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When can a Life scout get his Eagle Project Approved and begin work on project?


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I have a life scout that is in his fourth month of the six month requirement for Eagle Scout. He has an Eagle Project selected, completed the the workbook application and is ready to seek approval. Must he wait for six month requirement to be complete or can he arrange for the interview with the Eagle Project Approval Board?

 

The Eagle Project workbook states:

 

Eagle Scout Requirement 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.

I understand the statement "While a Life Scout" to mean he could have started on the first day after becoming a Life Scout.

 

Any thoughts or clarification - he is a real go getter (in scouting activities) and he will be fifteen in a month.

 

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He could have done it 4 months ago (if he had a project). As Eagle92 said, get the project over with ASAP. My son began working on his Eagle Project two weeks after getting Life. He met with the Par

"Get your project over with ASAP" "Family Life, Personal Fitness and Personal Management are easier if you do them at the same time" "Environmental Science is tough. Get it at summer camp." "Get

My take on all of this: The draft is not supposed to help the scout with the final plan. It's just supposed to let everybody know that the scout wants to do "project x" and everybody is in agreement w

From the 2013 GTA:

 

~9.0.2.2 “While a Life Scout …â€Â

Work on a project, including planning, begins after

the Life Scout board of review. But this is not meant to

preclude an enthusiastic Star Scout from talking with his

Scoutmaster, religious leader, or principal about what a

good project might be.

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He can start his project now. If his project is finished before his 6 months in his POR is over, he will have to wait till the 6 months is up before he can finish his Eagle Rank. For sure, he can start talking to the district for approval tomorrow if he wanted to. He's in really good shape. Good luck to him!

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Definitely send him to the project approval board. Some boys complete their project first, others their merit badges, others their position of responsibility, and a few do all three within 6 months!

 

Regardless, if there's something that can be improved upon, now - while the boy is enthused with the task - is the time for someone from the district to point it out.

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He could have done it 4 months ago (if he had a project). As Eagle92 said, get the project over with ASAP. My son began working on his Eagle Project two weeks after getting Life. He met with the Parish Council with a preliminary proposal a month after getting Life. Now, it took 8 months (and a change in priests (a slowdown, both priests were in favor of project, but it took an extra month to sit down and talk to new priest)), but he completed his project two months before completing merit badges.

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"Get your project over with ASAP"

"Family Life, Personal Fitness and Personal Management are easier if you do them at the same time"

"Environmental Science is tough. Get it at summer camp."

"Get all three citizenships with Mrs. Jones. She's easy."

"Personal Management is easier if you get it before you have a job"

"SPL is a lot of work. Librarian and Historian will meet the requirement too."

"Finish Eagle before high school."

"I wonder why we haven't seen Billy since he made Eagle?"

 

 

"Get it over with" is terrible advice. How about "Slow down. Enjoy your time in Scouting. Take your time to find a project which is meaningful to you."

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I think "getting it over with" was probably the wrong term. I think start working on it is the better term. My observation is that Eagles who do their project as soon as they hit Life tend to stay more active in Scouts post Eagle--the ones who sit at Life for a while tend to leave when they Eagle. My son just Eagled, and he has grand plans of staying with the troop. Family Life, Personal Fitness adn Pers Management are easier if you do them at teh same time. It's not a bad thing. It's just easier to keep trackof.

 

Twocub, do you have high school aged children? If not, then that explains why you don't believe in finishing Eagle before high school. There is a big dropoff in scouting among high school students--there's simply less available time. My advice, though, isn't finish Eagle before high school, but get as close to Eagle as possible before high school.

 

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Forum ate my first reply..... Darn. My unit has a crop of Eagles that have earned the rank since 2011. One is SPL, two are JASM, one ASM. 6 more volunteer when they are available from college. That's not all of the Eagles since 2011, but roughly 3/4ths of the Eagles. However when I grew up in my Troop, Eagle Scouts never stayed with the unit. Most of us currently involved earned it close to turning 18. (Except the SPL and JASMs) We all recommend Scouts earn it earlier. It's not rushing to get done, but moving aggressively before High School Committments, Jobs and other issues steal a Scouts free time. Perdidochas, encourage your son to stay active, even if later in High School he can't make everything. The Scouts will value his experience and guidance. He also helps set a precedent that earning Eagle isn't the end of Scouting.

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I like Twocubdad's comments....

 

Each District is different, but the idea is the same. The project can be discussed whenever the Scout has the idea (?Tenderfoot?) and wants to talk about it. The project needs to be APPROVED after the boy makes Life, and commenced whenever he has gained the approval and signatures of whomever the District requires. In our District, after he has the "approval" of the agency the project is to benefit, it is "suggested" that the Eagle candidate make his presentation first to the Troop Committee. Any adjustments are made, and then the Scout makes his presentation to the Eagle Coordinators for our area. This is the group that also arranges and schedules the Eagle BoRs . When the EC signs off on it, he may begin actual "construction" or whatever.

 

 

Best of wishes for your soon-to-be Eagle!

 

YiS

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Forum ate my first reply..... Darn. My unit has a crop of Eagles that have earned the rank since 2011. One is SPL, two are JASM, one ASM. 6 more volunteer when they are available from college. That's not all of the Eagles since 2011, but roughly 3/4ths of the Eagles. However when I grew up in my Troop, Eagle Scouts never stayed with the unit. Most of us currently involved earned it close to turning 18. (Except the SPL and JASMs) We all recommend Scouts earn it earlier. It's not rushing to get done, but moving aggressively before High School Committments, Jobs and other issues steal a Scouts free time. Perdidochas, encourage your son to stay active, even if later in High School he can't make everything. The Scouts will value his experience and guidance. He also helps set a precedent that earning Eagle isn't the end of Scouting.
Sent,

That's the plan. At this point in my life, I plan to stay as an ASM for a few years after my boys age out (have about 4 yrs with my youngest to age out). I contemplate starting a Venture crew, but may try to start out with a Venture patrol.

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Forum ate my first reply..... Darn. My unit has a crop of Eagles that have earned the rank since 2011. One is SPL, two are JASM, one ASM. 6 more volunteer when they are available from college. That's not all of the Eagles since 2011, but roughly 3/4ths of the Eagles. However when I grew up in my Troop, Eagle Scouts never stayed with the unit. Most of us currently involved earned it close to turning 18. (Except the SPL and JASMs) We all recommend Scouts earn it earlier. It's not rushing to get done, but moving aggressively before High School Committments, Jobs and other issues steal a Scouts free time. Perdidochas, encourage your son to stay active, even if later in High School he can't make everything. The Scouts will value his experience and guidance. He also helps set a precedent that earning Eagle isn't the end of Scouting.
Aye. 4 years is a long time to figure that out. It's starting to become a trend in my unit where former ASMs or former Scoutmasters take a small volunteer role with the district after their sons leave Scouting.
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I think "getting it over with" was probably the wrong term. I think start working on it is the better term. My observation is that Eagles who do their project as soon as they hit Life tend to stay more active in Scouts post Eagle--the ones who sit at Life for a while tend to leave when they Eagle. My son just Eagled, and he has grand plans of staying with the troop. Family Life, Personal Fitness adn Pers Management are easier if you do them at teh same time. It's not a bad thing. It's just easier to keep trackof.

 

Twocub, do you have high school aged children? If not, then that explains why you don't believe in finishing Eagle before high school. There is a big dropoff in scouting among high school students--there's simply less available time. My advice, though, isn't finish Eagle before high school, but get as close to Eagle as possible before high school.

No, I don't have son's in high school. The Two Cubs are now both in college -- one sophomore and one junior. Both made Eagle, one at 16 and one at 17. My older son earned a couple palms and served as SPL for his jamboree troop the summer he was 17. My younger son earned 4 palms, aged out the middle of his senior year and was an active ASM (including summer camp) until the day they left for college. Through high school both played band and were soloists at the regional level. One also played football. Both took AP level classes and started college with more than 20 credit hours each. We make time for those things we value.

 

My experience both as a youth and as a Scoutmaster for almost nine years is just the opposite. Having the goal of Eagle still on the horizon is a great motivation for Scouts to stay involved through high school. Without the challenge of Eagle ahead of them, they tend to drift into other interests.

 

Finishing Eagle in the eighth grade before a better offer comes along doesn't sound like much of an idea to me. If Scouting isn't important enough to a young man to make time for it while in high school, then why does he want to be an Eagle? Let's just make Boy Scouts for 11-14 year olds and call it good.

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