Attention: All Units in Ethan Allen District

Save a tree! It’s time to do your advancement reports electronically!

10/1/2010 - Effective immediately, all units in the Ethan Allen District are requested to use Internet Advancement for the recording of their scout’s awards. Advancement Reports are to be mailed (or emailed) directly to the council office. Electronic (pdf) copies of the reports from internet advancement will be acceptable for Cub Scout or Merit Badge awards. Boards of review for rank advancement will still require 3 signatures on the form submitted to Council. Scans are acceptable, provided the signatures are legible.

The Green Mountain Council Service Center will be responsible for checking Board of Review signatures. It is the unit's responsibility to ensure 3-6 Committee Members conduct Boards of Review for rank advancement and sign Board of Review advancement reports.

Units are required to keep a file copy of all advancement reports. The District Advancement Committee will no longer keep files of Advancement Reports. All Advancement Report record keeping will be the responsibility of the Units. The council office only retains unit records for 3 years, so accurate and complete record keeping at the unit level will be very important. If you need back advancement reports for your unit, you may contact Larry Gauthier or Theresa Nelson and we will help you with this. All Advancement reports at the District advancement level will be shredded after 8-1-2013.

There will no longer be any “stamping” of blue cards by the District Advancement Committee. If Blue Cards are mailed to District, they will be returned to the unit unstamped. Save your unit time and money and mail advancement reports directly to Council without blue cards.

The Scoutmaster/Unit leader is responsible for verifying that all Merit Badge Counselors are Youth Protection Trained, properly approved and registered with the Green Mountain Council before signing the blue card permitting the scout to begin work on the badge, and again before signing the card as complete. (A scout has until his 18th birthday to complete any merit badges started at any time during his membership with the unit, and this could be over several years.) Processor name and date should be recorded on the Blue Card by the individual entering the information into Internet Advancement. The Unit keeps the Application portion of the Blue Card. Merit Badge Counselors must register as a counselor using 42 as a position code. Being registered as a unit member does not mean they are registered as a counselor for merit badges. This is a separate registration and adult application form mailed to District Advancement for approval.

The District Advancement Committee will continue to approve Merit Badge Counselor applications and Merit Badge Counselor Information forms BEFORE the Counselor is allowed to work with scouts. Scoutmasters are responsible for verifying that the Counselor is properly registered, trained, and on the list published by the District BEFORE allowing scouts to begin work on the merit badge with the Counselor. The District Advancement Committee will continue to retain Merit Badge Counselor Information forms, publish counselor lists, recruit new counselors, and assist with the annual re-registration. Units will be responsible for making sure that Counselors working with boys on open partials renew their registrations until the badge is completed, or a different registered Counselor is found to complete the badge work with the scout.

Merit Badge Counselor Information forms and Adult Applications are to be mailed to Advancement Chair Larry Gauthier, 109 Booth Terrace, Bennington VT 05201

If you have any questions on advancement of any kind, you can contact The Advancement team at District or Council and we will get you on the right path.

Thanks for all your hard work and dedication.

District Advancement Chair
Lawrence E. Gauthier