Mad Max

Believing in anything coming from NBC is like believing in the tooth fairy.

After having officiated over 300 EBOR's I tend to agree with Beavah, but I won't sugar-coat it. 13 is too young and 12 is ridiculous for two primary reasons. 1) The boys are usually too young and immature to truly grasp what they've accomplished, and 2) have not been involved long enough to have the Promise of Scouting delivered. An articulate boy shows me one thing, he's got really good parents who are raising a smart and well-mannered son. Congratulations to them. By far, in my experience, the best and most meaningful EBOR's are conducted for the 17-18 year old scouts. Wish I'd b

I've got a project proposal coming my way for a District approval. In brief, the boy wants to clean up a beach somewhere in Florida. I have yet to see his proposal, but from what I've been told, his Troop will not be involved since the Troop hails from Oklahoma. So, with the new thinking on Eagle Projects being "unit activities", how does one do a project in Florida with his unit sitting back in OK? I would like to make this work, bend as much as I can to keep this project alive. But, under the new procedures, it seems like I may have to abort the mission before it gets off the launching

That District Eagle Projects coordinator needs to be corrected by someone higher up the food chain. That's just wrong. And if he can't conform, there's always the exit door. For about a decade, our troop had very few boys (parents) who wanted to Eagle at an early age. Most boys would Eagle between 16 and 18. It was understood that our troop was going to focus in delivering the promise in a very slow and purposeful way. The speed demons would be slowed down in very subtle ways while the activities that the troop did were over-the-top great, but not always advancement oriented. When we h

Well NJCubScouter, the only lawyers I'd really like to see suffer are the ones from the ACLU. But, that's for a different forum. It just seems that a high percentage of the changes that have happened in the past decade can easily be assumed to have come out of some legal challenges BSA has found itself in, to the point that every time I see a new change I've got to wonder. What now? Nevertheless, "advancement chairs" is referenced on page 6 of the NEW Guide to Advancement. When the Eagle Project Workbook refers to Advancement Coordinator in lieu of Chair (or chairman), it begs the questi

Found it, in the BSA Guide to Advancement. The rascals! Sure has caused some confusion in our Troop and District for Eagle Scouts. Meritbadge.org hasn't caught up, nor usscouts.org. Typical BSA...getting cute with the language. Wonder what problems the lawyers are trying to solve with that change.

What is the difference between the Unit "Advancement Chair" and the Unit "Advancement Coordinator"? In the Eagle Scout Project Workbook there is a section where the Eagle Candidate is supposed to list the Advancement Coordinator, but then that person has no responsibility to sign for the Project, review it, or anything. How much more confusing can they make this document?

Had a SM request to have his signature removed once, after the paperwork had already been submitted to the Council Office. Like trying to un-ring a bell. Turns out the boy was fine. The problem had to do with a bunch of adults that got out of hand. Also, I try to get the Project Beneficiary to attend the EBOR. It's always nice to know that the project was well-received, and hearing it directly from the horse's mouth is always a good sign.

E92-Well, I have sat on many EBORs, officiated well over 200 of them and a handful of appeals boards. Ive never asked that question, nor has the question ever been asked, and it wont be. Its an inappropriate question, IMHO. I hope that particular question is only asked in jest, but it doesnt sound like it from this thread. Also, I vehemently oppose the notion that the burden of pass/fail on an Eagle Project be placed on the Eagle Boards shoulders. Per GTA 8.0.1.1, In most cases it (EBOR) should, instead, be a celebration of accomplishment. I realize thats what BSA has done to us wi

OMG Were not even talking in the same language here. AND? / conjunction? I thought the whole purpose of a conjunction was to join together. But TwoCubDad seems to think its purpose it to split into two independent thoughts. Good grief. I seriously doubt that BSA consulted with any of our college English Comp teachers prior to publishing the new literature. Dont confuse me this nonsense. Im still trying to figure out how there can be multiple meanings for the word is, Mr. President. Clearly, we have two camps here: The Hatfields, who are trying to figure out how to properly and effec

Fred8033 wrote: Only in terms of following BSA policies, procedures and Guide To Safe Scouting. Not in terms of coordination and planning. Fred8033 wrote: There's no change in how troops work with eagle projects. It's the candidates project. It's only part of the troop program from the view of policies, procedures, G2SS, etc. True...maybe. Depends on how troops have been behaving in the past I suppose. Our Council now requires a Tour Plan for any troop activity that takes them off of the property of where the unit normally meets. (Usually the chartering organizations building.)

Fred8033: I got no pushback from the Scouters attending the Roundtable. They were all on board for making sure the boys did the final plan to the Units satisfaction. i.e. Cover to cover. They understood that it was no longer the Districts responsibility to police the paperwork, it was theirs. All seemed to agree that the best way to prove that the planning was done properly, was to do your best and complete the final plan with everything that applies to their specific project. Sorry for not being more clear. Ill have to see how it will all shake out when I get to see the results prior

Thank you eisely and twocubdad for your comments. You make my point for me much better than I could myself. We had a lively discussion last week at our Roundtable and I believe it was pretty much unanimous that the best way to grease the skids for Eagle Project paperwork, is to do it just like the book presents it, cover to cover. They all accepted the fact that these projects are now Unit Activities subject to the GTA and GTSS, Tour Plans, Fundraising Applications and yes, even the Workbook. Not only will the boys be judged at their EBOR, but the Unit itself will be judged, and nobo

AvidSM: Good luck with that. Your very loose interpretation of the guidelines would not fly in my District and many of your boys would find their trail to Eagle passing through the appeal process in order to get to the summit. There is nothing more clear than what is written on page 3 of the Project Workbook. Only the Official Workbook May Be Used. I really dont see how the word only can be so misinterpreted. Although, we did have a President once who had to explain that there were different meanings to the word is. Your Unit, Districts and Council will all have to hammer this out

2cub: Man I feel sorry for you and your boys. Based upon what you're saying, I'd recommend you scrap your entire Council. That's just not right. One thing that has come out of this change in my council in the past couple of months I've learning more and more about how each of our own districts behave with the L2E stuff. Let me tell you, I'm not quite as pleased with them as I once was. Several of these issues will be addressed at our next Council Advancement Committee meeting and I don't think it's going to be pretty. I'll be wearing my flack jacket. LOL Should be interesting, as we h