Eagle Ceremony Poll - Summary
Steven Black (stevenablack@EARTHLINK.NET)
Tue, 4 May 1999 10:22:18 -0400
Scouts and Scouters:
In response to my recent post concerning Eagle Ceremonies, I received 41
responses. The following is a summary of the responses:
Eagle Ceremony Survey
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1. Do you have set times that you hold Eagle Ceremonies during the year?
(ex.: each spring and fall, annually at the troop dinner, or
whatever...) Please be specific.
Summary: Almost all of the respondents indicated that One Eagle equals
One Ceremony. There were some that said that they do have multiple
candidates at some ceremonies but that this MUST BE AT THE SCOUTS
REQUEST. The general feeling was that the ceremony is for the individual
scout and is really up to him and his family. Some SMs have binders of
ceremonies that they give to the candidate and his family to pick and
choose what will go into HIS ceremony. I thought this was a great idea.
If anyone has such a document and would be willing to post it (or tell
us all where to get it - like on their website - I think we could all
benefit).
There are publications available to purchase that can help in this task
as well.
Check out: http://www.macscouter.com/Bookstore/Boy_Scouts.html
There are also some free documents.
Check out: http://usscouts.org/eagle/index
2. Do you hold a separate ceremony for each scout or group them together?
See the answer to Question 1.
3. Does the troop bear the total cost? If not, what does the troop pay for?
It seems that for every troop, the answer is slightly different but
every troop seemed to help to defray the cost to the scout and his
family. Basically, they offered some or all of the following:
Approx. Cost Description
------------ -------------
$23.40 Eagle Kit (includes Eagle patch, cufflinks, Mom pin,
Dad Tie pin, and Eagle Medal)
$12.95 Eagle Neckerchief and Slide
varies Postage
varies Invitations and Program Covers
$13.?? US Flag flown over the Capitol
varies Cake, coffee and snacks
Some troops buy the materials and some just set a maximum dollar amount
that can be reimbursed to the family.
4. What do you do if you have multiple candidates, that don't want to
cooperate???? hmmm...
This item never came up because the respondents never had multiple
candidates that wouldn't cooperate because it was up the the scouts
whether they had their own ceremony or not. Usually, multiple ceremonies
involved brothers or scouts that had been together since they were Tiger Cubs.
----
In closing, I think that I will recommend the following to the Troop Committee:
1. Each scout can have their own ceremony if that is what they want.
They can have a dual ceremony if the scouts request it. They should
decide what goes into THEIR ceremony.
2. The Troop purchase the Eagle Kit and Eagle Neckerchief and Slide.
3. The Troop sets a maximum dollar amount to help offset the costs to
the family. I think it would be about $100. (This would be in addition
to the purchase of the Kit and Neckerchief items).
Lastly, I would like to sincerely THANK ALL OF YOU THAT RESPONDED.
Questions like these are something that is never covered in Scoutmaster
Fundamentals.
Steve (Keep the Outing in Scouting!!!)
--
Steven A. Black, Scoutmaster - Troop 321 - Washington Township, NJ
email: stevenablack@earthlink.net
phone: 201-666-4588
fax: 201-594-0742
Website: http://home.earthlink.net/~stevenablack/t321.html
