An Awesome Organizational Binder

Boy Scouts-- it's your job to keep track of your Scout Handbook.  That's the place where you gather all of your signatures and dates for your progress through Scouting.  What if you lose it?  You can have a scout leader recreate the record in a new Scout Handbook if you kept your Rank advancement cards and Merit Badge cards.  But where?

What if there was a binder that had a place for these important papers and more?  Troop 55 came up with a great binder that helped my three older sons organize their stuff.  I want to share it here so everyone who wants this can easily print out each sheet and put it together.  All you need is a white/clear loadable front binder, two sheets of baseball card pocket holders and a color printer.

Download the following images, considering the explanation below each.  Remember that this is your back up plan; your Scout Handbook is the first repository and the one that you'll bring to each of your Boards of Review, including your Eagle.  So leave this binder at home!

This is the outside front cover.  Write your name at the bottom and Troop name and number.

This is the first page.  Don't you love the pictures of adventure?

This is a letter to your parents.  It briefly explains how things work.  Let them read it...

When you get a uniform, this will help you place your patches in the right places.  

 This record sheet is awesome!  Use it to record the important dates in the boxes outlined.  The second page is particularly useful as a back up.  

This might be my favorite sheet of all!  It's a cheat sheet for all you need to memorize as a Scout.  This one will be a big help to you.  Thanks to Cedar Hills Utah Troop 1138 for sharing.  

This is a great 'at a glance' list of the Ranks to Eagle.  I love this because it's so complete and yet it's just one sheet of paper!  This is a great reference for you and your parents.  I found it at utahscouts.org.  

This is another great reference sheet, listing all of the available Merit Badges offered through Boy Scouts of America.  Just love these!  This one is also from utahscouts.org.

At this part of the binder, put in a couple of pages of Trading Card holder sheets. They look like this.  They are the perfect size to hold your Rank Advancement cards and your Merit Badge award cards.

After this, put your Merit Badge pages that are in progress.  That will help you find them when you get back to them.  When you finish them, tuck them into the very back of the stack.  Then you can find them if you need them, but they won't be as important as the ones still in progress that are in the front of the stack.

Consider printing out copies of the Duty to God tracking sheets you use online at lds.org and keeping them in this binder as well.  Again, if you lose your Duty to God book, this will serve as a back up.  Just remember to sign things off in the book and in this binder.  

Also consider putting a copy of your most recent Health and Medical Record in this binder. Then if you need it for another use, it's easily found and copied.  

  I used this as the back of the binder.  It's an amazing statement about how accomplishing great things as a Aaronic Priesthood holder and a Boy Scout will prepare you to be a super Missionary and wonderful leader in the future.  It hopefully will help you remember why we use Boy Scouts as the Activity arm of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Certainly you can pick and choose which pages you like and want to print out for your binder.  Hopefully you will find this binder helpful to keep track of your important Scouting and Duty to God papers.