Connecticut Yankee Council
2015 Merit Badge College
Boy Scouts of America
New Instructor Invitation
The Merit Badge College committee is looking for additional instructors for 2015. Instructors must be available for all four sessions, or make arrangements for a substitute if they must miss a session. 2015 MBC dates are 1/31, 2/7, 2/14,
2/28 with 3/7 as the snow date. Instructors must be registered Merit Badge Councilors and have completed Youth
Protection Training.
We could use instructors for the following badges:
American Cultures Electricity Oceanography
American Heritage
Architecture
Electronics
Energy
Personal Management
Pets
Art
Astronomy
Aviation
Cit in Community
Family Life
Fingerprinting
Fire Safety
Genealogy
Photography
Public Health
Public Speaking
Radio
Cit in Nation
Cit in World
Coin Collecting
Communications
Crime Prevention
Disabilities Awareness
Dog Care
Drafting
Indian Lore
Inventing
Journalism
American Labor
Landscape Architecture
Law
Model Design & Bldg
Nuclear Science
Railroading
Safety
Salesmanship
Space Exploration
Stamp Collecting
Surveying
Traffic Safety
Weather
Additional badges may be considered if there are instructors available, if the badge lends itself to the group instruction format and can be mostly finished within the time frame of Merit Badge College. We do not offer badges that are camping / outdoors oriented. Instructors for new badges will be considered up to October 31, 2014. Once the registration form goes live instructors for badges listed on the registration form can sign up until December 20 th .
If interested please contact Karen Andersen at H(203)264-2408 or W(203)205-8684, or e-mail your information to
or fax to 203-749-5660.
Name ____________________________________________________________________________________
Address __________________________________________________________________________________
Town _____________________________________________________________ Zip ___________________
Phone ___________________________________ E-mail __________________________________________
Badges you are available to instruct ___________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________________________________________
How many classes per each Saturday session can you teach (1, 2, or 3) ________________________________

Merit Badge College:
Tips for new instructors
1) Class rosters will be sent out to all instructors around the middle of January with the names of the boys assigned to your class. This may change the first and second Saturdays as boys switch merit badges. Please keep attendance on this roster and mark off the requirements that each boy has completed. On the last Saturday, you will turn in a copy of this roster with the blue cards to the Merit
Badge College committee (a copier will be on hand). We use this roster to answer any questions that come to the committee after Merit Badge College is over.
2) During the first and second week of Merit Badge College, boys are allowed to change merit badges.
Changes are always made through the Registrar, Ernie Boehm. Any new boy to your class will have a slip from Ernie, along with a blue card and merit badge book. No merit badge changes are allowed after the second Saturday.
3) Due to the fact that we do not order the merit badge books until after the classes have been assigned, we do not have time to mail merit badge books to the instructors. If we see that there has been a change in requirements we will attempt to notify the instructors, but can give no guarantees.
4) The maximum number of boys in each session is 25. Use this as a guide to prepare any handouts ahead of Merit Badge College.
5) If you are unable to attend a session it is your responsibility to provide a substitute instructor. Please let Karen Andersen or Ernie Boehm know who the substitute will be.
6) Blue cards do not need to be signed by the various Scoutmasters. The registration process for Merit
Badge College checks with the Scoutmaster for permission for the boys to take any of the badges the boys have signed up for.
7) Many instructors use computers to print their name, address and phone number on labels to use on the blue cards. Some instructors save those free address labels that come in the mail with charity solicitations, and use those on the blue cards. Either way saves a lot of time when filling your information in on 25 to 75 blue cards. It is your choice to have the boys fill in their information or for you to fill it in.
8) Some instructors find it helpful to have a handout/syllabus showing the lesson plans and the students’ responsibility for each week; this could include home work assignments, reading, etc that need to be done. Also include your contact information.
9) Pass around a sign up sheet every week, that way you know who has attended and needs to receive credit for any requirements you are covering in that session.
10) Blue cards and attendance rosters are expected to be turned in the last Saturday. We provide a luncheon for all instructors that day and have the room until 2:00pm for instructors to finish filling out blue cards and rosters. Many instructors have found it beneficial to assign most of the homework the first two sessions rather than waiting for the third week so as to avoid having massive amounts of paperwork to sort through the last day.
11) Some instructors make up preprinted forms that they staple to the blue cards where they can note the requirements not completed. This can include the instructor’s contact information for finishing the badge.
12) It is your choice if you want to offer to complete badges with the boys after MBC.
Many instructors will use email to accept reports, homework assignments, etc. However the blue cards are still expected to be turned in on the last day. The cards are sorted and returned to the units within a few weeks. The boys can retrieve their partially completed cards from their unit to mail to you if they elect to complete the badge with you.
13) In group teaching of merit badges, requirements that state “have a discussion with…” can be handled by written assignments followed by group discussion. For example, you could have the boys do a homework assignment or class quiz where one question is about career opportunities in the merit badge field and after the test/homework/quiz the subject can be discussed as a group.
14) Should you at any time have difficulty with a boy in your class don’t hesitate to send that boy to the
Faculty Room. Our volunteer instructors are not expected to be disciplinarians or to take harassment from the boys.
15) Do not be discouraged if all of the boys do not complete the badge within the four weeks of Merit
Badge College. Merit Badge College has had a fairly consistent completion rate of 50% within the four week period over the past six or seven years. We do not track how many boys complete their badges through follow-up work with the instructors.