What is routine labor (re: Eagle Project)

For the Eagle Leadership project, it states:

>>>Limitations

Routine labor (a job or service normally rendered) should not be considered.

I think the routine labor prohibition is aimed at scouts who might think an Eagle Project might be mowing the lawns of all the elderly ladies in town. Doesn't take much planning, doesn't have a lasting achievement. Doesn't really demonstrate leadership.

Refurbing something or building stuff are great Eagle projects and are the majority if the ones I've been involved in.

If a contractor was doing an Eagle project, it might be routine. But the typical boy is not a contractor and it's not part of his "routine" unless he tends to routinely build things normally built by a contractor.

Maybe the "feedback" was suggesting to the boy that he is capable of more?

Yah, what FScouter said, eh?

Almost any job a volunteer can do can be contracted out for hire. That's not an issue. We volunteer so that good organizations don't have to pay big bucks for a contract labor job.

I'd take it as a suggestion that the lad might need to stretch himself more.

Routine labor IMO would be anything that's part of an organization's normal work process. So runnin' an ordinary Red Cross blood drive when Red Cross runs these constantly is "routine labor" - it requires little independent planning and leadership. Trimmin' the verge on the church is routine labor, something that they do regularly. Etc.

Beavah

I agree with what others have said might be considered routine labor. Basic maintenance, routine activities, etc. Painting might be considered routine maintenance. What did he want to build?

What's confusing is the statement regarding contractors. Like Beavah said almost anything an Eagle candidate might come up with could be contracted out. In fact one of my pet peeves is some of the recipient organizations tend to treat the Eagle candidate as a contrator and not a volunteer, organizing a project for $0. Or they agree on a project and then as the project progresses start asking for add ons, (and then the candidate does need to act like a contractor!)

If the issue is the scope and degree of effort for the project, that should be made clear. The contractor comment seems to confuse things.

SA

Routine labor (a job or service normally rendered) should not be considered.

I don't think the "rountine" part is in reference to the institution but in reference to the Scout. It is after all a leadership project. So, if a Scout wants to paint the interior of his charter organization's building and the Scout is not a painter that may be okay. (He would need to show leadership, get Scoutmaster approval, etc.).

So, is it routine labor to cut the grass? Well, yes to some. But what if a Scout made arrangements so that the grounds surrounding the Washington monument were taken care - for a full season - strictly by volunteers, as a community service to reduce the public debt? Well, it could happen! As a Scoutmaster, if planned correctly, I would give my approval for such a project.

Taking care of the grounds around the Washington Monument. Now THAT is a service project. A little too ambitious I think.

I agree with the other posters that "routine labor" would be some kind of maintenance chore done frequently on a repetitive basis. Repainting the church, while repeated every few years, would not under this interpretation be "routine labor." I recall one Eagle project where we did a large number of small deferred maintenance projects for a church all over a single weekend. None of the projects by themselve would have been sufficient to meet the intent of the Eagle project, but taken together there was a great deal there to be done. Actually this scout had to probably exercise even more leadership in planning, coordinating, and supervising the activities on the work days precisely because there so many different things going simultaneously in different parts of the church complex.