Eagle project - no show

[dfolson]

There had been an advertising  on a bulletin board at church that a Scout would hold a Tech education class for three Sundays for 1 hour at my church.

Yesterday was supposed to be the first one.  There were 4 people from the church that showed up for help but the Scout did not show up or communicate that he was not coming. We tried to call him and only got his mother and she said he was not home.

I would be interested to know what project was approved and what the District's expectations are.  There has been confusion generated as there is also another Scout working on a computer based Eagle project at the church.  

 

It appears that the ladies in the church organized everything, put up the posters and all the Scout had to do was show up? They had even set out an assortment of snacks - cheese, sausage, fruit, cookies and drinks.  

 

I get the idea of a scout organizing and holding a technology seminar for an Eagle project, but how does this even come close?

 

 

[qwazse]

If it's not a boy in your unit, I think a call to the district advancement chair might be useful. That in itself should get back to the SM that someone is going off reservation. Clearly, what you don't want is this to fester until the BoR.

 

Physical presence is still important, as is accountability.

[MattR]

It sounds like your underlying question is should this really count as an eagle project. Well, obviously if the scouts didn't show he shouldn't get credit. But you also mention that the "ladies organized everything." The question for any eagle project is how does the scout show leadership. Sounds like this case deserves more questions. If a scout asked me or my district to sign off on a project where all the scout has to do is show up and do some work, or even just provide the labor, it would never get approved.

 

But I don't know all the details for this one. I'm guessing.

[NJCubScouter]

Sounds to me like there's probably more than one problem here.

 

In addition to the question of whether this should have been approved as an Eagle project, and not showing up for his Eagle project, it sounds like he was extremely discourteous to the "church ladies" who went out of their way to help him.  I think the first step needs to be a personal apology to them.  (This assumes there is not a very good reason for his failure to appear or communicate - like if he was lying in a hospital somewhere with amnesia or something.)

Edited February 15, 2016 by NJCubScouter

[RememberSchiff]

Perhaps part of the Eagle Scout project workbook should include detachable, dated, approved (signatures and phone numbers) Work Permits to be posted only by scout. Similar to a town building permit which may be necessary too.

 

I have seen situations where a scout lost control of his Eagle project due to some over-helpful adults. Not good.

 

Anyway sounds like a learning opportunity. Soon wiser, good luck in his second try.

[qwazse]

FWIW "Tech education" and "Computer project" sound like two different things. I know beneficiaries of all kinds are asking for help with both. Scouts can do great things with these projects, but ...

 

I am concerned that our cycles of teaching boys that management=leadership can make a mess of projects like these.

 

When your buddies have to paint a wall, and you get them all started (procuring gear, prepping, painting) it's pretty obvious when you can chip in a little muscle and come-along-side and lead the project. A boy learns quickly that "good management" will only get him so far. And, when he's done, it's pretty obvious for the beneficiary to know the job's done.

 

With tech projects, the scope can be ambiguous. Who picks up which task next is not always obvious. Closing communication loops can happen via multiple media and nobody's settled on which one everyone should attend to. So, the memo gets missed. It's not clear where the scout really needs to lead.

 

I'd never ban a scout from taking on such a project, but I'd certainly let him know how it might not be as easy as he thinks.

[NJCubScouter]

We had a project in our troop in which the Scout obtained some donated, used computers from somewhere, then he and a few other kids wiped the hard drives, maybe installed some more memory or something, then a larger group (including me) sat around a table with the computers in front of us and (with instructions given to us by the Scout, who also was there to supervise) installed (probably from CD's, I think this was after the floppy-disk era) a new operating system and some word-processing software.  Ultimately the computers were to be donated to some families on public assistance, with the main idea being that they would use the computers to write resumes, send out letters seeking employment, etc.  That was the idea, anyway.

 

I recall not being all that impressed with the project.  The kid made Eagle though.

 

Added Note:  And I guess I should emphasize, in light of what this thread is about, that in that case the Scout did show up for his project!

Edited February 15, 2016 by NJCubScouter

[dfolson]

The second Scouts project is to collect and refurbish (repair and remove all data) computers to donate to a homeless program to make a computer lab for the use of people searching for permanent housing and jobs. He is member of the church and he had asked permission to store computers received and have a work session or 2 to go through all the PCs and make sure they operate well before setting up the lab.  

 

Tech Education workshop is by a scout from another troop  and district and is not a member of the church.  In talking to the District Advancement Chair ,there were several things the scout was going to do beyond the 3 training sessions.  As I understand it, the scout was also going to pull together documentation that could be provided to the seniors.  That documentation would serve as a manual that seniors could take home and use on their own.  There was also a "goal" number of seniors who would be trained (this District often ask scouts to set goals and talks with them about how they will reach their goal), and the scout was to come up with a plan if sign-ups were lighter than his goal.  I'll be speaking to the district rep who is working with the scout, and have him do some follow-through.

 

The  scout hadn't made any announcement about the event,  other than put out a sign up sheet and asking the Pastor to announced it.  The person the scout was working with was disappointed that the scout  hadn't been at the church to get the seniors excited  about his project.

 

A number of people thought Scout B was doing both - and caused some embarrassment for Scout B

Edited February 15, 2016 by dfolson