We encourage troops or patrols to register together, but we will welcome lone scouts. If the troop is not coming to the event, the scout will be able to attend under the following conditions:
A unit “coordinator” will register all the attending scouts and adults. After registration, the selection of merit badge sessions may be done, just as with summer camps. For troops who wish to NOT use the http:// 247scouting.com Parent Portal, the primary registrant will be responsible for entering Scout information into their registration, making all payments for their Troop, and selecting Merit Badge classes for each Scout. Or the Parent Portal can be enabled by the unit coordinator to allow parents to make payments for their Scout and select their Scout’s merit badge or Trail to First Class schedule.
Yes. Due to the shortened amount of time for registration to this year’s event, the “early” registration is essentially the regular registration.
Definitely! We welcome troops, patrols, and scouts from all councils.
Registration closes on September 19, and we will NOT be accepting walk-in registration on the day of the event.
Yes, you may camp Friday night, Saturday night, or both nights. All troops, patrols, and scouts will need to leave the fairgrounds by 10am on Sunday.
At this time, we will not be scheduling any extra activities for Friday or Saturday evening.
You may indeed arrive on Saturday morning and stay the day. We recommend arriving by 7am to allow time to check in. Our opening ceremony will begin at 8am.
Unless you are a volunteer staff member, meals are NOT provided.
There are a few all day merit badge sessions, but most are half day (3 ½ hours). So, you can sign up for 1 all-day session, or 2 half-day sessions.
A few merit badges can be completed at Advance-o-Rama, but many merit badges require extended periods of time for some requirements, while other requirements require traveling to visit places that cannot be accommodated at Advance-o-Rama. Also, we require that scouts come prepared with research into various requirements to facilitate discussions with the merit badge counselors. These are listed on the Merit Badge Offerings page.
Most of the badges do not have prerequisites, but many require research into various requirements to facilitate discussions with the merit badge counselors. These are listed on the Merit Badge Offerings page.
Yes, you can take one half-day merit badge session and do the Trail to First Class in the other part of the day.
This year there will be no extra fees for any merit badge sessions.
There are no age or rank requirements to the merit badge sessions we are offering.
We will be teaching the skills for these but not issuing the chit’s. It is up to the units to verify the skills and issue the chit’s.
We plan to keep the ratio of scouts to merit badge counselor low. If we have a large number of sign ups for a particular session, we will strive to find additional counselors to facilitate the session.
If the scout is beginning a merit badge at Advance-o-Rama, there is no need to bring a blue card. Notation of what the scout has accomplished during the day will be noted in 247Scouting.com, just as we do for summer camps. Units may download the accomplishment records after the event. If coming to Advance-o-Rama with partial completion of a merit badge, you will need to bring either a blue card or merit badge or printout from summer camp.
STEM
Order of the Arrow