starwolfmom

Evmori--two hour EBORs are pretty standard in our district. Matt's best friend's EBOR ran 2 1/2 hours. Yes, Matt's Scoutmaster was there. Matt is his first Eagle--he's been Scoutmaster about 3 months (although active with the troop for about 4 years). Ohio--I probably won't get to Eagle squared. My younger son quit the troop in January. He was tired of being bullied by kids who obviously don't take the Scout oath and law as seriously as his older brother. Elizabeth

Thanks, Ohio. I guess technically I'm now eaglestarmom, which just shows you how long I've been hanging around this forum. Elizabeth

Well, I thought the secrecy thing was kind of odd, too, although I heard the district advancement chair say it. I did find this on the eaglescout.org web site, in a document for people who are serving on an Eagle Board of Review: The contents of the Board of Review are confidential and the proceedings are not to be disclosed to any person who is not a member of the Board of Review. So I figured it must be an official policy, though why, I don't know. Elizabeth

Our troop typically doesn't provide anything for Eagle courts of honor--they are entirely planned by the family. They participate, of course, reading some parts of the ceremony, boys in the unit serving as color guard and whatnot, but it's really up to the parents and the boy to put the whole thing together. Fortunately, since Matt's best friend had his Court of Honor last spring, and his mom and I are friends, I can pick her brain for ideas and do's and don'ts. Matt doesn't really want an outdoor COH. Mid-May in Michigan can still be pretty iffy weather-wise. Elizabeth

Matt passed his EBOR on Saturday. I am the mom of an Eagle Scout (to go along with being the sister and the niece of an Eagle Scout). Matt's EBOR ran about 2 hours and 10 minutes. It was scheduled for 2 p.m., so I had him there at 1:45 p.m. as his Scoutmaster requested. I told him to call me when he was sent out of the room for the board to deliberate. I was called at 4:40 p.m. Turns out that the actual BOR didn't start until 2:30 p.m., after the board members met for pre-board stuff for half an hour. The actual board went from 2:30 to 4:40 p.m., then we were called in at about

Since you were all so supportive of my vent about the delays in my son's Eagle process, I wanted to let you know that his EBOR is this Saturday afternoon. I've been reading up on what Matt should expect and also how long some of the guidelines say an EBOR should be. One document said, "more than 15 minutes but less than an hour." Another, from the advancement chair for the NESA, says that they should be about 30 minutes. I talked to Matt's friend Andrew, and he said his was about 2 1/2 hours long. If Matt's goes that long, I think I'm going to show the NESA document to our district

Well, Matt's employer (who is also a Scouter) got his letter in--again--yesterday. Thank goodness he had saved a copy. The assistant principal at the high school said that he had sent his in ages ago. However, he said that after school today he would go to the scout office in person, get the form, and fill it out right there and hand it to a live human being to ensure that it was received this time. Fortunately, the high school is less than a mile from the council office, so this is not a problem. Thank you all for your support. By the way, to answer a couple of questions: yes, OGE, I a

Thanks for listening. I found it strange that the council felt it needed all six letters in order to proceed; I'm glad to know it's not required, but is just something our council wants. (Our District Advancement Chair is also one of those guys who insists on a project proposal so detailed that "if the Scout was hit by a bus, anyone could pick up the book and proceed with the project.") Matt and I were told that it was only necessary to have the project done and paperwork in by his 18th birthday; that the EBOR could be done afterward. (that happens a lot in our district) But three mont

I'm a new Daisy leader (as you can probably tell from my user name, I've been a Boy Scout mom--although the Star in my name is almost an Eagle, and the Wolf is now Star). We're kind of combining our Daisy journey and Daisy petals. Gardening in Michigan in the winter is kind of tough--just finding potting soil and seeds in stores is a challenge. So, we're going to wait until closer to spring to begin gardening. Elizabeth

My oldest son just squeaked all of his paperwork in for Eagle hours before his 18th birthday. We knew from his friend's experience that it might be six weeks or so before we heard anything about when his EBOR would be set up. We received our packet from the council with the Eagle recommendation form for us as his parents to write our letter, and turned it back in by the October 28 deadline that was set. From some of the other people whom Matt had listed on his application, we heard that they had also turned in their letters. So we waited, and waited. Cut to Christmas break. Matt is home

I'm so glad to hear that I'm not the only one who had that reaction to Tom Brady on the cover. "Morally straight" he is not, and I don't consider him a role model for any of my children. I also felt the same about the Exxon exec who named Ayn Rand's book as his favorite. Not a philosophy compatible with Scouting. Elizabeth

re: the requirement "With the approval of your counselor and a parent, watch a movie that shows how the actions of one individual or group of individuals can have a positive effect on a community." In our troop's rather slap-dash way of doing merit badges, the group of boys working on this badge were merely asked, during a troop meeting during which they were working on the badge, to come up with the title of a movie that had watched (in the past) and talk about how it related to the requirement above. (I discovered this when my son told me he had finished the Citizenship in the Communit

My son is going through this now. He's been working on his project write-up and still isn't done. He thought he might be close, and showed it to a friend (and his mom) who went through this all about seven months ago. They gave him some pointers in hopes that it would "pass" the first time the district chair reviews it. Stupid stuff like when he says "screw the screws into the wood" they added in pencil "with a screwdriver." Well, duh? What would someone think otherwise--with a hammer? My son is three months away from turning 18, has wanted to be an Eagle since he was a Tiger, b

I am growing increasingly concerned with how my sons' troop is handling both merit badges and rank advancement. This involves my younger son, who crossed over a year ago February, and did not happen with my older son, who is nearly 18. Monday evening, at our spring COH, the Scoutmaster was holding a big handful of Personal Fitness merit badges. The boys had been working on the badge in troop meetings for a while (I know, don't even get me started about THAT!) and I knew that my younger son had told me that they had "finished all the questions." The SM came over to me and asked if my son

When I proposed an article to Scouting magazine back in 2006 about how troops/packs can help boys with autism and Asperger's be successful in their units, I had to lobby long and hard that it was a needed article. The editor didn't really think so, but eventually he assigned the story to me. This is it: http://www.scoutingmagazine.org/issues/0609/a-boys.html A month or so later, the editor contacted me, because that story generated more letters to the editor than just about any story they had ever run. A couple of those letters are here (scroll down): http://www.scoutingma

Not really, but I hate what they do to our pack meetings. I had a terrific meeting planned for last night--our Scout executive, dressed like a pirate, came to talk about summer day camp, and I had a herpetologist bring several of her snakes to show the boys. On a really good day (like the Pinewood Derby) I'll have 18 Cubs. Last night, I had 7. Soccer practice, lacrosse practice, baseball practice--wiped out my numbers. Certainly the boys who were there had a great time--they loved the snakes! And the pirate! I told them to be sure and tell their buddies what they missed.

In our troop, as far as I can tell, the chaplain's aide only ever does two things: 1) lead grace at the three courts of honor we have each year 2) at the end of each troop meeting, says "Hats off--Scout sign of reverence. May the great master of all Scouts be with us 'til we meet again. Good Scouting." That's it. As far as I know, we don't even have a chaplain. Elizabeth

"you get a bunch of young, first class scouts who are now expected to do first class scout things such as troop leadership positions, eligiability for OA, and they are in no way ready for any of it." I agree. Our Scoutmaster asked me if both of my boys planned on working at the Scout Service Camp on Mackinac Island this coming summer. I was a little taken aback and expressed the opinion that my younger son was too young to go. He said that as long as he was FC, he could go. (My older son didn't go his first time until the summer after 8th grade; my younger son is currently in sixth gr

OGE--I don't think I would dignify our troop's push for FCFY with the title of "program." It's not like we have a new scout patrol, a troop guide, or an ASM dedicated solely to the newer boys. It's just that there seems to be a "rush" to get stuff "out of the way" and get all the boys to FC. That "rush" didn't seem to be there six years ago; I'm not sure what's changed. Elizabeth

In my sons' troop, I have to admit that I'm less than thrilled with the way they rush boys through to First Class. My younger son, who crossed over last February, came home from a meeting in October (8 months as a Boy Scout) and announced that he was First Class. He seemed a little surprised, and I was a lot surprised. How was that even possible? Yes, he had done the "Netomi Trail" at summer camp that took him through a lot of the T-2-1 requirements, and he had participated in every event and campout offered by the troop, including a four-day canoeing trip during which the younger lads wor

I'm the Cubmaster. Most of the dens in the pack seem to meet twice a month, although when my sons were in this pack, their den meetings were weekly, except for the week when the pack meeting was held. Our pack meetings are the third Thursday of the month, except when there is a conflict (e.g., this month, our December meeting will be the second Thursday). We also try to participate in activities offered by the district or council (Webelos day at fall and spring camporees, Cub Scout Healthy Hike, Space Exploration Day at the Science Center, etc.), which happen every couple of

Scouting did teach my son to sew, with or without a merit badge. Earlier this fall, in preparation for attending the Scout Brigade at Fort George, Niagara-on-the-Lake, my son decided that he wanted a uniform. This was a week before the event, and I informed him that I didn't have time to make him one. He told me he didn't expect me to; he would do it himself, including making the haversack that was part of the uniform. When I asked him whether he even knew how to sew, he informed me, "Well, in leatherworking, I had to stitch together the pouch for my OA regalia, and I suppose sewing u

A bunch of my Cub Scouts went on our council's "Healthy Hike" and Chemistry Day at the local science museum, making the 1.5 mile hike in the cold and rain. My oldest son, a Life Scout, worked 8.5 hours outside in the cold and damp (it eventually stopped raining) helping one of his buddies with his Eagle project along with about 10 other people. They'll continue next Saturday, when hopefully the weather will be better. Elizabeth

Our council just emailed all pack leaders a flyer they created for "After Fall Sports" recruiting. It lets boys know that even they hadn't signed up in September because they were busy with soccer and football, it's not too late to join. The flyer can be customized with each individual pack's information. I'm going to print a bunch of the flyers and have them sent home from the two elementary schools that my pack draws from and see if we can get some more boys into the pack. Elizabeth J

I had a mom last year who was ready to pull her boy from Scouting, because the first two den meetings they had attended were utter chaos. Fortunately (?) the den leader had a change in her work schedule and had to drop out. I approached this mom and asked her to take the den leadership. She was hestitant and said "but the boys are so wild." I said, "only if you let them be. As den leader, you can set the tone for your den." I talked to her about having the boys set up rules for the den. She is a teacher, so she knows how to work with kids. She tentatively agreed. A few months later