HELP PLEASE: Eagle Project Problem

[Soon2Beagle]

Hi, do you have to get Council or District Approval before beginning a project? I didn't realize I forgot to get the signature of my council/district before I started my project. Can I get it signed and back-dated? Will I need to start over? I'm almost done, and in fact could turn in my project soon. I know it will get approved, but I'm not sure what to do now. Any suggestions on how to proceed will be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance for responses.

[Tim in NJ]

Did you read your Eagle Project Workbook? Presumably you completed the project proposal first (which you should have had reviewed by your District or Council Advancement Chair) and obtained the other required signatures. Unfortunately, I can tell you from experience that between the Unit Leader, the Unit Committee, and the Beneficiary's representative, they often do not have a good sense of what an acceptable Eagle Scout Service Project actually consists of. I serve on my local District Advancement Committee and I see all of the submitted proposals, already signed and approved at the unit level. A much higher percentage that you would ever expect consist of activities that are too commercial, too much of a fundraiser, violate BSA safety policies, ignore Youth Protection requirements, consist of only routine maintenance, are of a simply unreasonable scope, violate basic zoning laws, or some combination of several of these factors.

 

Your only course of action should be to contact your District of Council Advancement Chair immediately! Explain the situation fully and apologize for your mistake. Suspend any further work on your project now. Submit your proposal and then wait until it is deemed acceptable. It is quite possible that changes to your proposal may have to be made in order for your district/council rep to deem it acceptable. In that case, you may have to go back and modify your project or redo some of the work you've already completed. Unfortunately, it is also possible that you might not get approval at all, in which case you'll have to start all over with a new proposal and a new project. Take action on this right now!

[Soon2Beagle]

Did you read your Eagle Project Workbook? Presumably you completed the project proposal first (which you should have had reviewed by your District or Council Advancement Chair) and obtained the other required signatures. Unfortunately, I can tell you from experience that between the Unit Leader, the Unit Committee, and the Beneficiary's representative, they often do not have a good sense of what an acceptable Eagle Scout Service Project actually consists of. I serve on my local District Advancement Committee and I see all of the submitted proposals, already signed and approved at the unit level. A much higher percentage that you would ever expect consist of activities that are too commercial, too much of a fundraiser, violate BSA safety policies, ignore Youth Protection requirements, consist of only routine maintenance, are of a simply unreasonable scope, violate basic zoning laws, or some combination of several of these factors.

 

Your only course of action should be to contact your District of Council Advancement Chair immediately! Explain the situation fully and apologize for your mistake. Suspend any further work on your project now. Submit your proposal and then wait until it is deemed acceptable. It is quite possible that changes to your proposal may have to be made in order for your district/council rep to deem it acceptable. In that case, you may have to go back and modify your project or redo some of the work you've already completed. Unfortunately, it is also possible that you might not get approval at all, in which case you'll have to start all over with a new proposal and a new project. Take action on this right now!

Thank you for your reply. I have one more question. My project involves the collection of hygienic supplies (toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, etc.) and then making kits of these for the a local charity to hand them out to the homeless and people who stay in the charity's shelters. My role was contacting various hotels, dentists, and offices and asking for donations, and picking these up. I then had to lead a group of people in packaging these kits. Would you consider this enough leadership, planning, and service to pass muster. I plan on immediately contacting my advancement chair, thank you for the feedback.

Also in my original plan I had a large fundraising component which I had to change to the afore mentioned donation system do to logistics, should I explain the change, or should I leave my original proposal as is?

[5yearscouter]

Talk to the District person immediately! Your advancement chair should know who that person is, but if not, go up the chain. The proposal should show what you proposed at the beginning. That is approved by the org you are doing the work for, the unit, the scoutmaster and the district person's signature is next. Get all of those signatues done and go to district eagle counselor for assistance!! Do not change anything until you talk to them and see if they will sign what you have so far and allow you to go forward from here. There is a place for the district to make suggested changes and they may have suggestions of change. There is also a suggestion that for any big changes in your project (like fundraising, which requires a fundraising application approved by district) you contact your coach, district Eagle counselor, and the org you are doing the work for.

 

 

 

[MattR]

When do you turn 18? I had a scout in my troop do a project without getting Council signatures and he is now doing it over. If you have the time then don't worry, you can just do the exact same plan again, only get the signatures first. If you don't have the time, you're at the Council's mercy. Tough lesson.

[Soon2Beagle]

Thanks for the feedback, I talked to him and he will look at it my proposal and I explained my situation, and I will most likely be approved within the week. Again, thank you for the advice it looks like everything will work out great!

[Soon2Beagle]

When do you turn 18? I had a scout in my troop do a project without getting Council signatures and he is now doing it over. If you have the time then don't worry, you can just do the exact same plan again, only get the signatures first. If you don't have the time, you're at the Council's mercy. Tough lesson.

I have about a month and a half till I'm 18. :/

[MattR]

When do you turn 18? I had a scout in my troop do a project without getting Council signatures and he is now doing it over. If you have the time then don't worry, you can just do the exact same plan again, only get the signatures first. If you don't have the time, you're at the Council's mercy. Tough lesson.

Given it would be the same project, 1.5 months is doable. You can't use any of the work you've done but you can use the plan. So my guess is any money that anyone has given you can't be used. So you need to find more donors. You asked about whether it showed enough leadership. That's always a tough call. It's not enough if someone gave you a plan and all you did was provide labor. I would say going around to collect donations would be good. Talk to the organizations that deliver them and find out what they need. They may ask for diapers. You don't know. You can also do a drive to collect from your neighborhoods. On one day put a grocery bag stapled to a list of what you need on 1000 door steps and a few days later drive by, pick them up, sort them, and make your bags. If you did something like that I'd say it was a good project.

 

I would ever so strongly suggest a meeting with your SM or someone from your troop, and the Council guy within the next day to get everyone on the same page, decide exactly what has to be done and when, and then start banging on it. Start making phone calls now. Forget about playing a Fall sport. Good luck.

[qwazse]

Thanks for the feedback, I talked to him and he will look at it my proposal and I explained my situation, and I will most likely be approved within the week. Again, thank you for the advice it looks like everything will work out great!

Let's hear it for district reps who take the BS out of the BSA!

[Twocubdad]

Thanks for the feedback, I talked to him and he will look at it my proposal and I explained my situation, and I will most likely be approved within the week. Again, thank you for the advice it looks like everything will work out great!

Q -- there is BS and there are those who will take advantage of other's good will and willingness to help. I've got that patch and the tire marks on my butt to prove it.

 

I'm not saying S2B is doing that, just saying....

[qwazse]

Thanks for the feedback, I talked to him and he will look at it my proposal and I explained my situation, and I will most likely be approved within the week. Again, thank you for the advice it looks like everything will work out great!

Oh, I get the whole manipulative boys who were trained by manipulative parents thing.

There's a balance between discouraging those types, and crushing someone who wades through 22 pages of workbook and misses a step on page 17! (Granted, council approval is mentioned in the BSHB, but what does that really mean to a 17y.o. who has never been to a roundtable?)

[SSScout]

Ultimately, it doesn't matter what WE say, but what THEY say. By not understanding the correct order of things (wrong advice? No advice? Wrong assumptions?), S2BE has gotten himself in a time crunch. As they say, "go ask your Patrol Leader", only here, he should have been told "go read the Trail to Eagle guidebook (oops, the Eagle Project Book), or "go ask your SM or Troop Advancement Chair".... We hope S2BE has not taken on the wrong nom de scouter.net....

 

AND...We hope his next posting here is not titled " Eagle Candidate Appeal Process Please".

[packsaddle]

SSScout is correct. There is a possibility that you will 'age out' at the rank of Life Scout. There is nothing wrong with that. You will be no less of a scout at that level and everything that you have achieved from the program will not be diminished one bit. I wish you success.

[Tim in NJ]

Did you read your Eagle Project Workbook? Presumably you completed the project proposal first (which you should have had reviewed by your District or Council Advancement Chair) and obtained the other required signatures. Unfortunately, I can tell you from experience that between the Unit Leader, the Unit Committee, and the Beneficiary's representative, they often do not have a good sense of what an acceptable Eagle Scout Service Project actually consists of. I serve on my local District Advancement Committee and I see all of the submitted proposals, already signed and approved at the unit level. A much higher percentage that you would ever expect consist of activities that are too commercial, too much of a fundraiser, violate BSA safety policies, ignore Youth Protection requirements, consist of only routine maintenance, are of a simply unreasonable scope, violate basic zoning laws, or some combination of several of these factors.

 

Your only course of action should be to contact your District of Council Advancement Chair immediately! Explain the situation fully and apologize for your mistake. Suspend any further work on your project now. Submit your proposal and then wait until it is deemed acceptable. It is quite possible that changes to your proposal may have to be made in order for your district/council rep to deem it acceptable. In that case, you may have to go back and modify your project or redo some of the work you've already completed. Unfortunately, it is also possible that you might not get approval at all, in which case you'll have to start all over with a new proposal and a new project. Take action on this right now!

Sorry, I wasn't on here for a few days. From reading some of the posts below, it looks like most of your questions have already been answered. As someone else mentioned, my opinion on your project doesn't actually count for anything. The only opinion that matters right now is that of your District or Council Advancement Chair who will decide whether or not to sign the book. Good luck!

[SR540Beaver]

I realize that each unit has it's own traditions and cultures......but I don't understand how something like this could happen. That is not meant as an affront to soon2beagle. I come from a large troop with an SM that is retiring in a month after 13 years. His new job is the District EBOR Coordinator. He's the perfect guy for it. He's an engineer and he like very precise, well oiled machines that purr like a kitten. A place for everything and everything in its place. Because we have had very inconsistent EBOR's in the past in our district, we developed a whole Life to Eagle support system in our troop. We are boy led and all of the work is up to the boy to do. the kinds of things we do is that when the boy is ready to approach Eagle, he has a visit with the SM to discuss the idea. With 13 years as an SM and over 50 Eagles, the SM knows what will and will not be accepted as a project in our district. He knows what will and will not be accepted in the way of the write up. He mentors them thru the process. I remember when my son did his write up. The SM told him to do a draft and bring to the next meeting. When he got it, he told my son that when I give this back to you, it will have a bunch of red ink on it. Don't get upset, I'm helping you avoid the pitfalls I've seen too many kids fall into at EBOR's. 99% of the time, our guys sail thru their boards because they've been mentored all along the way. We had one kid who was ultra shy and avoided the SM....he avoided a lot of adults....who decided to do it himself without any help.If I recall, he did the initial BOR twice and the final 3 times. He cut far too many cornersand couldn't answer their questions. It as after the second final that he finally sought some guidance and finished. Eagle shouldn't be difficult and a boy should be able to take the workbook and complete it by himself. As long as well meaning registered adults don't get in the way, a boy could probably do it easily. But unfortunately we all know some of those guys who sit on boards and don't know their backside from a hole in the ground or are on a power trip. WE got tired of good kids with good projects running into roadblocks and decided a good mentoring program was needed. So, coming from a culture where we mentor the boy, I don't understand how a 17.5 year old Life Scout could be so unfamilar with the process.......but each unit is individual.