Central New Jersey Council, BSA

I am a new Assistant scoutmmaster (just a few months now), I was a scout as a boy, and now is the perfect time for me to give back. Scouting made all the difference in my life growing up. My question is this, Has anyone been a merit badge counsellor? Can someone give me the pros and cons of doing it? I have a TON of life experience in many many different areas I looked at the list of badges, and found that Cooking (I'm a pastry Chef), Truck Transportation (drove semis for awhile), Entrpeneurship (I work for myself), Nature (I'm taking the course for it at summer camp) Mammal Study (I was a marine mammal trainer for 3 years) Amercan Heritage (huge history buff and former member of the Civil War reinactment Assoc) The three citizenship badges (I'ma very good citizen) The collections Badge (I' have a number of collections myself) Emergency Prep (I've been a trainer for a major company for this) Fishing and Fly fishin (been at it for years, never seem to catch anything though lol) Genealogy (I started at my mother's side as a boy and continue today) So the question is what does the council need? What's entailed? What kind of time each week am I looking at?

Shawn,

I think you would get a great deal of satisfaction from working with the boys in your troop. The assistance that you provide just might be for an eagle badge! You should definately sign up. You need to fill out an application (link below) and submit it to the council office for approval. Thanks for your interest.

http://www.cnjcbsa.org/documents/MeritB ... cation.pdf

Also, make sure you completed your BSA adult application so your criminal background check can be performed. This is a requirement of all adults working with the boys.