The Toughest and Easiest Merit Badges to Achieve

This time on commissioners weekly we discuss how merit badges are a critical part of rank advancement. Scout leaders need to be aware that there are difficult merit badges that need additional mentoring. There are also lots of merit badges that can be considered easy although there is always the exception. Merit badges are a critical part of the scouting experience.
LINKS:
🌐 Easiest Merit Badges to do around the home: www.scouting.org/merit-badge-...
🌐 2022 Merit Badge Rankings: blog.scoutingmagazine.org/202...
🌐 Definition of Merit Badge; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merit_b...)
📄 Guide to Advancement PDF: filestore.scouting.org/filest...
🎬 Centennial Merit Badges: • Discover the 2010 Cent... or • Discover the 2010 Cent...
🎬 Eagle Scout Slayer Merit Badges: • Eagle Scout Slayer - M... and • Eagle Scout Slayer - M...
🎬 Merit Badge Counselor: • Merit Badge Counselor
🎬 The Blue Card Process: • The Blue Card Process ...
🥇 Channel Members Video: • The Toughest and Easie...
🆓 Advertisement Supporter Video: • The Toughest and Easie...
🩳 This Video's Short: • The Toughest and Easie...
❎ Survey Question: • Post
🌟 Monthly Live Meeting: • Live Meetings
🎥 Season 10 Playlist: • CW - Season 10
🔑 Members-Only Playlist: • Members-only videos
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🎧 ScouterStan Podcast: podcasters.spotify.com/pod/sh...
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📊 Poll (5/1/24): What do you think is the easiest Merit Badge to earn?
10% Chess
5% Art
81% Fingerprinting
4% Photography
⏱ Time Stamp & Video Jump List:
0:00 The Purpose of Merit Badges
2:29 Merit Badge Counselor
4:15 The Most Common Merit Badge
6:17 The Rarest Merit Badges
7:50 The Easiest Merit Badges
10:43 Thank You
11:46 The Toughest Merit Badge
12:23 What Makes a Merit Badge Difficult or Easy
16:30 Merit Badge Palms
18:02 Helping Scouts with Merit Badges
#scouterstan #scouts #scoutleader ‪@ScouterStan‬ © 2024 S Richards LLC

[@twindaddy_sh_mn1092]

I agree with everything in the video. While a Merit Badge Counselor cannot change any requirement, if the requirement is written as “do one of the following five things”, the Counselor can say “let’s pick this one.” While a Counselor also cannot require any work from the Scout beyond the official requirements of the badge, the Counselor can elaborate on interesting aspects of the subject of the badge. As always, thanks for everything that you do for Scouting.

[@The_Bongo_Knight]

Hello just wanna say thank you for the help. I recently became a Brotherhood in the OA and your OA videos helped me get a better understanding of the brotherhood thanks Stan!

[@CoolestDude38NC]

From personal experience the hardest merit badges to earn are backpacking and lifesaving. Both are hard to get and take persistence, physical fitness and self motivation.

[@cordeiro.justin]

Thank you for reminding me the 2 you listed are going to be my last ones

[@CoolestDude38NC]

@@cordeiro.justin I am glad you decided to choose those two merit badges. Earning lifesaving merit badge gives you the background to go for BSA Lifeguard...if you want to take it that far. Lifeguarding is a good part time job for a young man while going to college (full time in the summers). I wish you well in your earning Eagle Scout.

[@cordeiro.justin]

@@CoolestDude38NC I forgot to mention I did get eagle on May 11 2023 and I'm actually working on finishing all the merit badges so these two merit badges will be my last because I know how hard they are.I will look into what you said on being a lifeguard as a good career thx

[@CoolestDude38NC]

@@cordeiro.justin Hello Justin... congratulations on earning Eagle Scout! I earned my Eagle Scout a long time ago...1987. To this day I still utilize things I learned in Boy Scouts. As far as those two extra merit badges, backpacking and lifesaving, I hope you earn them. Backpacking merit badge was my personal favorite merit badge. I don't know how it is today, but when I was active in Scouting, most Eagles earned hiking merit badge but the majority did not earn backpacking merit badge. Seems like hiking mb was one of the required merit badges for Eagle...I don't know how it is today. Many councils offer annual "fifty mile hikes." I'd ask around for a council within fifty to seventy five miles that sponsors an annual fifty mile backpacking trip...fifty miles in five days...it's tough!! As far as lifesaving merit badge, it's a great...but hard merit badge to earn. As far as lifeguarding being a potential career...that's pretty rare. Almost all lifeguards pursue lifeguarding as a part time job in college or need it for certain types of jobs in the military, not as a profession or vocation. There are professional lifeguards, but that's way beyond the scope of this conversation or KZbin channel. I wish you well in your pursuits after Eagle. It is important to pursue a career that pays enough money where you can financially support yourself and at the same time...look forward to your job, whatever it is.

[@cordeiro.justin]

OMG! Scouter Stan this video is amazing thank you so much for making it Its the number one video I been waiting for and it reminded me a lot about every merit badge I earned and my goal on earning them all.Thank you for telling me how many palms I will be getting if I earn all of them I'm going to working on finishing every merit badge hopefully this summer and fall of next year. I will be sharing this video with all the scouts in my troop so they can start working on merit badges, thank you again so much for making this video it was very helpful😃

[@ScouterStan]

You're very welcome! YIS⚜

[@shrike4981]

Hey, an interesting topic i would like you to cover is scouting all over the world, as a finnish scout i can akready tell that our systems differ very much and it would be interesting to see how exactly Anyways, love from Finland

[@ScouterStan]

That sounds like a really good suggestion. Unfortunately, I'm not an expert in other Scouting organizations' merit badge systems or its equivalency. Most of the American Merit Badge system was empirical knowledge from my own experience. I'm holding up my own youth merit badge sash in the thumbnail of the video from the 1970s. I'm also currently listed as a Merit Badge Counselor for my Council/District. A lot of subjects on the channel are essentially defined by how much research is needed to present relatively correct information. There are subjects still in development from the Season 3 whiteboard. With a subject like this, it could be too broad in scope and could be caught up in a lot of months of research and development. So I'm not going to put it on the whiteboard for Season 11 at this time. However, I am developing a list of subject topics that I might be able to use when I interview guests from other places. Thank you so much for the suggestions. YIS⚜

[@joenke9]

am i the only one that would think it would be interesting to have a longer talk with Stan about the differences between scout orgs.? from watching Stans videos i can see a lot i find odd about the BSA.

[@robdusher357]

What type of scouting organization are you a part of?

[@joenke9]

@@robdusher357 i think i am part of a normal scout organization, i am part of the YMCA Scouts of Denmark (KFUM Spejderne)

[@ScouterStan]

Always keep in mind that my focus is local to me in the scope of the Boy Scouts of America. The BSA is a member of the World Organization of Scouting Movement (WOSM) based in Switzerland. A lot of the members have traditions and slight alterations to their program keeping the core values consistent. As Baden-Powell once said “Scouting is a peace movement…” and that is the core. We have far more in common than differences. The Brotherhood of Scouting worldwide is committed to empowering young people to make good ethical decisions that benefits their communities worldwide. I am very grateful that KZbin is here for a worldwide audience. Hopefully it is understood that I'm speaking from what I know in my small corner of the world. 86% of my channel viewers are United States based. The remainder are fractions of all the other countries of the world. Also, there is a percentage of BSA members stationed overseas. I personally enjoy hearing about all of the differences throughout the world within the scouting movement. I do have a live show that everyone is welcome to view and join in the chat on the 1st Sunday of each month starting at 9:00 PM (Eastern USA Time -5 GMT). I found out recently that the chat portion starts when we schedule the live chat meeting. So you could post your questions before the show starts. Here is a link to the next show [ kzbin.info6aEs6UuekhQ ]. Thank you so much for contributing to our community here on KZbin and I look forward to hearing from you. YIS⚜

[@twindaddy_sh_mn1092]

What do you find interesting about Scouting in Denmark? I visited Denmark many times in the past.