The
Eagle Scout
Handbook
The
Eagle Scout
Handbook
From Life to Eagle
Michael S. Malone
Wind
Rush
PUBLISHERS
Dallas, Texas
Eagle Scout
by Distinguished Eagle Scout George Rodrigue
In benefit to the Southeast Louisiana Council, BSA
CONTENTS
Chapter One . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Lost and Found
Chapter Two . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Merit Badges
Chapter Three. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
The Eagle Service Project
Chapter Four. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
The Gauntlet
Chapter Five. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Celebration
CHAPTER ONE
Lost and Found
T
Welcome, Life Scout!
his first section of the Eagle Scout Handbook is written just for you. You will
likely read it many times in the months ahead . . .and then not pick it up
again for twenty years or more (if you have a son on his own Trail to Eagle),
or perhaps never again.
But in these few months, as you tackle what is probably the greatest challenge of
your young life – that of earning the Eagle Scout rank – we hope that this book will
be your guide: bringing to bear many years of experience on the same Trail to help
you prepare, warn you of pitfalls, and place your experiences into a larger context.
You are not alone; over the last century, about three million young American
men have earned their Eagle. Some of them may be among the scouts and adults
in your troop, among the staff at your summer camp, and even hidden among your
teachers, neighbors and parents of your friends. These Eagles are also there to help
you and guide you to their Eagle – indeed, as you will soon learn, helping young
Eagles-to-be is a central part of the Brotherhood of Eagles, and this mentorship has
been taking place for decades. It is now your turn to welcome their assistance; just as
it will soon be time – and for the rest of your life – to offer it.
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THE EAGLE SCOUT HANDBOOK
On the day you earn your Eagle, we invite you to begin reading the second,
larger, section of this Handbook – it will help you to understand what it means to be
an Eagle. As you’ve heard many times before:
Once an Eagle, Always an Eagle
Now you will see what that means. It is easy to say that, while all of the other ranks
fall away when you leave Scouting, being an Eagle stays with you for life. Some day
you will say you were a Scout, but you are an Eagle forever. That it is likely the only
achievement of your youth that will appear in your obituary seventy or eighty years
hence.
Nice phrases, all. But it is a very different thing to live with that honor, and to
assume the duties it demands, for the rest of your life. Just what it all means, and how
to live one’s life as an Eagle Scout, is the subject of the second part of this Handbook.
For now, you only need to know that it is there, waiting for the day the medal is
pinned on your chest, ready to take on the rest of your long journey as Eagle Scout.
As every adult Eagle will tell you, the Trail to Eagle, as difficult as it may seem to
you now, is in retrospect shockingly short; while the Trail from Eagle is astonishingly
long – and that it is the latter that is often the most rewarding. Millions of American
men have regretted not earning their Eagle – especially the ones who got very close –
but we don’t know of a single man who ever regretted earning it.
The fact that you are reading this section of the Eagle Handbook says that you
have already made your single most important decision in Scouting, and perhaps in
your young life: you have decided to go for your Eagle.
You may have made that decision at age six when you joined Cub Scouting as
a Tiger Cub, or you may have made it just this morning. It doesn’t matter: you’ve
made your choice.
And now that you’ve made your first step on the Trail to Eagle (in fact, as you
now probably realize, you actually made that first step long ago), you need to hike
it to the end. If you don’t, you likely will never forgive yourself. This is not an idle
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remark. Nor is designed to put pressure on you to get your Eagle (you’re probably
getting enough of that already). It is simply a judgment based upon experience: just
ask an adult who was a Life Scout but didn’t earn their Eagle . . . and listen to the
regret in their voice. You don’t want to share that regret. And you will, if the calendar
turns on your 18th birthday and you haven’t completed all of the requirements,
including the Scoutmaster conference, for your Eagle.
We say this with full knowledge that not every Scout is destined to become an
Eagle Scout. As you probably know, just 4 percent – one out of twenty-five – boys
who join Boy Scouts (the number is far fewer for Cubs) ever reach Eagle. And there
is nothing wrong with that: the Eagle award is supposed to be difficult and rare, and
if every Scout earned it, the award would be considered too easy.
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Moreover, there is nothing wrong with only reaching, say, First Class during
your Scouting career. We’ve all known Scouts who loved the camping and hiking
side of Scouting, but were indifferent to merit badges. That’s fine: any Scouting
experience has a positive effect on a young man.
But you are different. You have taken your Scouting advancement all of the way
to the penultimate rank: Life. That alone has years of work, scores of campouts and
hikes, and the completion of several dozen rank requirements. You also likely hold
a leadership position in your troop and the younger Scouts look up to you as a role
model – as do your younger brothers if you have them. And, of course, your parents,
even if they never held troop positions such as assistant Scoutmaster or committee
member or merit badge counselor, have likely spent many hours driving you to
and from Scouting events and washing your uniforms and sewing on your patches.
Finally, the very fact that you are reading this, says that you have begun the Trail to
Eagle. Any step now that isn’t forward is a retreat . . . one you will never forget.
So, here you are. After all that you’ve done, why stop now? It would be like
finishing high school and not taking the last set of finals, or writing a book and not
writing the last chapter, travelling across the world to a great city and stopping at its
suburbs. You have earned the right to become an Eagle Scout, to earn the premiere
honor for American Youth, the PhD of boyhood.
So make the commitment. Take the journey. Do the work. No matter how hard
those remaining merit badges – and most of all, the service project – may look now,
you can do them . . . just as millions of Life Scouts have done before you. You will
be a different, and better person when you finish – and so will the rest of your life.
We are here to help. We can’t earn the merit badges for you. And we certainly
can’t do your Eagle service project for you. And we wouldn’t even if we could. Nor
should anybody else. This is your Eagle, and you need to earn it. Anything less
would cheapen an award that we, as Eagles, hold in the greatest respect.
However, in the pages that follow, we will help you to navigate the complexities
of completing your remaining requirements, write up the paperwork, and negotiate
the pitfalls, and finally, plan the celebration of your new Eagle rank at the end.
Are you ready to do it? Are you a little nervous, even a bit afraid? Yes? Good,
it’ll keep you focused. No? Then there are ways – notably in your choice of your
service project – that can make the trail to Eagle as difficult and as perilous as you
want it to be. However you feel at this moment, you owe it to yourself to make
earning your Eagle the proudest achievement of your life to date.
Shall we begin? Okay, now . . . STOP!
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Lost and Found
Do you remember, back when you were a young Scout working on your
Tenderfoot rank, this particular requirement?
5. Explain the rules of safe hiking, both on the highway and cross-country,
during the day and at night. Explain what to do if you are lost.
You may have been asked to answer this requirement, especially the second
sentence, several times in Scoutmaster conferences in the years since – and you may
well be asked it one last time at your Eagle Scoutmaster conference (so be prepared).
Why do we keep asking you this? Why do we keep reinforcing your understanding
of what to do when you are lost?
If you haven’t figured out already, then you will in years to come, that whenever
Scouting constantly repeats a bit of knowledge, it does so for multiple reasons that
typically combine immediate need and long-term skill development. And, in fact,
there are three reasons why the Boy Scouts of America wants you to know, to the
point it becomes instinctual, what to do when you are lost:
1. Safety – Every time a patrol or troop goes out in the woods there is a
heightened risk of a Scout wandering off and becoming lost. Most of the
time, thankfully, these events have a happy ending. But sometimes – and
you’ve no doubt heard the news stories – the result is catastrophic. Also,
the risk of disaster is greater the younger the Scout because he is less likely
to have the repertoire of survival skills of, say, a Life Scout like you. That’s
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THE EAGLE SCOUT HANDBOOK
why this requirement is part of the Tenderfoot rank instead of Second or
First Class; Scouting wants each Scout to know what do the very first time
he goes out into the woods.
2. Leadership – Scouting knows that by age 13 or so, you will step into the
role of Patrol Leader, probably the first leadership job of your life. That
makes you responsible for all of the younger Scouts in your charge – and
that means that you are now the first line of safety for those boys. That
means you need to be constantly aware – that’s why you were also taught
the ‘buddy system’ – where each of those boys are, and to regularly remind
them of what do if they wander off.
3. Philosophy – Even if you understand the first two, you probably haven’t
realized this third one. ‘Lost’ is more than an outdoor term: it is also a
description of scenarios that you will encounter your entire life when you
are confused, when the traditional paths and landmarks in your life are no
longer visible, and when you are desperate and unsure of which way to go.
As it turns out, the same rules that you learned about how to deal with
being lost in the woods are also pretty useful for being lost in daily life.
So why, at the beginning of a book on becoming an Eagle, are we bringing
up a single, obscure requirement from your earliest days in Scouting? Because,
chances are that as you look ahead at the last stretch of your trail to Eagle, you too
are feeling a little lost these days. And we think that the answers to that Tenderfoot
requirement can be very useful to you right now.
So, do you remember what you are supposed to do when you are lost in the
woods? Do you remember the first thing you are supposed to do?
That’s right: STOP!
You need to immediately stop for a couple reasons. The first is that you
are in great danger of making your situation even more critical if you keep moving.
There is a natural tendency to flee when you feel you are in danger, or to charge off
in a particular direction with only the slightest evidence that it is the right one. The
result, more often than not, is that you run off in the wrong direction and make
yourself even more lost.
The second reason you need to stop is that the realization of being lost can
quickly lead to a sense of panic. And panic – more than weather, predator or lack of
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water – is the greatest threat you face out in the woods. Panic leads to bad decisions
—and this is one of those situations when all of your decisions need to be good ones.
[Mass panic is particularly destructive, which is why we also teach you, if you are lost
in a group, to keep everyone together, calm them down, and take command of the
situation.]
Chances are that, along with feeling a bit lost these days on your way to
Eagle, you are also experiencing some of that same panic. You may have just turned
17 and suddenly realized that the clock is ticking fast. Or you’ve just started your
senior year in high school and you can’t figure out how you are going to do your Eagle
project in the midst of SAT and AP tests, keeping your grades up, and filling out
college applications. Or the guys you came up with in Scouting have already reached
Eagle and are pressuring you to finish your Eagle now instead of waiting until the last
minute. Or, most of all, your parents are long past the point of dropping occasional
hints, are now asking you continuously about when you are going to get to work on
your project, and enlisting other adults to talk to you.
That’s a lot of pressure. And as you look ahead, the steps you need to take
to get to Eagle aren’t clear; indeed, you aren’t even sure how or where to start. You
are feeling lost and panicky . . . and it’s not surprising that your first impulse is to
either run away from the problem, put it off in hopes that you’ll figure out what to
do later on, or embark on a flurry of activities (such as earning endless non-required
merit badges, or becoming SPL) without any real plan in hopes that it will work out
in the end.
That is not the way to get to Eagle. You need a plan.
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Finding your Way
Do you remember the next part of the STOP procedure for what to do when you
get lost?
T: Take stock of your situation; Think.
Let’s do that right now. And the best way to start is by asking some questions.
1.
How old are you? More precisely: When do you turn 18 years old?
Depending upon your answer, this may be the single most important
question of all. There are four possible answers, and each will produce a
different plan.
a. You are younger than 17 years old – This means that you have the
time to put together a thoughtful, long-term plan for earning your
Eagle. If you want to tackle an ambitious, Adams award quality
service project (we’ll explain later) you probably have the time to
do it. You also have the time to take on a senior leadership role
(SPL, ASPL, etc.) in your troop – and you should, because that
experience is one of the most important and far-reaching you will
have in your Scouting career, not to mention one of the best ways
of giving back to Boy Scouts.
b. You are 17 years old – You have one year to earn your Eagle. You
need to start planning a date to start your Eagle project. If summer
is coming up soon, that is probably the best time to do it. Don’t
wait – few Eagle projects go as planned, or begin as quickly as you
think they will. As you’ll soon see, you have a number of steps to
get through before you can even begin your project. And so, while
a year may seem a long time, it really isn’t twelve months; you’ll be
lucky to have six months left by the time you actually start your
Eagle project. So plan accordingly: that world-class project you
dreamed about may already be beyond your reach.
c. You are more than 17½ years old – Now things get tricky. It may
not be too late, but you need to start now; you need to dedicate
yourself fully to completing your Eagle (basically, put everything
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Michael S. Malone
in your life besides school on hold); you need to select a project
of realistic scope to fit in your tight time window; and you need
to understand that you no longer have any room for error. You
need a very precise plan – literally to the day – and you need to
hit every one of its milestones if you are going to get your Eagle.
You are also going to need a lot of sacrifices from your troop’s adult
leadership, from your parents and your friends and fellow Scouts
– so start asking them today.
d. You are less than three months from your 18th birthday -- you
need to face the reality that you may not get your Eagle. Even if
you do manage to find an Eagle project, other factors may prevent
you – not least the long-term merit badges (that is, the ones with
90 day time requirements) – from beating the deadline. If that
is your fate, accept it and learn from your mistake. Then make a
new plan – for example, you can join Venturing. It’s Silver Award
is the equivalent of the Eagle (if not as famous) and you have until
you are twenty-one to earn it . . .and next time don’t wait until the
last moment to earn it.
Officially, you complete your requirements for Eagle when you finish
your Eagle Scoutmaster Conference, at the moment when your Scoutmaster
(or acting Scoutmaster) signs that final requirement in your Handbook and
on your Eagle workbook. That is when the clock stops – not, as some Scouts
(and leaders) believe, at the end of a successful Eagle board of review. In
fact, there are cases of Scouts completing their Eagle Scoutmaster Conference
just minutes before midnight and their 18th birthday . . . then taking off for
college and not having their Eagle board of review until a year or more later.
Those are extreme cases, they require a lot of messy paperwork and extra
approvals from BSA National Headquarters -- and you do not want to be one
of those cases. The official rule is that you need to complete your Eagle Board
of Review within three months after your Scoutmaster Conference . . . or risk
disqualification. Don’t take that risk.
That said, the Boy Scouts of America wants you to earn your Eagle,
as long as you follow the rules, even if it is at the very last moment. There
is no extra glory attached to earning your Eagle at 13 (the earliest possible
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THE EAGLE SCOUT HANDBOOK
age), nor any stigma attached to earning it on your last day as a Boy Scout.
Forty years from now, no one will care.
Still, earning your Eagle at the last moment does come with some costs.
For one thing, as noted, it will require a considerable contribution in time
and effort from the people in your life, in particular your Scout leaders.
No doubt they will do so, but you have no real excuse for asking it of them
beyond your own. You will also never get the chance to be an Eagle Boy
Scout – that is, to sew that Eagle badge on your uniform and experience
what it is like to have reached Scouting’s supreme achievement at troop
meetings, camporees, and summer camp.
Finally, a last minute Eagle also means that you will never have the
chance to earn any palms. If you just managed to scrape together 21 merit
badges, it doesn’t matter. But if, like many eve-of-eighteen Eagles, you have
thirty or even forty merit badges, it’s going to be frustrating that all of those
years and all of those merit badges will never be converted into bronze, gold
and silver palms you can pin on your Eagle medal ribbon and wear for the
rest of your life.
2.
How many Eagle Scout requirements have you already completed? If
you haven’t already, this is the moment to scrutinize the requirements for
Eagle Scout and determine just what you’ve already done and been signed
off for (or earned the badge); what you’ve already done and still need to get
signed off for; and, most of all, what you still have left to do.
As you know, you can find the requirements for Eagle in the Boy Scout
handbook. They are also in the Eagle Scout workbook online (useful if
want to check them with your cell phone). And, for our own purposes,
we’ve printed them below. Let’s take a look at each in turn and discuss what
they mean:
1. Be active in your troop, team, crew, or ship for a period of at least six months
after you have achieved the rank of Life Scout.
As we’ve just explained, this can be the deal breaker – and you
can put yourself in jeopardy surprisingly early: remember, it’s not just
the six months from Life to Eagle, but also six months from Star to
Life, and four months from First Class to Star. In other words, if you
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Michael S. Malone
earn your First Class badge 16 months before your eighteenth birthday,
you are already too late to earn your Eagle. Scouting’s goal is to get
every new Scout to First Class within the first year, because that greatly
increases the likelihood of those boys staying in the program. This is
another reason: get your 1st Class early and chances are you won’t have
to worry about this requirement. (One more thing: unlike Eagle, the
clock doesn’t stop and restart with your Scoutmaster conference, but
your Board of Review – so don’t wait a second getting an appointment
to the latter.)
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THE EAGLE SCOUT HANDBOOK
2. Demonstrate that you live by the principles of the Scout Oath and Law in
your daily life. List the names of individuals who know you personally and
would be willing to provide a recommendation on your behalf, including
parents/guardians, religious, educational, and employer references.
This requirement has been attached to every rank you’ve earned in
Scouting to date – though you have probably hardly noticed it. It is
designed to remind you that the Scout Oath and Law lie at the heart of
Scouting, that their value has been proven in millions of lives over the
last century, and that as a Scout you are expect to abide by them and
live by their rules. But the reality is that most troops (and Scouts) treat
this requirement as pro forma – that is, your Scoutmaster signs it off
with little fanfare during your Scoutmaster conference. It only becomes
a problem if your behavior exceeds the boundaries of Scouting’s rules.
But now this requirement gets serious. That’s because, as an Eagle,
you will be the ‘face’ of Scouting for the rest of your life. You will
represent Scouting, even if you aren’t involved in the program; and
your successes and failures will reflect upon the Boy Scouts of America.
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So, Scouting needs to make sure you are the right person to be that
representative, that you embody what it means to be an Eagle.
So, notice the not-so-subtle change in this requirement for Eagle.
Recently, a second sentence has been added. This one shows that
Scouting now isn’t going to depend only upon your Scout leader to
judge whether you live by the Scout Oath and Law, but now wants to
hear from people in the rest of your life. Until early 2012, Scouting
went even further, requiring each candidate to come to their board of
review with a collection of letters from key adult figures (church, school,
parents) in their lives. It has since pulled back slightly, requiring only
that you provide the names of these individual should the board want to
contact them, but make no mistake: when it comes to Eagle, Scouting
takes this requirement very seriously.
3. Earn a total of 21 merit badges (10 more than you already have), including
the following:
a. First Aid
g. Emergency Preparedness
OR Lifesaving
b. Citizenship in the
Community
h. Environmental Science
or Sustainability
c. Citizenship in the
Nation
i.
Personal Management
d. Citizenship in the
World
j.
Swimming OR Hiking
OR Cycling
e. Communication
k. Camping
f.
l.
Personal Fitness
Family Life
m. Cooking
You must choose only one merit badge listed in items g and j. If you
have earned more than one of the badges listed in items g and j, choose one
and list the remaining badges to make your total of 21.
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Now we get to the first of the Big Two. Chances are that when you
first joined Scouting and learned about the Eagle rank, it was the 21
merit badges that loomed largest in your mind. In fact, the Eagle project
probably didn’t even register with you back then. Now, we suspect that
relative fear induced by each of those requirements has reversed. One
reason for that is that, as a Life Scout, you’ve already earned at least
eleven merit badges (probably a whole lot more) including seven that
are Eagle required.
Thus, the art of earning merit badges, which may have seemed
insurmountably intimidating to you at eleven years old, is now a pretty
familiar experience. You know that each is typically composed of a
collection of ‘contextual’ requirements covering the structure and history
of the subject, a research/essay component, and hands-on activity, a set
of industry/discipline terms, and a career requirement. At this point,
you can probably look at a particular merit badge, and have a pretty
good idea how difficult it will be and how long it will take. If you are
running out of time to earn your Eagle, this is a skill you may want to
put to use immediately.
If, on the other hand, you do have some time left before your
eighteenth birthday, do yourself a small favor that could have a big
impact on your future. It is estimated that as many as half of all adult
Eagles first encountered their adult careers (and hobbies) in the merit
badges they earned as youth. In other words, the odds are good that what
you will be doing for the rest of your working life is already encoded into
one of those merit badges on your sash, or that you will earn in the next
few months. So, why not take the time to peruse all 121merit badges in
the Boy Scout Requirements book, or surf MeritBadge.com, and pick out
the badges that capture your interest – and then take the time to earn
them. One of them could literally change your life. . .
Before and after these ‘optional’ merit badges, there are, of course,
the eleven (or more accurately, the seventeen available from which you
are to pick thirteen) “Eagle required” merit badges. Since you’ve earned
at least seven of these by now, you already know that this select group
of merit badges is a whole lot more difficult to finish than the others.
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Three of these merit badges -- Personal Fitness, Family Life and
Personal Management – even have extended time requirements . . .they
have been nicknamed the ’90 Day Wonders” (it’s an old Army term
from WWII) because that’s how long you need to keep records for each
one. A fourth merit badge, Citizenship in the Community, requires
that you attend a local City Council meeting and give eight hours of
community service to a local non-profit institution. Any one of these
merit badges, if you start them too late, can keep you from earning your
Eagle.
There is a second group of merit badges that, because of their
nature, can also pose some serious obstacles, depending upon when you
pursue them. For example, Lifesaving and Swimming, which are pretty
easy to earn at summer camp, can pose serious logistical problem to
earn in, say, January, unless you are near a heated pool and have found
a willing instructor.
We will look at merit badges in greater depth in the next chapter.
For now, as part of this ‘taking stock’ section, it is important for you to
stop looking at individual merit badges as one-off experiences – and
instead to see the Eagle merit badge requirement as a whole, composed
of difficult parts, time-consuming parts and far-reaching parts. From
this perspective, the best strategic plan is to take care of the 90-day
wonders and the out-of-season merit badges now, get through the rest
of the Eagle required merit badges whenever the opportunity presents
itself (or when you can join with other Scouts in your troop to set up a
class) – and, if you have the time – to pick out some non-required merit
badges in topics that interest you.
Finally, determine which non-required merit badges you can
complete quickly (you know the topic, you have ready access to a
counselor, etc.) and put them in your back-pocket in case you run out
of time and need to finish the 21 quickly. Trust us, you wouldn’t be the
first Life Scout who finishes the last of his merit badges on the morning
of his Eagle Scoutmaster conference – but if you have an overall plan
that prioritizes your remaining unearned merit badges, you’ll probably
spare yourself that insanity.
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THE EAGLE SCOUT HANDBOOK
4. While a Life Scout, serve actively for a period of six months in one or more
of the following positions of responsibility:
 Boy Scout troop. Patrol leader, assistant senior patrol leader,
senior patrol leader, Venture patrol leader, troop guide, Order
of the Arrow troop representative, den chief, scribe, librarian,
historian, quartermaster, junior assistant Scoutmaster, chaplain
aide, instructor, Webmaster, or Leave No Trace Trainer.
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 Varsity Scout team. Captain, co-captain, program manager,
squad leader, team secretary, Order of the Arrow team
representative, librarian, historian, quartermaster, chaplain aide,
instructor, den chief, Webmaster, or Leave No Trace Trainer.
 Venturing crew/ship. President, vice president, secretary,
treasurer, quartermaster, historian, den chief, guide, boatswain,
boatswain’s mate, yeoman, purser, storekeeper, Webmaster, or
Leave No Trace Trainer.
Why is this requirement here? First, because leadership is the heart
of Scouting – and this is a first glimpse of what will be expected of
you for the rest of your life as an Eagle Scout. Second, because true
Scouting is “boy led”, and that means every troop needs as much help
as possible from its most trained young leaders – i.e., Life and Eagle
Scouts. Third, because, as a Life Scout on the verge earning Scouting’s
supreme accolade, one that will reward you for the rest of your life,
in good faith and honor you have a duty to give something back to
Scouting. At your age, the best way to do that is serve in a leadership
role in your troop.
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There is a fourth reason, one that Scouting doesn’t make explicit, but
one which everyone who has walked the Trail to Eagle well understands:
as a high-achieving 21 century high school junior or senior, your life is
incredibly busy, with almost every second of your waking hours already
booked with AP Course homework, marching band, sports, a part-time
job, SAT training classes or college applications, a girlfriend, a car that
endlessly needs repairs, etc. Meanwhile, you’ve likely been to every
troop campsite at least three times, summer camp at least that many
times, and when you go to a troop meeting almost all you see now are
junior high schoolers.
So, you tell yourself that even though you aren’t attending many
troop meetings anymore, or troop leadership councils or going on many
camp-outs, you are still being a Good Scout – after all, look at all of the
hours you’re spending on merit badges and your Service Project.
But the truth is that those many hours you are spending are in
fact, on yourself. From Scouting’s viewpoint, you are not devoting the
service time you owe to your fellow Scouts – in the form of leadership
and mentoring -- as the Eagles who preceded you did for you. And
that is why this requirement is there, why it has taken on much greater
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importance, and why your Scoutmaster, at your Eagle conference, is
going to ask some tough questions about what you’ve been up to for
the last six months besides working on your Eagle . . . and why you
better have a good answer. And the best answer is that you have spent
the last six months actively involved in the troop and contributing to
its continued health and success by contributing your leadership skills.
5. While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service
project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community.
(The project must benefit an organization other than Boy Scouting.) A project
proposal must be approved by the organization benefiting from the effort, your
unit leader and unit committee, and the council or district before you start. You
must use the Eagle Scout Service Project Workbook, BSA publication No. 512927, in meeting this requirement. (To learn more about the Eagle Scout service
project, see the Guide to Advancement, topics 9.0.2.0 through 9.0.2.15.)
Here’s the Big One. If you are like most Scouts, this requirement
was all-but invisible when you were a new Scout. It then entered into
your consciousness (even if you helped out on a few projects before
then) about the time you became a 1st class Scout. And now it looms
ahead like a great mountain, ominous, unconquerable, and the ultimate
obstacle to you ever reaching Eagle Scout.
We’ll look more closely at the Eagle service project two chapters
from now. But for our purposes here – that is, in taking stock of your
current situation – the crucial thing you need remember is, once again:
Don’t panic.
Since the service project was added to the requirements for Eagle
in the mid-1960s, about two million young men have completed it and
gone on to earn their medal. Among these new Eagles were Scouts
facing severe physical and mental disabilities, others who came from
shattered families or extreme poverty, and some who did so in spite of
crushing other commitments. They succeeded because they made the
commitment and the time, they overcame their fears, they had a smart
plan, and they did it against all odds.
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The Eagle service project is neither a test of strength, nor of
intelligence. It doesn’t measure athletic ability or cleverness. It is not
defined by your family’s wealth or the quality of your education. Rather,
the Eagle service project is a test of character. It is designed to challenge
your ability to plan ahead, your tenacity, your ability to cope with the
unexpected, and your ability to lead and inspire others. Because it is
about character, any Life Scout is capable of completing their project
and earning their Eagle – but not every Life Scout has the strength of
character to do. No words of encouragement we write here is enough to
carry you over that bar. It comes down to your choice to do so.
It all begins with making the commitment. That may sound easy,
but experience has taught us that the second hardest step in completing
an Eagle service project is the act of deciding to begin. And by that
we don’t mean the casual notion that, yeah, you really ought to start
thinking about your Eagle project . . . but rather that moment when
you decide that you are really going to do the project and carry it all of
the way through – and that nothing is going to stop you from doing so.
If you aren’t ready to take that step, and to make that commitment,
then don’t waste anybody’s time. A lot of people – your fellow Scouts,
classmates, friends, family and other adults – are going to be devoting
a lot of time and energy to helping you complete your project . . .
and if you aren’t prepared to return that devotion with a 100 percent
commitment of your own, then don’t even start. Only ask for their help
when you are all-the-way in yourself.
And what is the hardest step? What is more difficult than
committing yourself fully to your project through the end? Starting.
Years of experience in mentoring Eagle candidates have taught us
that the most difficult single moment in any Scout’s service project is
the moment when you publicly set the date for it. Once you determine
what your project will be, it’s easy to sit back on your laurels (“yeah,
I’ve got a project nailed down”) and hide out in the planning stage
indefinitely. It’s a very different thing to stand up in front of your troop
and announce the official date(s) of your project and ask for volunteers.
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Suddenly, your project is real. Volunteers, young and old, are now
going to show up a specific place and time that you have designated.
And you had better be there too, with a plan, approvals, a well-designed
set of tasks, food, an emergency plan, and all of the tools those volunteers
need to get the job done.
We’ll look at this in-depth later. For the purposes of this ‘taking
stock’ section, you need to remember that it is not enough to simply
decide that you are going to do an Eagle service project, or even finding
one and getting it approved. You must also instead initiate that project
– and that begins with publicly announcing a date for it to begin.
Finally, what kind of project should you choose? It is now time for
the third step in STOP: O: Observe . . . most of all, yourself and your
dreams. Leaving aside for now the precise nature of your project, we
believe you should use three criteria:
a. How much time do I have left? Again, if you are approaching
eighteen, you’d be best served by abandoning any world-shaking
project you may have once dreamed about (though, if it really will
change the world, it might be worth pursuing even at the cost of
earning your Eagle). Instead, choose a project – we’ll suggest ways
to find one – that can be completed, even accounting for delays and
mistakes, in the time you have remaining.
b. Does it contribute in a meaningful way to my community? Anybody
can paint a park bench or organize the clean-up of a vacant lot.
And many Eagle candidates have done just that – especially if their
eighteenth birthday is looming and they haven’t come up with any
other ideas. But if you start planning your project early, even if it is
just a couple months ahead, you should have time to come up with
a project that is customized to the unique needs of your community
– and to your own interests. It just takes some pondering – and
then a few phone calls, some conversations and a little research.
We once mentored an Eagle candidate who was down to just
a few months. When asked where his interests lay, he replied that
was very interested in animal care and was considering becoming
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a veterinarian. He made a few calls to local animal shelters – and
learned that they needed materials. So the Scout organized in his
community a mass collection of old blankets – which were then
cut into squares for cages. It was a brilliant, and innovative, Eagle
service project – and one that improved the lives of hundreds of
dogs and cats.
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c. Does it challenge me? Your 18th birthday is fast approaching, as are
graduation and the day you leave for college. You need to get your
GPA up and study for finals. You want to spend as much time
as possible with your girlfriend and buddies before life flings you
all in different directions. And you still have four merit badges
left for Eagle, including three required – and two of them ninetyday wonders. At this point it would be human nature to just
settle on a small Eagle project that you can finish quickly. And you
can certainly do that: in the eyes of the Boy Scouts of America,
all Eagle projects that successfully complete this requirement are
equal. That said, will it be equal in your eyes twenty or forty or
sixty years from now?
Your Eagle project is supposed to challenge you in a way that
nothing has before. It is supposed to be a first experience of adult
life at the professional or managerial level. And it is supposed to
give you a touchstone memory that you will look back upon with
pride for the rest of your life. If it is easy, it hasn’t done its job. So,
ask yourself, even if my planned project only takes a weekend, is
there something I can do to make it special, or take it to the next
level, or expand its scope? Can I add a feature – say, a dedicated
website – that will make my project more enduring, and of even
greater value to my community? You owe it to yourself, and your
future self, to ask those questions.
6. Take part in a unit leader conference.
7. Successfully complete an Eagle Scout board of review.
Finally, the review and approval process. When you decide to
go for your Eagle these two requirements tend to loom large in your
imagination. What will it be like having all of my Scouting skills tested
by my Scoutmaster, or having my whole life judged by the members of a
Board of Review, some of whom I’ve never met? What if I fail? What if
I prove wanting in the character needed to be an Eagle Scout? And most
of all, what if I go through all of these years of work earning all of those
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ranks and merit badges, and then struggle through the nightmare of the
service project . . . only to fail at the end and never get to be an Eagle?
Don’t worry about it. Seriously. At this point, while you are taking
stock of what you need to do to finish your Eagle, and developing a
strategy to do so, your focus needs to be on those things that you can
control right now. That is, merit badges, troop job and service project.
You really don’t have time for the distraction of what may happen six
months or a year from now. That’s like being lost and coming up with
a survival plan that includes what you are going to say to reporters
when you are rescued. Your priority right now is to put your head
down, steel yourself with the commitment to get the job done, and then
plunge in. You can worry about these two requirements the day after
you get the signatures on your last blue card and on your Eagle project
workbook. Until then, don’t sweat either the Scoutmaster conference or
the Board of Review. If you dedicate yourself to finishing all of the other
requirements to the best of your ability, you will deserve your Eagle –
and both your Scoutmaster and the Board will recognize that fact.
That said, as you approach completion of the other requirements,
you do need to let the troop know that you will need a Scoutmaster
conference (and by extension, an Eagle board of review) sometime in
the near future. And when you successfully complete your Board of
Review and officially have become an Eagle, you will want to talk with
your parents and the proper person in the troop (ask your Scoutmaster)
about when you want your Court of Honor to take place.
Dates and Deadlines
You were lost . . . and now, if you aren’t yet found, at least you’ve taken stock of your
situation. You now know what you have and what you still need to do. Now, in the
final step of STOP, you need to make a P: plan for earning your Eagle.
Get out a calendar and mark your 18th birthday. That’s your deadline. Now
work backwards. Don’t worry about the Board of Review: that can take place after
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your birthday. Now back up two weeks: from here on is the window in which you
need to have your Scoutmaster Conference (assuming you are running behind).
How much time does that leave between now and then? If it is, say, six months
and you need six merit badges, you need to complete an average of one merit badge
per month between now and then. If there are any ninety day wonders in there, you
must start them within the next couple months – write their drop-dead start date on
your calendar.
Troop job? If you don’t already have one that qualifies for the requirement, then
go back six months from your 18th birthday and mark that day on the calendar: that’s
the day you must have the proper troop job.
Service Project? Unless you’ve got a very scary deadline, it will likely take you a
month from today just to get all of your plans in place and then get all of the troop
and district approvals (they can be done a lot faster than that, but only if you are
desperate and are willing to commit yourself almost full time). Mark that date, a
month from now, on your calendar – assuming you start today, that’s the first date
that you can realistically begin executing your project. Now, don’t forget: you still
need to talk to the beneficiary of your project, as well as potential volunteers, and find
a date that works for all of them. You can only talk them on a preliminary basis until
you get your project approved – which means that the first practical date that you can
begin executing your project is about six weeks from now. Mark that date, and then
look ahead at the available weekends between now and your 18th birthday (if you’ve
got dozens of those available weekends, pat yourself on the back for starting early).
How long will your project take? One weekend? Three months? Your answer
will give you your “Window of Opportunity” to get your project done. And if you
study the calendar hard enough (i.e., this weekend is a holiday, that weekend is
marching band, and that weekend is a troop campout), you will very likely spot that
one weekend (or, conceivably, weekday) when your Eagle service project needs to
begin. Commit yourself to that date, do everything you need to do to be ready for it,
revisit your calendar regularly to remind yourself and to keep your efforts on track.
And make that date public and ask for volunteers.
You are now a Man with a Plan; or at least the beginning of plan. In the next
two chapters we’ll flesh out that plan with distinct strategies for each of your merit
badges and your service project. For now, take pride in the fact that you’ve now seen
the Monster, and it isn’t as scary as you thought. You have now not only made the
commitment to becoming an Eagle, but you can also make out the path to get there.
Now, let’s look at each step along that path ahead.
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26
CHAPTER TWO
Merit Badges
Y
ou may be surprised to learn that merit badges are as old as Scouting. Lord
Baden-Powell himself made the badges integral to the Scouting movement as
early as 1907. From there, it was all-but inevitable that merit badges would
migrate to the Boy Scouts of America with its founding three years later.
The nature of these “merit” badges, and their use as part of the requirements
for the upper ranks, took a little longer. The complicated details of that story – for
example, for a decade, the Life rank, which had five required health-oriented (hence
the heart) merit badges, preceded the Star rank, which needed ten not-Eagle-required
merit badges. And the Eagle itself could be earned without first earning either Star or
Life – which is how the first Eagle, Arthur Eldred did it in 1912.
By the 1920s, most of this was straightened out into the Star-Life-Eagle
progression that has defined Scouting ever since. Meanwhile, the total number of
available merit badges climbed from an initial 14, to 57 at the time of the publication
of the first true Handbook in 1911, to more than 100 in the 1930s, and about 130
(the number is in constant flux) today.
Yet, throughout the decades two features of BSA merit badges have not changed:
1. It takes 21 merit badges to earn the Eagle rank (a consistent rule that
was only broken in the 1970s – during the so-called ‘New Scouting’
era – when 24 merit badges were required), and they consist of some
combination of ‘required’ merit badges and “optional” merit badges.
2. All merit badges exhibit one of two themes: Either they reinforce – and
take to a high level of proficiency – traditional Scouting themes such as
camping, first aid, hiking, cooking, and citizenship; or they introduce
Scouts to the wide range of professions, vocations and avocations that
will be available to them as adults. The former are typically required
for Eagle, and represent the skill set that Scouting wants to cultivate in
every boy who passes through its program. Most have changed little
over the decades.
The latter are part of Scouting’s unwritten, but equally
vital, philosophy of preparing every Scout for adulthood. These
merit badges are typically optional merit badges, and their nature and
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composition have evolved over the last century with American society
(thus, the large collection of agriculture-related merit badges (poultry
raising, farm management, etc.) have been supplanted by badges on
such subjects as geocaching, composite materials, and computers.
That is the official taxonomy of merit badges in the BSA, much of which you’ve
probably already figured out over the course of your years in Scouting. But experience
has taught us that there is yet another way of classifying merit badges – one that you
may find useful in your ascent to Eagle.
It is that there are, in fact, four types of merit badges:
Those you gotta do - - that is, the Eagle required merit badges. Then there
are those you oughta do – those non-required merit badges that best fit with your
interests and may open a door to your future careers or hobbies. And then there are
the coulda merit badges – the merit badges that you earned on your way to Eagle not
because you particularly wanted them, but because the opportunity was available –
say, “Indian Lore” at summer camp, or “Fire Safety” at a local Merit Badge Midway,
or “Pioneering” because your patrol has decided to make earning it a group project,
or “Chemistry” because one of the troop’s dads is a chemist and offered to run it as
a merit badge class.
There is nothing wrong with these coulda merit badges: on the contrary, some
of Scouting’s most interesting experiences lie hidden in some of those badges. And
you never know: one of these unplanned merit badges may serendipitously prove to
be a life-changer. The author of this Handbook was first introduced to a lifetime of
journalism when, at age 12, he took a merit badge course at his local newspaper. The
key is to not to just cynically pass the requirements and add to your merit badge total,
but to try to learn something from each of these unplanned badges.
There is also a fourth group: the woulda merit badges. These are the ones
you would have eventually gotten around to, as part of earning your palms, if you
had earned your Eagle early enough; or the opportunity – say, a pursuit of the new
Supernova medals – had presented itself. There’s not much point in worrying about
this last group now – just understand what you missed, and how many potential
different routes there are to Eagle.
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Your Merit Badge Map
When it comes to merit badges and your Trail to Eagle, the most important topic
we can discuss right now are the required merit badges. As their name suggests, you
must earn every one of the thirteen required badges for Eagle, with only alternative
choices available for three of them.
You’ve now taken stock of how many of these required merit badges you have,
and how many you have yet to earn. Now you need a plan to earn them all – and
develop strategies for earning each of them in turn.
Let’s address the overall plan first. You now know the name of each of the
required merit badges you have yet to earn. The next thing you need to do is
develop a list of who can help you earn them: that is, merit badge counselors, camp
counselors, classes and Council programs (such as midways, Scout-o-Ramas, etc.).
For merit badge counselors, you probably already have a fair amount of
experience in finding them. Your Council or District probably has a list of names and
phone numbers that you can draw upon (remember: the BSA’s youth safety program
requires that you pair up with another Scout if you are going to work on a merit
badge with a solo counselor). Your scoutmaster may also have a list of counselors
that he built up on his own or was provided to him by the council. Call one: if he
or she isn’t available, keep going down the list until one agrees – this is not a time for
putting things off.
Your troop also may keep a list of parents who have qualified as trained
counselors. You can contact one of these individuals and either set up a two-on-one
session with the counselor or get them to agree to hold a class for multiple Scouts in
your troop. You’ll often find that a lot of your fellow older Scouts in the troop also
need the same merit badge, and will provide a ready source of other candidates to
take the course or the meetings with you.
In the worst case, and when all else fails, talk with your Scoutmaster or Assistant
Scoutmaster(s). As registered and trained Scouting volunteers, they are eligible to
serve as merit badge counselors. But they are also incredibly busy, and because the
badge is likely not in their area of expertise, it will not be the ideal experience for you.
So save this for the last resort, when all of your other options have failed and you have
run out of time. Once again, all youth safety rules prevail – though note that they
can also be met by having a third individual (including one of your parents) present
during all meetings.
Group activities are always a good way to earn merit badges; but a lot depends
upon how much time you have and what time of year it is. Obviously, summer
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Michael S. Malone
camp is a perfect place to accumulate a lot of merit badges – especially now that
many camps are not just offering Scout skill-type merit badges, but also subjects like
Emergency Preparedness and the three Citizenships.
The question is: do you still have another summer camp opportunity between
now and your 18th birthday? If so, you want to insure that it will offer the required
merit badges you need – so sign up early and make those merit badges your top
priority. Needless to say, that may mean you will have to make some sacrifices –
like not spending the week hanging out with your friends on the COPE course,
or playing on the climbing wall, or finally earning your Mile Swim patch. Your
remaining Eagle required merit badges need to be your first priority.
Merit badge midways are typically held in the autumn. These aren’t our
favorite way to earn merit badges – at least in terms of the knowledge you take away
from these experiences. But they do the job, especially if time is short. Go on your
Council’s website and see when the next one will be held in your area. If it will be too
late, check out neighboring Councils. Sign up early (required merit badges can fill
up fast) and show up prepared to finish (i.e., come with proof that you’ve completed
any requirements that can’t be done at the midway).
Another trick: Ask around your troop. As you know, patrol leaders like to
make their patrol meetings more fun and their tenure more productive by leading
their members to two or more merit badges over the course of the year. Most of
these merit badges are Eagle required (typically finished by the older Scouts and left
unfinished, to their later regret, by younger patrol members). Thus, there’s a pretty
good chance, especially if you are in a large troop that one of the patrols is working
on the merit badge you need. That means they’ve already found a counselor and set
meeting dates. So contact the Patrol Leader and get permission to sit in.
By the way, you were once one of those young patrol members – are you sure
that you didn’t start on one or more of the merit badges you need now? Check your
old unfinished blue cards, ask some of your old fellow patrol members, and, if you
think that a merit badge counselor might have your old blue card, figure out who he
or she was and contact them. You’d be surprised how many Life Scouts discover an
80 percent completed blue card on an Eagle-required merit badge that they started
six years before at their first summer camp and have since forgotten. If that happens,
find a counselor who will accept those earlier signatures – and count yourself lucky.
Here’s a useful tip: You are now likely a high school student, and most likely a
junior or senior. There is no reason that you have to approach earning a merit badge
the way you did at age twelve. That is, most merit badges for you shouldn’t take
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multiple meetings, with lectures from the counselor, and weeks passing while you
finally talk yourself into settling down and writing an essay. Rather, now that you are
accustomed to writing essays (including your college apps), researching information
on the Internet, and managing your time (i.e., working late at night or before school
in the morning) there is no excuse for not preparing as many of the requirements for
a merit badge ahead of time.
So, visit a site such as www.meritbadge.com and look up the requirements and
follow the links to various web sites and pedagogical materials. Then complete as
many of the requirements as you can, including writing any essays. Most merit
badges require some sort of physical activity – growing plants, hiking, designing a
floor plan, making plaster casts, etc. – and your counselor may want to do that with
you; but many will accept documentation (such as photographs – that’s what modern
smartphones are for ) instead. Ask during your initial contact call and get approval
for this course of action – don’t just show up with the work done and assume the
counselor will accept your work
If you follow this strategy, you will be able to show up at your meeting with
the counselor with most of the merit badge complete . . . and only needing the
counselor’s acceptance and sign-off. Likely the only requirements you will need to
do are those that say “discuss with your counselor” – and if you have written those up
as well, even that experience will be abbreviated.
Speaking for this merit badge counselor, the author loves it when a Scout shows
up for an appointment having prepared everything in advance. It not only makes the
process short – often just a single visit – but, frankly, we’re convince that Scouts learn
more about the subject this way rather than listening to a bunch of lectures, none of
which we can be sure are sinking in.
As you approach your 18th birthday, this “be prepared” strategy about merit
badges should increasingly define your efforts. The obvious advantage to this
technique of doing the work in advance is that it gives you greater control over the
process. Instead of attending meetings and lectures that might collide with your
increasingly busy life, you can set your own hours – say, very late at night, or between
classes or on your lunch break. It also frees you to work on multiple merit badges
in parallel.
We have known Life Scouts to show up at our door on their very last days of
eligibility, with all of the paperwork in their hands to complete the requirements
for three, even four, merit badges. Is this optimal? No. Is this the best use of their
Scouting experience? Yes and no: after all, there’s a lot to be said for learning how
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to tackle a seemingly impossible task and still meet the deadline. But we’ll wager
that those Life Scouts learned, and will remember, as least as much about those merit
badges than some distracted Tenderfoot at a patrol meeting, or a sleepy Second Class
scout at summer camp.
One by One
OK, so you have a plan for earning your Eagle-required merit badges. Now, let’s
look at your strategy for earning them. We’ll look at each in turn, in the order that
they are listed in the official requirements.
First Aid – If there is one Boy Scout merit badge you should
start early, study well and remember forever, it’s this one.
It is hugely valuable for every Scout to earn the First Aid
MB, but it is especially important for Life Scouts to not
only earn it, but learn it. That’s because, as an Eagle Scout
and for the rest of your life, if you see an injured person it is
your duty, as the likely most-trained person in the vicinity,
to render first aid. And you can be sure that, as an Eagle, if anyone does need first
aid, everyone is going to look to you. Finally, but hardly least, the chances are 50:50
that in your life as an Eagle you will be called on at least once to use your first aid
skills to save a life.
In other words, there are no short cuts to this merit badge – nor should
there be. Make sure you are proficient at every task. Upgrade and update your skills
every few years (through Scouting, the Red Cross or YMCA) for the rest of your life.
Be prepared with a first aid kit in your house and car (more on this later). And if you
need an incentive to do all of this, just imagine yourself coming up on the scene of a
terrible auto accident. People are injured. People are dying. And as you run up, the
gathering crowd turns to look at you . . .
Citizenship in the Community – ALERT! This may not be
a 90 Day Wonder, but it sure acts like one. In fact, many
Eagles consider this the most difficult of all Eagle-required
merit badges (that said, count yourself lucky: it still pales
in comparison to Bird Study, the required merit badge
that kept an entire generation of Scouts from earning their
Eagles in the 1930s.) What distinguishes “Cit-Com” from the other required merit
badges is the diversity of its toughest requirements.
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You can think of Citizenship in the Community as having three distinct parts.
The first and easiest set of requirements covers your knowledge of your
community. Using a local map and your city’s web site, you can pass
these requirements pretty easily.
The second group revolves around attending a City Council meeting.
Please note, these meetings typically take place in most towns just once
per month (and, inconveniently, they always seem to take place on the
same night as your troop meetings). That said, if you are running out
of time, you have a number of alternatives. For example, you may also
attend a school board meeting or a court session. Some cities carry
City Council meetings on their public access channel (make sure that’s
okay with your counselor). And the most common solution, if you’ve
missed your city’s meeting, is to go to the City Council meeting of
another, nearby, town – often they are on a different weeknight as well.
Remember, another requirement asks you to interview a member of
city government about a key issue facing your community. The best
way to do this is get to the Council meeting early, find a city official or
Council member – and get that person’s business card, explaining what
you want to do. Most of them have dealt with other Scouts (and want
your parents’ vote), so they should be helpful. In the best time-crunch
scenario, stick around and do that interview after the Council meeting.
The third group revolves around eight hours of service to a “charitable”
organization. This requirement exists because Scouting wants to
introduce you to the world of volunteerism – which, surveys also show
– you are likely to be involved with as an adult Eagle more than other
people. That’s a good thing. The most important tip we can give you
here is that you need to understand what is meant by “charitable.”
By this, the BSA essentially means “non-profit” institutions – that
is, enterprises that make a contribution to society while not earning
(or reinvesting) any profits on their activities. This definition covers
churches, schools, fraternal organizations, charities, social groups,
and youth organizations. In other words, your school is a charitable
organization; so is your Little League team, or your mom’s chapter
of the Junior League. And so, those hours you spent grooming the
infield or working in the snack shack during Little League season likely
count for those eight hours, as did the after-school volunteer work you
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did at your school, and that holiday help you and your family gave
at the rescue mission downtown. The crucial thing is that all eight
hours must be given to only one of these institutions – with luck you’ve
already done that, or at least you may only need to donate a few more
to complete this requirement.
Another Tip: Regarding the movie requirement – you’ve probably seen
dozens of movies in your life that fit this requirement, from “Mr. Smith
Goes to Washington” (1939) to “Lincoln” (2012). If you can’t remember
a movie that talks about government, one of two mentioned or “Advise
and Consent”, “The Candidate”, “Pay it Forward”, and many others can
be found, if they are older, on YouTube, and the rest on NetFlix or other
download site.
Citizenship in the Nation – This merit badge, along with
Citizenship in the World, below, are the two best candidates
for independently preparing in advance (by comparison,
almost all of the non-required merit badges can be all-but
completed before you meet with a counselor). The tip for
this merit badge is to look back on your own life – family
trips, school field trips, etc. – and you’ll likely find that
you’ve already visited a state capitol, federal facility or national monument. The
other tip is to start now tracking that news story on TV, in a newspaper, or on the
Web for five days. We recommend the Web, as you can save the stories as proof that
you’ve done the requirement.
Citizenship in the World – Cit-World used to be one of the
most difficult Eagle-required merit badges because you
have to spend a lot of time in research at the library as well
as write to a chosen country’s consulate or embassy to get
background material. Now it is one of the easiest because
you can complete almost all of the requirements by using
the Internet. Because of this, if you are running out of time
and need to prioritize your remaining merit badges, Citizenship in the World is one
you might want to save until last. That’s because you know you can get it done in
almost any time window. Otherwise, do it when you’ve got a hole in your schedule
between other merit badges, or when you just need a success to keep up your morale.
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Communications – Communications is the most singular of
the Eagle-required merit badges because it is composed of so
many different activities: attending and reporting on a city
council meeting (no, you can’t use the same meeting as the
one for Cit-Community), hosting a small group, writing a
story, interviewing someone, giving a 5 minute speech, etc.
This complexity argues for not trying to tackle
this merit badge in a single effort, but in pieces and over time. Obviously, if you
don’t have any time, you’ll need to attack Communications along multiple fronts.
Otherwise, we recommend working on Communications over a period of months,
as the opportunities present themselves, or when you can organize a group or event.
Some Tips: 1) Unlike Cit-Com’s city council requirement, for
Communications you don’t need to interview anyone afterwards – so you
might want to watch the meeting on local public access television or watch
it in streaming video (and transcript) on your city government’s web site;
2) Chances are, as a high schooler, you’ll be making a five minute presentation
on something in one of your classes – that fulfills the requirement;
3) On the web page/letter to the editor/newsletter/brochure requirement:
if you are in a school club volunteer to create the next newsletter, your
Facebook page can count as a web page, if your counselor agrees that it
shows a thoughtful lay-out and intelligent content (not just comments
on your friend’s photos), and if all else fails, a letter to the editor of
your local paper or an extended comment to a blog is quick and easy;
4) Interview a family member, especially a grandparent – you’ll find the
interview very valuable years from now, and short-term, you can also use it
for the Genealogy merit badge.
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Personal Fitness – ALERT! Ninety-day wonder. In our
experience, the best way to earn this merit badge is to work
with a counselor to organize a series of weekly or bi-weekly
classes held at a local school or park, preferably one with a
track. Since everybody needs this merit badge and classes
are few and far between, you should have no trouble lining
up a half-dozen or more other Scouts to participate. Show
up at the first meeting with all of the non-field event questions written up. If the
counselor doesn’t have a form to track your performance over the next twelve weeks,
create one yourself and make copies for everybody. Make sure your counselor has a
stopwatch (i.e. bring your own, or use your cellphone).
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Tip: Bring your laptop or tablet and construct a spreadsheet to keep your
records – and, if necessary, the scores for everyone else. Another tip: hold
the meetings in the early evening, around dinnertime, on a weeknight – it’ll
cause less dislocation in your life; and you are less likely to have scheduling
conflicts.
Special Tip: The Personal Fitness program is twelve weeks long – three
months; 90 days. Plan ahead, because there is no way around this time
barrier . . .Except: If you are an athlete at your school and conducted an
equivalent training and strength program over at least 90 days, seek out
your coach and give him a document to sign that confirms, in detail, that
you have done the work. Show that document to your counselor and you
may still be able to get in under the wire. A lot of last-minute Eagles have
survived by discovering this alternative path.
Note, in this and in other ninety-day wonder merit badges, there is no way to
escape the time requirement – at the very best, you can search in your own past to
determine if you have, often unwittingly, already done the requirement . . .and
need only to confirm that fact.
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Emergency Preparedness OR Lifesaving – This is the first
of the Eagle-required merit badge choices. And the one
you choose to pursue will likely depend upon a number of
factors including:
1) Access to courses – If there is a Lifesaving MB course
taking place at your local high school, or one of your troop’s
merit badge counselors is working with one of the patrols,
take advantage of the opportunity and sign up. The same
holds true with summer camp.
2) Interest – If you are on a swim team or just love
swimming, then Lifesaving may appeal to you, and you’ll
have more fun earning it. E-Prep will likely be the choice
of most Scouts. Also keep in mind the future: if you love
the beach or scuba diving or swimming, lifeguarding skills will prove useful for
decades – you may even save a life. By comparison, if you live in an earthquake,
tornado or flood zone, emergency preparation skills may prove especially valuable.
In the best of all scenarios, you should earn both badges – though you should not
let the pursuit of both get in the way of earning your Eagle. You can always create
an emergency program, or take lifesaving courses on your own.
3) Season – Almost all Scout summer camps offer E-Prep merit badge classes (Tip: Make
your emergency kit ahead of time and bring it along; most camps don’t have the materials
to make the kits there); most offer lifesaving as well. If it’s winter and you’ll age out before
summer, you’ll find lifesaving courses are rare – so go for E-Prep. Tip: If you’ve worked
over the summer as a lifeguard, get a letter to that effect from your employer.
Environmental Science or Sustainability – E-Science has
two parts. First is a six part program (air pollution,
endangered species, etc.) in which you are given the
opportunity to choose one of three requirements,
typically involving an experiment, research or field work.
We suggest that you look at each in turn and based upon
your current situation, (time limits, location, dual use
with STEMNova work, etc.) determine whether you
want to attempt an experiment (you should try at least
one), write a short paper, or grab a camera and get out
into the field.
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The second part of E-Science is field observation. You can choose one
of two activities: either track changes in two designated plots over the course of a
half-dozen visits OR visit a plot in two very different locations and conduct a plant
and wildlife census. If you are short on time, we recommend you do the latter, even
though in many respects, it is more difficult.
Sustainability was added to the list of Eagle required merit badges in January
2014. It was created in recognition of the growing concern around the world about
limited natural resources and over-consumption. Whereas E-Science is a ‘field’ merit
badge, Sustainability is much more of ‘study’ merit badge – and that difference (plus
one two-week requirement for Sustainability) may influence which badge you choose
to pursue. For example, in the depth of winter, a wildlife census can be difficult.
Sustainability also has an unusual ‘Do A, and either B or C” format that
may well prove to be the form of future merit badges. This format gives Sustainability
a lot of requirements and complexity . . .but note that many of these requirements
consist of discussions with your counselor. That makes this the most late-night-afteryour-homework merit badge of the bunch.
Personal Management – ALERT! Ninety-day wonder.
This merit badge, along with Family Life, requires the
creation and maintenance of a journal – for thirteen weeks,
or slightly more than 90 days – that tracks your daily
behavior. Personal Management, also along with Family
Life, is one of the rare merit badges that is not designed to
either enhance your core Scouting skills, or introduce you
to a career or hobby you may pursue as an adult. Rather, these two merit badges are
designed to be a glimpse (with a little practice thrown in) of what it is like to run your
personal life or household as an adult.
In that respect, Personal Management may prove to be the most useful, at
least on a daily basis, of any merit badge you ever earn. Furthermore, unlike most of
the other merit badges, it is also one you can put to use today – that’s the lesson of
the 13-week journal – and certainly when you go off to college or move out and start
your first job. The key is to focus on that journal, which is supposed to track your
financial activities over the course of that interval.
Unfortunately, at your age, there are very few things that you’ve had the
discipline to maintain on a daily basis for 91 consecutive days – or course, that’s also
the point of this requirement. Experience has shown us that the best way to pull off
this task is what might be called the “Portal Reminder”: Take three sheets of paper,
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list all 91 days on them, then tack or tape those sheets to your front door, with a
pencil or paper on a string hanging alongside. Then, every weekday morning as you
head off to school, or weekend morning as you head out for the first time, don’t go
through that door until you have written in your transactions from the day before.
The “Portal Reminder” may sound silly and obvious, but it works.
Tip: Of all the 90-day wonders, this is the one most likely to keep you
from earning your Eagle. Remember that, and let it scare you. But if you
do find yourself a few days into your final 90 days as a Scout, you still have
one chance: if you have the receipts, bank statements, checkbook records
and your parents help, you may be able to reconstruct that lost week or two.
But much more than that will prove all but impossible. Don’t find yourself
in that position.
Swimming OR Hiking OR Cycling – This is the triple choice Eagle-required merit
badge requirement. It is also the most physically arduous of the Eagle MB’s. The
best strategy is to pursue the merit badge which best fits with your interests. Where
you live, and the season of the year will also help with your decision (i.e. cycling
in an area with lots of bike paths, access to a warm pool in winter, you live in the
mountains, etc.)
Of the three, swimming is the easiest, but only if you are an experienced
swimmer. Most Scouts earn this merit badge at summer camp, which invariably have
the right facilities and the staff. If you aren’t a good swimmer, you might choose one
of the other two.
Hiking is the best fit with Scouting – and thanks to Second Class, 50-Milers,
summer camp programs, Philmont, etc. – it is pretty easy to complete most of this
merit badge. Indeed you probably already have completed most of the requirements.
BUT, hidden within the Hiking MB requirements, is one killer requirement:
the 20 mile hike. Even if you have been to Philmont, or participated in several 50
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mile hikes, you may still never have taken a 20 mile hike in a single day. Frankly, if
you have done so, it was probably because your group took the wrong route and got
lost (but it still counts!) Otherwise, if at any time in your Scouting career you find
yourself on a 15 mile hike, you may want to put in the extra 5 miles just to get this
requirement out of the way. Short of that, find yourself a nice straight, flat (even
slightly downhill) path, take a light pack and predetermine access to water, and plan
on spending a very long day.
Everything else being equal, and if time is short, the Cycling MB may be your
best alternative. Find a nice level set of road trips, set aside two weekends (or a
weekend and four early evenings) and pedal out those six rides. Tip: Use you phone
camera and GPS to document your hikes or bike rides.
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Camping – One of the things that surprises us most when
mentoring Life Scouts to Eagle is how many of them
haven’t yet earned their Camping merit badge. We’ve
finally concluded that the only explanation is that most
Scouts first look at the requirements for this MB at age
eleven or twelve, conclude that it is impossible, and never
think about it again.
In fact, if you have been in Scouting for five years or more and have been
pretty consistent about going on troop campouts, district camporees, and summer
Scout camps – which is likely the case if you are a Life Scout – then you probably
long-ago fulfilled the requirements for this merit badge. You need only to document
this fact, write up some of the other questions, and you are done. Indeed, we have
signed off this merit badge with Life Scouts in less than twenty minutes if they have
shown up with proof – and most of that time was spent filling out the blue card.
If you are still short on your days and nights, sign up for summer camp if
you have time, or make sure you go on the next few troop campouts.
Tip: the only requirement that might cause you trouble is the one that
requires you to have camped in the snow, or climbed 1000 feet, etc. You’ve
probably done one of them; for the second, bring a bike along on your next
campout and (with permission) take time to ride 15 miles.
Second Tip: If you are still short on days/nights camping, organize a quick
camping trip for your patrol (or Senior patrol/Vanguard). Be sure to have
an adult along, and it must be officially approved by your troop.
Family Life -- ALERT! Ninety-day wonder. Family Life is
a merit badge that many Scouts begin as Tenderfeet with
their patrol or at camp, earn a partial . . . then scramble
to finish (if they can even find their old blue card) at the
very end of their ascent to Eagle. However, if you will just
give this merit badge a little time, it can be one of the most
memorable experiences of your Scouting career.
In particular, Family Life is designed to have you look at your own family,
perhaps for the first time, from a different perspective. That is, as a complex, working
unit whose members work together in mutual support and towards common goals.
The “family project” requirement is the heart of this experience. Sure, you can rush
through this requirement by doing something simple or easy, but if you have the time
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we recommend you and your family tackle something more difficult or interesting –
and learn something new about each other along the way.
The other pillar of this merit badge is, of course, is the 90-day diary of
your performance of family chores. Everything we said about the Personal Finance
merit badge diary holds here as well. In fact, you won’t be the first Scout who has
two sets of “Portal Reminder” sheets – one for financial records, the other for chores
-- and pencils taped to your front door for you to fill each day when you first leave
the house. Note that this requirement also requires you to have five duties or chores
– which may be more than you are used to; so you may have to amp things up a bit
for the next three months (or, as your parents hope, permanently).
Finally, assuming that you already are doing five duties and chores, if
you find yourself starting late, it may be possible (and, indeed, it will probably be
easier) to reconstruct a previous week or two on your diary with the assistance and
confirmation by your parents. Check with your merit badge counselor.
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Cooking – It’s good to see this one, a true field merit badge,
back on the required list beginning January 2014. Cooking
is one of Scouting’s original merit badges; it was introduced
in 1911 in the original Scout Handbook. And for most of its
history it was Eagle required. In fact, every Eagle you meet
over the age of 50 also had to earn Cooking for his Eagle.
Cooking merit badge is essentially a supercharged version of the First Class
cooking requirement – that is, instead of three meals for one day, you need to cook
six meals for two days; you need different fuel sources, your preparation must be
more complete (and with the one pot meal, more sophisticated), and you need to
know even more about the food pyramid, health hazards, planning, etc. Earning
the Cooking merit badge isn’t easy, but it also isn’t that difficult. The hard part is
that, practically speaking, you really can’t earn it until you’ve passed First Class, and
probably not until you attend the next summer camp. And that means that Cooking
will probably be among the last Eagle-required merit badges you earn. So plan ahead.
And speaking of planning, Cooking merit badge is really about preparation.
Prepare well, read the requirements carefully, get your equipment and ingredients
right and it should go smoothly. Also, don’t expect to have a lot of free time on
that campout or during those days at summer camp – you are going to getting up
early, cooking all day, and cleaning up late. If you know that’s the deal, you won’t
be disappointed. It’s worth it – like First Aid, you will use your new-found cooking
skills for the rest of your life.
All the Rest
There they are, the required merit badges to become an Eagle Scout. This list is one
of those places where we veterans can most obviously see the acquired, century-long
wisdom of Boy Scouting in action – and someday you will too.
As you look at the list, and earn those badges, notice how they cover (outside
of school) almost every aspect of your life, both now and as an adult. This is not a
coincidence, but the product of decades of trial and error. But what is remarkable is
that almost all of these merit badges were in place as early as 1914. In some cases,
only the names have changed: thus, Environmental Science was Nature; Family Life
was Citizenship in the Home; and Emergency Preparation was Safety. Most of the
rest haven’t changed in all that time. They are part of the shared experiences of all
Eagles, young and old.
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As for the other ten merit badges you need to earn for Eagle, as already noted,
there are the oughtas and the couldas. Since all non-required MB’s are designed to be
about equal in difficulty, and share most of the same types of requirements, difficulty
should not be your primary concern. Obviously, some of the non-required merit
badges you earn will be the result of serendipity: an available class, the need to fill up
your schedule at camp, or chosen by your patrol.
But there will also be some merit badges that you pick out and pursue. So
thumb through the 120+ merit badges in the Boy Scout Requirements book and see
if there are any that jump out at you as cool, or interesting, or that just pique your
interest. You may even want to try out a merit badge in a field you know absolutely
nothing about – you may find the topic captures your imagination like nothing ever
before.
A Case in Point: The author of this handbook, as a lark, signed up for a
Journalism merit badge course at the local newspaper. The experience left
a lasting impression (literally: he picked up a piece of hot type and burned
a letter into his left thumb). Only later, after he became a newspaper
reporter, did he learn that he came from a long line of journalists. His story
isn’t unique; rather it is one of millions of stories of Boy Scouts discovering
their life’s work from a merit badge.
One last note on the Eagle Scout merit badge requirement. We hope that you
have carefully kept all of your signed and completed (and incomplete) blue cards in a
binder or some other safe, archival location. At some point during your final ascent
to Eagle, get those cards out and check each of them carefully. Are they properly
filled out? Do you have the counselor’s signature on each of them? Most of them
should have been already been checked by your Scoutmaster or ASM during your
Star and Life conferences, but sometimes things get missed.
If you are missing a blue card for a non-required MB, and you have enough
merit badges, just substitute in another one – and worry about the missing one when,
and if, you go for a palm. If it’s an Eagle-required merit badge, you have got to
restore it. And about the only way to do that is to find your counselor for that badge
– he or she should have filed away one third of your blue card -- and convince him or
her to sign off a new one for you. If you can’t find that person, then see if there are
any troop records of ordering that MB and convince your Scoutmaster or the troop’s
new counselor on that MB to create a new blue card for you. And if you are really
stuck, check your computer or files and see if you can find any remnants of that merit
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badge (an emergency kit, a 90 day diary, a group of photographs for E-Science, etc.)
and see how much you can reconstitute the requirements – and then jam on re-doing
the rest.
Twenty-one merit badges. You’ve done it. When you’ve sewn those last merit
badges on your sash, step back and take a look it. Remember what it was like to
be a Webelos or a new Scout, when you saw the older Scouts with an impossible
number of merit badges running down their sashes. Now you are one of them; and
you probably have (and will always) have gthe memory of earning each one of them.
Now, on to the second great mountain you must climb on your ascent to Eagle:
the Service Project.
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CHAPTER THREE
The Eagle
Service Project
E
ven if you earn your Eagle at 13 and remain in Scouting until you age out
at 18, even if you return to Scouting as an adult and earn the BSA’s highest
honors, you will always consider your Eagle project to be the greatest and
most signature achievement of your Scouting career. Indeed, it will likely be the most
important and defining achievement of your entire youth. That’s how important
your Eagle project is.
And with good reason. The Eagle Scout service project is likely the first, and
perhaps only, time as a youth that you will experience what it is like as an adult
to devise, lead, manage and report on a major initiative involving an established
institution and numerous participants –and in the process apply time management,
critical path analysis, materials management, budgeting, work team management,
contingency preparation, reporting and post-mortem work, and sometimes marketing
and public relations.
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There is almost no other opportunity in American life to have this kind of
experience while still a teenager. Truth be told, our own experience suggests that it
is a more valuable practical experience than anything you will learn earning an MBA.
That’s why colleges and universities, corporations, non-profits and government
agencies give precedence in hiring to Eagle Scouts: not only do they know you are
resourceful and competent (your merit badges and leadership positions show that)
but, thanks to your service project, they can be sure that you already have considerable
entrepreneurial and managerial experience.
There’s another, even more important, reason why you will always cherish your
Eagle project: because you will have left your mark on the world.
Every Eagle project leaves the world a better place. That is its purpose. But some
Eagle projects exhibit a scope that can actually change society in a fundamental way.
Other Eagle projects, many of them quite small, can create an enduring impact –
there are Eagle projects around the country that still stand – and thus still contribute
to their community – a half-century after they took place, the Eagles who did them
now senior citizens.
The real impact of Eagle service projects can best be seen in their totality: since
the completion of a formal service project was made a requirement for Eagle in the
early 1960s, it is estimated that Eagles and their volunteers have completed more
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than 150 million hours of service to their communities. That makes it the largest
youth service initiative in history. Thus, in doing your Eagle project, you are not
only taking on the toughest requirement on your path to Eagle, participating in
the best professional training available to you as a youth, and making an important
contribution to your community. . .but you will also be making history.
Now you know why adult Eagles tend to talk about their service project
with a mixture of awe that they actually managed to complete it and pride that they
managed to accomplish something great while they were still in high school. Many
will tell you that their Eagle project was a turning point in their lives – that, before
their eagle project, taking on this kind of responsibility seemed terrifying and the
private preserve of grown-ups; and afterwards, they knew they could tackle anything.
Indeed, for some Scouts, especially for those few who have completed a world-class,
award-winning quality project, even earning the Eagle itself can seem an anti-climax
after completing the project.
But big project or small, local or international, it still lies in the future. Right
now, you need to get started on your project. So, let’s begin with the requirement
itself, and then a little history. Then we’ll look at what an Eagle project is . . . and
what it isn’t.
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Definition
While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others
in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school,
or your community. (The project must benefit an organization other
than Boy Scouting.)
Sounds simple, doesn’t it? But you already know that there are whole worlds of
difficulty hidden within those thirty-five words. The BSA knows it too; that’s why it
has appended the following words to the requirement in the Scout Handbook:
A project proposal must be approved by the organization
benefiting from the effort, your unit leader and unit committee, and
the council or district before you start.
You must use the Eagle Scout Service Project Workbook, BSA
publication No. 512-927, in meeting this requirement. (To learn more
about the Eagle Scout service project, see the Guide to Advancement,
topics 9.0.2.0 through 9.0.2.15.)
That second paragraph is to make sure you don’t fly off on a project . . . and then
discover that it doesn’t qualify. To spare you that nightmare, Scouting has designed
a series of approval steps to make sure both that you have a qualified project and
second, unsaid, that all of the potential stakeholders on the Scouting side have signed
on to what you are doing – they too now have to answer for any project deemed
unqualified by BSA National. Now they have skin in the game – which means that
they will be more careful to make sure you are headed in the right direction
The third paragraph is Scouting’s gesture towards giving you some detailed
support on what kind of project to do (the Guide to Advancement) and how to do it
(the Eagle Scout Service Project Workbook). You can find both of these documents
online here: Guide to Advancement: http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/33088.
pdf and Workbook http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/512-927_fillable.pdf
Print them out, especially the Workbook and read them both (the entire
Workbook and the Eagle section in the Guide to Advancement) thoroughly. You’ll
note that the Guide to Advancement takes the Eagle service project quite seriously, –
six pages of small type! -- complete with sections on insurance and risk management,
as well as an extensive section on redress if your Eagle project is turned down (don’t
let that happen, get full approval ahead of time). The larger, Eagle section of the
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Guide also walks you through the precise process of getting these approvals, which
we will look at in this book as well.
As for the Workbook: note the word must. As of a few years ago, it essentially
became impossible to earn your Eagle – that is, get your project signed off – without
filling out your Workbook. So look through it right now. Note the many things you
have to report regarding your project, and a few of things you thought you had to
report, but in fact, don’t – such as the fact that photos documenting the project are
optional. Also note the many, many bits of data you need, such as that long page
of names and addresses at the front; as well as the multiple sign-offs (more than one
Eagle has done a major project in another state or country and forgotten to get a
signature from a representative of the beneficiary organization while they are there –
which has led to a lot of anxious FedEx letters].
If you want validation that Scouting takes your Eagle project quite seriously, note
that the Workbook is now 28 pages long – double what it was just a few years ago,
and expanded to include precise documentation of every step along the way on your
project from initial idea to final sign-off, and everything in-between. The Workbook
now includes even a summary of those six pages in the Guide to Advancement, just
to make sure you actually see it. All of this underscores that Scouting wants you to
succeed on your Eagle project . . . and the last thing BSA National, your Council, your
District, your Troop Committee and your Scoutmaster wants is for you to take the
wrong path and have your Eagle project denied. It rarely happens, but when it does,
it is a nightmare for everybody of angry accusations, bitterness and unhappiness.
That’s why Scouting has published these two unprecedented documents, why
it demands that you use the Workbook, and why you have to run that gauntlet of
sign-offs: after all of that, there is no excuse for not doing a successful Eagle project
– other than that you quit along the way, or you never started. The goal of Scouting
is to make sure that even those last two scenarios never happen.
Looking Back
Let’s start with a little history. Then we’ll explode a few myths about the Eagle
Project.
Given all of the fame, glory and legend surrounding the Eagle service project,
you might assume that it is as old as Eagle Scouting itself. You would be only half
right.
Service to the community is as old as the World Scouting movement, and it
was built into the Boy Scouts of America from its founding in 1910. However, for
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the first fifty years, service was embedded into various parts of Scouting – as merit
badge requirements, as Scouting-wide initiatives such as the War Bond program in
World War I and the collection of war materials during the Second World War. In
the 1920s, the Order of the Arrow and the Knights of Dunamis (the precursor of
the National Eagle Scout Association) dedicated themselves to performing service
projects for, respectively, Scouting and the community.
It was only with the Boy Scout Handbook of 1965, that ‘service’ to the
community became a specific requirement at every rank in Scouting, the quantity of
time required rising with each rank from an hour at Tenderfoot to six hours at Life.
And it was at this time that the Eagle service project, specifying only that the Eagle
candidate devise and manage a service project for the community, was established. It
soon took on a life of its own.
The number of Scouts before 1960 who earned their Eagle was just 2
percent; a ratio that many still falsely believe to be the case today. In reality, Scouts
achieving Eagle today surpasses 6 percent – averaging to the 4 percent you usually
hear quoted for the history of Scouting. You might ask: Then why, without the big
service project in the way, didn’t more Scouts earn their Eagle? The obvious answer
is that the merit badges in those days – not least the infamous Bird Study – were a lot
harder to earn, especially the Eagle required ones.
A more subtle answer is that both Scouting and America were different
then. Most Scouts were rural, and much poorer than the modern Scout, with fewer
tools, gadgets and other items. There was also much less support: for example,
there were no merit badge midways, or extensive classes at Scout camp, or dozens of
troop parents who served as merit badge counselors. Instead, each Scout, for each
merit badge, was expected to personally telephone, from a Council list, the particular
counselor for each merit badge, arrange an appointment, and then be driven to (or
walk or bicycle to) the counselor’s house for what might be three or four meetings.
All reports had to be researched at the local library and written by hand, or typed on
a typewriter with all of the corrections made.
Most Scouts today have never experienced this process even once (and
wouldn’t be allowed alone at the counselor’s house); now imagine what it would be
like to repeat that process 21 times. And that’s why Old Scouts, especially Eagles,
like to say that they had it tougher in the Old Days, and that modern Scouts have it
soft. And they may be right.
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On the other hand, the only response the modern Eagle Scout needs to
make is: “Yes, but you didn’t have to do the service project.” Leaving aside all of
the other obstacles the modern Scout faces – a busier schedule, AP courses, all of the
distractions of modern life – the presence of the service project on the path to Eagle
is the trump card in any such debate. As has been noted elsewhere, if the Eagle award
is “the PhD of Boyhood, then the service project is the dissertation to that award”, it
is the greatest challenge along the path to boyhood’s greatest honor.
Myth #1: The Bigger the Eagle Service Project, the Better.
Almost from the moment that the Eagle service project was introduced in 1965,
Life Scouts began to compete to see who could devise the most ambitious one. This
process only accelerated with the publication of the 1969 edition of the Handbook.
This Handbook contained the most complete description of the Eagle service project
to date. More important, it contained “The List” of eight exemplary Eagle service
projects, ranging from running a bicycle safety course to building a pedestrian bridge
at a park, to conducting an archaeological dig at an old Spanish mission.
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The List, slightly expanded over time, defined the Eagle service project
for the next forty years, appearing in subsequent editions of the Handbook, and
ultimately in the first edition of the Eagle Scout Workbook. Once The List was
published, there was no going back. For Eagle candidates with the inclination to
do something great, The List was a challenge . . . and ultimately the launch pad for
an arms race in Eagle projects. Soon, appearing with the standard landscaping of
school yards and painting of park benches, were landmark Eagle projects involving
the restoration of entire properties, the construction of storage buildings and other
facilities, and city-wide initiatives like painting over graffiti or collecting books for
the library – some taking hundreds of hours to complete.
By the 1990s, thanks to a combination of the second Baby Boom (the Gen
Y’s) and a growing realization that universities (and the military) were giving special
consideration to Eagle Scout applicants, the focus upon the Eagle project achieved
an intensity that continues to this day. Indeed, with the introduction in 2009 of
NESA’s Glenn and Melinda Adams Award for the best Eagle projects in the country,
the focus upon a world-changing (and often a world-hopping) Eagle service project
took on an even greater fervor.
In one respect, this competition has been salutary. Some of these celebrated
Eagle projects have literally transformed their communities – including saving lives
-- even when those communities have been in some other part of the world. They
have taught all of us the lesson that what can be accomplished by a young person with
desire and ambition is almost limitless. And they have served as a cornerstone of the
important new global movement called “social entrepreneurship.”
But this Eagle project arms race hasn’t come without cost. Big Eagle
projects can be hugely time-consuming – some Adams winners have taken thousands
of total hours – and pull the Life Scout away from after-school activities and even
schoolwork. They can also take a year or two to complete; so goodbye Eagle palms,
if you wanted them. As for Scouting itself, it is something of a trade-off: a great
Eagle project shows the world what Scouting can do, but it also usually removes a
top-notch Scout from the daily activities of his troop, where his leadership might be
hugely valuable.
So are big Eagle projects worth it? Both the Scouts who did them, and
the BSA itself, would tell you yes. But bigger isn’t always better. And while it is
wonderful to, using some past examples, build a playground in Siberia or a library in
Zambia, it can be just as valuable to do those same things in your own home town.
And, having coached dozens of Eagle service projects over the years, we can say with
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certainty that there is nothing more impressive than that small, well thought-out
Eagle project that is so perfectly pinpointed that it sets off an avalanche of good
effects in the years that follow.
Myth #2: Your Eagle Service Project Must Be 40/80/120 Hours Total.
The myth of a time quota on Eagle projects became encrusted to this requirement
almost from the day it was written. Despite the fact that you could never find such
a number published anywhere in Scouting literature, it was always whispered about
among older Scouts that there was, in fact, a magic number of total hours (that is, of
the Eagle candidate and all volunteers) that you had to exceed or the Eagle Board of
Review would turn you down.
Pernicious as this rumor was – reducing something as magnificent as the Eagle
service project to mere clock-watching – what made it even worse was that the
number kept inflating. When we earned our Eagle in the 1960s, it was 40 hours.
By the late 1970s, it was 80 hours. By 2010, the Eagle centennial year, rumors were
that the quota had now been unofficially bumped up to 120 hours. What makes
this rumor both sad and maddening is its unseen effects: how many Life Scouts
have given up their quest for Eagle because they just can’t come up with a 120 hour
Eagle project – or don’t think they have time to execute one? And how many great
Eagle projects, which might have had a profound impact on their communities, were
abandoned because they weren’t deemed to contain enough service hours?
Here is the truth: There has never been a time quota on Eagle service projects.
And there never will be. A brilliantly thought-out project that takes just ten hours but
has years of impact, is just as eligible as a 3,000 hour project that involves hundreds
of people doing mostly busy work – and a lot more valuable. Indeed, we would all
like to see more of the former: precisely focused, carefully planned game-changers,
because those are the kinds of initiatives that truly make the world a better place.
The heart of the Eagle service project is not hours, but contribution. So stop
looking for that project that will simply burn hours of the clock. Rather, search for
that project that fits your interests, that you will love doing, that will change peoples’
lives in some important way, and that you will be proud of for the rest of your life.
Sanding and painting benches in the park may seem pretty minor compared (to use
another Adams winner) building an artificial reef, but if scores of your town’s senior
citizens rest on those benches each day, you have made a major contribution to the
quality of their lives.
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Myth #3: Your Eagle Service Project Must Succeed,
So Pick One Guaranteed to Do So.
We are writing this in California’s Silicon Valley, the heartland of the world’s
electronics industry, and just a few miles from companies such as Apple, Facebook
and Google. The greatest lesson of Silicon Valley is that failure can be good.
No one wants to fail. Failure dashes our dreams. It says to the world that we just
weren’t good enough to succeed. But failure is also a great teacher, if we can learn its
lessons. And to fear failure can be even more destructive than failure itself, because
it can make us averse to taking the kinds of risks that can also lead to great success.
That’s why, here in Silicon Valley, we have long cultivated the idea of a good
failure and a bad success. A good failure occurs when you dream big, you plan well,
and you execute smartly – but fail because of forces largely beyond your control:
a revolutionary invention, an economic downturn, etc. People who experience
good failures are honored in Silicon Valley, and they are more likely to find future
investors, employees and customers. Bad success stories are just the opposite: there
is no shortage of people in the Valley who have become very wealthy not through any
great talent or hard work of their own, but because they joined the right company
at the right time, or their poorly-managed company got lucky with a new product
or hot market. You might think that these successful people would have no trouble
finding investors and partners in the future – but, in fact, they are looked upon with
suspicion.
Your Eagle service project is likely the first – and certainly the most important
– entrepreneurial experience of your youth. And, just as the Eagle service project is
history’s largest youth service initiative, it is also likely the largest entrepreneurship
training for youth the world has ever known. The Boy Scouts of America understands
that . . . and it wants you to get as much of that experience as possible. Hence, the
requirements that ensure you participate in all of the steps of creating a successful
enterprise, including: devising the project, establishing a budget, setting a calendar,
enlisting team members, managing the program, and conducting post mortem
analysis.
The BSA also wants you to succeed – but recognizes that even commercial
enterprises managed by experienced professionals fail more often than they succeed.
Your odds are, in fact, much higher. Nevertheless, some Eagle service projects do
fail, for reasons beyond the control of the Eagle candidate. The non-profit you are
working for may lose funding and suddenly shut down, the bridge you are building
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at the park is washed away by a flash flood, your sole contact at a charity may resign
at the last moment . . .all are rare events, but they do happen.
The bottom line is this: give your Eagle service project everything you’ve got –
because it deserves it, and because your effort says something important about you.
Make a superhuman effort to make your project succeed, not least of which, for all of
the people who will benefit from it. And if in the end you fail, due to causes beyond
your control, then Scouting will still accept your effort – as long as you learn from
the experience, and make your project a “good failure.”
Myth #4: You Cannot Raise Money for Your Eagle Project.
Wrong. You cannot raise money as your Eagle project. And perhaps that’s where the
confusion originated. Raising money for a qualified (i.e. a non-profit) recipient –
that is, simply handing over a check to a beneficiary – does not fulfill the Eagle service
project requirement.
On the other hand, if you need to hold a car wash or find sponsors or convince
your parents to write a check to help you buy materials or feed the volunteers
for your Eagle project, that is perfectly acceptable. Once again, the analogy is to
entrepreneurial start-ups: very few can bootstrap their way to success; nearly all need
some kind of financial support from angel investors and venture capitalists.
That said, you cannot buy your Eagle project, much less your Eagle medal. Like
all serious entrepreneurs, funding should only be a tool for you, a starting point,
to make your project possible. Scouting (including your Board of Review) expects
you to go on from there to use your leadership skills and your energy to realize your
vision and benefit your targeted recipients. And just as you cannot simply donate
money to a non-profit to complete your project, neither can you simply buy items
or services and give them to worthy beneficiaries. You need to do the work. There
are no short-cuts.
As an Eagle candidate, all of this should be self-evident to you already. But we
also realize that during times of enormous stress – such as a rapidly approaching 18th
birthday deadline – even people of integrity can sometimes panic and take shortcuts
that are counter to their own sense of what is right. Right now, you may be thinking
of making just such a choice.
Don’t do it. First of all, it violates the Scout Oath, a promise that you have made
hundreds of times since you joined Scouting. But even more, as you’ve heard many
times, your Eagle is forever. If you earn your Eagle fraudulently now, you dishonor
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your award for the rest of your life – the truth of which you will be regularly reminded
every time you are honored in the decades to come for being an Eagle. It would be far
better for you to not earn your Eagle at all, than to sully it by earning it fraudulently.
And in case your own conscience is still insufficient for the task, once you finish
your project, Scouting has placed a number of responsible figures ahead of you on
your final sprint to Eagle to make sure you’ve lived up to your oath. It is better to give
up on your quest for Eagle altogether than to be found wanting by these guardians.
Of course, the best of all is to give your project everything you’ve got, do it at the
highest levels of integrity, and spend the rest of your life looking back with pride at
the amazing thing you’ve done.
Defining your Target
We didn’t write this booklet to show you how to do your Eagle project – though we
will give you some tips on doing so. Rather, beyond our goal of convincing you to
pursue your Eagle and to do so in a strategic way, our main purpose for writing this
volume is to help you discover the right Eagle service project for you – and then to
assist you in getting started on it.
Now, here we are. You need to find an Eagle service project . . . and you
need to complete it between now and your 18th birthday.
If you are sixteen, or have just turned seventeen, you may think that you have
all of the time in the world to start your project. You don’t. We can’t tell you how
many young Life scouts we’ve known who have taken a casual approach to their
service project– and then found themselves unexpectedly just months from ageing
out of Scouting and scrambling desperately to find a project, any project, to finish
their Eagle.
When that happens they find themselves in the company of all of those late
Eagles who, with time almost run out, are in a panic to jump on the first viable
project they find – even if it doesn’t fit their interests, their goals, or about which they
will be particularly proud in the years to come.
The very worst scenarios, and thankfully we have only seen a few cases, is when
a Scout’s uncertainty about the Eagle service project turns into intimidation, which
in time becomes panic – and then worst of all, turns into paralysis in the face of
the looming deadline. This can not only cost a Scout his Eagle, but also set a bad
precedent for dealing with similar situations in the years to come. That’s one reason
why Scouting wisely puts a lot of adults – Scoutmaster, mentor, coach, beneficiary,
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parents, etc. – along each Scout’s path to Eagle, not least in hopes that they will detect
this growing indecision early and intervene before it is too late.
So, before we go any further, if at any point you find yourself stuck on your
ascent to Eagle, especially in the development and execution of your Eagle service
project, talk to one of these adults right away. Your Eagle project is supposed to
be difficult, not impossible. So, if you find yourself frozen, or spinning in circles,
making the same mistake over and over, you are not only allowed to get help, you
are expected to do so. As an adult, if your project or business ever gets in trouble
or stuck, you’ll go out and get professional help from a consultant or an industry
veteran; you need to do the same thing now.
Our goal now is to make sure that situation never happens. The best way to do
that is to be systematic in how you approach your Eagle project. And that begins with
finding a project, and particularly one that fits your personality and interests and that
will keep you emotionally engaged through to the end.
So, let’s begin by asking a series of questions, the answers to which will narrow
down potential projects:
1. What are your interests – history, science, computers, sports, business,
video or music, web design, faith, community service? Be openminded answering this question, as it may produce some general areas
in which you might look for your project.
2. What are your hobbies – reading, hiking, camping, recreational sports,
woodworking, drawing? This answer may give you a more precise idea
of what your project might be.
3. What kind of work makes you happy? Do you like working with your
hands and construct things, or work in the garden? Or do you like
restoring old things and bringing them back to usefulness. Do you like
working indoors on research or academic activities? Do you like high
profile “one-off ” events, or do you prefer to do something that may be
around for a long time?
4. Do you belong to (or volunteer for) any non-profit or social groups
– school clubs, sports teams, marching bands, reading programs,
homeless shelters, church youth groups? Members of these groups you
may be able to help you on your project in addition to your fellow
Scouts; and from the organizations (such as the shelter) you may find a
source of potential projects.
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5. What high school do you attend? Is it private or public? Do you
belong to a church? Do your parents belong to a fraternal group
(i.e., Elks), service club (Rotary, Junior League), or community group
(Jaycees. Newcomers), or are members of local institution, such as a
Museum, Symphony or Playhouse? All of these provide possibilities
for your Eagle project.
Look at your answers these questions. If you put them all together, they
might not give you a specific idea for an Eagle project, but they will certainly tell you
where to look, and what type of project you should pursue. For example, if you like
working with your hands and camping, then you might want to consider a project like
restoring some facilities at a nearby county or state park. If you volunteer at a shelter,
you may want to organize a Holiday gift exchange, or collect sports equipment for
the children. If you belong to a local playhouse, perhaps it needs a new wheelchair
ramp or storage locker; or a local elementary school you once attended might need a
locker area for its after-school students.
See how it works? One of the great things about the Eagle service project
is that there are an infinite number of potential things you can do. But the sheer
openness of that opportunity can also be overwhelming as you bounce from one
undeveloped idea to another, never settling on a single one to do. Now that you’ve
answered these question and narrowed down the universe of projects that work for
you, it’s already becoming easier isn’t it?
Now, after we’ve stressed moving quickly and being decisive, we’re going
to suggest you next slow down now and take your time. If you aren’t faced with a
tight deadline on your Eagle, give yourself a month. Again, take your time. After
answering the questions, you probably now have a rough idea of what you’d like to
do for your project. Now it’s time to cast out your net and catch the project that is
just right for you.
Use that month to put the word out that you are looking for an Eagle
project. Tell everyone you know, especially people – like your parents, the parents
of your fellow Scouts, your teachers and the heads of any clubs to which you belong,
or non-profits at which you volunteer. If they express any interest, tell them in more
detail what you are looking for – that is, tell them what you determined from that
question-and-answer exercise above.
Example: “So, what are you looking to do?” “I’m searching for a project
where I can fix up or restore some storage area or aging facility. You know, something
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around the school that gets a lot of use and is getting worn out. Or maybe build
something to help organize materials that are just lying around right now. Do you
have anything like that? Is there anything that’s been bugging you and that you’ve
been planning to do something about, but just haven’t gotten around to it?”
You will be probably be stunned by just how many potential projects there
are out there that fit the general parameters of what you are looking for.
Pause and take stock. A few weeks ago, you couldn’t think of any Eagle
projects. Now, you’ve got a bunch of good ones to choose from. Not bad, eh? But
don’t stop there; keep asking around. There still may be that one perfect project for
you that you haven’t yet found.
Meanwhile, go on the Internet and search out Eagle projects around the
country to get some more ideas. There are literally hundreds of these listings, most of
them in form of articles in local newspapers. You will find a lot of redundancy – but
that’s not bad in itself, as it shows that these are acceptable, and approved, projects.
You’ll also find a lot of interesting and novel projects – and perhaps one or two of
them will spark your imagination to invent your own unique project.
Finally, now that you’ve seen what’s out there, both in your community and
around the country, take a day or two to ponder: based on all that you now know,
is there some other, singular, project that pops into your brain that you might want
to pursue?
Now, let’s say you’ve gone through the refining process on your Eagle
project we just described -- as well as toured the Web looking for appealing examples
– and you still haven’t come up with a project. Or, if you are almost out of time and
desperate. Here are some other tips to help make your search successful (Be prepared,
because almost every one of these tips requires you to make an appointment to see an
adult in authority. Get used to; it will be your future.):
1. Go to your old schools – Make an appointment to see the principal of the
different schools you’ve attended, including your current high school. We
mean all of them, including even the Day Care Center you attended when
you were little – you never know where a great Eagle project might be
hiding. It may be painting a building or restoring a play area or building a
sports shed. And the reason you want to go to those schools in particular
is because they know you and are more likely to entrust you with a major
task. You also know their culture and that may make it easier to navigate
the politics of approval. And you have an emotional stake in the recipient
– which may motivate you to get the job done, and done well. Why the
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principal? Because he or she can usually make a quick decision without any
additional approvals.
2. Go to your troop’s sponsoring organization – Most troops these days are
sponsored by churches . . . and churches are almost always short of funds
and in need of volunteer work. Moreover, an Eagle project is a wonderful
way to pay back all that the sponsoring organization has done for your
troop over the years.
3. Find a Parochial or Synagogue Church/School – In our experience, churches
and temples that have attached schools are always in need of help, especially
for the grounds (fields, tracks, etc.) and secondary buildings (shacks, sheds,
etc.) Because they are private operations, they also tend to give approval for
Eagle projects more quickly and can often help find volunteers.
4. Talk to Parks and Recreation – City Parks & Recreation departments have
long been a major source of Eagle service projects. And because of that, most
keep on file an inventory of potential projects, big and small, for anxious
Scouts. Keep in mind that most of these projects will involve landscaping
of some kind, with perhaps some carpentry work. Make an appointment
with the department head and go down and see what they’ve got.
5. Talk with Service Clubs – The Lions, Elks, Rotary, Masons and other service
clubs are in the same ‘business’ as you are: performing acts of community
service . . .only they do it continuously over decades and often on an
international scale. If one of your parents is in one of these clubs (or you
know somebody who is), make an appointment to go talk with the head of
the local chapter. Tell that person your ideas and hear theirs – you might
find a project in that conversation, as well as potential underwriting and
volunteers. If you are planning a Great Project (see below), especially in
another country, these groups can be of particular help.
6. Talk with the Veterans Administration – VA hospitals and clinics often need
special facilities and programs for wounded and disabled veterans. As many
of these Veterans were also Scouts, you will likely find a warm welcome.
7. Visit your local homeless shelter – The awful paradox of Homeless Shelters is
that when they are most needed – such as during an economic recession –
they are also most likely to be short of funds. You’ll find that most shelters
need help with programs, facility upgrades and materials (such as clothing
and blankets). Keep in mind that many shelters also serve homeless families
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– and one of the best services you can provide is to take the children away to
entertainment or learning experiences. For example, we know of two Eagles,
brothers actually, who in projects separated by three years, respectively took
kids in homeless shelters on a camping trip with donated equipment; and
to a week-long ‘sports camp’ culminating in a donated trip to a miniature
golf course.
8. Talk with other Eagles – Eagle Scouts are not only a great repository of
past Eagle projects, but they can also walk you into the institutions and
the contacts they worked with in the course of their own service projects.
Also, listen carefully to their advice and warnings about how to conduct a
successful project.
9. Look around your neighborhood – There is probably no place on Earth that
you have studied longer and more completely than the place where you live.
Moreover, an Eagle project in your neighborhood will be easy to access, will
likely get a lot of support from your friends and their families – and, in the
long-term, you’ll get to enjoy its impact almost every day. The trick is to
look at your neighborhood through new eyes – that is, as someone looking
for problems that need to be solved. Focus especially on local parks – and
take your solutions, once again, to Parks & Recreation.
10. Look at parks at all levels – Don’t stop at city parks. Look as well at county
parks, state parks and even, if there is one nearby, a national park. Needless
to say, you will have to contact bureaucrats in different government
organizations – state park rangers, the National Park Service, and so forth.
This can sometimes be a complicated and time-consuming process, but
these agencies can often offer the most interesting Eagle projects.
11. Research museums, libraries, galleries and other public facilities – If you are
interested in more academic, indoor work, the best places to go are city,
county and state-owned facilities that serve the general public. The best
thing about these places is that you can choose the one that best fits your
interests. The projects you do at these facilities can range from organizing
an exhibition, to constructing displays, to training docents and teaching
students. Start with the director or curator, as he or she can make final
decisions.
12. Talk with other youth groups – Little League, AYSO soccer, basketball
leagues, Pop Warner football . . . there are a myriad of youth organizations
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in your community. Many of them own or manage facilities – sports fields,
snack shacks, storage sheds and so forth – that need restoration, upgrading
or organizing. If you belong to one of these programs, all the better, you
probably can identify what is needed. If not, go to the League president and
ask what needs to be done.
13. Talk with your local animal shelter – Most pet shelters are overcrowded and
underfunded . . . and in perpetual need of help. In one of the best local
Eagle projects we know, a Scout, with volunteers, gathered scores of old
blankets from his neighborhood, cut them to size and made comfortable
bedding for the many cats at a local shelter.
14. Think about public service events -- We have known wonderful Eagle projects
over the years that involved collecting and retiring (by fire) worn American
flags, or leading a team to clean out a debris-choked local river, or painting
signs on storm drains asking citizens not to empty toxic chemicals. There
are hundreds of these projects – and they can be duplicated from town to
town, performing an important service in each municipality. Go back and
search the Web for examples.
15. Check neighboring towns – Don’t restrict yourself just to your own city
or town. Every one of these tips can also be implemented in every other
nearby community. You may even find some unique projects in those other
municipalities. At the very least, you’ll increase your odds of finding a
project.
If you have searched the Web for examples and tried all of the aforementioned
tips and you still haven’t come up with an Eagle project idea that appeals to you, then
the problem is not with the project opportunities, but with you. You are either using
the wrong criteria in your selection – for example: it’s too hard, or too complicated,
or it may take too much time, or you don’t want to have to deal with adults in
positions of authority, or you don’t want to manage people, or you don’t want to be
responsible – or, you secretly don’t want to earn your Eagle after all.
If it is the last, then it is time to be truthful with yourself. Admit to yourself
why you don’t want to earn the Eagle. Is it because you think you are unworthy of
the honor? A lot of people feel that way about receiving awards. They think they
are undeserving or that they have been in some way over-rated by others; or most
common of all, that they are frauds, and that if the world really knew them, they
would rescind the honor. But the fact that this is a common worry should comfort
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you some. Even Nobel Prize winners and corporate CEOs sometimes think they
don’t deserve their titles even after long years of hard work.
As for you: you haven’t reached this high point in Scouting, standing at the
brink of earning the Boy Scouts’ highest accolade, without having been approved at
every step along the way – that’s what those Scoutmaster Conferences and Boards of
Review and rank and merit badge requirement sign-offs were all about. You would
not have gotten this far if the world thought you didn’t deserve it. Go talk with
someone you respect; tell them of your fears, and listen to their answers. You may be
surprised what they say.
Another common reason for feeling that you don’t deserve your Eagle is that
you think your parents, your Scoutmaster, or some other important person in your
life “pushed” you to earn this award – and that you never would have made it this
far without that external pressure. It’s as if they have earned the award, and you are
merely a stand-in to receive it.
The reality is that almost no one in this world gets very far without some
“pushing” along the way, particularly when they get stalled and can’t seem to get
started again. When you are a kid, it’s usually a parent who does it, but it can also
be a teacher or a relative or someone else in a position of authority who steps in and
redirects or restarts a young person who has lost his or her way. That’s probably what
happened with the classmate of yours who got sent to the principal – twenty years
from now he may tell you that it was just the shock he needed to get his life back on
track.
Adults need “pushing” sometimes too, though now it usually comes from a
spouse or an employer or just from a stack of bills. No one lives in this world entirely
alone – that is the lesson of Scouting’s Patrol Method – and just because it may seem
different because it is your parents, it probably isn’t. Just ask your fellow Scouts about
their own experiences. You’ll probably hear a lot of stories just like yours. Sometimes
“pushing” is just “help” poorly received.
That said, there are extreme cases in any youth organization where a parent goes
too far, making a rank or achievement their own quest and not that of the young
person. The odds are very small that your experiences fall into that category. But if
they do, you can be pretty sure your troop leadership noticed it a long time ago and
took action behind the scenes with your parents (there’s a lot that goes on at the adult
level in troops that you know little about). So, once again, you can be pretty sure that
if you’ve gotten this far, you deserve to go the rest of the way.
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If you still have doubts, sit down and think back about your Scouting career.
Who did all of those hikes and camp-outs? Who led those younger Scouts? And who
answered all of those tough questions at your Scoutmaster conferences? You did, and
that’s why you are an Eagle candidate.
Finally, and this is the rarest case of all: if there is something else in your life,
something so bad that you have kept it secret from everyone – and that you think
disqualifies you from becoming an Eagle Scout, stop now on your quest for Eagle.
Don’t dishonor the Eagle award, don’t start on a project that you know you won’t
finish and waste the time of your helpers and your recipient, and most of all, don’t go
on living your lie.
If you are in this boat you already know that living a lie is its own torture. Don’t
compound it. Talk with your parents, a family member, your minister or priest,
the guidance counselor at school, even the police – someone in authority whom
you trust. If this lie is of an intimate nature, it may well be that you are, in fact,
the victim. Don’t live with this any longer – it will eat you up and it can destroy
your childhood. Just as important, society recognizes that young people sometimes
make bad or foolish decisions . . . and so the legal system for minors is set up for
forgiveness. But as with your Eagle, the moment you cross your 18th birthday, all
bets are off. Sure, it might be painful and embarrassing, but can it be any worse than
it is now?
A final word of advice. Oftentimes, young people misread society’s rules about
things for which they feel ashamed or guilty. For example, no matter what you may
have read or heard, Scouting, at least for Scouts themselves, is not about sexuality
in any way. Your Scoutmaster should never ask you about your private life in that
regard, nor are you obliged to discuss it with him or anybody else in Scouting. But,
once again, don’t live a lie.
By the same token, you wouldn’t be human if you didn’t, on several occasions in
your life, have deep religious doubts – in the end, they only make your faith stronger.
Some of the greatest religious figures in human history experienced the same doubt
– and ultimately it made their faith even stronger.
Finally, if every adult in the world had to carry around a record of their childhood
crimes and misdemeanors, their bad behavior and even worse thoughts, you would
be very surprised at some of our most respected and leading citizens. Happily, as you
will find, the world is much more forgiving than that.
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Shooting the Moon
There is one last choice in Eagle projects that we still need to address: the SuperProject. As it happens, we have a family member who tackled such a project and was
awarded one of the first Adams gold medals for best Eagle projects in the nation – so
we can speak on this subject with experience.
Every year, a small number of Life Scouts decide that the standard Eagle project
isn’t enough – and that they want to tackle a major project that has the potential to
change their community, the nation, or even the world in some memorable way –
and that they are willing to accept the commitment of time and energy, and the risk
of failure, to make it happen.
Typically, Scouts who tackle one of these Eagle Super-Projects are driven by
ambition, curiosity, a deep desire to make the world a better place, and typically,
enormous confidence.
If you are one of those Scouts, then we congratulate you for your ambition and,
having been down this road, you have our greatest respect. You have no doubt found
your project and now must make it happen. We have a few tips for you – and some
warnings. But first, if you are a Scout who dreams of leading one of these projects, we
also have some tips for finding such a project:
Tip #1: If you are looking for a Super-Project, first consider who you want
to benefit. The world is open to you, if you have the courage, but you may
also want to stick closer to home. You can just as easily change the world
from your own community as you can with a project on another continent.
Tip #2: Once you have a rough idea of where you want to do your project,
start researching that location: What are the biggest challenges? Who is
most in need? Look for projects that are finite in scope and cost, yet have
the largest leverage in terms of impact.
Tip #3: Study the field of social entrepreneurship. It has become very
sophisticated in recent years, and is basically a permanent, adult version
of the Eagle Super-Project. Check out Ashoka, the Skoll Foundation and
other charities devoted to the field: you will find hundreds of examples of
social enterprises that may give you some clues on what you can do.
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WARNING: Eagle Super-Projects have a tendency to grow – in scale, cost
and time – far beyond your original estimates. Many take a year or more
to do (and if you are going to be working in a developing country be sure
to add in months for bureaucracies, paperwork, shipping, poor roads, etc.)
and can consume thousands of hours – including hundreds from the Eaglecandidate himself.
What that means is that if you want to attempt one of these projects,
you had better be at most 16 years old; otherwise you will likely run out of
time. It also means that, in most cases, for you to pull off such a project,
you’ll need to dedicate yourself to it nearly to the point of obsession – and
that means less time for school (you’d better have good grades already)
and Scouting, and almost no time for other activities. Having a talent
for organization and time-management also helps. Finally, it means that
you can probably abandon any dreams you had for Eagle palms and other
Scouting awards – you won’t have time.
Given all that, do you still want to pursue a Super-Project? If so, good
for you. Mankind needs people like you. Now for some tips on the project
itself.
Tip #4: Think leverage. We can’t say this enough. You are not going to
build a biomass power plant – you don’t have the time, expertise or capital.
But you might install the solar lighting at an orphanage in Brazil, or install
a simple water purification facility for a village in Botswana, or restore the
local pioneer cemetery in your hometown. You should have been thinking
maximum impact for minimum activity from the beginning of your project.
Now you need to do so in earnest – in particular, how you can take what
you are doing and extend its reach: Can you document your work to make
it repeatable by others in the future? Can you promote your work in the
media so that future Eagle candidates can learn from it or copy it?
Tip #5: Money and donations. There are very few cheap Super-Projects.
Those that are inexpensive are usually only so because they substitute
human capital (that is, a whole bunch of volunteers) for financial capital. If
you can round up a couple hundred people to rebuild a park or community
center over the course of a few days, all the power to you. But in most cases,
especially overseas projects that require a lot of expensive shipping, you are
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going to need money. Make a list of potential donors and be relentless in
pitching them. Tell them your story, show them how their money will be
used, and explain how the lives of the recipients will change. Don’t give
up, and don’t stop until you’ve got your estimated expenses (plus about 10
percent for contingencies –i.e., that monsoon that delays delivery for three
months) in place. Also, always look for in-kind donations and discounts –
for example, that shipping company may give you 20 percent off because
you are a non-profit – and don’t be shy about asking for them.
Tip #6: Document everything. Keep records of donations. Keep track of
every minute of volunteer time. Record all inventory. Keep all paperwork.
Take photos and videos whenever you can. You’ll need all of it if one of
your contractors reneges on the deal or something gets lost. You’ll also
want the documentation for publicity now, and your own memories in the
future. Your donors will also want some sort of record of what you’ve done
– for tax purposes, for future such endeavors, and just to celebrate with you.
Tip #7: Drive the timeline. Big projects, because they are composed of so
many small steps – all of which can slip past the times you’ve allotted for
them – inevitably run long, sometimes from Day One. That’s a problem
in the business world; it’s a catastrophe for Eagle projects because of that
inflexible 18th birthday deadline. You can reduce the risk by starting as
early as possible, and doing two or more steps in parallel whenever you can.
Better yet, be on the lookout for potential interim completion dates. For
example, that cemetery restoration can be considered finished when the
work is done, when you hold the official re-opening ceremony, or, as you
originally planned, when it receives National Historic Site status. Go for
the last, but be prepared to settle for the first. And if you do settle, consider
continuing on after your “completion” to finish the project to your original
dream. That’s what an Eagle Scout would do.
Tip #8: Show appreciation. This is true for every Eagle project, but SuperProjects often end up with legions of donors, helpers and volunteers. Every
one of them has taken time out of his or her life to help you. Without
them, your project would have failed – and they didn’t have to help. You
owe them everything on this project, and you need to take the time to tell
them so. Tell them when they sign up; tell them while they are helping you;
and tell them after the project is done. Write them notes, send them emails,
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and pass along any media coverage of your project and any thanks that you
in turn get from your recipient. Your helpers deserve it, and they will always
remember that you did this. Showing your appreciation and saying thank
you are habits you should cultivate your entire life. Start now. And good
luck on your project.
Coaches and Coaching
Do you need a coach? That question has only been relevant in recent years, as many
councils, having seen some Eagle projects go off the rails, have recommended the use
of trained (that is, BSA approved) advisors on these projects. These advisors have
always been around in a less formal way – it’s a rare Eagle in the last half-century who
hasn’t had a dad or Scoutmaster standing by to help out and provide the wisdom of
experience. That, in fact, is why Scouting added, to the existing Mom and Dad pins
in the Eagle medal kit, a third pin for the Eagle’s Mentor.
That’s changed with the requirement by the BSA that all adults working with
Scouts have Youth Protection Training. This isn’t a problem if your advisor is a parent
or a Scout leader (the latter already have YPT training), but it is if that person does
not fall into one of those two categories – hence, the creation of the title “Coach” and
the requirement that they take the full training, for your safety and theirs.
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Here is the official BSA rule on Eagle project coaches:
Many units, districts, and councils use Eagle Scout service project
“coaches.” They may or may not be part of the proposal approval.
Though it is a Scout’s option, coaches are highly recommended—
especially those from the council or district level who are knowledgeable
and experienced with project approvals. Their greatest value comes in
the advice they provide after approval of a proposal as a candidate
completes his planning. A coach can help him see that, if a plan is
not sufficiently developed, then projects can fail. Assistance can come
through evaluating a plan and discussing its strengths, weaknesses,
and risks, but coaches shall not have the authority to dictate changes,
withdraw approval, or take any other such directive action. Instead,
coaches must use the BSA method of positive adult association, logic,
and common sense to help the candidate make the right decisions.
The message is: If you need help or advice on your Eagle project and, for some
reason – whether it is the unique technical nature of the project or you just don’t want
to work with anybody from your troop to incompatibility with the usual candidates
– you are free to go out and find an “advisor” you like. Just make sure that this
person both understands the nature of an Eagle project and Scouting’s teaching
methodology, as well as has been certified in BSA Youth Protection Training. And, a
good place to start your search for this Coach is at your district or council.
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Getting Underway
As we said, we are not going to walk you through the actual operation of your
project. For that, the Eagle Scout Workbook does a superb and thorough job (too
thorough, some veterans complain, which is probably a good thing).
Get the Workbook and read through every page before you start your project.
Note that it takes you through every step of the project, from the initial proposal
you need to have signed off by your troop committee, unit leader, and district
advancement chairman . . . to your final report. Follow every step precisely – and
that includes all of those sub-sections about materials and costs -- there will be no
doubts about your project when you finish.
Here are some other tips:
Tip #1 – Set a date. We said this before, and now we say it again. Publicly
setting a date – whether it is for your first team meeting or the launch of
your project – is a galvanizing event. Now you are committed, everyone
knows, your volunteers are going to show up on that day, and the institution
you are helping will have a representative there waiting for you. You can’t
back out or postpone now – and you’ll be surprised how that focuses your
attention on getting the job done.
Tip #2 – Save your receipts. Personal Management merit badge was good
training for this. Designate an envelope for all the receipts you obtain in
the course of your project. Make it a habit to put every receipt you get in
the course of the day into your wallet – and then at the end of the day, into
that envelope. You’ll thank yourself at the end of the project.
Tip #3 – Track your hours. Attorneys do it; so do accountants and doctors.
Make a chart or use your smart phone, and before you go to bed each night,
enter all of the hours you spent that day on your project. You’ll be amazed
how quickly they add up. Do the same for every volunteer that helped you
that day (including those you spoke to on the telephone). Enter them too –
and those numbers, being multiples, should go up even faster. Even though
there is no official time quota for Eagle projects, the Workbook does want
that data for your records. You’ll want to know, too, if only to be amazed
at what you’ve done.
Tip #4 – Stay in touch with the beneficiary. Once you find a project and
get the sign on from the recipient, it may take weeks, even months, to gear
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up for the project and get it underway. If you don’t stay in touch with that
person, he or she may assume that you’ve abandoned the project. If nothing
else, just drop an e-mail one a week with a one or two sentence update on
your status. That’ll not only keep your beneficiary engaged, but it help
in developing a relationship that will make the project easier once you get
underway.
Tip #5 – Chart it out. The Workbook takes you through the steps, but
you also need to track the times. Technically, this is called a ‘Critical Path’
chart – that is, put the various steps end to end on a calendar and establish
the milestones you need to reach to finish the project. Note any potential
obstacles – school holidays, other appointments, school trips, etc. – and
incorporate them into your plan. Also, mark the dates when you’ll need
particular supplies and equipment, if it’s that kind of project. In the end,
you’ll get a much better idea of how long your project will really take – and
escape a lot of stressful moments along the way.
Tip #6 – Bring refreshments. Volunteers are, by definition, good people.
But even good people get grumpy when they labor long hours and don’t get
fed. Don’t just get the usual pizza and soda pop either – serve at least some
healthy food and drinks, especially if your volunteers include adults.
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Tip #7 – Motivate. Your volunteers don’t have to be there. They get
their reward by helping you . . . and in return, you need to thank them.
Constantly. Go around the project and compliment them on the work they
are doing. When the job’s done, send them a thank you note or email. And
when you stand at the podium at the end of your Eagle Court of Honor, be
sure to thank every one of them again.
Tip #8 – Take photos and videos. Lots of them. Digital images are cheap.
Use your phone’s camera if you have nothing else. The reason for all of
this documentation is not just for mementoes of your project (though that
alone is a good reason), but in case there’s questions about details of your
project.
Tip #9 – Delegate. Don’t plan on doing any of the heavy work yourself –
you will wear yourself out and you won’t be attentive to your real duties.
You are the manager of this project. You have to make sure that everything
is being done right and according to plan. Walk around and constantly
check on things and motivate your volunteers. If everyone is busy and
they don’t need you to answer any questions, then by all means, pick up a
shovel and dig in. Otherwise, devote your energies to make sure their work
is successful. Your volunteers want to know that you are willing to do the
dirty work with them but don’t ignore that you are in charge and the final
result is your responsibility.
You are ready. Now set the date and get out there and finish your Eagle service
project.
At the back of the Workbook, you’ll find a bunch of copy about ‘risk management’
and other legal topics related to your Eagle project. You should read them. Better yet,
have your parents read them, too. At the back of the Guide to Advancement, you’ll
also find an extensive section on how to get an extension on your Eagle past your
18th. It is also a legal section, and it deals with only the most extreme cases, of which
there are only a handful per year. They sometimes involve claims and counterclaims,
even litigation, and few succeed. Do NOT make the mistake of incorporating that
possibility in your plans. It is not a reprieve or a short cut, but only the response to a
desperate and rare situation. You do not want to be one of those extreme cases. Just
finish your project, and your Eagle, with time to spare.
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Finish Line
Congratulations! You’ve done it. You’ve completed your Eagle service project
– probably the most memorable, difficult and emblematic event of your youth.
Decades hence, you will tell your grandchildren about it.
For now though, take a minute and look back at what you have
accomplished. When you first heard about the Eagle project when you were a young
Scout, it probably seemed both impossible for someone like you to accomplish and
– happily – a million years in the future. Then, as you reached Life and realized that
now you would have to find your project and execute it, you were probably terrified.
It seemed so complicated, so far beyond your abilities – so adult. But we also bet
that, once you set the date and got going, those fears fell away as you concentrated on
the job at hand . . .and that when you finally completed the project, it was almost an
anticlimax. You had worked so hard – and now, suddenly, it was done.
Remember this experience. As a (soon-to-be) Eagle Scout, you have shown
you are destined for great things. And there will be many times in your life that
you will face a seemingly impossible challenge – and you will know that you can get
through it with planning, discipline, leadership and hard work. You will also know
that you’ve done it before; that you overcame your fear . . . and how wonderful it felt
to succeed.
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CHAPTER 4
The Gauntlet
T
wenty-one merit badges, six months, a troop job and an Eagle project.
That’s the mantra of every Life Scout on his ascent to Eagle. And now that
you’ve done all of those things, you can pat yourself on the back.
But you’re not done yet. There are three final steps to Eagle, all of them very
different, but all of them sharing the common goal of certifying that you have
indeed earned your Eagle. They are the Eagle Scoutmaster Conference, the Eagle
Application, and the Eagle Board of Review. Some Scouts, even those confident
young men who seemed to never even break a sweat on their Eagle project, can
suddenly find themselves filled with terror at the prospects of running this final
gauntlet.
Once again, the wisdom of the Scout Motto can help get you through. If you
can Be Prepared for these three steps, you can not only get through them, but even
have fun doing so.
The Scoutmaster Conference
In both this requirement and the Eagle Board of Review, forms and styles vary from
Council to Council and even Troop to Troop. So, we can’t go into precise detail
about what your experience will be like with each of them. That said, having been
involved in scores of both, we do have a general feel for how they are likely to go –
and we can give you some tips.
First up, and the final official step for you to qualify for your Eagle award
is the Scoutmaster conference. By that we mean that if you can finish your Eagle
Scoutmaster conference before your 18th birthday – and we have known several that
ended at 11 pm on the night before – you have met all of the requirements to become
an Eagle Scout. The paperwork and the Board of Review can take place at any date
after that – though after three months it becomes much more complicated.
In fact, as we write this, we have just returned from an Eagle Court of
Honor for an 88 year-old Scouter. In 1944, he finished his Scoutmaster before his
18th birthday; then, in the middle of his Board of Review a few weeks later he was
called away because his father was dying. The Scout rushed to the hospital and to
his knowledge, never finished the Board. To help support his family, he joined the
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Navy and went off to fight in the Pacific in WWII. Almost seventy years later, after
decades of raising a family and volunteering with Scouting, he happened to tell the
story to a local Scout executive – who in turn investigated the case, and found that
the original Board of Review had, in fact, deliberated after the boy left and awarded
him his Eagle. In a very emotional ceremony, this new/old Eagle had his medal
pinned on him by his Eagle Scout grandson.
In other words, get through your Eagle Scoutmaster Conference before
th
your 18 birthday and anything is possible. If your Scoutmaster is unavailable, get
his permission to let one of the Assistant Scoutmasters fill in for him. Just don’t miss
the date – and, we can’t say it enough, profusely thank everyone who stepped up at
the last minute to help you.
That said, whether you are 15 years old or 17 years and 364 days, your
Scoutmaster Conference for Eagle is going to be pretty much the same. Scoutmasters
tend to follow a script that they are comfortable with – and other than perhaps a few
side conversations about common experiences you had in your Scouting career – that
script is likely to contain the same three components:
1.
Scouting Knowledge – As an Eagle, you will be representing Scouting for
the rest of your life. For the last few years you have been repeating the
Oath, Law, Motto and Slogan hundreds of times, probably at this point
by rote. But do you really know them? Do you really understand them?
You can expect your Scoutmaster to have you deconstruct each of them,
explaining the larger means of each sentence and phrase.
Your Scoutmaster will likely do the same thing for all of the rest of the
core knowledge of Scouting: flags, Scouting history, knots, first aid, hiking
safety, what to do when lost, etc. He wants to know if you have internalized
this knowledge, as you will likely be called upon many times in your life to
use these skills, or teach them.
Depending upon your Scoutmaster, this section may take up anywhere
from 40 to 90 percent of your conference.
2. Practical Wisdom – The Scoutmaster knows that the moment you walk
out of the conference you will be, paperwork aside, an Eagle Scout. More
important, you will be representing Eagle Scouting to the boys in the
troop. Do you have the emotional maturity for the responsibility? Do
you understand the new role you are about to assume as an Eagle? To
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determine that, he’s probably going to ask you about your experiences as
a patrol leader, senior patrol leader (if you held that position), instructor,
and as one of the older Scouts in the troop. He may discuss some occasions
from your leadership history where you failed or didn’t fulfill your duties
– in this, he’s not looking to cast blame, but to see what you learned from
those experiences and how you’ve put them to use.
Your Scoutmaster may also ask you about school and your other
extracurricular activities. This is less about curiosity and more to determine
if your Scouting principles, and your training in Scouting leadership have
successfully translated to the rest of your life.
Finally, your Scoutmaster may ask you about your future plans:
college, career, etc. This is curiosity: you are one of his Eagles, he is proud
of you, and he is taking some satisfaction in knowing you are going out into
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the world to make it a better place. And, privately, he is pondering how he
might be able to help you in years to come.
3. Moral Understanding – The Eagle medal is not about intelligence or
cleverness; it is about character. You can answer all of the knowledge
questions brilliantly, and tie a bowline in the first try, but that still doesn’t
answer the question: as an Eagle will you make the right choices decades
from now? Many Scoutmasters, knowing that this will be the heart of your
Eagle Board of Review, don’t even delve into this topic. But some do, so
don’t be surprised. Ultimately, your Scoutmaster wants to know if you are
a naturally good person – that you will be an adult Eagle with a strong sense
of duty and responsibility, honor and patriotism, integrity and truthfulness.
In other words, will you live up to the Oath and Law for the rest of your
life?
You cannot prepare for this part of your Eagle Scoutmaster Conference
– in fact, it is usually less a separate section and more embedded in everything
else – all you can do is answer honestly and sincerely.
Tip #1 – Prepare. As with everything else important in life, don’t go in
unprepared, without having reviewed the material multiple times until
you have mastered it, or believing that you can improvise or charm your
way through it. Even if that worked for your Tenderfoot or First Class
conferences, it won’t work now. A Tenderfoot stops being one the day he
turns 18; you are an Eagle forever, and the Scoutmaster knows that better
than anybody.
Tip #2 – Show respect. Even if you’ve known your Scoutmaster since you
were a little kid, your conference is a formal event in which you play the role
of Eagle Candidate and he the Scoutmaster. Wear your full uniform, clean
and pressed with all proper badges sewn on, and anything else your troop
requires (pocket knife, totin’ chip, compass, identification card, etc.) Shake
your Scoutmaster’s hand when you arrive, sit down only when he asks you
to, speak formally using ‘sir’ when proper, answer questions precisely and
don’t indulge in informalities, and always be sincere and straightforward –
this is not the time for cynicism or irony.
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Tip #3 – If you don’t know something, say so. If you mess up – say, miss-tie
a knot – ask permission to try again.
Tip #4 – When you finish, shake your Scoutmaster’s hand and thank him
for all that he’s done for you.
Tip #5 – Don’t forget to take along your Handbook and have your
Scoutmaster sign the requirement.
Tip #6 – Bring the book with all of your rank cards and blue cards so
that your Scoutmaster can check them. It’s also good preparation for the
application process.
Tip #7 – Also bring your project Workbook – especially if your Scoutmaster
hasn’t signed it yet as ‘unit leader’ or if he hasn’t signed the project
requirement in your Handbook. If nothing else, he can refer to it when
asking about your project in the conference.
Tip #8 – As soon as you walk out of the Scoutmaster’s house, take out your
cellphone and call your parents and anyone else who has been tracking
your progress. Your parents in particular will have nearly died with worry
over the previous few hours. Tell them what happen and enjoy their
congratulations. There will be more when you get home.
The Paper Chase
Having successfully completed your Scoutmaster conference, your next step is to file
your Eagle award application. This is a pretty straightforward process, but it does
have some tripwires.
Some troops will do this for you; others will expect you to handle the matter
yourself. Either way, you will still have to compile all of the necessary materials.
There are three:
1.
Your Eagle Application – You probably got this document with your
Workbook. But in case you didn’t, or lost it, here it is: http://www.scouting.
org/filestore/pdf/512-728_web.pdf Be sure to fill it out carefully and
completely, and get the necessary signatures. Nothing moves forward until
you have done that.
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2. Your Rank Cards – You need evidence that you completed each of the ranks
up through Life. That’s why it was suggested at the very beginning of your
time in Scouting that you go buy a binder with plastic baseball card sheets
and keep all of your rank and blue cards there. We hope you did that. If
so, just put them all in order of rank.
If you didn’t file them, you better starting digging out all of those cards,
wherever they are, right now. With luck, you’ll have them all. Go buy that
notebook and sleeves. If, in either case, you are missing a rank or blue card,
you must recreate them. For ranks, use your Scout handbook to prove you
completed the rank and ask your troop to order a replacement.
3. Your Blue Cards – The same holds for your blue cards. You need to have
them all. Put them in the binder in exactly the order you listed them on
your application – that is, Eagle required first, starting with Camping, then
non-required in the order you listed them. If you have more than ten of the
latter, take the remainder and separate them from the ones you are using
for your Eagle.
The next step, whether you do it or not, goes like this. You or someone from
your troop – it’s better if it is you, so you can answer any questions on the spot -will take your application to your Council office. There, you will be directed to an
individual whose primary job is to prepare your application package – that is, the
three items listed above. This person will scrutinize your application in search of
any mistakes or irregularities. He or she will then look to see if all your rank cards
are in place. Finally, this person will go through your blue cards, making sure they
match your list (that’s why you need to put them in your listing order) and that all
are properly signed by your unit leader and counselor.
When that person has completed this process to his or her satisfaction, they will
give you back your notebook and keep the application. You are done. Within the
next day or two, your Eagle application package will be mailed to Scout headquarters
in Dallas, Texas, where it will await final approval. For the first time in this long
process, your Eagle is now out of your control.
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The Board of Review
Typically within three to six weeks after your application was sent off, assuming that
there are no problems (at this point, that is very rare), your District advancement
chairperson will be informed that you are now eligible for your Eagle Board of
Review. That person will contact your troop’s Eagle Board chairperson. And that
person will call you to set up a date and location.
Your Eagle Board of Review will loom large in your mind as you approach
the completion of your requirements – to the point that you may be shaking with
nerves when you finally walk into the Board itself. You’ve no doubt heard the stories
about Scouts reputedly failing their Eagle Board because they forgot the Scout oath,
or said something inappropriate or that violated Scouting’s membership rules.
So, let’s begin by addressing those concerns directly:
1.
You will not fail over some little mistake, say, because you forget the
Scout oath or be unable to tie a bowline. In fact, at least half of the
Eagle’s we’ve mentored have messed up the Oath at their Eagle Board,
in part because of nerves, and also because it was the first time in years
they’d actually thought about what they were saying. None of them
failed their Board. As for tying knots: Scout skills are not part of the
Eagle Board – that stuff is taken care of at the Scoutmaster Conference.
2. The Eagle Board is not a skill test, nor a memory test. Even more than
the Scoutmaster conference, the Eagle Board is about character. The
Board is only interested in your Scouting skills as they reflect upon you
as a person – that is, it is infinitely more important to live the Scout
Law than to remember all 12 parts. The Board is probing to see who
you are; how your Scouting experiences have changed you; and how
you will represent the Boy Scouts of America in the future.
3. The Eagle Board wants to know the real you. Its members are successful
and experienced adults. If you try to be elusive with them, or give
a facile answer, they will see through your attempt. This is serious
business: the biggest endeavor of your youth is on the line. That’s why
you are so nervous. And that’s why you need to give honest and sincere
answers. You owe at least that to yourself, your parents, and everyone
who has helped you on your Trail to Eagle.
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4. It is not just about you. This was true for all of your Boards of Review,
but especially this one. Yes, the Board wants to know all about you
and your Scouting career, but it also wants to learn from you about the
health of the Troop. As the Troop’s latest success story, the Board sees
you as uniquely positioned to discuss what works, and what doesn’t
work, in the Troop. Don’t be surprised if you are asked about the
quality of the Troop’s camping trips, Scout leadership, adult leadership,
even Scouting itself.
5. You can fail your Eagle Board, but not for the reasons you think. It doesn’t
happen very often, but there are basically four reasons why Eagle
candidates fail their board. We tell them to you so you don’t have to
worry about some unknown, secret test:
a. Fraud – It is discovered that parts of your application or other
records are false or faked. This violates the Scout Oath, and
is grounds for immediate failure.
b. Violation of Scouting Membership Rules – This can take two
forms:
i. You violate Scouting’s requirements regarding age,
gender, etc.
ii. You violate Scouting’s requirements regarding
religious belief. [Note: this rule is harder to violate
than you may have heard. Essentially, you need
to believe in “a higher being” – and that includes
everything that holds that the universal has purpose
and meaning. You can be an Animist or a Wiccan
or, frankly, just believe that the universe is not
utterly meaningless, and meet this requirement. If
your Board doesn’t understand this, you may need
to explain it to them.]
c. Immaturity – This is very rare cause for denial, or more
accurately, for a delay. The Board needs to believe that the
Eagle candidate is simply not emotionally mature enough
yet to deal with the demands and responsibilities of being an
Eagle. Few Scouts ever get this far if there is that concern –
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and, in fact, a successfully completed Eagle project is pretty
strong evidence that the Scout is sufficiently mature. [Note:
emotional maturity is very different than intelligence: many
Scouts of diminished mental capacity, but good character and
maturity, have earned their Eagle.]
d. Moral Turpitude – Once again, it is not what you may think.
This deals with a Scout having been arrested or convicted of
crimes and thus showing a pattern of behavior that makes
them highly unlikely to wear the Eagle medal with honor.
Note: even here there is flexibility. The Board may conclude
that the Eagle candidate has paid his dues to society, has
shown remorse, and has taken a positive life path according
to the Scout Oath and Law. [Note: There is nothing in this
rule about lifestyle or sexual orientation. Once again, these
matters are not within the purview of Boy Scouting as regards
to youth; the Board may not ask you about it, and if they do,
you are under no obligation to answer.]
So there you are. Not as bad as you thought, eh? And again, chances are
that if you did exhibit any of these problems, they would have been identified long
before you got to this point.
Now for some tips:
Tip #1 – Don’t be afraid. Every Scout is nervous walking into an Eagle Board
of Review, but use those nerves to make you more focused, not to paralyze
you. Remember: You have completed your Eagle; the Board members
already have great respect for you and want you to succeed; and most of all,
the less frightened you are, the greater chance you have of doing well.
Tip #2 – Look sharp. This is your Eagle Board of Review. Show up with
your uniform looking as good as possible, including any medals you have
earned. Polish your shoes or boots. When arrive, shake the hands of all
Board members. Sit when invited, and keep a good posture.
Tip #3 – Stay crisp. Even more than the Scoutmaster Conference, answer
only when questioned, and keep your responses precise and without
rambling. This is a formal event, so even if the Board acts casually, you
should not.
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Tip #4 – Answer all questions honestly and sincerely. As with the Conference,
don’t try to be clever or ironic.
Tip #5 – Don’t overhype your achievements. This group will see right through
you. Modesty is a better strategy – after all, you’ve completed your Eagle,
what more do you need to prove?
Tip #6 – Take your time to answer questions. Formulate the most thoughtful
response. And give complete answers: Nothing annoys Board members
more than an Eagle candidate who only gives ‘yes’ and ‘no’ answers.
Tip #7 – Look the Board members in the eye and talk in a good strong voice.
A candidate who looks at the floor and mumbles makes a Board of Review
wonder if that young man really is ready to be an Eagle.
Tip #8 – Thank everyone when you are done. Have we said this often enough?
Tip #9 – Remember. If possible, glance around and remember this moment.
If there is one part of the whole Eagle process that is likely to be a blur, it is
your Board of Review.
How long does a Board of Review last? As long as it needs to . That is
not a flippant answer. Most Eagle Board of Reviews we’ve seen last about
an hour, or ninety minutes. But they can also last two or more hours,
especially if the Board members determine that they have not yet learned all
that they need to know about the Eagle candidate to make a final judgment.
To do so, they may choose to bore down on a particular topic, or conversely,
expand the scope of their questioning. Whatever they think will work . . .
needless to say, they take their responsibility very seriously.
Meanwhile, don’t worry: the length of your Board of Review in no way
correlates with your chances of success. And, whether it is one hour to two,
the time will go by so fast that it will seem like mere minutes.
Typically what happens next is that you will be sent out of the room
so that the Board members can confer. Don’t worry about what they are
discussing – it is out of your hands and this point; and, based on experience,
your guesses are probably wrong. Ponder what you’ve been through, or read
something. Your wait will likely be ten to fifteen minutes.
Then, at some point – and you will always be surprised when it happens
– one of the Board members will come out and invite you to rejoin them.
And that’s when you will learn if you are America’s newest Eagle Scout.
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Tip #10 – Assuming the news good – and it almost always is --all everyone
who cares, and tell them that you are now, officially, an Eagle Scout. Don’t
forget your fellow Scouts.
Welcome to the Brotherhood of Eagles! You may think at this moment that you
have reached the end of a very long trail. In fact, you have only just begun on an
even longer trail. And for all that you know about being an Eagle, your education
has, in fact, just begun.
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CHAPTER FIVE
Celebration
Y
ou’ve done it! You are an Eagle Scout. It is a title you will carry all your life.
In fact, it is probably the only achievement of your youth that will appear
in your obituary decades from now. And in the decades in between, it will
define your life and career in many unexpected ways.
But all that is in the distant future. For now, it’s time to celebrate!
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The Eagle Court of Honor is the supreme celebration of Scouting’s supreme
achievement. And it has held that role as long as there has been the Boy Scouts
of America. And even though there are at least 30,000 Eagle Courts of Honor in
the U.S each year, every one is emotionally charged and unforgettable. We have
presided over or participated in nearly one hundred Eagle Courts – and every one
was extraordinary.
Given the long history, and immense number, of Eagle Courts of Honor in
Scouting’s century-long story, it’s not surprising that a whole body of institutional
memory has been recorded to help put on these ceremonies. You can look at decades
of photos in newspapers, movies and films -- and these days, thanks to the Internet,
you can surf literally hundreds of Eagle Court of Honor videos on YouTube and
blogs.
Best of all, there is a small library of books on conducting successful Eagle
Courts of Honor – most famously, this book: http://www.amazon.com/Eagle-CourtHonor-Book/dp/0965120740/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357799938
&sr=1-2&keywords=eagle+scout+court+of+honor , which has proven so enduring
and popular that it is now in a new edition. This book, which contains a number of
sample scripts, is a perfect book for searching through best practices to pick up ideas
for your own event.
Finally, and certainly not least, if your Troop is more than a decade old, and has
produced a handful of Eagles, then it too has likely put together a standard script for
Troop Eagle Courts – and, if you’re lucky, a whole notebook covering invitations,
letters from VIPs, food, etc. Better yet, if you’ve had a number of new Eagles in
recent years, there may be one or two moms in the troop who are veterans of the
process – and will either take on the organizing task themselves or train new parents
(or perhaps your parents) to take on the job. When you finish your Scoutmaster
conference, start looking for that person; don’t wait until you get all of the way
through the Board of Review.
Eagle Courts of Honor are intensely personal events – their final nature
will come at the nexus between your desires, the troop’s standard script, and any new
ideas you find elsewhere in past Courts. Add to this the constraints that will come
with venue, dates and times, special guests, etc. and even the most standardized Eagle
Court of Honor will inevitably be unique to you..
For that reason, we cannot tell you how to hold your Eagle Court of Honor.
Nor do we want to. This is your celebration, and you have the right to experience it
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any way you desire. The most we will do is to make some suggestions on how to get
the Court of Honor you want.
1.
It is your Court – A lot of people, including your parents, are going to tell
you how to hold your Court of Honor. Listen to them politely, and then
go ahead and do what you want.
The fact is, you don’t even have to have an Eagle Court of Honor.
Many Scouts – because they are heading off to college, or moving away,
or aren’t interested, or don’t want all of the attention – simply choose not
to have a Court of Honor. That is their choice and they have the right to
make it. After all, they’ve already earned their Eagle, and the Court is just
a public acknowledgement.
That said, we strongly recommend against that course. Life is about
passages, and that includes the rites that celebrate those passages. We
recently presided at an Eagle Court of Honor for eight Eagles, some of
whom had earned their Eagles a decade ago. Back then, they had decided
against a Court of Honor – now, older and wiser, they realized they wanted
a celebration of their achievement. We understand your reticence: standing
on stage before a cheering audience can be embarrassing – but get over it.
You’ve earned that applause, so enjoy it. It won’t last forever. Besides, don’t
you want to honor your parents and all of those people who helped you
along the way?
By the same token, Scouting also doesn’t require you to hold a particular
style of Eagle Court of Honor. The most common are for solitary Eagles
– but that’s largely because in most troops there is only one or two Eagles
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per year; and because it focuses all of the attention on the single deserving
recipient.
But we’ve also been to a number of wonderful multiple-Eagle Courts.
In fact, we ourselves were part of a triple ceremony. And we have participated
in at least a dozen of double ceremonies – typically Eagles who are also close
friends and/or came up through Scouting together.
The nature of your Court of Honor is also your choice. While the
standard Court is an hour long event, with recitation of the Oath, Law
and Eagle Charge, short speeches and a Trail to Eagle slide show, if you so
desire, it can be as simple as your Scoutmaster handing you your medal.
Or a dinner. Or as part of your Troop’s regular Court of Honor. All that
Scouting asks is that the actual ceremony be held with the dignity and
gravity it deserves.
Will some people be disappointed if you choose an alternative ceremony to
the standard one? Sure, but that should only influence your decision, not
determine it. On the other hand, there’s a very good reason why thousands
of traditional Eagle ceremonies are held each year: they work.
2. Tell your story – A lot of people at your Court of Honor only know of
your Scouting career from individual moments and brief events. So, bring
everyone up to speed: assemble photos from different eras in your Scouting
career and give the audience a movie or slide show. Have fun with it.
Similarly, put together a display of your Scouting career – something that
can go in a frame or be set-up on a table top that shows all of your patches
and awards from your Boy (and Cub) Scouting career. One nice thing
about framing this exhibit is that after the ceremony you can take it home
and put it on your wall. You will be amazed by your own exhibit, especially
the experiences you’d almost forgotten.
3.
Look your best – A lot of Eagles show up at their Court of Honor wearing a
faded, undersizeduniform they bought when they were 13 and that makes
them look like stuffed sausages. If you have the time and money, buy a new
uniform that fits and get all of the right patches sewn on. Obviously, if you
have (or are about to) age out, this is wasteful expense. But on the other
hand, it will be the uniform you wear in all of your Eagle photographs. Just
decide that, after the ceremony, you won’t do the usual thing of cutting off
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all of the patches, putting them in a box, and then throwing away the worn
uniform. Keep yours intact, folded and stored away, and bring it out to
show your grandchildren or donate it to a museum.
4. Give thanks – Have we said this often enough? We don’t think so. Even if
your Court of Honor is a dinner, put in the schedule an interval, typically
at the end of the ceremony, where you get up and, after talking about what
your Eagle means to you, thank the audience for attending, thank your
fellow Scouts for the amazing experience you’ve shared, thank your troop
leaders for all they’ve done to get you here, and thank your family (including
not just your parents, but siblings, grandparents and relatives) for believing
in you. Don’t forget the ladies who are helping put on the event.
Some Eagles hand out thank you gifts to the special people in their
lives, especially those who mentored them. That’s up to you. Other Eagles
we’ve seen hand out long-stem roses to the women in their lives, including
the ladies who helped with the Court of Honor, and a girlfriend if she’s
there. We like that idea.
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5. Honor – One omission that surprises us in many Eagle Courts of Honor
is the awarding of the Mentor’s pin. It’s in there in the official Eagle kit,
alongside the patch, medal, square knot and parents’ pins (and if not, it can
be bought at the Scout Shop). The Mentor’s pin is designed for the Eagle to
recognize the one non-family member who played the most important role
in helping you earn your Eagle. It can be your Scoutmaster, your project
coach, even a person who isn’t involved with Scouting at all but who served
as your mentor. There are no requirements; the choice, and the reasons for
it, are entirely yours.
To every mentor who has ever helped an Eagle Scout, this small gold
pin is all of the thanks they need for the many hours they spent helping
a Scout get to this point. They will wear that pin with tremendous pride
on their uniform collar or suit lapel for many years to come. We have
personally earned a number of Mentor pins, and cherish every one – and
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can name every Eagle Scout (many of them now adults) who awarded them.
In many ways, they mean more to us than our own Eagle medal. And there
is not a single Eagle Court of Honor that we attend that we don’t wear at
least one of those pins in remembrance of them all.
6. Mingle – At the end of your ceremony, as the chairs are being put away,
and the audience gathers for cake and refreshments, walk from group
to group and thank them again for coming. Don’t be shy. Shake every
hand and receive every hug offered to you. Most of all, accept all of the
congratulations – and do so modestly, saying “Thank you very much”, or “I
couldn’t have done it without the help of all of you.” You are an Eagle Scout
now, and everyone expects you to act like one.
Don’t worry: You’ll get used to it.
Finally, closure. Certain events in life – weddings, births, graduations, funerals,
etc. – are so emotionally charged, physically exhausting, and mentally dizzying that
you run the risk of remembering little about them afterwards. Your Eagle Court of
Honor will be one of those occasions. So try to give yourself moments at different
times during that day, even during that ceremony, where you step back and appreciate
what is happening. If you can, film the event to help you remember. But at the very
least, take mental ‘snapshots’ of the day and the ceremony, and fix them in your mind
so that you can draw them up at any time and cherish them.
Your Trail to Eagle is now complete. You have made the ascent and reached
the summit.
Now you start start the rest of your life as an Eagle Scout.
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