Col. James T. Hatfield Merit Badge Challenge
Merit Badge Challenge is a Council wide event that helps to pair Scouts with counselors and industry professionals to help them earn various Merit Badges. Between the different sites, nearly 100 different merit badges are typically offered.
We want to hear from you!
Be a Counselor at One of Our Challenges
Fairfield High School – North
Grant Career Center – East
Scott High School – Northern Kentucky
2025 Merit Badge Challenge!
Fairfield High School
January 4th, January 18th and February 15th, 2025
Located at 8800 Holden Blvd, Fairfield, OH 45014
Merit Badge offerings and schedule will be published on Nov. 18, 2024
Registration for merit badges will open on Dec. 2, 2024 at 6:00 pm.
Registration will close December 31st, 2024
Thank you, everyone for participating in Merit Badge Challenge!
The completion records were emailed on March 18, 2024.
If the Scout has any questions about their completion records, they should reach out to their merit badge counselor.
Grant Career Center
February 8th, 22nd and March 8th, 2025
Located at Grant Career Center, 718 W. Plane St. Bethel, OH
Merit Badge offerings and schedule will be published on Nov. 18, 2024
Registration for merit badges will open on Dec. 16, 2024 at 6:00 pm
Registration will close on Jan. 26, 2025
Thank you, everyone for participating in the Grant Merit Badge Challenge!
The completion records will be updated and emailed by:
Monday, April 8, 2024.
Scott High School
March 8th & 22nd, 2025 (Tentative)
More information to come!
Located at Scott High School, 5400 Old Taylor Mill Rd., Taylor Mill, KY 41015
Merit Badge offerings and schedule will be published on Jan. 31, 2024. Registration for units to enter their Scouts is open now.
Registration for individual Scouts and signing up for merit badges will open Feb. 12, 2024 at 6:00 pm
Registration closes Feb. 26, 2024
The Merit Badge Challenge Committee is interested in learning from you what things we could do that would best serve your units! We encourage you to engage your PLCs and ask them these questions. It would be great if you can submit your response by 5/15/2023, but we will keep the survey open beyond that in the event that you need more time. You will be able to submit multiple responses as well in case you think of additional information you would be willing to share with us. Thank you for your time in completing this survey and for everything that you do for Scouting and the youth in our community!
Completion Records
The merit badge counselors have been requested to update the Scouts completion records on the registration site, mycouncil.danbeard.org according to this schedule:
- Fairfield-3/26/2023
- Bethel (Grant Career Center)-4/2/2023
- N KY (Grant County HS)-4/23/2023
The following day, the completions records will be emailed to the person who created the registration and, if the Scout was registered for the event as a unit, the Unit Leader in the Unit registration as well. Please make sure that this email address: no-reply@danbeard.org is marked as “Not Junk” or a safe Sender email address or check your Junk and Spam folders for these completion records.
There may be instances where the Scouts are still working with counselors on some badges. These completion records will continue to be available for as long as we are using this registration system. The merit badge completion records are accessible by participants or unit leaders, depending on who made the registration, to review at your convenience once they are updated. Please see below for the instructions on how to access the completion records.
There also may be instances of Scouts receiving a partial on a merit badge. In the event that a Scout receives a partial and the counselor the Scout had at Merit Badge Challenge is no longer available, a Scout may complete the badge with a different counselor. A Scout can find a merit badge counselor by asking their Unit Leader or Advancement Coordinator or by going to this website: Find a Merit Badge Counselor – Boy Scouts of America, Dan Beard Council
**Please note that counselors at Merit Badge Challenge will not be making any ScoutBook connections and the registration system does not sync or connect with ScoutBook or Internet Advancement. Scouts are responsible for giving their completion records to their Unit Leaders who will then be responsible for recording the advancement in whichever way the Unit chooses to record advancement**
Helpful Tips for Using the Registration System
➢ Make sure that you are logged into the registration system.
➢ Click on Accounts at the top right of the page
➢ Click on Orders on the left side menu
➢ Click the “VIEW” button beside the order for the merit badge challenge
➢ Click the “Manage This” button next to the Scout you would like to add badges for.
➢ Click on “Activities” on the left side menu
➢ Click on “Add/Remove Activities”. If you are replacing a badge with a different badge in the same time slot, you will have to Remove the badge before you can add the one you want.
➢ Then choose your activities you would like to add or change.
➢ When finished, click on Return.
➢ Go to mycouncil.danbeard.org
➢ Make sure that you are logged into the registration system.
➢ Click on Account at the top right of the page
➢ Click on Orders on the left side menu
➢ Click the “VIEW” button beside the order for the merit badge challenge
➢ Click the View Dashboard button next to the Unit registration item
➢ Click on Members on the left side menu
➢ Click add new (blue box in the upper left-hand corner)
➢ Go to mycouncil.danbeard.org
➢ Make sure that you are logged into the registration system.
➢ Click on the icon My Events. If you need to access previous years completion records, you can find them in the upper right-hand corner of your screen.
➢ Click on the event that you want to access the Completion Records for.
➢ Click on Your Groups for this Event (on the line with the arrow)
➢ On the left side banner, click on Members
➢ Click on You Can in the upper right-hand corner and choose Download Completion Records
➢ If you only want to download the records for one participant, click the View button to the left of the participant’s name, click on the Requirements tab, click on the You Can button on the Program Session line and choose Download Completion records.
➢ Log into mycouncil.danbeard.org using the same email that was used to create the registration
➢ Click on the icon My Events. If you need to access previous years completion records, you can find them in the upper right-hand corner of your screen.
➢ Select Merit Badge Challenge event
➢ Click on the Attendee name
➢ On the left banner, click on Requirements
➢ In the upper right-hand corner, click on You Can
➢ Select Download Completion Records
Merit Badge Challenge Specifics:
Merit Badge Challenge is available to all registered Scouts. The cost to attend this event will be $30. This popular event improves advancement for all attending troops/crews and provides our youth the opportunity to explore vocations and new hobbies.
Merit Badge Challenge is an opportunity to bring Scouts and Counselors together. Emphasis is placed on those merit badges that lend themselves to an indoor or wintertime activity such as Chemistry, Law, Computers, Communication, and Citizenship badges. Various class schedules and merit badge availability will be posted here for each of the venues.
Attendance at each location is limited based on counselor participation. Therefore, the registration at one or more badges may close out before the published registration deadline. Availability of counselors may be limited. So early registration is strongly recommended.
2023 Merit Badge Challenge
Registration is Now Open. This is an opportunity for unit leaders to enter the NAMES ONLY of the Scouts they want to register. Merit Badge selections will begin on the dates specified by each location.
REGISTRATION DETAILS
Unit Registration is now open!
This is an opportunity for units to register the names and registration data only for the Scouts who are participating in their unit. You will need their names, date of birth and an email (can be a parent email). There will be a $30 charge for each Scout that you register. If your unit has a lot of Scouts, you can go to your unit’s dashboard at mycouncil.danbeard.org and upload a current roster for your unit.
Completion records will be done through the registration system like they were last year. This program will not be using blue cards nor making ScoutBook connections. If units wish to have access to Scouts’ merit badge choices and completion records, they will need to register as a unit.
Cost:
It is $30 to register a Scout.
Merit Badge Selection:
The site-specific Merit Badge registration dates are listed above. Merit Badge registration will open at 6:00 pm for each site. If you have the webpage open before 6:00 PM, you will need to refresh the page in order to have access to the merit badges.
DO NOT REGISTER INDIVIDUAL SCOUTS AS A GROUP!
The Unit (Group) selection is ONLY for Unit LEADERS who want to add their Scouts’ names before registration actually opens. It DOES NOT give anyone access to early merit badge selection.
Refund Policy:
Due to the high demand of this event and many of the classes, there will be no refunds for multiple registrations. Individuals or groups that cancel a program reservation 30 days prior to the date of the event will receive a refund of fees paid, less a 20% administrative charge. No refunds will be given after the 30-day cancellation deadline. Fees are transferable to a previously unregistered scout.
If you have any questions about this, please email Michelle Byrne at michelle.byrne@scouting.org.
Thank You
Dan Beard Council and the Merit Badge Challenge Committee would like to thank everyone who participated in the 2022 Merit Badge Challenge. Merit Badge Challenge was offered at 4 different locations in the Greater Cincinnati area over a combined 10 Saturdays. This program gave 1,125 Scouts the opportunity to earn between 1-4 merit badges of the 87 different merit badges offered. This program would not have been possible without the commitment and generous support of the 142 merit badge counselors and numerous other support staff who donated their time and talents to provide our Scouts with these advancement opportunities.
Instructions for Downloading Completion Records
- Log into mycouncil.danbeard.org using the same email that was used to create the registration
- Click on My Events
- Select Merit Badge Challenge event
- Click on the Attendee name
- On the left banner, click on Requirements
- In the upper right-hand corner, click on You Can
- Select Download Completion Records
- Go to mycouncil.danbeard.org and log in using the same email that created the Unit registration
- Click on My Events
- Click on the event that you want to access the Completion Records for.
- Click on Your Groups for this Event (on the line with the arrow)
- On the left side banner, click on Members
- Click on You Can in the upper right-hand corner and choose Download Completion Records
OR
- If you only want to download the records for one participant, click the View button to the left of the participant’s name, click on the Requirements tab, click on the You Can button on the Program Session line and choose Download Completion records.
UPDATE: Fairfield Merit Badge Challenge, scheduled for Saturday, February 5, 2022 has been cancelled due to inclement weather. The make-up day for this event is Saturday, March 5, 2022.
MERIT BADGE CHALLENGE 2020
February 1 – March 28, 2020
Only $15 per Scout
(Includes a Merit Badge Challenge Patch!)
FAIRFIELD SITE
UPDATE: Fairfield Merit Badge Challenge, scheduled for Saturday, February 5, 2022 has been cancelled due to inclement weather. The make-up day for this event is Saturday, March 5, 2022.
January 22, February 5, and February 19, 2022
Registration closes January 11, 2022
Snow Date: March 5, 2022
Located in Fairfield, OH at Fairfield High School
SESSIONS
Sycamore & Bethel (Grant Career) Locations:
Session A = 8:30-9:45
Session B = 10:00-11:15
Session C = 11:30-12:45
Session A-B = 8:30-11:15
Session A-C = 8:30-12:45
Fairfield Location:
Session A = 8:30-9:45
Session B = 10:00-11:15
Session C = 11:30-12:45
A-B = 8:30-11:15 (Cooking)
B-C = 10:00 – 12:45 (Aviation & Railroading)
A-C = 8:30-12:45
(First Aid & Emergency Preparedness)
Scott High School (NKY) Location:
Session A = 8:30-9:50
Session B = 10:05-11:25
Session C = 12:05-1:25
Session D = 1:40-3:00
Session A-B = 8:30-11:25
Session B-C = 10:05-1:25
Session C-D = 12:05-3:00
RESOURCES
Refund Policy:
Due to the high demand of this event and many of the classes, there will be no refunds issued if multiple registrations were created. Individuals or groups that cancel a program reservation 30 days prior to the date of the event will receive a refund of fees paid, less a 20% administrative charge. No refunds will be issued after the 30-day cancellation deadline. Fees are transferable to a previously unregistered scout.
Questions? Please contact Michelle Byrne at michelle.byrne@scouting.org.