To be a merit badge counselor you must register with the BSA at your local council for the position and to be approved to counsel certain badges. For details on how to register, contact your local council service center.
Once you are registered, you automatically have access to Scoutbook. Watch this short video on how you can use Scoutbook as a merit badge counselor.
ADDITION TO VIDEO: You can connect to Scouts and track their merit badge progress even if their unit does not use Scoutbook. Use Scoutbook as your tracking tool.
Once registered with the BSA as a merit badge counselor, your merit badge counselor position will be added to Scoutbook. If you do not already have a Scoutbook account, and you can access Scoutbook with your my.scouting login
Adjusting Your Visibility on the List of Merit Badge Counselors
To make sure you show up in Scoutbook on the Merit Badge Counselor List that unit leaders see, make sure your Youth Protection Training is up to date.
You can adjust how you display on the list of merit badge counselors.
Log onto Scoutbook using your my.Scouting login name and password. Then click on My Account, and then to your My Positions page. Your merit badge counselor position should display similarly to this:
If it isn’t in the My Positions section of your account, you are not showing in Scoutbook as a Merit Badge Counselor, contact your council service center.
Scoutbook shows blue check marks next to the badges you are approved by the council to counsel and shows how your visibility settings are set.
“Counselor for any Scout in the BSA” in the above example means the counselor is visible to any unit in the BSA. This setting by default is set to counselor for your local council which means you are visible to all units in your local council.
To adjust your settings, click on the Merit Badge Counselor position. You will see a screen similar to the following:
You can set your merit badge counselor as your default (primary in Scoutbook) position.
The other settings as follows:
Availability
Available – Available to counsel Scouts
Busy – To busy right now to counsel any more Scouts
Listing Preference
Any Council (Worldwide) – My name shows up in lists accessible throughout the BSA
Council List – Restrict my listing to my local council (this is usually the default)
District List – Restrict my listing to my local district
Unit List – Restrict my listing to my unit (you can list multiple units here)
Not Listed – Don’t list me at all on any lists. (this does not remove your merit badge counselor registration. If you wish to be removed from the position, contact your council service center.)
UNIT LEADER INSTRUCTIONS
NOTE: Troops can invite Merit Badge Counselors to work with their Scouts from the Merit Badge Counselor List in Scoutbook.
To connect a merit badge counselor to a Scout to work on a particular badge:
Click on the Scout
Click on the Scout’s Advancement
Click on the merit badge
Click on Invite Merit Badge Counselor
the merit badge counselor will be sent an email with a link to click on that will connect the Scout with the merit badge counselor.
Leaders can find merit badge counselors by going to their unit page and clicking on Merit Badge Counselor list
To find out who in your unit is registered as a merit badge counselor, go to the unit roster page in Scoutbook and click on Print Roster then select merit badge counselor information.
Q. Can my unit import merit badge counselors?
A. No. Merit badge counselors are BSA positions which require approval by the local service center. Scoutbook does not support importing merit badge counselors via unit imports.
Additional Features
More information is here
Advanced feature information is here, including more merit badge counselor reports.