Merit Badges in TM

[amlochridge]

I need help locating a merit badge for an Eagle Application. There is a scout that had lost his booked somewhere along the way when his family was moving. We have had all his records and are entering them into Troopmaster. There is one Merit Badge that we show him to have completed back on 12/13/2003. I cannot find this particular badge anywhere on the Troopmaster program. It is Atomic Energy. I know this goes a way back and may be an outdated badge. Is there anyway I can get this particular badge entered into the program to show that he has completed it?

[David Wildschuetz]

Atomic Energy was replaced by Nuclear Science in 2005.  You could just add the old merit badge to TroopMaster setup, but I could not tell you off-hand what the number for it was.

David




________________________________
From: amlochridge <amlochridge@...>
To: TMTUG@...
Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2009 9:03:58 AM
Subject: [TMTUG] Merit Badges in TM

 
I need help locating a merit badge for an Eagle Application. There is a scout that had lost his booked somewhere along the way when his family was moving. We have had all his records and are entering them into Troopmaster. There is one Merit Badge that we show him to have completed back on 12/13/2003. I cannot find this particular badge anywhere on the Troopmaster program. It is Atomic Energy. I know this goes a way back and may be an outdated badge. Is there anyway I can get this particular badge entered into the program to show that he has completed it?

[Lisa Balbes]

That one was updated - it's now called Nuclear Energy.  I do not know  
how to enter into TM a merit badge that no longer exists.

Lisa

On Sep 8, 2009, at 9:03 AM, amlochridge wrote:

> I need help locating a merit badge for an Eagle Application. There  
> is a scout that had lost his booked somewhere along the way when his  
> family was moving. We have had all his records and are entering them  
> into Troopmaster. There is one Merit Badge that we show him to have  
> completed back on 12/13/2003. I cannot find this particular badge  
> anywhere on the Troopmaster program. It is Atomic Energy. I know  
> this goes a way back and may be an outdated badge. Is there anyway I  
> can get this particular badge entered into the program to show that  
> he has completed it?
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lisa M. Balbes, Ph.D. Scientific Communication Services since 1992
Balbes Consultants lisa@... http://www.balbes.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/lisabalbes
                       
Author of:
"Nontraditional Careers for Chemists," published by Oxford University  
Press (2006)

[David Wildschuetz]

It appears my memory is faulty.  I did a little more checking, and the ability to add merit badges does not appear to be in the system any more.

I checked an online manual and it states that discontinued merit badges are left in the system and denoted with a '#' to show that they are no longer available.  Since Atomic Enery is no longer there, I would have to say that Nuclear Science entirely replaced it, and that you probably would have to use that one instead.

Anyone have a better suggestion?

David




________________________________
From: David Wildschuetz <shamanlsn@...>
To: TMTUG@...
Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2009 9:17:17 AM
Subject: Re: [TMTUG] Merit Badges in TM

 
Atomic Energy was replaced by Nuclear Science in 2005.  You could just add the old merit badge to TroopMaster setup, but I could not tell you off-hand what the number for it was.

David




________________________________
From: amlochridge <amlochridge@ yahoo.com>
To: TMTUG@yahoogroups. com
Sent: Tuesday, September 8, 2009 9:03:58 AM
Subject: [TMTUG] Merit Badges in TM

 
I need help locating a merit badge for an Eagle Application. There is a scout that had lost his booked somewhere along the way when his family was moving. We have had all his records and are entering them into Troopmaster. There is one Merit Badge that we show him to have completed back on 12/13/2003. I cannot find this particular badge anywhere on the Troopmaster program. It is Atomic Energy. I know this goes a way back and may be an outdated badge. Is there anyway I can get this particular badge entered into the program to show that he has completed it?

[gedmisto-2]

Atomic Energy merit badge is number 24.  The name for merit badge "24" was changed starting Jan 1, 2005 to be "Nuclear Science".  This is only the 3rd badge to be renamed in the history of the program.  (Others were Angling --> Fishing and Bee Farming --> Bee Keeping --> Beekeeping)

For your purposes, you should simply credit the Scout in TM with having earned Nuclear Science.   There is NO WAY, in the merit badge section, to denote he earned Atomic Energy, because TM stores the badge earned NUMERICALLY, not by badge name.

Merit badges are internally programmed for their numeric to name mapping, you cannot directly, without hacking the program in binary or assembler, make this change.  You might ask a Scout who's earned Computers MB with help with that... ;-)
 
When the BSA renamed Atomic Energy, the number did not change, therefore there is no way in Troopmaster to make it say that the Scout actually earned Atomic Energy.

Now if you, or your Scout insist on "seeing" the letters "Atomic Energy" on his history reports, you could use the menu pulldown "Scouts" and choose "Define Scout Special Awards".  Enter "Atomic Energy" and once done, you can then award him "Atomic Energy", but it will show up as a Special Award and will not be counted in the merit badge section, or as one of the required non-Eagle required badges for any rank.

That's the long answer.

The short answer--  Credit Nuclear Science and move on...

--- In TMTUG@..., "amlochridge" <amlochridge@...> wrote:
>
> I need help locating a merit badge for an Eagle Application. There is a scout that had lost his booked somewhere along the way when his family was moving. We have had all his records and are entering them into Troopmaster. There is one Merit Badge that we show him to have completed back on 12/13/2003. I cannot find this particular badge anywhere on the Troopmaster program. It is Atomic Energy. I know this goes a way back and may be an outdated badge. Is there anyway I can get this particular badge entered into the program to show that he has completed it?
>

[mmurphy686]

Before you go too far it may be a good idea to see what the electronic records for this scout are from your Council and or National.  They may have the  MB listed for the scout as "Nuclear Science" already and if that is the case your worries are over.

You can select "Nuclear Science" and put a note in "advancement remarks" that would signify " Atomic Energy was replaced by Nuclear Science in 2005". The notes show up on the advancement report below the MB list on the report.

 
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: amlochridge
  To: TMTUG@...
  Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 10:03 AM
  Subject: [TMTUG] Merit Badges in TM


    I need help locating a merit badge for an Eagle Application. There is a scout that had lost his booked somewhere along the way when his family was moving. We have had all his records and are entering them into Troopmaster. There is one Merit Badge that we show him to have completed back on 12/13/2003. I cannot find this particular badge anywhere on the Troopmaster program. It is Atomic Energy. I know this goes a way back and may be an outdated badge. Is there anyway I can get this particular badge entered into the program to show that he has completed it?



 

[Scoutmaster Huggins]

I went back and checked our TroopMaster files for scouts who earned the Atomic Energy and it now says Nuclear Science.  So TroopMaster automatically changed all Atomic Energy's to Nuclear Science.  I even went back and checked scouts in our Archive file and all of them who earned Atomic Energy back in 1998-2005 are all changed to Nuclear Science.  I would have to assume you just enter the badge under Nuclear Science with the date he earned Atomic Energy.

  ----- Original Message -----
  From: amlochridge
  To: TMTUG@...
  Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 10:03 AM
  Subject: [TMTUG] Merit Badges in TM


    I need help locating a merit badge for an Eagle Application. There is a scout that had lost his booked somewhere along the way when his family was moving. We have had all his records and are entering them into Troopmaster. There is one Merit Badge that we show him to have completed back on 12/13/2003. I cannot find this particular badge anywhere on the Troopmaster program. It is Atomic Energy. I know this goes a way back and may be an outdated badge. Is there anyway I can get this particular badge entered into the program to show that he has completed it?



 

[amlochridge]

Appreciate all the help. I did place it under Necular Science and it went through.
Remind all of your scouts not to lose their books, even if they are moving to a new city/state. You can't always count on Troopmaster to have everything in it.
 
I know I am making sure my son's always know where their books are and making sure everything does get entered on TM as a backup.
 
Thank you


Ann Reyna
Troop 785 
East Bernard, Texas 

--- On Tue, 9/8/09, Scoutmaster Huggins <scoutmaster@...> wrote:


From: Scoutmaster Huggins <scoutmaster@...>
Subject: Re: [TMTUG] Merit Badges in TM
To: TMTUG@...
Date: Tuesday, September 8, 2009, 12:15 PM


 




I went back and checked our TroopMaster files for scouts who earned the Atomic Energy and it now says Nuclear Science.  So TroopMaster automatically changed all Atomic Energy's to Nuclear Science.  I even went back and checked scouts in our Archive file and all of them who earned Atomic Energy back in 1998-2005 are all changed to Nuclear Science.  I would have to assume you just enter the badge under Nuclear Science with the date he earned Atomic Energy.
 

----- Original Message -----
From: amlochridge
To: TMTUG@yahoogroups. com
Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 10:03 AM
Subject: [TMTUG] Merit Badges in TM

 

I need help locating a merit badge for an Eagle Application. There is a scout that had lost his booked somewhere along the way when his family was moving. We have had all his records and are entering them into Troopmaster. There is one Merit Badge that we show him to have completed back on 12/13/2003. I cannot find this particular badge anywhere on the Troopmaster program. It is Atomic Energy. I know this goes a way back and may be an outdated badge. Is there anyway I can get this particular badge entered into the program to show that he has completed it?

















     

[Kenneth-44]

To All New Leaders and Scout Parents:

Scouts are supposed to be told upon first joining Boy Scouts, take good care, and do not lose their Handbooks. These are part their permanent records.

Also, for those units that still use them, Merit Badge Application (Blue Cards) are also considered part of their permanent record.

Advancement Reports, whether done Electronically and then a hand-carried hard copy taken or mailed to the Local Council, or even the old Carboned Copy style Advancement Reports. Also considered permanent records. Be sure to keep a hard copy of ANY Advancement Reports.

Do NOT rely solely upon TM to keep or retrieve records from. There should always be a back-up plan in case digital copies are destroyed or lost. Hard copies are still necessary, even if a boy loses his Handbook or Merit Badge Cards, there's still a hard copy to reference in case you run into issues with TM.

Just my honest opinion as suggested procedure for future record keeping purposes, as this is how our Units still do it today. We have both electronic digital copies, as well as hard copies of all the boys records.

Ken
SM-Troop 57
MC-Pack 57

--- In TMTUG@..., Ann Lochridge <amlochridge@...> wrote:

>
> Appreciate all the help. I did place it under Necular Science and it went through.
> Remind all of your scouts not to lose their books, even if they are moving to a new city/state. You can't always count on Troopmaster to have everything in it.
>  
> I know I am making sure my son's always know where their books are and making sure everything does get entered on TM as a backup.
>  
> Thank you
>
>
> Ann Reyna
> Troop 785 
> East Bernard, Texas 
>
> --- On Tue, 9/8/09, Scoutmaster Huggins <scoutmaster@...> wrote:
>
>
> From: Scoutmaster Huggins <scoutmaster@...>
> Subject: Re: [TMTUG] Merit Badges in TM
> To: TMTUG@...
> Date: Tuesday, September 8, 2009, 12:15 PM
>
>
>  
>
>
>
>
> I went back and checked our TroopMaster files for scouts who earned the Atomic Energy and it now says Nuclear Science.  So TroopMaster automatically changed all Atomic Energy's to Nuclear Science.  I even went back and checked scouts in our Archive file and all of them who earned Atomic Energy back in 1998-2005 are all changed to Nuclear Science.  I would have to assume you just enter the badge under Nuclear Science with the date he earned Atomic Energy.
>  
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: amlochridge
> To: TMTUG@yahoogroups. com
> Sent: Tuesday, September 08, 2009 10:03 AM
> Subject: [TMTUG] Merit Badges in TM
>
>  
>
> I need help locating a merit badge for an Eagle Application. There is a scout that had lost his booked somewhere along the way when his family was moving. We have had all his records and are entering them into Troopmaster. There is one Merit Badge that we show him to have completed back on 12/13/2003. I cannot find this particular badge anywhere on the Troopmaster program. It is Atomic Energy. I know this goes a way back and may be an outdated badge. Is there anyway I can get this particular badge entered into the program to show that he has completed it?
>

[MpsltK]

 
In a message dated 9/8/2009 1:40:45 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
khartman@... writes:

Do NOT  rely solely upon TM to keep or retrieve records from. There should
always be a  back-up plan in case digital copies are destroyed or lost. Hard
copies are  still necessary, even if a boy loses his Handbook or Merit
Badge Cards,  there's still a hard copy to reference in case you run into issues
with  TM.




And an addition to this.....I believe I learned from someone on this forum  
ages and ages ago.  Have each boy keep a small spiral notebook outlining  
all the things he did/does for/with Scouts.  Camping, hiking, popcorn  sales,
visiting a museum, whatever!  Then if someone asks, the boy needs  not rely
on memory.  It is written down.
 
Of course I have shared this with my troop and only one boy does it...my  
son.  I guess it won't sink in until something happens.  

Pam
Scouting with you in Washington State
O/A Brotherhood  member Nisqually Lodge 155
WE1-612-08 I used to be an  Owl.....

[Kenneth-44]

Absolutely!

Good point Pam.

Our Troop goes a step further than that. We suggest to the parents to get each boy a zippered binder to keep that as well as his copy of MB cards in using clear Baseball Card divider sheets. The Troop keeps their copies of MB Cards on file as well in the same file cabinet that the hard copies of the Advancement Reports are kept.

They have some out there that even have a separate pocket that the boys can keep their Handbooks separate from the inside binder itself. Less chances for cards or papers falling out when they pull out their Handbooks.

We also suggest that the boys only bring this to Troop Meetings, not on outings. Unless a Handbook is required. Again, less chances for it getting lost.

Ken
SM-Troop 57
MC-Pack 57

--- In TMTUG@..., MpsltK@... wrote:

>
>  
> In a message dated 9/8/2009 1:40:45 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,  
> khartman@... writes:
>
> Do NOT  rely solely upon TM to keep or retrieve records from. There should
> always be a  back-up plan in case digital copies are destroyed or lost. Hard
> copies are  still necessary, even if a boy loses his Handbook or Merit
> Badge Cards,  there's still a hard copy to reference in case you run into issues
> with  TM.
>
>
>
>
> And an addition to this.....I believe I learned from someone on this forum  
> ages and ages ago.  Have each boy keep a small spiral notebook outlining  
> all the things he did/does for/with Scouts.  Camping, hiking, popcorn  sales,
> visiting a museum, whatever!  Then if someone asks, the boy needs  not rely
> on memory.  It is written down.
>  
> Of course I have shared this with my troop and only one boy does it...my  
> son.  I guess it won't sink in until something happens.  
>
> Pam
> Scouting with you in Washington State
> O/A Brotherhood  member Nisqually Lodge 155
> WE1-612-08 I used to be an  Owl.....
>

[Tim W-2]

--- In TMTUG@..., "ken_hartman2" <khartman@...> wrote:
>
> To All New Leaders and Scout Parents:
>
> Scouts are supposed to be told upon first joining Boy Scouts, take good care, and do not lose their Handbooks. These are part their permanent records.
>
> Also, for those units that still use them, Merit Badge Application (Blue Cards) are also considered part of their permanent record.
>

Ken,

What exactly do you mean about "for those units that still use them"? I've seen posts on this group about Blue cards not being required, and we just started using printing out our BCs from TM, but are you talking about Internet Advancement?

The reason I ask is that one of our ASMs wants to discuss "electronic blue cards". The only thing I could find was something on the meritbadge.org site :

http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Merit_Badge_Application

YiS,

Tim Williams
T1518
Springfield, VA

[scout7]

You can find several posts from this summer about camps no longer using blue cards and all of the various flavors of what various councils and troops are doing in the yahoo archives to this group.

Steve Berwanger
I used to be an Owl
NEII94
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

-----Original Message-----
From: "tjandacw" <tjandacw@...>

Date: Tue, 08 Sep 2009 22:47:46
To: <TMTUG@...>
Subject: [TMTUG] Re: Merit Badges in TM


--- In TMTUG@..., "ken_hartman2" <khartman@...> wrote:
>
> To All New Leaders and Scout Parents:
>
> Scouts are supposed to be told upon first joining Boy Scouts, take good care, and do not lose their Handbooks. These are part their permanent records.
>
> Also, for those units that still use them, Merit Badge Application (Blue Cards) are also considered part of their permanent record.
>

Ken,

What exactly do you mean about "for those units that still use them"? I've seen posts on this group about Blue cards not being required, and we just started using printing out our BCs from TM, but are you talking about Internet Advancement?

The reason I ask is that one of our ASMs wants to discuss "electronic blue cards". The only thing I could find was something on the meritbadge.org site :

http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Merit_Badge_Application

YiS,

Tim Williams
T1518
Springfield, VA

[Tim W-2]

--- In TMTUG@..., scout7@... wrote:
>
> You can find several posts from this summer about camps no longer using blue cards and all of the various flavors of what various councils and troops are doing in the yahoo archives to this group.
>
> Steve Berwanger

I remember those posts. One of them was that the camp printed out a list of scouts that received the different MBs, but I don't remember anything about an electronic version of this, except for printing them out on a computer from either a Word document, or using TM.

The different threads I remember still had a physical piece of paper with a signature on it. Is that true, or can Internet Advancement do away with this step? (Besides the need for someone to have a physical copy of some kind for a backup.)

[scout7]

I think the consensus was blue cards still make the most sense as the boy,troop,and counselor all have a written record ans all have original signatures.  The boys and the troops also get a council stamp.  It's an example of something that's not broken but people feel they need to fix.

Steve Berwanger
I used to be an Owl
NEII94
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

-----Original Message-----
From: "tjandacw" <tjandacw@...>

Date: Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:20:08
To: <TMTUG@...>
Subject: [TMTUG] Re: Merit Badges in TM


--- In TMTUG@..., scout7@... wrote:
>
> You can find several posts from this summer about camps no longer using blue cards and all of the various flavors of what various councils and troops are doing in the yahoo archives to this group.
>
> Steve Berwanger

I remember those posts. One of them was that the camp printed out a list of scouts that received the different MBs, but I don't remember anything about an electronic version of this, except for printing them out on a computer from either a Word document, or using TM.

The different threads I remember still had a physical piece of paper with a signature on it. Is that true, or can Internet Advancement do away with this step? (Besides the need for someone to have a physical copy of some kind for a backup.)

[Kenneth-44]

That was exactly my whole point.

As it's referenced in most BSA literature, as well as mentioned on BSA's National website in regards to Merit Badges, Merit Badge Application (Blue Cards...or white, pink, whatever color you want to print them on, whether with TM or the old standard hand printed)...are still considered the National Standard. Irregardless of what Local Councils, Camps, and Units choose to do or use for record tracking/keeping purposes.

Nothing beats a good, old fashioned, concrete hard copy of a boys Advancement Records.

Same goes for the Advancement Reports. ScoutNet is not a permanent record. It is only for record keeping and reference purposes. Hard copies still trump ScoutNet and electronic data.

IMHO,
Ken
SM-Troop 57
MC-Pack 57

--- In TMTUG@..., scout7@... wrote:

>
> I think the consensus was blue cards still make the most sense as the boy,troop,and counselor all have a written record ans all have original signatures.  The boys and the troops also get a council stamp.  It's an example of something that's not broken but people feel they need to fix.
>
> Steve Berwanger
> I used to be an Owl
> NEII94
> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "tjandacw" <tjandacw@...>
>
> Date: Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:20:08
> To: <TMTUG@...>
> Subject: [TMTUG] Re: Merit Badges in TM
>
>
> --- In TMTUG@..., scout7@ wrote:
> >
> > You can find several posts from this summer about camps no longer using blue cards and all of the various flavors of what various councils and troops are doing in the yahoo archives to this group.
> >
> > Steve Berwanger
>
> I remember those posts. One of them was that the camp printed out a list of scouts that received the different MBs, but I don't remember anything about an electronic version of this, except for printing them out on a computer from either a Word document, or using TM.
>
> The different threads I remember still had a physical piece of paper with a signature on it. Is that true, or can Internet Advancement do away with this step? (Besides the need for someone to have a physical copy of some kind for a backup.)
>

[sappmeritbadges]

Not all councils give a 'stamp'. We still use BC but right now they do not require us to send them as proof. Our prior council (5 yrs ago) was the same. 'Stamps' must be council specific.
Sent from my BlackBerry® smartphone with SprintSpeed

-----Original Message-----
From: scout7@...

Date: Tue, 8 Sep 2009 23:47:25
To: <TMTUG@...>
Subject: Re: [TMTUG] Re: Merit Badges in TM


I think the consensus was blue cards still make the most sense as the boy,troop,and counselor all have a written record ans all have original signatures.  The boys and the troops also get a council stamp.  It's an example of something that's not broken but people feel they need to fix.

Steve Berwanger
I used to be an Owl
NEII94
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

-----Original Message-----
From: "tjandacw" <tjandacw@...>

Date: Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:20:08
To: <TMTUG@...>
Subject: [TMTUG] Re: Merit Badges in TM


--- In TMTUG@..., scout7@... wrote:
>
> You can find several posts from this summer about camps no longer using blue cards and all of the various flavors of what various councils and troops are doing in the yahoo archives to this group.
>
> Steve Berwanger

I remember those posts. One of them was that the camp printed out a list of scouts that received the different MBs, but I don't remember anything about an electronic version of this, except for printing them out on a computer from either a Word document, or using TM.

The different threads I remember still had a physical piece of paper with a signature on it. Is that true, or can Internet Advancement do away with this step? (Besides the need for someone to have a physical copy of some kind for a backup.)

[M Volker]

For "back up" purposes, I save and/or print off History Reports for our scouts.  It is easy for me to run one report with every scout's history and save it to my scout folder.  Then I copy the file to a R/W cd and update it every month or so... 
 
I tell them to make a copy of the signature pages in their books to keep in a separate location.  That way if a book is lost, we have a way to recreate those pages with dates, etc.
 
We also recommend the the baseball-type card pages for their award cards and copies of their Blue Cards.  I keep the Blue Card "application" side in a file for each boy, along with the BOR forms and any other signed advancement information.


Melinda
Troop 302

--- On Tue, 9/8/09, ken_hartman2 <khartman@...> wrote:


From: ken_hartman2 <khartman@...>
Subject: [TMTUG] Re: Merit Badges in TM
To: TMTUG@...
Date: Tuesday, September 8, 2009, 7:14 PM


 



That was exactly my whole point.

As it's referenced in most BSA literature, as well as mentioned on BSA's National website in regards to Merit Badges, Merit Badge Application (Blue Cards...or white, pink, whatever color you want to print them on, whether with TM or the old standard hand printed)...are still considered the National Standard. Irregardless of what Local Councils, Camps, and Units choose to do or use for record tracking/keeping purposes.

Nothing beats a good, old fashioned, concrete hard copy of a boys Advancement Records.

Same goes for the Advancement Reports. ScoutNet is not a permanent record. It is only for record keeping and reference purposes. Hard copies still trump ScoutNet and electronic data.

IMHO,
Ken
SM-Troop 57
MC-Pack 57

--- In TMTUG@yahoogroups. com, scout7@... wrote:

>
> I think the consensus was blue cards still make the most sense as the boy,troop,and counselor all have a written record ans all have original signatures. The boys and the troops also get a council stamp. It's an example of something that's not broken but people feel they need to fix.
>
> Steve Berwanger
> I used to be an Owl
> NEII94
> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "tjandacw" <tjandacw@.. .>
>
> Date: Tue, 08 Sep 2009 23:20:08
> To: <TMTUG@yahoogroups. com>
> Subject: [TMTUG] Re: Merit Badges in TM
>
>
> --- In TMTUG@yahoogroups. com, scout7@ wrote:
> >
> > You can find several posts from this summer about camps no longer using blue cards and all of the various flavors of what various councils and troops are doing in the yahoo archives to this group.
> >
> > Steve Berwanger
>
> I remember those posts. One of them was that the camp printed out a list of scouts that received the different MBs, but I don't remember anything about an electronic version of this, except for printing them out on a computer from either a Word document, or using TM.
>
> The different threads I remember still had a physical piece of paper with a signature on it. Is that true, or can Internet Advancement do away with this step? (Besides the need for someone to have a physical copy of some kind for a backup.)
>

     

[Tim W-2]

I just got back from our ASM meeting where we talked about this a bit. The other ASM was referring to the online application on meritbadge.org, or something else to just help in filling out the cards. We had a good experience printing them out from TM using the card stock this summer, so we'll probably keep doing that.

[Matt Price]

Scouters -

On the Blue Cards - Troopmaster gives you the ability to track the info
in the advancement section, so you can keep it and then print it out
when the scout looses the blue card.  They can be re-printed up until
the scout turns 18, and then he turns into an adult.

If you use the travel edition, you can keep track of the requirements as
they do them, and then sync it back up.  Outside of keeping this data up
- if there is not a diligent person following the scouts around, or
paper evidence, then who knows what has been completed and what has not?

I agree with Steve.  While a blue card is not required - what do you do
when there is no troopmaster record, or corrupt data wipes it out?  I
suggest yearly printing out the blue cards and the scout record, and
archiving to another device in order to protect the scout from having to
do everything over.

Matt Price
Unit Commissioner
Hemlock District
Occoneechee Council, BSA