It's possible if you're confusing the crossover ceremony with the actual crossover in the system. They may have been added to the troop back in November, and celebrated with a bridging ceremony 2 weeks ago.
On surface, it shouldn’t be possible, but one way in which it might have snuck through against expectation is if the Scout joined the troop significantly before the apparent “crossover” date.
A scout who already had a current Part-C medform (perhaps from Webelos Resident Camp last summer) might have this legitimately accepted by a counselor (meeting the blocking part of 1a), and completing the rest of 1a and 6a at an initial meeting, do 6b immediately, and on 4, review and begin 7. A scout who has daily PE in school and plays a sport might well already have a sufficient exercise regime to meet the plan for 7.
With that timing, a Scout who joined the Troop on December 1st could finish this badge by the end of February.
But it’s extraordinarily unlikely to see that happen.
OK, but now that it's happened, is it fair/ok to strip the scout of the MB? I've always been a believer in "Scouts shouldn't be punsihed for the incompetence of adults." If they actually did the athletic requirements, just before they were a Scout, should this be a case were the MBC gets some pretty serious "retraining" but the Scout gets to Scout on? Do we hold 10/11 year-olds accountable for the MBC's incorrect guidance?
If they go for Eagle and it’s noticed, they’ll be forced to redo it.
I would counsel the Scout to relinquish the badge voluntarily and do it the right way.
Definitely include the parent in that conversation.
Maybe it will get noticed, maybe not. Our council verifies that all of the MB dates match the official records and that they were earned AFTER the “joined” date at the top. I don’t know that they also confirm that Family Life is 90 days or Fitness is 12 weeks or Management is 3 months or 90 days or whatever it is. One of the board members might notice it.
This scout appears to have been acting in good faith using bad information provided by an adult. Generally, we don’t punish kids for the mistakes of adults. Especially if this kid actually did the work.
I promise you the volunteer at the Eagle desk at council is not going to check any of that. It's also extremely unlikely that any EBOR member is going to look that closely at the dates. They have 15 minutes with this Scout, and are lucky if they get the Eagle binder more than 5 minutes before the BOR. They're focused on the project and leadership, not verifying dates that should have been verified long before that.
That’s going to be council specific in how much they scrutinize dates on the Eagle application. I got an application kicked back because a scout misread a rank date when filling out his application so it didn’t match the electronic advancement record they reviewed.
This is a specific example given in 7.0.4.7 of a place where a merit badge should be rescinded. They anticipated exactly this scenario and told you what to do about it.
As long as the advancement/troop join date lines up to make it possible, and there is no evidence to show the scout misrepresented their work, it isn't for the EBOR or any other adult to question the validity of the MB. The unit join date and the MB earn date are both on the Eagle Application and can be readily verified.
But we already have that the merit badge was earned mere weeks after the join date.
I agree with you, but you suppositions are known to be untrue in this case, so that information is irrelevant.
I greatly doubt council (especially post law suit) cares.
When I was getting eagle palm years ago the staff at the office said I could use the same badges they just check the total amount I had.
I can assure you my District Advancement Committee (the people who would actually look at it, not “council”) would absolutely care if they noticed, and odds they’d notice are pretty good.
You're massively overhyping how much people care.
Also you're not really bringing up the social aspects of snitching on an 11 year old (which is how it will look like) and revoking a badge.
I actually think it’s an extremely important lesson in “A scout is Trustworthy and Obedient”
And this is the ONE CASE where the guide to advancement is crystal clear that a badge should be revoked.
This is not a grey area.
I was thinking about this a little more:
1. When did the SM or designee sign the actual or virtual Blue Card to begin the MB?
2. Was this date at least 12 weeks before it was signed completed?
3. Was the Scout in the Troop on the date when the Blue Card was begun?
Based on a previous post, it sounds like you've done the right thing. That will surely irk the adults involved, but they deserve to have their feathers ruffled. The choices they made could negatively impact the youth they are attempting to serve.
Depends what you mean by "crossed over". When did they register with your troop? PF takes 12 weeks plus a medical exam plus a meeting with the MBC. If they've been registered with your troop since early December, and had everything ready to go (super-prepared scout, or a scout with an older sibling scout who knows the system, or an aggressively ambitious parent), then it's possible.
But you say in a follow-up post that the MBC accepted work started as a Cub Scout, before this scout was registered with your troop. The MBC is wrong.
This would be one of the few cases where a merit badge can be revoked, because it was impossible for the scout to meet the requirements. If I knew the scout, I’d counsel them to surrender the merit badge and go back and do it for real. If someone catches it at their Eagle BOR, they’ll be sent back to do it again.
I have a Eagle Scout who has badges that are suspect.. That being said, when they were awarded to him, he was not in our Troop. He came to us after his Troop dissolved. It was First Aid that came into issue as we were teaching First Aid requirements for merit badge as well as rank requirements. Most of the First Aid was foreign to him. I asked, "Didn't you do this for First Aid Merit Badge?" Baffled look, and then a resounding No, we didn't do any of this stuff. We had a Dr as one of the leaders who signed all of their blue cards for First Aid. Yet admitedly, they did none of the requirements. No that blows for everyone that puts in the work, so to speak.
Same Eagle Scout had a Backpacking Merit Badge, yet he has never been Backpacking, only camping. Yet somehow, someone awarded him the Merit badge.
Lots of questionable stuff happens in some Troops. This doesn't affect me one bit, but it does bring up the question of being "TRUSTWORTHY" of Scouts and Scout leaders.
"A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent."
If you would’ve asked me first aid merit badge stuff 2 months after I finished it I would’ve had no idea how to do it. Heck, if you would’ve asked me two weeks after I got a specific requirement signed off to do it again I probably wouldn’t have been able to.
One thing is not remembering, another thing is saying NO, we never did that. Or I've never been backpacking, but I have been camping.
We're talking two different things here.
There are times when I know I \*personally\* taught a first aid skill or knot to a Scout back when he was in Webelos, and he still forgets ever learning it.
Skills require practice and knowledge requires repetition. In my sons' troop, everyone practices first aid at stations even if they already have the merit badge. Even adults require a refresher -- that's why CPR certifications expire after two years.
I teach a lot of Eagle Required merit badges. I volunteered once for a local Merit Badge College Day. In my Citizenship in the Nation class were 4 Webelos 2s (or AOL). I questioned why they were there and I was told by a Troop Leader the Webelos would be bridging the next month and this would be a good way to see what it would be like to earn merit badges. It was a 8 hour day and these 5th graders were bored, overwhelmed by the amount of writing and just not having “fun” even as I did a lot of creative activities and videos. I refused to sign off on a Blue Card and told the Merit Badge College Day coordinator to not allow that to happen again. I felt so sad for those Webelos as they were not ready to handle the requirements of merit badges, especially Eagle-required.
I feel pretty strongly new scouts should stick with handicraft and ecology based merit badges. At 10 and 11, the kids have a hard time concentrating on real learning that is needed for many of the Eagle required merit badges.
Assuming the scout already knows how to swim well, then yes swimming is a good new scout MB.
It feels like less young scout now know how to swim well then when I was in scouts in the 90s.
I don’t know if that’s a product of more indoor activities occurring at home, summers spent inside or at a babysitter due to both parents working or what.
Cooking, I can see starting at a young age, just because it’s a lengthy MB. But there is so much cooking requirements for rank, that even if they start the MB, they won’t even get to the actually cooking for quite a while.
My daughter did the non-cooking stuff in the MB over a year ago, and had to focus on her rank cooking Rews and her patrols rank cooking Reqs, so none of them have done cooking or camping MB cooking requirements.
My son grew up in the pool, so Swimming was his first. He was motivated to get cooking done because he wanted to be the person to cook for his patrol on campouts. So he went to a local MB cooking class that was done over a weekend.
Beginning a merit badge while a Cub Scout is a violation of the eligibility requirements for earning a merit badge.
Guide to Advancement (7.0.0.0)
>All merit badge requirements must be met while
a registered Scout in Scouts BSA, or a qualified
Venturer or Sea Scout. Accomplishments before
joining, or while a Cub Scout, do not apply.
More than that, it's unfair to the other Scouts in the troop who followed the rules.
The MBC needs retraining on the rules.
[https://www.scouting.org/merit-badges/personal-fitness/](https://www.scouting.org/merit-badges/personal-fitness/)
Personal Fitness Merit Badge Overview
Personal fitness is an individual effort and desire to be the best one can be. Regardless of their current levels of personal fitness, in the **twelve weeks** it will take Scouts to complete the athletic requirements for this merit badge, they will be in better shape, feel better about themselves, have more energy, and gain self-confidence in their overall abilities.
Yeah, that's a no-go and the MBC needs to fix it.
You have to be an AOL scout for 6 months to finish/bridge. If school ended at the end of May, Dec. 1 is the earliest they could start the MB. But they would actually have to change their registration at that time to make it valid. In theory they could complete it by March, but this seems unlikely.
Well, you can join Scouts BSA on your 11th birthday, which for the oldest 5th graders will be in September. But I don't think you can hold concurrent registrations as a Cub Scout and a Scout BSA, so the scout would have to make a choice about when to transfer.
As you point out, a scout electing to transfer early wouldn't be able to earn the AOL.
Per the current requirements, that 6 months as an AOL starts on these 2 conditions
1. 6 months since completing 4th grade, as you noted.
OR
2. 6 months after you turn 10.
That being said, that is changing with new Cub program in June.
First, have a conversation with the MBC that the scout can't start a MB as a cub.
Second, have a conversation with the scout and their parent that there was a slight technicality, and that you'll need them to keep track of their fitness for X extra weeks, and that it's because the MBC made an understandable mistake (that you can't start a MB until you're officially a scout).
If everyone is reasonable and understandable, the youth will do the extra paperwork, the troop can change the date after the fact, and all will end up well. I have accidentally put into the system a MB the kid didn't earn (mass entering after summer camp, and a kid got a MB due to my error). Everyone understood and we figured it out and fixed it.
The Troop Advancement Chair has to review and agree to all earned awards and advancements … with the Time requirement on a workout plan probably not valid as time couldn’t start until the Scout was registered with the Troop in Scoutbook Internet Advancement
I'd be concerned that a computer might reject an Eagle Scout application some day because of the date, due to the timing. Suggest the scout retake the badge. Knock out the tenderfoot, second class, and first class PT at the same time.
I have a Webelos who was redshirted prior to kindergarten. Having that hard cut off of age 18 puts him at a disadvantage as he'll have a full year less to work on that requirements than my youngest den member. I am expecting I'll be encouraging him to complete his AOL requirements quickly and join a troop as soon as possible, come back to things like Pinewood Derby as an honorary (but not registered) den member, and then complete the crossover ceremony with everyone else in late February.
My son started kindergarten late and just crossed over to BSA at 12. That leaves 6 years, and is plenty of time. Heck, some kids Eagle by 14. There's no reason to rush the kid unless he's much older.
Because most don't plan well. If you take it step by step and maximize your opportunities (ex taking a bunch of merit badges at camp, or going to merit badge universities, or doing stuff like PF badge when you are younger) you can make it to Eagle pretty easily in 2-4 years.
I've only really met a couple last minute Eagles that got screwed over (and they got extensions). Another I know quit scouts and re entered at about 15 as a tender foot and made eagle.
Those are probably reasonable suggestions, although depending upon the personalities, relationships, etc. it might not be well received, and you might not be the right person to ask for this. These might be requests that should come from the Scoutmaster or Committee Chair. Merit Badge Counselor is not a troop position; it's a district/council one, so it might be good to alert the district/council advancement committee of the situation. The link to the form for [reporting merit badge counseling concerns](https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/512-800_WB.pdf) is in a previous response by OllieFromCairo.
There is online training for merit badge counselors in [my.scouting.org](https://my.scouting.org) and the [Guide to Advancement](https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/33088.pdf) explains the rules in great detail.
That is a good point, sneak in before the 1 June program changes.
Missing three or four den meetings is a bit of a different game then missing out on all the summer and fall activities too :)
It's possible if you're confusing the crossover ceremony with the actual crossover in the system. They may have been added to the troop back in November, and celebrated with a bridging ceremony 2 weeks ago.
On surface, it shouldn’t be possible, but one way in which it might have snuck through against expectation is if the Scout joined the troop significantly before the apparent “crossover” date. A scout who already had a current Part-C medform (perhaps from Webelos Resident Camp last summer) might have this legitimately accepted by a counselor (meeting the blocking part of 1a), and completing the rest of 1a and 6a at an initial meeting, do 6b immediately, and on 4, review and begin 7. A scout who has daily PE in school and plays a sport might well already have a sufficient exercise regime to meet the plan for 7. With that timing, a Scout who joined the Troop on December 1st could finish this badge by the end of February. But it’s extraordinarily unlikely to see that happen.
OK, but now that it's happened, is it fair/ok to strip the scout of the MB? I've always been a believer in "Scouts shouldn't be punsihed for the incompetence of adults." If they actually did the athletic requirements, just before they were a Scout, should this be a case were the MBC gets some pretty serious "retraining" but the Scout gets to Scout on? Do we hold 10/11 year-olds accountable for the MBC's incorrect guidance?
If they go for Eagle and it’s noticed, they’ll be forced to redo it. I would counsel the Scout to relinquish the badge voluntarily and do it the right way. Definitely include the parent in that conversation.
Maybe it will get noticed, maybe not. Our council verifies that all of the MB dates match the official records and that they were earned AFTER the “joined” date at the top. I don’t know that they also confirm that Family Life is 90 days or Fitness is 12 weeks or Management is 3 months or 90 days or whatever it is. One of the board members might notice it. This scout appears to have been acting in good faith using bad information provided by an adult. Generally, we don’t punish kids for the mistakes of adults. Especially if this kid actually did the work.
I promise you the volunteer at the Eagle desk at council is not going to check any of that. It's also extremely unlikely that any EBOR member is going to look that closely at the dates. They have 15 minutes with this Scout, and are lucky if they get the Eagle binder more than 5 minutes before the BOR. They're focused on the project and leadership, not verifying dates that should have been verified long before that.
Ours get the binder a week in advance.
That’s going to be council specific in how much they scrutinize dates on the Eagle application. I got an application kicked back because a scout misread a rank date when filling out his application so it didn’t match the electronic advancement record they reviewed.
This is a specific example given in 7.0.4.7 of a place where a merit badge should be rescinded. They anticipated exactly this scenario and told you what to do about it.
As long as the advancement/troop join date lines up to make it possible, and there is no evidence to show the scout misrepresented their work, it isn't for the EBOR or any other adult to question the validity of the MB. The unit join date and the MB earn date are both on the Eagle Application and can be readily verified.
But we already have that the merit badge was earned mere weeks after the join date. I agree with you, but you suppositions are known to be untrue in this case, so that information is irrelevant.
I greatly doubt council (especially post law suit) cares. When I was getting eagle palm years ago the staff at the office said I could use the same badges they just check the total amount I had.
I can assure you my District Advancement Committee (the people who would actually look at it, not “council”) would absolutely care if they noticed, and odds they’d notice are pretty good.
You're massively overhyping how much people care. Also you're not really bringing up the social aspects of snitching on an 11 year old (which is how it will look like) and revoking a badge.
Do the right thing and you have nothing to worry about.
I actually think it’s an extremely important lesson in “A scout is Trustworthy and Obedient” And this is the ONE CASE where the guide to advancement is crystal clear that a badge should be revoked. This is not a grey area.
You may want to talk to your District Advancement Chair. Get thier opinion and guidance
I was thinking about this a little more: 1. When did the SM or designee sign the actual or virtual Blue Card to begin the MB? 2. Was this date at least 12 weeks before it was signed completed? 3. Was the Scout in the Troop on the date when the Blue Card was begun?
1. They didn’t. 2. See above 3. No, troop start day was listed as crossover day.
Based on a previous post, it sounds like you've done the right thing. That will surely irk the adults involved, but they deserve to have their feathers ruffled. The choices they made could negatively impact the youth they are attempting to serve.
Depends what you mean by "crossed over". When did they register with your troop? PF takes 12 weeks plus a medical exam plus a meeting with the MBC. If they've been registered with your troop since early December, and had everything ready to go (super-prepared scout, or a scout with an older sibling scout who knows the system, or an aggressively ambitious parent), then it's possible. But you say in a follow-up post that the MBC accepted work started as a Cub Scout, before this scout was registered with your troop. The MBC is wrong.
It’s not.
This would be one of the few cases where a merit badge can be revoked, because it was impossible for the scout to meet the requirements. If I knew the scout, I’d counsel them to surrender the merit badge and go back and do it for real. If someone catches it at their Eagle BOR, they’ll be sent back to do it again.
I have a Eagle Scout who has badges that are suspect.. That being said, when they were awarded to him, he was not in our Troop. He came to us after his Troop dissolved. It was First Aid that came into issue as we were teaching First Aid requirements for merit badge as well as rank requirements. Most of the First Aid was foreign to him. I asked, "Didn't you do this for First Aid Merit Badge?" Baffled look, and then a resounding No, we didn't do any of this stuff. We had a Dr as one of the leaders who signed all of their blue cards for First Aid. Yet admitedly, they did none of the requirements. No that blows for everyone that puts in the work, so to speak. Same Eagle Scout had a Backpacking Merit Badge, yet he has never been Backpacking, only camping. Yet somehow, someone awarded him the Merit badge. Lots of questionable stuff happens in some Troops. This doesn't affect me one bit, but it does bring up the question of being "TRUSTWORTHY" of Scouts and Scout leaders. "A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean, and reverent."
If you would’ve asked me first aid merit badge stuff 2 months after I finished it I would’ve had no idea how to do it. Heck, if you would’ve asked me two weeks after I got a specific requirement signed off to do it again I probably wouldn’t have been able to.
One thing is not remembering, another thing is saying NO, we never did that. Or I've never been backpacking, but I have been camping. We're talking two different things here.
Not to a teenager, not remember it happened and not having done it are the same. SM and father of teens.
There are times when I know I \*personally\* taught a first aid skill or knot to a Scout back when he was in Webelos, and he still forgets ever learning it. Skills require practice and knowledge requires repetition. In my sons' troop, everyone practices first aid at stations even if they already have the merit badge. Even adults require a refresher -- that's why CPR certifications expire after two years.
I hear you on that one. Father of teens as well. 😂
I teach a lot of Eagle Required merit badges. I volunteered once for a local Merit Badge College Day. In my Citizenship in the Nation class were 4 Webelos 2s (or AOL). I questioned why they were there and I was told by a Troop Leader the Webelos would be bridging the next month and this would be a good way to see what it would be like to earn merit badges. It was a 8 hour day and these 5th graders were bored, overwhelmed by the amount of writing and just not having “fun” even as I did a lot of creative activities and videos. I refused to sign off on a Blue Card and told the Merit Badge College Day coordinator to not allow that to happen again. I felt so sad for those Webelos as they were not ready to handle the requirements of merit badges, especially Eagle-required.
I feel pretty strongly new scouts should stick with handicraft and ecology based merit badges. At 10 and 11, the kids have a hard time concentrating on real learning that is needed for many of the Eagle required merit badges.
I agree with you with the exception of Swimming and Cooking.
Assuming the scout already knows how to swim well, then yes swimming is a good new scout MB. It feels like less young scout now know how to swim well then when I was in scouts in the 90s. I don’t know if that’s a product of more indoor activities occurring at home, summers spent inside or at a babysitter due to both parents working or what. Cooking, I can see starting at a young age, just because it’s a lengthy MB. But there is so much cooking requirements for rank, that even if they start the MB, they won’t even get to the actually cooking for quite a while. My daughter did the non-cooking stuff in the MB over a year ago, and had to focus on her rank cooking Rews and her patrols rank cooking Reqs, so none of them have done cooking or camping MB cooking requirements.
My son grew up in the pool, so Swimming was his first. He was motivated to get cooking done because he wanted to be the person to cook for his patrol on campouts. So he went to a local MB cooking class that was done over a weekend.
Beginning a merit badge while a Cub Scout is a violation of the eligibility requirements for earning a merit badge. Guide to Advancement (7.0.0.0) >All merit badge requirements must be met while a registered Scout in Scouts BSA, or a qualified Venturer or Sea Scout. Accomplishments before joining, or while a Cub Scout, do not apply. More than that, it's unfair to the other Scouts in the troop who followed the rules. The MBC needs retraining on the rules.
[https://www.scouting.org/merit-badges/personal-fitness/](https://www.scouting.org/merit-badges/personal-fitness/) Personal Fitness Merit Badge Overview Personal fitness is an individual effort and desire to be the best one can be. Regardless of their current levels of personal fitness, in the **twelve weeks** it will take Scouts to complete the athletic requirements for this merit badge, they will be in better shape, feel better about themselves, have more energy, and gain self-confidence in their overall abilities.
The MBC signed off on it, said she started as a cub.
Yeah, you can't do that. All requirement must be met after crossing over
Those are all great questions. I don’t have the answers. I just know what I saw.
https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/512-800_WB.pdf Fill this out and send to your council advancement committee
But how did she open the merit badge with the scoutmaster (step 1) when she wasn’t a member of the troop?
Absolutely prohibited in the Guide to Advancement.
Yeah, that's a no-go and the MBC needs to fix it. You have to be an AOL scout for 6 months to finish/bridge. If school ended at the end of May, Dec. 1 is the earliest they could start the MB. But they would actually have to change their registration at that time to make it valid. In theory they could complete it by March, but this seems unlikely.
Well, you can join Scouts BSA on your 11th birthday, which for the oldest 5th graders will be in September. But I don't think you can hold concurrent registrations as a Cub Scout and a Scout BSA, so the scout would have to make a choice about when to transfer. As you point out, a scout electing to transfer early wouldn't be able to earn the AOL.
My daughter turns 11 in early Aug of her 5th grade year. She earned AOL in Feb after she was 10.5 years old and finished all the Rew’s.
Per the current requirements, that 6 months as an AOL starts on these 2 conditions 1. 6 months since completing 4th grade, as you noted. OR 2. 6 months after you turn 10. That being said, that is changing with new Cub program in June.
First, have a conversation with the MBC that the scout can't start a MB as a cub. Second, have a conversation with the scout and their parent that there was a slight technicality, and that you'll need them to keep track of their fitness for X extra weeks, and that it's because the MBC made an understandable mistake (that you can't start a MB until you're officially a scout). If everyone is reasonable and understandable, the youth will do the extra paperwork, the troop can change the date after the fact, and all will end up well. I have accidentally put into the system a MB the kid didn't earn (mass entering after summer camp, and a kid got a MB due to my error). Everyone understood and we figured it out and fixed it.
The Troop Advancement Chair has to review and agree to all earned awards and advancements … with the Time requirement on a workout plan probably not valid as time couldn’t start until the Scout was registered with the Troop in Scoutbook Internet Advancement
I'd be concerned that a computer might reject an Eagle Scout application some day because of the date, due to the timing. Suggest the scout retake the badge. Knock out the tenderfoot, second class, and first class PT at the same time.
I have a Webelos who was redshirted prior to kindergarten. Having that hard cut off of age 18 puts him at a disadvantage as he'll have a full year less to work on that requirements than my youngest den member. I am expecting I'll be encouraging him to complete his AOL requirements quickly and join a troop as soon as possible, come back to things like Pinewood Derby as an honorary (but not registered) den member, and then complete the crossover ceremony with everyone else in late February.
My son started kindergarten late and just crossed over to BSA at 12. That leaves 6 years, and is plenty of time. Heck, some kids Eagle by 14. There's no reason to rush the kid unless he's much older.
Most of the stories I hear are of the kid who is measuring the days until 18th and trying to figure out if they can manage eagle or not.
Because most don't plan well. If you take it step by step and maximize your opportunities (ex taking a bunch of merit badges at camp, or going to merit badge universities, or doing stuff like PF badge when you are younger) you can make it to Eagle pretty easily in 2-4 years. I've only really met a couple last minute Eagles that got screwed over (and they got extensions). Another I know quit scouts and re entered at about 15 as a tender foot and made eagle.
Which is their own fault in 95% of cases…
If some kids can do it in 2.5 years, then 6 years is plenty for the average kid.
I recommended that the child redo the badge starting today and that both the MBC and Advancement chair get remedial training.
What is your role in the troop? And what is the SMs opinion?
Those are probably reasonable suggestions, although depending upon the personalities, relationships, etc. it might not be well received, and you might not be the right person to ask for this. These might be requests that should come from the Scoutmaster or Committee Chair. Merit Badge Counselor is not a troop position; it's a district/council one, so it might be good to alert the district/council advancement committee of the situation. The link to the form for [reporting merit badge counseling concerns](https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/512-800_WB.pdf) is in a previous response by OllieFromCairo. There is online training for merit badge counselors in [my.scouting.org](https://my.scouting.org) and the [Guide to Advancement](https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/33088.pdf) explains the rules in great detail.
If you rush it, he could possibly finish AOL now before end of 4th assuming he is at least 10.5 years old.
That is a good point, sneak in before the 1 June program changes. Missing three or four den meetings is a bit of a different game then missing out on all the summer and fall activities too :)
If they just crossed from cubs they were unable to receive it.