NRA & BSA – 100 years and counting
I’m not a member of the National Rifle Association but our incoming council president is. When we met recently for lunch he had the December, 2010 issue of American Rifleman. In it they have a wonderful article about the Marksmanship merit badge, this year’s National Jamboree and the NRA’s partnership with the BSA. Check it out on their web-site.
As the article points out:
“Marksman” was one of the first 14 Badges of Merit (later termed Merit Badges) offered in the original 1910 Scout Handbook
Aritst Joseph Csatari
on December 20th, 2010 at 6:24 pm
It’s descendent(s), sadly, reflect one of the cases where the BSA took a truly great and classic merit badge design and replaced it with a “bunch of stuff”.
(see also: Hiking)
on December 21st, 2010 at 5:30 am
Dave,
Good point. Hadn’t thought about it this way but it is true. I chair a Scout project in the state of Michigan to re-design the delivery of Scouting outside of the unit (working on a blog for this). It is amazing/scary how much bureaucracy we have built up over the years. Our merit badges tell an interesting story in and of themselves.
You mention the Hiking badge. What others come to mind? (Atomic Energy to Nuclear Science although that’s modern?).
Roy