Eagle Scout Reference Letters

[Oak Tree 15]

Our district has always done district boards since I've been around, and the council just started mandating that all the districts do it that way. The letters make a bit more sense in that situation. I don't think I've sat in on a board yet where any of the board members knew the Scout.

 

Our council does require the Scouts to give the blank reference forms to the references, and they do require five references plus an optional employer reference. What they have stopped doing is requiring the Scout to pester the references for the letter. Once the Scout has given them the blank form and has provided their names on his Eagle application, his work is done. It's up to the district to do any follow up. I find this process to be pretty reasonable, although it does indeed add to the burden of the district volunteers. It also appears to be entirely within the guidelines.

 

The Scout does have to list five references - per the Eagle workbook - "The Scout shall have listed six references (five if no employer, and parent if no organized religious association)."

 

Also, asking the Scout to deliver a blank form is expressly allowed, but forcing the Scout to follow up is prohibited: "the candidate may be asked to deliver a blank reference form and envelopes to the listed references" and "If the initial reference letter or form is not returned to the council in a timely manner, the council advancement committee must make direct contact with the reference(s) listed on the Eagle Scout Rank Application on its own" and "The candidate shall not be required to make a follow-up contact with the reference or submit other reference names."

[skeptic 993]

And, after hearing back from the district advancement chair, they are still allowing the letters to be given out by the scout. The problems were occasionally arising when some did not come in on a timely basis, and the Eagle chair asked the boy to follow up. So, now if some do not come in, they are to go ahead with the board anyway after the district attempts to get the missing letter(s); but must happen in about a week after the attempt to get them.

 

As far as BOR goes, we hold district reviews, and the scout usually only knows the troop rep that sits on the board, and occasionally one or two others from OA or something. The letters are really helpful in that regard, as we seldom really have much background other than the app.

 

Thanks all for the help. Think I am no longer completely confused; just the norm for an old guy.

[eisely 13]

In the two districts in two different councils in which we have lived over the last 25+ years that I have been involved in scouting as an adult volunteer, all eagle BORs were conducted at the district level. I know that in some parts of the country eagle BORs are conducted at the unit level. Be that as it may, ours are at the district.

 

Either the references are a meaningful part of the process or they are not. I think any council that shifts the burden from the eagle candidate to the district is making a big mistake. The issue here is the time of the volunteers. While many adult volunteers cheerfully participate in the eagle process, contacting and interviewing references would be very burdensome. The letters are a substitute for this type of contact and are much more efficient for everybody, including the references themselves.

 

In our district we average about ten eagle BORs per month. Ten times five is fifty references to contact and interview each month. Who is going to coordinate that effort? One would need to train the interviewers and provide them with scripts. We are talking about likely an hour per reference, even if the conversation is less than half an hour. There are going to be missed contact and repeated calls. I for one would not go there.

 

One really smart thing that our council did a few years back was to review and sign off on the eagle application without the letters, leaving that completely to the units and districts. Our council does not even see the letters.

 

As the former eagle coordinator for our troop I would tell the scouts to have the letters mailed directly to me in my capacity as "assistant scoutmaster." That way it was easy to identify the letters among the junk mail. Never lost one. After the scout had obtained the signature at the council office, he would bring his binder with his application, personal statements, project workbook, etc to me and I would insert the letters and deliver the binders to the district advancement volunteer responsible for scheduling the eagle BORs. Simple and efficient for everyone. If someone had told me that I had to contact and interview every reference I would have told them to find someone else. I give a lot of time to scouting and that would be too much.

 

 

[skeptic 993]

So, where ever they seem to get the idea, the decision has been made that the scout candidate "should not" distribute reference letters, that this should be the review board's responsibility. Additionally, supposedly this is because they want it to be the same throughout the council; yet every volunteer to whom I have talked does not understand the decision either. Had a board earlier this week, and we all talked about this. Our district AC has put the reference letters back on the troop committee; but that is not what the SSE in charge says should happen.

 

The real shame is that once again someone has felt that the candidate should not have the responsibility put on them, even though National actually states it is okay. They keep talking about adding to the requirements because it is not on the actual app with the list of references. Just makes no sense to almost all of us.

 

So, will be interesting to see if we have a huge drop off in letters, especially in districts that try to do it within the AC, rather than ours, with its putting it back on the troop.

 

Still do not know what made this become such an issue in the first place, unless some parent complained, so this is the knee jerk reaction. Either that, or the council office simply does not want to deal with the letters in any way.

 

Taking a deep breath. We do this for the boys! Deep breath.

[Frank17 10]

Wow! Coming as a volunteer from a District with over 200 registered units, we do up to 10 EBORs in some months. I cannot imagine having to contact 60 people every month to get references as a volunteer for District. It seems like they should either eliminate this altogether or put it as the responsibility of the Troop / Eagle candidate to do. Right now, Eagle candidates send out the letters but the responses go to the Troop / Scoutmaster. They review them and bring them to the EBOR. Seems to work fine with us.