sites
Meritbadge.org has worksheets and other information. This site is popular, but is not always up to date. For example, on 3/7/2010 they did not have the new Scuba Diving merit badge released in December 2009.
