2010 Advancement Requirements Changes

Last evening I completed a review of the new BOY SCOUT REQUIREMENTS 2010 booklet and uploaded information on all of the known changes to Merit Badge and Rank requirements. I also included the new definition and explanation of he procedure to be used for identifying "ACTIVE" Scouts.

Note that the stock number for the requirements booklet, which for many years was 33215x, and last year was changed to 33216, has once again changed, this time to 34765.

A summary of all of the changes can be accessed on the US Scouting Service Project web site at:

http://usscouts.org/advance/changes/advchanges10.asp

As usual, I've used color highlighting in the summary to identify exactly what wording has changed. There are links from the summary to the full requirements for each badge, both with and without highlighting, and from the new requirements to the old requirements for those still using them.

One other item of note is that BSA has clarified the positions of responsibility lists for Star/Life/Eagle to specifically include Webmaster and LNT Trainer as valid for all three ranks in any unit (Troop/Team/Crew/Ship), and that Bugler is valid for Star/Life, it is NOT an eligible position for Eagle (correcting an error in the new Handbook). They also reworded the Eagle "Scout Spirit" requirement, but that is not noted on the inside cover. And the "age requirement" for joining was clarified, but not listed as a change.

17 merit badges have changes. Of those, 5 have major changes, and the other 12 have just a few changes (some of those are really quite minor in scope or just editorial, really), and Scuba Diving is included, of course. Some of the changes bring the book into conformance with merit badge books issued in the past few years (such as Graphic Arts).

New Merit Badge pamphlets are available for 8 subjects: Communications, Computers, Fishing, Fly-Fishing, Home Repairs, Medicine, and Oceanography, plus Scuba Diving, of course.

The summary also includes what I've found as the requirements for the four "Retro" or "Historical" Merit Badges available this year. The name of one is still in question, however, as I've seen it listed as both "Signaller" and "Signaling" in different documents. The original name of Signaller was only used in 1910, and the badge was known as Signaling from 1911-1992, so either name could be the final choice. I've listed it as Signaling at this point, using the name that was used in the announcement in Scouting Magazine's Cracker Barrel blog.

If you find any errors or typos, please let me know.