He wants to use it as an Eagle Required merit badge to earn Rank now? If so, then right now it's not Eagle Required, so it wouldn't count. It doesn't go into effect as an eagle req badge until 2014.

He can't use it as a Star or Life Eagle Required badge until 2014. Your definitive guide is the 2013 Boy Scout Requirements book (should be at your local Scout Shop now)

Cooking Merit Badge to Be Required for Eagle Starting Jan. 1, 2014

Effective Jan. 1, 2014, the Cooking merit badge will be required to obtain the Eagle Scout rank. Regardless of when a Scout earned the Life rank or began working toward Eagle, unless he fulfills all the rank requirementswith the exception of his board of review before Jan. 1, 2014, he must earn the Cooking merit badge to become an Eagle Scout.

Note: This means that as of January 1, 2014, the number of "Eagle required" merit badges will be 13, instead of 12, and the number of "Optional" badges will drop to 8. In addition, this change to the Eagle required list will result in another change to the footnote to requirement 3 for the Star and Life ranks. Once the Cooking merit badge becomes required, the footnote will be changed as follows: "* Choose any of the 17 required merit badges in the 13 categories to fulfill requirement 3."

http://usscouts.org/advance/changes/advchanges13.asp#eagle

Nice try on the Scouts part, but it won't count as Eagle Required until 1/1/2014

(This message has been edited by bnelon44)

That's what I thought.

But does that not seem illogical? For all intent, it IS required for the boy to earn Eagle. He cannot possibly make Eagle before Jan. 1. So why create this silly back and forth limbo thing?

Agreed, the word for this week seems to be TRANSITION.

It would be better to have a transition period. Say, starting Jan 1, 2013, Cooking will be accepted as an Eagle Required MB for Star and Life ranks. On Jan 1, 2014, Cooking will be required for Eagle Rank.

My $0.02

I have a similar question. Son #2 (almost Star) is almost done with it and wants to know if he should just wait until 2014 to finish it so it counts as Eagle.

Tampa Turtle,

He can complete it now. When 2014 comes around it will count as an Eagle required badge. Right now it doesn't but then, it sounds like he isn't ready to make Eagle this year anyway.

Twocubdad

Technically they are only giving you a heads up on a requirement change. The change is not in effect until 1/1/2014. The reason for the lead notice is so no one is caught off guard on 1/1/2014. It is a good thing.

Here's how I think you should help a boy manage things in his book:

For now it goes in a non-required slot. Probably, since 2C's scout sounds like he has all of his electives for Star, he should write it in on the page for Life electives.

Next year, or whenever he goes for his bird, it will count as a required badge. All he'll have to do is jot "required" beside the line where he recorded that badge.

He still earned it, it still counts for something. It's just at the end of the year it will count in a different way.

I understand, I just think it's being handled poorly. They thought through 80% or the the process. Obviously, the 800 pound gorilla are the kids who are close to Eagle and will have to go back and earn cooking. Clearly, plenty of lead time is appropriate for them.

But how stupid is this for my Scout or Tampa's son?

Requirements always relate to current requirements. If cooking was required now, then yes, it could be used as a required badge. But if cooking is not on the current list of required merit badges, then it doesn't count as a required merit badge yet.

At first glance, it sure does seem like it would be frustrating for the lads but I would ask a Scout frustrated by this if the only reason he's working on merit badges is for advancement and does that mean he won't take a badge that interests him because he's already got the number of elective badges he needs for Eagle?

It's a little bit stupid. But not as stupid as changing the total count of MB's required.

Tampa, let your boy take the MB when it suits him. It's just a bookkeeping thing. Come Jan 1, there will be one too many spaces in his book for elective MBs and one too few spaces for required MBs. He can fix that with two strokes of a pen.

It's just like now when a First Class scout earns his first 6 MBs are all from the required list. We have him fill in the six MBs on his Star page, write "(required)" by the last two, and scratch the "(required)" from two of the blanks on his Eagle page.

Cooking is a great merit badge, Eagle required or not. I encouraged the boys in the Troop to get it before it was a required badge, so now I have a little more justification in advocating it.

i guess I look at it at a different way
Boy scout earns X Amount of merit Badges
Which ya Divide into Required Eagle Merit Badges + NONReguired Merit Badges= Total Earned
Under current Rules the minimum is 12(Eagle)+9(electives)=21
Proposed 2014 minimum will be 13(Eagle)+8(elective)=21
When you review for Eagle to List the Merit Badges Earned...Not when Earned
So you simply take the Eagle list and check them off...everything else goes to Electives as long as he earned it it counts

Nothing say a Boy Scout has to Earn only 21

I sent an email to the the guy who wrote the article in Scouting Magazine when the change was announced. He said that if a Scout wants to use Cooking MB as a required MB they can do that AFTER Jan 1, 2014. So, if a current Star Scout earns the MB this month (Feb 2013) while it is non-required, he can use it as a required badge this time next year (2014). He also said that if the Scout wants to change out the non-required Cooking MB on his sash and replace it with the required Cooking MB (even though he earned it when it was non-required) he could.