Do Eagles advance in groups?

[gcnphkr 11]

The troop has had three Eagle Scouts so far this year, I did their conferences back in March. I just did three conferences in the last week. I have yet another two that will be doing their SMC in August. So why do they tend to group together instead of being distributed through out the year? So has anyone else noticed this? Is it just competition? They see their peers finishing and start working a bit harder to finish as well.

[Stosh 3452]

I have never felt any rank advancement was done in groups. Individuals progress at their own rate, get their requirements signed off individually and are processed with SMC and BOR as individuals. Why would Eagle be any different? If one has mass rank advancement as groups, then I'm thinking there is something kinda wrong with how the program is being handled.

 

Stosh

[Eighth Lock 10]

It really all depends. In my troop it tends to be a bit more spread out.

 

I think competition has a bit to do with it though. Especially the encouragement of just seeing everyone else advancing with you and doing some merit badges together helps keep too many kids from falling behind.

 

In other cases it might just be a result of more actively planned grouping. I'm currently dual registered in Scouting and Venturing, and our Venture crew is thinking about doing a lot of the Venturing advancement together to make it easier and more fun.

[acco40 95]

I've given hundreds of SM conferences and in about 15 - 25% of them a Scout will mention (when asked of his goals) as one of his goals - in so many words - to advance at the rate of some other Scout.

 

Looks at the amount of advancement that takes place the prior two weeks before a Court of Honor vs. any other time. I think that will answer your question.

[gcnphkr 11]

jblake47

These are not intentional groups just clusters of scouts that happen to be finishing up about the same time. While most are in their 7th year, they have taken very different paths.

 

acco40

"one of his goals - in so many words - to advance at the rate of some other Scout."

 

I've got four new scouts that are very much in competition. Not just with each other, but one of their older brothers is the troop's youngest Eagle and they all want to beat his 36 months.

 

"Looks at the amount of advancement that takes place the prior two weeks before a Court of Honor vs. any other time."

 

I can see that for the lower ranks, but we don't do troop ECOH. I don't know why, but they are always put on by the Eagle's family. So there is no particular schedule. Part of this last group could be their wanting to be finished before school starts.

 

[acco40 95]

Eagles don't advance in groups, they advance in flocks.

[NJCubScouter 1389]

I think it is natural to occasionally have not-so-coincidental clusters of boys making Eagle. We had three boys who had been in the same class in kindergarten, joined the same Tiger den, and 11+ years later, all made Eagle within a two-month period. Competition may have had something to do with it. (Of course part of it also was that their birthdays were fairly close together, and they each made it with only days or weeks (or in one case, hours, literally) to spare. But I suspect that if one of them had made it at 16, the others would have also.) On the other hand, we have three boys now going into 12th grade and having turned/will turn 17 over the summer or in September, who also were in the same Tiger den. One has been Eagle for a few months, one has been Life for 3 years and appears intent on taking it down to the wire, and one just made Life at summer camp and probably has at least an even chance of not making Eagle at all. So, you never know.(This message has been edited by njcubscouter)

[GernBlansten 10]

Flock of seagulls.

Convocation of eagles.

[Bob White 20]

Do Eagles advancem in groups? Dpends on the type of program you have. if your focus is on advancing to Eagle then yes.

[Gunny2862 11]

IMVHO,

Advancing groups of Eagles is a sign of : an excellent program, or a program with very real problems.

 

Check to see if you are are happy with the development of all of your Eagles and that they are setting their own pace then - it may be that your boys are spontaneously forming groups to help each other - if you don't "know" this is happening it may be a very good thing.

 

I'm sure that this grouping may occur naturally also, in some cases, but if your program puts them out in groups regularly by adult involvement in "planning" how they will get there, you have to wonder if you are an Eagle Mill or not, and whether or not that is your goal.

 

We occasionally see groups, but it's usually when two or three boys have consciously banded together on their own to push/help each other through. We see it as a good thing as long as the adults didn't set it up.

[GernBlansten 10]

Our Eagles do not advance in groups because their 18th birthdays do not naturally form groups. Most of our scouts are advancing within weeks of their deadline. Good program or bad?

[OldGreyEagle 5]

Flock Of Seagulls

 

Bad 80's Music and worse hair...

 

Then again I may only be saying that because Musikfest starts today, first headliner is Avril Lavigne, you know, the girl who sang "Sk8ter boi" (sp?)

 

Anyway, I think kids form interesting dynamics. We have Webelos dens cross over as a group and in 2 years they are all gone, families move, sports take over, people get ticked with BSA rules, whatever. Then other dens crossover and all 8 make Eagle. Was it something we did? The boys did? The first group may have had a bad first experience or the natural leader in the group decided scouts was wimpy. In the second, the natual leader says this is cool.

 

Many dynamics in a Troop and a patrol, I think scouts find support in groups/patrols positively and negatively as well.

 

 

[Eagledad 2779]

It really depends on the program and even on the personalities of the scouts. We didn't seem to have scouts Eagle in groups, but we had several scouts who waited almost a year so they could have the COH together, my son included.

 

I can see this happenging with new troops because adults new to scouting tend to follow the advancement part of the program pretty close until they start to learn and understand the other seven methods because advancement is the easiest to do when you don't really know what you are doing. That first group of Webelos will likely Eagle pretty close to each other.

 

Barry

[gwd-scouter 11]

Our young troop has produced only eight Eagles, the most recent just a couple of weeks ago. Before my tenure as SM, our four Eagles were about 14-15 years old. The four Eagles since my tenure began have all been a week or two before their 18th Bday. So, I wonder about Gern's question. Young Eagles before, older Eagles now. Change in program? Good or bad?

[GernBlansten 10]

I think the best programs have a mix of young Eagles and balding ones.

It means the program has sufficient support and activity to enable a GungHo scout to get it early, yet has something to keep the scouts around until they age out.