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10. Merit Badges.

• Get started

• Plan the year

• Patrol Meetings

• Patrol Points

• Communicate

• Participation

• Greenbar

• Teamwork

• Celebrate

• Advancement

• Merit Badges

• Skills

• Track Progress

• Things you need

There are two types of Merit Badges:

Some teach you "Life Skills", - things you will need and use no matter what you do later in life. There are 12 required Merit Badges for getting the rank of Eagle (with a few having more than one option). Your Handbook tells you what they are.

Some teach you other skills, - skills that just might become your profession later in life. The Merit Badge program helps you understand something about each field, and teaches you the basics while you get hands-on experience with it. There are over 100 to chose from in this category. 

When you want to take a merit badge, you need to tell Mr. Laney -  the Devon 50 Advancement Chair.  He will get you a Blue Card and help you find a Counselor to help you with the process.

    When you start scouting, you will concentrate on learning skills and getting to First Class. You CAN take Merit Badges before that, but you shouldn't spend much time on that. Once you reach First Class, you will take merit badges at any time.
    During the year, you can work on a merit badge on your own, you can complete some as part of our annual Merit Badge Jambo, or you can do it with your Patrol.
    Most Devon 50 scouts get a lot of their Merit Badges at Summer Camp. There is a program of Merit Badge training there that has over 40 Merit Badges to chose from. 

You can take as many Merit Badges as you can manage, but the requirements for rank advancement are listed in your handbook. A total of 21 Merit Badges are required for the rank of Eagle Scout, and 12 of them must be from the required list.