Ready to Apply to be a Merit Badge Counselor or need to add/drop merit badges, head over to our Merit Badge Counselor info page.
New Policies for AAC Merit Badge Counselor
Effective August 21, 2023, the Atlanta Area Council has implemented a policy capping the total number of badges that a counselor will be approved to teach to 20 merit badges.
Requesting to teach a badge will require certain qualifications, knowledge and/or a reasonable basis for teaching a badge. Simply stating “I am an Eagle Scout” or “I earned this Merit Badge” or “I have read the requirements” will not suffice as proof of qualifications. Statements such as “I am a football coach for 5 years and want to teach physical fitness and sports” or “I have taken the Wilderness First Aid class and would like to teach first aid” would suffice as proof of qualification. See counselor.atlantabsa.org for a list of merit badges that require certifications
Counselor Portal Updates
Existing Merit Badge Counselors, DO NOT create a second account on the Merit Badge Counselor portal (counselor.atlantabsa.org). At the launch of the program, we took the approved list of Merit Badge Counselors prior to the end of January 2023 and automatically created accounts for them on the portal. If you were an approved Merit Badge Counselor prior to January of 2023, and need access to your account, contact Chris DeRose for assistance.
Update your Youth Protection Training Completion date. Any counselor with an out of date YPT will not show in search results.
If you would like to be filtered by your unit. Please put your unit number(s) on the section “Troop Selection” in your application.
Reminder that if you are applying for certain merit badges that require certification (aquatics, shooting sports, climbing, etc), please read the statement in the application for instructions and required certifications.
We are experiencing longer than expected updates for counselors to appear in Scoutbook due to membership season. Please be patient as we are working as fast as we can to accommodate everyone. Your approval process on the portal will be within a week. Once you have been approved on the portal, you can start educating Scouts on your approved merit badge while you wait for it to be uploaded to My.Scouting and Scoutbook.