Re: Eagle Letters of Reccomendation....
(no name) ((no email))
Thu, 2 May 1996 01:54:59 -0500
Rhett asked:
>I am about to go up for eagle and am collecting letters of
>reccomendations, and have had actually quite a few people >tell me I no
longer need theese.
Yes, you do need them. They are used by the members of your Eagle Board of
Review to "interview those that know you, your character and manner of
service".
They are NOT required for the actual application, as those letters will
NEVER reach the National Court of Honor for their evaluation. They will,
however, stay with your local Council
in your Eagle file that they maintain. Some Councils will return them so
that you may include them in a "Eagle Book" that
you can display during your Eagle Court of Honor.
The "old way" was that the Eagle Board of Review members would solicit those
letters and information based on the names and addresses you provided on the
application, but many Eagles came armed to the Board with letters that they
collected themselves. That, and the sheer amount of paper products that
some Eagle applications "created, forced National to modify the process and
have Councils to ONLY forward the Eagle Application and the Project Outline
booklet to National.
I liked the old way better (which, Rhett, was the way *my* Eagle Board of
Review was conducted), because it gave the members of the Eagle Board
somewhat of leeway as to which folks they were going to send evaluation
forms to and which would they request a recommendation from.
They also get to find out some rather "embarrassing" and "enlightened"
things about you that would not come out in a well-crafted personalized
recommendation which was asked for. For instance, the Board of Review found
out about my
Godsister and what I did to protect her throughout high school (from the
high school guidance counselor and the Vice Prinicipal); about my Youth Red
Cross activities that I did not
mention on my Eagle application (which they asked me about during the 93
minute Eagle Review, which I was clearly not
prepared to talk about....I volunteered to work a Friday and
Saturday in the kids' ward, playing cars and building Legos
with ill kids mainly out of being rejected as the boyfriend of
a girl I was crazy about....rather than to go to the ball game on
Fridays, I would go to the hospital; on Saturdays, I would go
over to the hospital after breakfast); about the fact that I would walk
practically everywhere on post even though my parents
got me a car (they found this out from my parents); and my
Exploring and speech experiences (from the District Executives, present and
past).
In my day, those recommendations were included with all of the materials
sent to National and I had a chance to read what my Vice Principal, a man
that clearly I did not get along with during my high school years, had to
say about me. It made me really appreciate him my Senior year. Not only
did he defend my protection of Cyndi during two years of high school, he
also told them that I was a very loyal and friendly person to everyone even
if they did not like me (which he clearly did not).
Those things, Rhett, a Board of Review cannot "find out" merely by reading
several well-written, asked-for recommendations. A good Board of Review
will take what you provide them on the application and spend a few hours
listening to and taking notes from those references and then asking YOU for
your prospective of, what you did for others during your Scouting
experience. To *me*, that's what an Eagle Board is all about: finding out
what you did during the Scouting experience, how you applied the principles
of Scouting to what you did in and out of Scouting, how you employed the
leadership and followship aspects of the Scouting program and how you
tackled being "in charge" of others during the project and in your unit, and
how OTHERS perceive your experience to be, positively and negatively.
Good luck and please tell us all how it went!!
Also, please do us a favor and when you find out when your
Board of Review is, to please put together a "diary" of what
happened and what were your thoughts and feelings before,
during and after. It would really help us all "old fogeys" (yes,
I'm NOT a spring chicken, as Jessiann keeps reminding me and as my body
keeps revealing to me!!) to have some idea of what the SCOUT feels like
during this part of the process....and we
can keep it in our archives to allow future Scouts and Scouters
to have some idea of the stresses and the excitement of
participating in this part of the Scouting process!!
Thanks!!!
Settummanque!
(MAJ) Mike L. Walton (Settummanque, the blackeagle) (
co-Owner, Blackeagle Services of Kentucky (502.826.7046) __)_
174 Chapelwood Drive, Henderson, Kentucky 42420-5036 | ** |]
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anytime!
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