The steps are the same on a paper blue card and in Scoutbook Plus. Scoutbook Plus counts as the record only when every step below still happens. This is section 7 of the Guide to Advancement. The merit badge section starts on page 40.
The steps
- Pick a badge and read the current requirements on the Merit Badge Hub.
- Meet with the Scoutmaster before you contact a counselor, and before a class, fair, or online course. This meeting is required. The Scoutmaster may raise a concern. You decide whether to continue. The troop cannot add a rank or age requirement. If the Scoutmaster is away, an assistant the Scoutmaster has asked to do this can hold the meeting.
- Write that meeting down before you contact the counselor. On a blue card, the Scoutmaster signs the front and gives you the card. In Scoutbook Plus, the same meeting is recorded there. Either record is official.
- Agree on a counselor. The Scoutmaster gives you at least one registered counselor. If you already have one in mind, decide together. If you cannot agree, you may work with any registered, approved counselor.
- Contact the counselor. Take a buddy to every meeting: another Scout, a parent or guardian, a brother or sister, a relative, or a friend.
- At the first meeting, go through the requirements. The counselor decides whether work you already did counts. Work from before you joined Scouts BSA, or from Cub Scouts, does not count.
- Do each requirement as it is written. No more and no less.
- When the counselor is satisfied, they sign the blue card or record the completion in Scoutbook Plus. Then meet the Scoutmaster again and talk about what you learned. That meeting is not a retest. On a blue card, the Scoutmaster signs your copy and you keep it. In Scoutbook Plus, a troop leader records the badge.
There is no time limit, but the badge must be finished before you turn 18.
A badge finished without that first meeting is not recorded as earned until a counselor the Scoutmaster accepts has confirmed every requirement.