A blue card is literally a small blue card. It is your application to start earning a merit badge, and where your progress will be recorded.

You can obtain one by asking our advancement chair for one. When you start a merit badge with a counselor or at summer camp, you should be given one. In some cases you can use a “digital” blue card card through Scoutbook.

If you lose your Blue Card, or it goes through the wash or is otherwise unreadable, you cannot get credit for your badge work.

Don’t lose it!

You can check your entire Scouting progress in Scoutbook. This is your official record.

Only your Scout leadership and approved Merit Badge Counselors may enter, modify and approve of your Scoutbook entries, as appropriate.

Green Checkbox: A green checkbox does not signify official approval. When a Scout feels they have complete a requirement, they can check it off in Scoutbook, indicating that they are ready to be tested. Because this feature can be confusing, we generally skip it. Parents should not check off requirements for Scouts

Blue Checkbox: Indicates that a requirement has been approved by the assigned merit badge counselor.

Yellow Checkbox: Indicates that the badge has been presented to the Scout, usually at a Court of Honor. 

Note: The green checkmark is a useful indicator of progress, but only the blue checkmark signifies the official approval. Scoutbook allows the Advancement Chair or Scoutmaster to mark requirements as “leader approved” but this should only be done if those leaders have personally seen a signed/initialed blue card and are updating Scoutbook on the merit badge counselor’s behalf.

Yes, your own parent can be your counselor for the badges they are registered for, but you are encouraged to work as a group with other Scouts, not just one-on-one with your parent.

One of the methods of Scouting is youth association with adults. It is important for Scouts to learn from and interact with a variety of adults. To encourage this, we limit the number of merit badges a Scout can earn with one counselor to 5, of which no more than 3 can be Eagle-required badges.

There are more that 1,200 registered merit badge counselors in our district, most of whom are qualified for multiple badges. We will help you find someone to work with.

Exceptions to this limit are: the Scoutmaster and ASMs who, during the course of our regular programming, may sign off on requirements related to camping, hiking, cooking, etc. If a Scout faces special circumstances, reasonable accommodation may also be made.

A Scout must earn at least 14 of the following 18 “required” merit badges in order to become an Eagle Scout:

1. First Aid

2. Citizenship in the Community

3. Citizenship in the Nation

4. Citizenship in the World

5. Citizenship in Society*

6. Communication

7. Cooking

8. Personal Fitness

9. Emergency Preparedness or Lifesaving

10. Environmental Science or Sustainability

11. Personal Management

12. Swimming or Hiking or Cycling

13. Camping

14. Family Life

In situations where there are multiple “required” merit badge options (i.e., 9, 10, 12 above), only one of the merit badges counts towards the 14 required merit badges. Any of the other merit badges would then count towards the nine additional merit badges needed to become an Eagle Scout. For example, if a Scout earns the Swimming, Hiking, and Cycling merit badges, one of those merit badges would count toward the 14 required merit badges and the other 2 would count towards the 9 other merit badges.

*Requires a Scout to be 14 and have their parents’ and Scoutmaster’s approval.