Introduction: The Un-Official BSA Pocketsized Official Training Certification Collection

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About: I've been an artist all my life. Probably nothing I couldn't accomplish according to my grade school teachers who said "I would make a perfect student if I would just stop drawing all the time". I'm …

This Instructable is probably not for everyone out there. But if you have many certifications/certificates then you might find it will come in handy to be able to keep them with you. If so this pocket sized version might just be what you need.

Granted, this is specifically for all those Scout Leaders out there who will want to keep a record of their training with them. You should know every youth deserves a trained leader and because of that there is a lot of training you can take.

The Boy Scouts of America has a multitude of online courses you can take and when you complete them you'll earn a certificate of completion. Some of these never expire while some are more time based and have to be retaken every few years such as Youth Protection.

Once you've completed a training course and earned your certificate you can download it, to save digitally for your records or physically print out a copy.

Step 1: Go to My.Scouting.org

I'm assuming that if your a registered leader you will already have an account at my.scouting.org(if not, go ahead and register, your local council should be able to provide you with any information you need)

Now if you've been in Scouting for a number of years like I have you'll have accrued numerous training certifications. Or even if your just starting out as a new leader and have only completed your first trainings. The first thing you'll need to do is go to your My.Scouting.org account and log-in.

Click on the Menu in the top left hand corner and go to My Dashboard. This will take you to the My Training Page. You'll notice 4 sections across the top of the screen:

  • YPT (Youth Protection Training)(You can download your certificate from this page)
  • Training Center (Where you go to choose training classes)
  • Requirements (Job Specific Training based on your registered Leadership position, ie: Cub Master, Den Leader, etc.)
  • Completions (All the training you've finished and earned)

Step 2: Download Your Training Certificates

Click on the Completions section and you'll see a list of all the individual training you've completed and received certifications. You'll notice to the right of each certification a little tiny blue printer icon. But you can click anywhere on the individual training line and it will generate a new tab displaying a PDF that you can then download.

Click on the download icon (depending on your computer OS and browser this may vary). And save to your computer.

NOTE: A big complaint about the download for some reason its some pointless name (I'm assuming it makes sense to somebody). So I recommend you rename the PDF to correspond with what ever the training actually was. Otherwise you'll never be able to find a specific training certificate. Especially if you have loads of certificates.

Step 3: Size and Print Each

Once you've gotten all your training download. You’ll notice the pdf has a large version at the bottom and two smaller ones at the top. The top ones are what we’re going to use.

Print your certifications out however many certificates you have. Or if you want just the ones that are pertinent to your current position.

If your wanting to save paper you could always place in a desktop program to reduce and gang together.

Step 4: Cut Out All and Sort

Regardless how you print out your certificates cut down all to close to the same size as possible.

Count out however many certificates you have creating two groups. (Obviously you can prepare your certificates how ever you choose, chronologically, alphabetically, or by scouting group (Cub, Boy, Venturer, etc)).

I like sorting mine by completion dates.

Step 5: Assemble

With all the certificates cut I simply start scotch taping them back to back. Having divided into two groups I marry each pair forming a single card. I do this with all that I have, being sure to keep them in order.

Tape the short sides only, not the top or bottoms yet. If you end up with an odd number simply put a blank on the back of the single.

Once all your pairs are back to back, start taping each card in your desired sequence foot to head of the next card. I prefer putting a strip of tape on bottom of one card then flipping over to position the top of the other card on the exposed tape.

As you attach each card fold in opposite directions creating an accordion fold. I like scoring the folded edges with a burnisher or a rounded metal edge (so it doesn't tear the tape)(of course your thumbnail will work too). This helps keep the them fold down.

Step 6: Clip and Go

After completely assembled I keep the whole thing held to gather with a binder clip. I flip the clip handles down to make for a fully finished collection. Fits nicely in my shirt pocket too.

Funny story: This all came about recently due to my local council mistakenly sending out email notices to the entire registered adult leadership that their Youth Protection Certification had expired and needed to be updated. Well as you can imagine this caused quite the brouhaha. So wanting to have proof of my credentials (and in keeping with the accusation I have too much time on my hands) I set about to do this very Instructable. Not that that really proves anything…. But I now have printed documented proof and a great site gag when I drop it open at scout events.

OH... and if you happen to notice that my certificates look completely different than from what is now online at my.scouting.org now, well that’s because they apparently revamped the whole system just recently, after I had already downloaded mine. Now each has a single small certificate with a different look. So here I go starting over to create a newer version.