Technology-Based Tools in Advancement

What this page is

What happens to advancement when a screen stands between a Scout and the person judging their work, drawn from the Guide to Advancement topic 5.0.8.0 and the topics it points at, cited on every item.

The line the whole topic is drawn along

Technology is welcomed for administration and watched carefully in delivery. The Guide says these tools are useful and save time on records for membership, training and advancement — and in the same paragraph that leaders must take care when using them to deliver and implement the advancement program. The preferred method for rank advancement and merit badge counseling is still face-to-face interaction, because that is what supports the method of adult association.

Nearly every question about a screen resolves once you decide which side of that line it falls on.

Who decides

The council advancement committee, in compliance with national procedures. Not the unit, and not the counselor. The Guide offers five examples of what a council might put in place, and each is the hinge for one part of this page: a Youth Protection plan for electronic communication within units; a process for approving technology-based boards of review; a plan for approving and monitoring counselors who offer their services online; a way to confirm with home councils that online counselors are registered; and guidelines for web-based instruction that place the actual testing in a personal setting.

Three words, defined

So that a tool cannot quietly redefine them:

Discuss requires a back-and-forth, interactive conversation. Exchanging a few text messages does not meet this standard; a video conversation might.

Explain can be written or oral, but must be a substantive description — more than just a few words.

Demonstrate means to physically do the activity, ideally in the presence of the counselor. If that is not possible a video may be used, provided both the video and the activity can be done safely, the Scout performs the skill correctly, and all essential aspects of the task can be clearly seen.

Requirements to show, tell, discuss, explain or demonstrate must not be substituted with checklists or forms under any circumstances.

Generative AI

Addressed directly, and permitted. Generative artificial intelligence and other tools — spell checkers, grammar checkers, autofill — may be used by a Scout to assist with written requirements, provided the use is fully disclosed to the person reviewing the work and the final output is the Scout's own original work. This is new in the 2025 edition.

How to read the graph

An arrow points from the thing that has to happen first to the thing it unlocks. Nested items are part of the step above them rather than steps of their own. Dotted lines are recommended order carrying no obligation; dashed lines apply only in the case written on the arrow.