Bugling merit badge is being discontinued as of next January, 2011.
Bill Nelson, a Scouter in the Grand Canyon Council (and former member of the USSSP team) wrote to BSA's "Ask the Expert" as follows:
The Bugling merit badge is no longer on the scouting.org site, and it looks like the Music merit badge requirements have changed to absorb Bugling. What's happening there?
Here's their reply, which confirms the guess I made a week or so ago:
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That's a great question, and it's one that a lot of Scouters are asking. Diane Leicht of the BSA's Youth Development team tells us that the Bugling merit badge will be discontinued in 2011 and its requirements will be merged into Music merit badge. Here's her full response:
The revised merit badge pamphlet that merged Bugling into Music was released earlier this year. It won’t be official until the 2011 Boy Scout Requirements book is released in January 2011.
Scouts may continue to earn the Bugling merit badge using the old pamphlet until that time. If Scouts have a copy of the new merit badge pamphlet with Music only, they can choose to earn the Music merit badge and complete the new bugling option as part of the requirements for the Music merit badge.
The two merit badge pamphlet covers illustrate this change. Previously, Music and Bugling were two separate merit badges that shared a pamphlet. With the new pamphlet, Bugling is no longer a separate badge, and bugling-related requirements become an option for Scouts seeking the Music merit badge.
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I've posted the revised requirements, including what specifically changed, and including an image of the new pamphlet cover.
Most of the requirements from Bugling were incorporated into Music, with a few changes and some of the less well known and less frequently used bugle calls eliminated.
For details see:Bugling requirements
Music requirements changes
Yours in Scouting,
Paul S. Wolf, P.E. pwolf@usscouts.org
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Secretary, U.S. Scouting Service Project, Inc.