Vocational Merits by Dixie Plata – Pathfinder Historian

Vocational Merits?  What are they?  Where did they come from?

Those are good questions and it is fun to learn about their history.  From the minutes of the Missionary Volunteer (Youth) Department Council that met at Chattanooga, Tennessee 23-28 September 1927 we read the following:

41-D-27.   Resolved, that for the sake of further advancement, especially of the very active Juniors the General Conference Missionary Volunteer Department officers give a study to the preparation of requirements for vocational work, for which merits will be granted.

The following are suggestive: All tokens to be stamped in gold with name of vocation

Mission – (token white felt – heart shaped)

  • Christian Story-telling
  • Health Culture
  • Christian Ethnic Studies
  • Nursing
  • Colportage

Indoor – (token grey felt – heart shaped)

  • Cooking
  • Housecraft
  • Preserving
  • Dress Making
  • Laundry art
  • Housekeeping
  • Needlecraft

Outdoor – (token green felt – heart shaped)

  • Animal Husbandry
  • Gardening, flower or vegetable
  • Poultry Raising
  • Wild flower study
  • Bee-keeping
  • General farming
  • Star study
  • Bird study
  • Horticulture
  • Tree study

Mechanic – (token brown felt – heart shaped)

  • Automobile mechanics
  • Joinery
  • Carpentry
  • Printing
  • Electricity
  • Radio

Arts – (token blue felt – heart shaped)

  • Drawing and Painting
  • Shorthand
  • Music
  • Typewriting
  • Photography

Taken from the 3 June 1928 minutes for the Missionary Volunteer (Youth) Department of the General Conference.   206 –C-28 Voted:

To make a special selection of merits and request help on the preparation of requirements and explanations for them from various people in the field.  The following is a partial list:

  • “Christian Story Telling” A. W. Spalding and Dorothy White
  • “Colportage” Mrs. W. E. Howell and Publishing Department
  • “Health and Healing” L. A. Hanson and Kathryn Jensen
  • “Gardening” Orval Baldwin, A. W. Spalding and Sidney Smith
  • “Poultry Raising” Anderson of Hutchinson and Sidney Smith
  • “Bird Study” Audubon Society
  • “Star Study” Philip Knox and M. W. Newton
  • “Cooking” & “Preserving” Mrs. Rena Potts and Miss Myrta Cornor
  • “Needlework” Educational Department
  • “Woodwork” Van Atta, Lynn Wood, Walter Elliott and Prescott Pierce
  • “Automobile Mechanics” Ernest Weaver, Earl Williams & Education Department
  • “Radio” Fetzer (Berrien Springs), Books from Radio Schools
  • “Photography” Otto Rathbun and Books from Eastman Kodak Co.

Now we don’t know if each of these individuals were able to be part of developing the merits but we do know that at the 24 March 1929 meeting it was voted that “we change the nomenclature of the Vocational Merits, a Boy Scout term, to Vocational Honors”

We also know that in 1929 the first Junior Missionary Volunteer Handbook was published and the Vocational Honors were oval, the same as today, with a drawing of each honor, no words on the felt patch. We also know that Lion Brothers made the first honor tokens, 89 years ago, and are still producing the honor tokens for the General Conference Youth Ministries Department and AdventSource. Granted the first honors were simpler then and technology is now more advanced yet they are still written for the same reason,  “ to equip each person to do his best work, at home, or in a foreign field… he must have practical  working knowledge along many lines.  The Missionary Volunteer Department desires to help you… have proficiency in certain vocational lines which you may choose to undertake.  These may lead to the adoption of a vocation, or at least of a useful hobby, and will in any case help you to be a more efficient worker for God”.

The minutes of 24 March 1929 show that it was voted to submit the Junior Handbook to the General Conference Committee with a recommendation that it be published by the Review and Herald.  251-C-29.

We also know, because it is printed in this first handbook, that there were 35 Vocational Honors in the 1929 book with pictures of 3 each honor.  That same book on page 88 states, “…a scarf to be worn diagonally over the chest can easily be made, on which the tokens can be sewed.  In this way they may be kept in good condition, and will always be ready to wear on special occasions, such as investiture services, special programs, or at summer training camps.

Also as the original Vocational Honors attest the colors had been changed as well as the name of categories:  Art – light blue, Missionary Endeavor – dark blue, Nature Study – white, Household Arts – Gold, Mechanics – red, and Outdoor Industries – dark brown

The AYM Museum will have a special area to display honors and for some of the honors to be work on by those visiting the museum.