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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 4:55 p.m.

 

Since nothing is supposed to leave the board room, Matt didn't share much about the board, except that they asked him a lot of questions, some of them seemingly "trick" questions, but that he felt he handled himself well. At one point, the district advancement chair asked Matt if he thought he deserved to be an Eagle if he couldn't follow directions (he forgot to include the chair's approval letter for his project in his project binder). Matt said that he did, because everyone makes mistakes and one small mistake shouldn't outweigh 12 years of positive Scouting performance.

 

Another board member asked him which of the six lines of the Scout oath he felt was the most important. Matt said "to obey the Scout law" because that then embodied everything else. The board member said that he felt the most important was "on my honor" because without that, the rest was meaningless. However, he saw the validity in Matt's response.

 

We're both just really glad that it's over. We probably won't have his court of honor until mid-May, after the spring semester of college is done.

 

Elizabeth

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Congratulations to Matt!!! Now it's time for planning the ECOH. Get with your units Committee Chair, and see who provides what in terms of ECOH support. Get with Matt, get his input about where to have it. Late spring can (if you have a backup indoor site) mean an outdoor ECOH :) , especially if there's some special Scouting place to your son.

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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

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CONGRATULATIONS ON YOU EAGLE. But I do have one concern, 2 hours for a EBOR? Also the secrecy of teh EBOR concerns me as well. The two hours is definate overkill, and having 'trick questions" is NOT supposed to be part of the EBOR.

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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

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Congratulations!

 

That is long. Regarding confidentiality. I would take that as a restriction on the BOR not the scout. BORs and SMCs are an opportunity for the scout to open up. Sometimes things will be discussed that the scout wants to keep private, but just like a meeting with clergy, lawyers or counselors the subject is always free to discuss what happens.

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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

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Congratulations to you and Matt!

 

Your other son can look at other Troops or Venture Crew (if 14) to find one that fits the Scouting model. I know many scouts who have done the same.

I never have heard anyone say getting their Eagle was a waste of time or not worth it but I have heard many say they wish they would have gone the distance.

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