eisely Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 I have agreed to be the primary district approval authority for eagle projects for our district. I am not a stranger to the eagle process and I think I have a pretty good idea how to proceed. Nevertheless I would appreciate any insights or suggestions from anyone who has been involved in this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GKlose Posted February 22, 2011 Share Posted February 22, 2011 Many councils are now putting their Eagle advancement policy online. For example, ours can be found on www.yccbsa.org. (in our case -- our council was made up of 5 districts until a little less than a year ago, and all 5 had independent approaches to Eagle advancement...in the last year, though, we consolidated to 3 districts, and a council advancement chair tightened up the policies among all districts, resulting into the policy now shown online) Guy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeattlePioneer Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 eisely, What kind of quality control and oversight does the district committee commonly need to exercise? Do some units tend to submit project that are too simple and others that are too complex? How do you manage such issues? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moosetracker Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Interesting - Ours is done by the same Eagle board they will go to for the final approval.. Not knocking you or the idea, but I'm glad we do it this way.. First off it gets the boys to come in front of the board and get to know them at least once before the final eagle board and thus puts some of the tension to rest.. Second, you have several people, so the project is not so easily disapproved due to one persons tendancy to dislike a certain type of project, it also has several peoples input in how to tweek it to bring a project up to specs (if needed).. A person of the board is then assigned to them to oversee the project. They are called and go out for a visit during one of the work days, to make sure leadership is being done by the boy.. Most times if there is a problem it is the parents that need to be spoken too.. They don't stay for the whole thing just a short visit.. Also the boy is made aware that when he leaves with the approval of the project in hand, he has now made a contract with the board to carry it out as stated.. It would take calling their assigned advisor if a change is needed mid-way.. Don't know how you would work that into a one person show... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle92 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I don't know where Moose is implying that one group approves the project, and another sits on the board, maybe on the website link, but I do agree with her that the same person or group that approves the project should be on the EBOR. I know in my case, as an 18 yo Life Scout going for his EBOR, the DAC was not going to approve me for my Eagle b/c I did not get his approval for my project. It was only when I explained that I did everything by the book just after turning Life 4 years earlier,i.e. coming up with the project, filling out the paperwork, and getting the then DAC's approval, me wanting to know if there was an appeal process as I would be appealing if there was, AND me leaving the EBOR while the exDAC who approved my project (and was sitting on my EBOR) and the rest of the EBOR discussed matters. If the exDAC would not have been on the EBOR, I think I would have been rejected for Eagle, and would have had to appeal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moosetracker Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 I may be wrong, but what I am reading is that eisely is doing the approval (Don't know if theay are a part of the Eagle board or not. But, I am just commenting on the fact ours is a complete board of 3 or more people who approve it.. You go to the same place the Eagle board is held, those needing a project approval go first, those needing EBOR go second.. So usually the times for the project approvals start at 7:00 pm and the EBOR people know not to come until 8:00 pm. Sounds like your process is also just one person Eagle92, so yours might be similar to the way eisely's district runs it.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John-in-KC Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 eisely, Have fun Working with these young men seems to be one of the best jobs in Scouting. PM me please with real world contact info (name/phone/email). I will put you in touch with my District Advancement Chair, he is also the lead of the District ELSP review/approval team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagledad Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 The approval authority is seperate from our EBOR group. Didn't others did it different. I is interesting that a memeber is assigned and checks on the scout. Not sure what to think of that, is that more than they should be doing? I have always felt that all the board should do is verify the scout followed the process written in the Eagle pamplet for getting the approval. No more, no less. Our approval board got so heavy handed that one member chewed out both the mon and the scout for not following the district proceedures. The member was asked to step down that week, but the proceedures stayed. The scout in question had just moved from Houstion and was following the proceedures of the district down there. Why can't everyone just do it by the book and leave the rest to the scout? Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eagle90 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Our council has a separate persona assigned to approve Eagle projects. It could be difficult to have the same people approve the project and then serve on the EBOR. Theoretically, a scout could start his Eagle project when he is 12-13 years old, and then not attain Eagle till he is 18. Chances are great the same people will NOT be available 5-6 years later! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SeattlePioneer Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 If your district has troops with a reputation for being "Eagle mills," does that reflect itself in the kind of projects that appear for district approval? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle92 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 '90 That was my situation: did project at 14, did EBOR at 18. As I mentioned, I lucked out as the DAC who approved the project was still active and sat on my EBOR. He just wasn't the DAC at the time of my EBOR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eagle69 Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 When I was doing District Advancement there were two of us. The project would come in and the Advancement Chair would read it and make his notes and then without revealing anything to me would hand over the write up for me to review, then we would get back together and compare notes. All contact back to the boy was done by him. We never went out and checked on a project once approved. When it was time for his EBOR one or both of us would represent the District. Currently there are 3-4 reviewing projects. You call the Advancement Chair and he tells you who to contact for your project. At EBOR time it might be the same person or a different one depending on their schedule that represents the District. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moosetracker Posted February 23, 2011 Share Posted February 23, 2011 Eagle90 Theoretically, a scout could start his Eagle project when he is 12-13 years old, and then not attain Eagle till he is 18. Chances are great the same people will NOT be available 5-6 years later! I disagree, theoretically the scout starts his Eagle project after he reaches life rank.. That can happen anytime.. Rarely should a scout reach Life rank at 12 or 13, but with an exceptional scout it might happen.. If it is not rare, someone is pushing the scouts through! Usually the exact same people will not be on the board, maybe one or two, but if not that is not the point who cares? That is because our district is made up of about 8 members, and they break up into running 2 boards during the evening. So the groupings on your board for the project & the EBOR will probably not be the same.. You have still gone through a preliminary of what the EBOR will look like while doing the project approval board. As for the Board member comming out for a visit. The boy gets the phone number of the person assigned to them.. They call to invite the person to come to whatever part of the project they would like them to attend.. If they don't call and or the time conflicts with the Board members personal time and he just can't make it, it does not hurt the EBOR.. Complaining "Why invite them?" To me is like crabbing why invite the DE to your EBOR.. Don't want them, don't invite them.. But, I have known when that visit helped. Our Board (for wrong) does try to go for that 100 hour mininum time, to figure if the project is worthy.. Now, I always thought it was during project review, and if you mis-calculated and went under, no biggy.. There was a boy in our troop who did a project that ended with a large public program.. The Board member came to the program. When the boy was at his EBOR, he told them the hours was under 100.. Some EBOR member started to complain that it did not meet the requirements.. The member who came cut him off telling him the hours were of no consequence in this instance as the program was outstanding.. When I looked at the scouts estimated hours though I scolded him.. He had left off so much.. Like the presenters time to organize and practice their presentations.. And some of the prep time, for the presentation.. He had well over 100 hours.. WELL over.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
qwazse Posted February 24, 2011 Share Posted February 24, 2011 MT - Plus the time of each person attending the presentation! Our DAC reviews each Eagle project. The boys meet with him personally. He does not always come to the EBOR, but will send a delegate from the advancement committee. He's a lawyer, so I think he likes working with the boys and helping them survive the paperwork. The goal is to make sure the boy is following the Eagle application to the letter. It doesn't have to be all laser-printed, but he'll dock for penmanship if he can't tell what the specks are. He also takes a moment at every-other round-table to cover recent changes or simply recap the list of "audit flags" that the advancement committee looks out for. Bottom line: this guy taught me everything I needed to coach my boys once they achieved Life. So, if you can devote a small part of your time to training at roundtables, a large part of your time to touching base with each candidate, and none of your time making rules that don't need to be there ... you'll do great! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eisely Posted February 25, 2011 Author Share Posted February 25, 2011 For as long as we have lived here, the district has had a single person reviewing and approving projects at the district level. Having the same people review the project as will sit on the EBOR is an interesting idea but I don't think it would be feasible for us. We just have too many boys completing their eagles to attempt that level of involvement by a district level board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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