Page updated on: January 16, 2024

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Scouts BSA
Advancement
Requirements Changes

e requirements on the scouting.org website differ from those in the Scouts BSA Requirements book. When that is found, the online version should be used.

BSA annually issues a publication which until 2019 was entitled Boy Scout Requirements, and has now been renamed Scouts BSA Requirements (currently BSA Publication No. 33216 - previously 33215), and periodically publishes revised pamphlets for each merit badge currently available to Scouts. In 2021,BSA announced that it was discontinuing publication of the Requirements Book and there was no edition in 2021, but publication resumed in 2022. Scouts BSA Requirements is normally issued in January each year, and contains the requirements for all Scouts BSA rank advancements and all merit badges, plus those for other awards and emblems.

The Scouts BSA Advancement requirements are also available on scouting.org and are designated as "official". They can be found by following links on the Advancement and Awards pages at https://www.scouting.org/programs/scouts-bsa/advancement-and-awards/and in the "Resources section of the Scoutbook app at http://scoutbook.scouting.org.  BSA does NOT hold the publications of merit badge pamphlets until January each year. Instead, they issue them as they are completed (and old stocks are exhausted, probably). Then in January, Scouts BSA Requirements should include all revisions to date.

When there is a conflict between two published lists of requirements, such as the requirements published on Scouting.org, Scouts BSA Requirements (BSA Publication No. 33216), a Merit Badge Pamphlet or the Scouts handbooks, the version on Scouting.org should be considered to be the controlling document. However, the following statement on the inside front cover of the 2024 edition of the Scouts BSA Requirements book explains what to do when merit badge requirements change:

 

When new or revised merit badge requirements appear in this Scouts BSA Requirements book and on www.scouting.org/meritbadges, any Scout beginning work on a merit badge must use the requirements as stated therein. However, if changes to merit badge requirements are introduced in a revised merit badge pamphlet or at www.scouting.org/meritbadges throughout the year, then the Scout has through the end of the current calendar year to decide which set of requirements to use.

Once a Scout begins work, the Scout may continue using the requirements the Scout started with until completion of the badge. Alternatively, the Scout may choose to switch to the revised requirements. Sometimes, however - especially for more significant changes - the Scouts BSA handbooks, the Scouts BSA Requirements book, www.scouting.org/meritbadges. or official communications from the National Council may set forth a different procedure that must be used. The National Council may establish a new date for when use of the existing requirements must cease. When new or revised merit badge requirements appear in this Scouts BSA Requirements book and on www.scouting.org/meritbadges, any Scout beginning work on a merit badge must use the requirements as stated therein. However, if changes to merit badge requirements are introduced in a revised merit badge pamphlet or at www.scouting.org/meritbadges throughout the year, then the Scout has through the end of the current calendar year to decide which set of requirements to use. Once a Scout begins work, the Scout may continue using the requirements the Scout started with until completion of the badge. Alternatively, the Scout may choose to switch to the revised requirements. Sometimes, however - especially for more significant changes - the Scouts BSA handbooks, the Scouts BSA Requirements book, www.scouting.org/meritbadges. or official communications from the National Council may set forth a different procedure that must be used. The National Council may establish a new date for when use of the existing requirements must cease.

 

Scouts should note that the requirements in Scouts BSA Requirements may be (and frequently are) different from those printed in their copy of the Scouts BSA Handbook, or the merit badge pamphlet they are using, because Scouts BSA Requirements is updated annually, and the handbook and pamphlets are not. Even if the handbook or pamphlet was printed this year, the content, including the requirements, may not have been updated from those when the book was last revised.

BSA issued new editions of; ALL of the merit badge pamphlets in August, 2008. In some cases, the new pamphlets had major revisions at that time, while others only involved changes to the illustrations (which went from black and white to color).

Since 2002, the requirements for every merit badge have been revised in some manner. Again, some of the changes were major, while others were only very minor.

Since 1995, we have been preparing analyses of all of the changes in the annual editions of  Scouts BSA Requirements. These analyses have been published on our web site below. PDF versions have been made since 2010.

Please note that the`2024 report is not complete yet. As far as I can tell, I believe that all of the changes to Rank advancement requirements, and merit badge requirements identified in the report are complete, The USScouts.org web pages showing the revised text for the merit badges and ranks that have changed and the web pages highlighting the details of the changes have been uploaded to the website. As we've done in the past the details of the revisions are shown with deleted text shown in red strike-through italics and additions shown in green underlined and slightly larger. Workbooks have been revised and are available for recording notes and tracking progress toward advancement. However, we not yet updated the workbooks to incorporate the revised merit badge requirements. And other than the revised requirements for Eagle Palms, and a note that the Cyber Chip has been retired, we have not documented the changes to the other awards and insignia listed in the "Special Opportunities..We hope to have the rest of the report done as  soon as possible..

These analyses were prepared as a service to Scouts and Scouters nationwide by
Paul S. Wolf
Secretary, US Scouting Service Project, Inc.

Printed copies of the documents may be freely distributed for use in the Scouting program, so long as the source is acknowledged, but copying the information to another web site is NOT authorized.

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