It’s been a long wait since Scouting Magazine announced the Historic Merit Badge Program back in January to yesterday when the program was made live for Scouts to earn the badges.  (ok, technically the material first appeared on March 30th, according to some readers- however according to the material April 1st was the first day of the program.)  The original announcement with lack of details caused quite a flurry on the web with some Councils and Leaders jumping the gun and offering the merit badges based solely off of the original requirements.  A lot of folks couldn’t wait for the details as is apparent from the comments on our February 2nd post stating the Historic Merit Badge Program was on hold until the materials were finished and posted online per the original announcement.

All of the support material for the Historic Merit Badge Program can now be found here:
http://www.scouting.org/sitecore/content/Home/BoyScouts/AdvancementandAwards/historical_mb_program.aspx

The site features background, requirements for each of the four Historic Merit Badges (Carpentry, Signaling, Tracking, Pathfinding), sample press releases, Historic Merit Badge Fliers, an implementation plan, and plans to hold the merit badge sessions at Council events.

According to the National site, one of the goals for the Historic Merit Badge program is for a majority of the BSA’s registered Boy Scouts earn one of the merit badges during the centennial year.  The historic badges will count towards a Scout’s rank advancement, and the effective date for earning these merit badges is April 1, 2010, and the requirements must be completed no later than December 31st, 2010.

Since it is now official, don’t delay, go out and recruit some appropriate Merit Badge Counselors and help your Scouts take this step back in history!  Everything you need is available at http://www.scouting.org/sitecore/content/Home/BoyScouts/AdvancementandAwards/historical_mb_program.aspx

Over the next few days, we at Scouting News are going to take an in-depth look into all four of these Historical Merit Badges.