Eagle BORs: District vs Unit
Stoddard, Thomas C. (stoddatc@WESTINGHOUSE.COM)
Mon, 23 Jun 1997 15:58:13 -0400
>So... informal survey...
>Do districts who have district level Eagle BoR's more likely to be from
>rural areas or smaller districts where the demand on a single Board and
its
>members would not be great? Are unit level BoR's more prevalent in
larger
>or more urban districts?
I guess we go counter to your pattern. Urban area near Pittsburgh.
District used to do Eagle BOR's with troop and District
participation/representation. We felt it was fairly ineffectual, and
uneven, and five years ago went to the District BOR format. The
committee meets on a given night monthly, (we schedule with a local,
well-located Church, central in the district geographically) We have
three members of the District Advancement Committee, and invite three
members of the troop committee to join in to compose the board of six to
review their troop's candidate. The district representatives tend to be
more talkative, but the troop committee is there absorbing all this,
contributing as they may, assuring fairness in how the scout is treated,
bringing up internal troop intelligences that need to be considered, and
being a friendly face to put the scout at ease. And we have noticed the
calibre of the Eagle applications soar (no pun intended). The troop
committees have taken this as a training opportunity as we counsel
together about what scouting is to do in the boy's life, and the quality
of the BORs in the troop, by their report, have improved dramatically as
they see our pattern. And, as the eagle candidacy reflect back to the
troop, and did this boy (the candidate) get out of scouting what was
intended, we affirm the committee's role in setting and assuring
compliance to policy and BSA regulation and their ownership over what is
going on with the troop, thus spreading adult involvement and
strengthening the unit (moments, like, "It is clear from this boy's
responses that the patrol method is not strong in your troop, would you
work with your scoutmaster and tell him to back off and turn it over to
his boys. This young man is capable of so much more than your troop is
allowing him to do...)
Also a consideration for the district committee. We can do three or four
in a night, the different candidates and troop committee representatives
revolving in and out of the room for their particular "half hour to 45
minutes". Much less time and travel commitment on our part. But, once or
twice each month, we assure that the reviews are held and a boy does not
have to wait too long to get in and get it done. If more than four eagle
candidates step forward a given month, we rally more Advancement
Committee members and get a second board going in a neighboring room in
the church that same night. The fact you can set your clock to our
schedule allows the candidates to know when the review will be, get
their personal calendars and work schedules to allow them to attend,
have the troop committee representatives mustered, and we have a good,
solid track record with this approach.
We have had many fine complements from troop leaders on this format
since we changed.
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City |
