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Eagle Scout Application Filing Fee


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1 hour ago, Sentinel947 said:

I've seen this on the BSA sub reddit. They mentioned Orange County's BSA council. 

I have doubts that this is true, because it's such an idiotic policy. It really doesn't take much manpower or time to review Eagle applications, and $120 is a ridiculous and arbitrary increase over free.

That sub reddit is wrong. I am IN Orange County Council, and if you read my post earlier in this thread, you will see there is no such fee being charged here.

Edited by The Latin Scot
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My Troop would pay the fee - and end all participation in Friends of Scouting.

I am already having challenges with national's new fee. Charge my son for his Eagle application, and you can kiss not only FOS, but all participation in district/council level activities, except for f

That sub reddit is wrong. I am IN Orange County Council, and if you read my post earlier in this thread, you will see there is no such fee being charged here.

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52 minutes ago, The Latin Scot said:

That sub reddit is wrong. I am IN Orange County Council, and if you read my post earlier in this thread, you will see there is no such fee being charged here.

That's good. There shouldn't be a fee anywhere. 

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I totally concur!

 

The very idea of charging a boy to submit his paperwork is suspect - and my thought it, what would they do if a boy refused to pay such a fee? Would they dare deny him his right to submit his papers, despite his having done all the work? I feel like this is the kind of situation where a well-organized boycott may actually do some good. Something at least to get that council to realize the preposterous nature of their demands.

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1 hour ago, The Latin Scot said:

That sub reddit is wrong. I am IN Orange County Council, and if you read my post earlier in this thread, you will see there is no such fee being charged here.

How about mark Latin Scot's thread the winner and close this thread. A lot of upset people for no reason.

Another thread might be dumb ways councils raise money but it should be kept to real situations and not unverified news.

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9 minutes ago, MattR said:

How about mark Latin Scot's thread the winner and close this thread. A lot of upset people for no reason.

Another thread might be dumb ways councils raise money but it should be kept to real situations and not unverified news.

We have not heard from the OP today. I would like to know more about his Council which may not be Orange County Council.

 

 

 

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According to an email sent out Saturday, Jan 20th from the a District Advancement Chair of OCC it is to go into effect March 1st. I hope it is a miscommunication within the district not that you just haven't heard the news yet. Here is what was in the email

Effective March 1st. The Orange County Council will be assessing a filing fee for Eagle Scout applications. The fee will be $120 with applications to defray the costs to the council to file. The logistics are being worked out as to who will be collecting. You will be receiving the Eagle Scout gift set with this fee. Please pass this along to your respective troops.
This information was passed along to us today at the Top Hands Meeting at the council. 
YIS,

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I have heard nothing about this, and I am SURE it's something that would be talked about if it were true. 

I have just sent out a few e-mails to various friends at the OC office. I should have a concrete answer by tomorrow; however, I have to go run my den meeting and the a committee meeting, so I will be offline for the rest of the night. I will bring you all official news direct from the source in OC first thing tomorrow morning!

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So here's what I have found so far (a number of people have not yet responded):

So far, none of the people from my district that have replied to my inquiries have heard about this (and we are by far one of the biggest and most influential districts in our council).

The one person from the Council office who had heard about this pointed out a key part of the message that I feel rather foolish for not noticing myself: 

Quote

Effective March 1st. The Orange County Council will be assessing a filing fee for Eagle Scout applications. The fee will be $120 with applications to defray the costs to the council to file. The logistics are being worked out as to who will be collecting. You will be receiving the Eagle Scout gift set with this fee. Please pass this along to your respective troops.
This information was passed along to us today at the Top Hands Meeting at the council. 
YIS,

What I was told by my friend at the Council office is that they are assessing, as in they are exploring the possibility of, a filing fee, and that such a fee may even be optional if the boys do not want the gift set. But so far nothing is definite, nothing is official. As noted, logistics of such a move are being worked out.

Mind you all, I am still waiting to hear from my contacts that are highest up on the totem pole, as it were, but so far there isn't much off of which to go. Interestingly, there is no name attached to this message either. 

@hikeoholic, are you here in the OCC too? From whom did you get this message? If it would be easier for you to private message me, I would like to follow the source to get more information if possible. I work with a lot of boys from impoverished families working to get their Eagles, and this kind of move would severely handicap their progress, so if you would let me know exactly whence this message came, it would help me in my investigation. Thanks!

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1 hour ago, The Latin Scot said:

they are assessing, as in they are exploring the possibility of,

LOL, to think if they had used evaluating instead. Oddly enough, their use of assessing actually has the more common definition (evaluate) than the one we all assumed it to mean (set the value of a tax fine or fee). Perhaps it was the "The fee will be $120" that trained our brains to think the decision had already been made to "set a fee" instead of evaluating one. Even rereading the quoted section my brain still automatically knee-jerks to "charging a fee" instead of "considering one."

 

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@Hawkwin that certainly would have helped!

In any case, I just now had a long conversation just with my District Advancement Chair. While discretion prohibits me from divulging all the information this early on, I will share what I can to allay any concerns you all may have.

At an Orange County Council meeting on Saturday to which select board members from the various districts were invited, it was proposed by the Council Executive Board (not Scouters for the most part, but professionals hired to increase profit in the council) to charge a $120 fee to Eagle Scout applicants upon the submission of their papers, to be effective immediately.

The result was a long and intense discussion which ended in something akin to what I shared a few hours ago – as of now, they are officially only assessing the possibility of charging such a fee which, if it were to be implemented, would not take effect until a later date. HOWEVER, as my wonderful District Advancement Chair put it, "it’s written in pencil, but not in pen" - and it's definitely not set in stone.

It’s possible the push-back will be so tremendous that the move will never take effect, although it has been formally put forward by the executive board - but again, this proposition is so recent that it is unwise to jump to conclusions. So, fellow forum members, here is your official takeaway for the time being:

It hasn’t happened yet; it may not happen at all, so don’t worry about it for now!

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@RememberSchiff Well, I acted at any rate. I must have sent out a dozen e-mails, and I sent a very strongly-worded warning to council asking them to consider the ramifications of such a move. But I try not to worry while I am acting - it keeps me from thinking clearly, and affects my larger perspective. For now, I will wait until there is more definitely information. Undue concern avails me nothing while I wait.

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6 minutes ago, RememberSchiff said:

Whenever my Council starts assessing anything, whether it is merging with another council, selling a camp, minimum FOS contributions,... I worry and act.

Remember when scouting was fun?  We camped in shelter halves, rode in the back of open pick ups, burned our trash, trenched tents, pit latrines on all outings, canoed with the life jackets sort of in the canoe...fun times

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Wow ... Scouting sure did affect my generation's outlook. All of those things sound either completely irresponsible or recklessly dangerous to me, but I still had fun doing Scouting - even with all the safety and conservation practices in effect. :happy:

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I am in OCC and our district Advancement Chair sent this out to what I am guessing all Scoutmaster's and Committee Chairs or maybe just his Advancement Committee. We were on an outing when our Scoutmaster read the email and shared it with the Committee Chair and those around. Everyone's reaction was pretty heated and the BOD should drop the idea of even evaluating charging a fee now. Instead they can charge the fee to the board of directors for their spot on the board to increase profits. 

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