Jump to content

Bragging time on the oldest.


Recommended Posts

Metaphorically taking off the uniform and putting on the "dad hat" my hoodlums made me a number of years ago.

Oldest is 95% completed with his Eagle Project. All that remains is to do is get it inspected and approved, present it to the hospital, and the give a presentation on the project to the foundation that is giving him the grant. Basically stuff he needs to do himself.

Project was building 2 mobile gaming stations and a mobile gaming library cart with storage for some of the accessories. While not as major as some projects of late, with the exception of dealing with beuracracy, driving, and taking photos, adults have done no work on it. And since powertools were not involved,  all members of the troop could help with the project.

  • Upvote 4
Link to post
Share on other sites

Congrats to him, and that's a great project!  My son has his EBoR a week from today, and I couldn't be more proud of him if I tried. 

Every time I hear about a Scout's Eagle Project, it reminds me that there is no one type.  Every one is vastly different.  My son's was doing trail clean up and definition (lining the edges of the trails with downed branches) plus mulching of nine stations on a ropes course at a local religious summer camp.  It doesn't sound like a tough project, but the course was spread out over several acres, so management of the work was very hard.  The course had gotten so overgrown that you couldn't tell where the trail was anymore. 

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites

Yes it does. Especially hearing some of the comments from folks. I know some may say my district is "adding requirements" by having the Scout present the proposal to the entire advancement committee, but I like it because it gives everyone an understanding of what is being proposed, and offers ideas the Scout may not have thought about. There were indeed some issues that the committee brought up that he did encounter. Anyway, while a parent or SM is allowed to go in with them at the proposal stage, oldest opted to go solo. Apparently it has been a few years since a Scout presented a proposal without a parent or Scouter with them,  and they were impressed.  Got a lot of positive feedback on him.

The feedback the wife got from the foundation director was hysterical. More on that later. 

Link to post
Share on other sites
2 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

Yes it does. Especially hearing some of the comments from folks. I know some may say my district is "adding requirements" by having the Scout present the proposal to the entire advancement committee, but I like it because it gives everyone an understanding of what is being proposed, and offers ideas the Scout may not have thought about. There were indeed some issues that the committee brought up that he did encounter. Anyway, while a parent or SM is allowed to go in with them at the proposal stage, oldest opted to go solo. Apparently it has been a few years since a Scout presented a proposal without a parent or Scouter with them,  and they were impressed.  Got a lot of positive feedback on him.

I don't mind that "requirement" at all.  It doesn't seem too out of line.  Our district does the recommendation portion of it completely wrong.  The requirements say the Scout has to provide names of people who are willing to provide a recommendation.  Our district requires the Scout to go out and get written recommendations in sealed envelopes, then hand them to the district representative several weeks before his EBoR.  It's ponderous, really, and rather annoying because it flies directly in the face of the guidelines on Scouting.org.  Word is they're going to stop doing it that way soon.

Link to post
Share on other sites

We used to require the Scout to have a face-to-face meeting with the District Advancement Chair to discuss their project before he signed on it, but now it is handled by email.  My son was under the previous requirement, and I liked it.  It's a valuable life skill we should want youth to develop, how to present and I feel it is good prep for their EBOR. 

We do still require the letters be written by the references, and I would not want that to go away- both for the same reason as above about having to talk to others, but also because it gives the Board members an idea about the Scout and who they are, aside from just what is on their Eagle application.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well I typed too soon about adult intervention. The hospital's biomed folks found a very minor problem. While oldest could fix it himself, they took the liberty of fixing it themselves. He was skeptical  and concerned of it until I showed him what they doing. So he is good.  It should be fully approved tomorrow.  

Link to post
Share on other sites
3 hours ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

The feedback the wife got from the foundation director was hysterical. More on that later. 

So I have done some work for the foundation director in the past and he knows me. When oldest contacted him initially, the director was concerned about how oldest was going to make it an Eagle project.  I didn't realize that he was a 3 beader who has sat on the district and council advancement committees in his council in the past until he was telling us about his Scouting background. When oldest told him all about the proposed project, answered all his questions, and talked about how he would be demonstrating leadership, may help in picking a career, and how the project will help him as well, the director was all for it.

A few days later he runs into SWMBO and tells her how he had concerns and oldest answered all of them and that "he's smarter than [Eagle94-a1]." We both got a laugh at that.

  • Haha 1
Link to post
Share on other sites
23 hours ago, HashTagScouts said:

We used to require the Scout to have a face-to-face meeting with the District Advancement Chair to discuss their project before he signed on it, but now it is handled by email.  My son was under the previous requirement, and I liked it.  It's a valuable life skill we should want youth to develop, how to present and I feel it is good prep for their EBOR. 

We do still require the letters be written by the references, and I would not want that to go away- both for the same reason as above about having to talk to others, but also because it gives the Board members an idea about the Scout and who they are, aside from just what is on their Eagle application.

Our Council rep requires the boys come to him for a face-to-face meeting to discuss their proposed project as well.  I liked it, even though the guy wanted to meet at his house, which is 30 minutes from ours.  He had a lot of good advice for my son that he probably wouldn't have typed out in an email.

I get what you're saying about having to do the face-to-face recommendation requests.  I feel like the current generation is lacking in face-to-face skills, and anything that can be done to help that is a good thing.  However, I do prefer our council follow the rules that are laid out by BSA.  Scouting.org says the Scout should never even *touch* the recommendation letter, let alone hand deliver it to the council.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Well the bane of the Eagle Project has hit Oldest: PAPERWORK. I love his reply to the "what have you learned" question: Behind every great, fun activity there is a ton of paperwork that sucks the life out of you and makes you question whether it is worth it or not.

Yes, this project, especially with the bureaucracy and paperwork has sucked the life out of him. His goal was to finish everything for Eagle before school started. Now he just wants the project completed. Thankfully the hard work is over with, now it's time for the presentation to the foundation and conduct training for the nurses on the pediatric floor.

Oh and the life-sucking paperwork. Still doing that.

  • Upvote 1
Link to post
Share on other sites
7 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

Well the bane of the Eagle Project has hit Oldest: PAPERWORK. I love his reply to the "what have you learned" question: Behind every great, fun activity there is a ton of paperwork that sucks the life out of you and makes you question whether it is worth it or not.

Ah! A delegator. He'll go far in life.:cool:

Barry

Link to post
Share on other sites
1 hour ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

Well the bane of the Eagle Project has hit Oldest: PAPERWORK.

It really is awful.  It never seems to end.  My son did his project in May, and hoped to get his EBoR before his group left for Philmont in early July.  That was a pipe dream.

Edited by SteveMM
Link to post
Share on other sites

Multiply it by 3. While he got the hospital's approval, he got it at the managerial level. Since he is applying for a grant from a foundation, he had to fill out two separate sets of paperwork: foundation's paperwork AND hospital paperwork at the senior leadership level, i.e. a VP and CEO has to approve.

He isn't even focusing on the actual Eagle Application at this time. He just wants the Eagle project paperwork over and done with.

Link to post
Share on other sites
10 minutes ago, Eagle94-A1 said:

Multiply it by 3. While he got the hospital's approval, he got it at the managerial level. Since he is applying for a grant from a foundation, he had to fill out two separate sets of paperwork: foundation's paperwork AND hospital paperwork at the senior leadership level, i.e. a VP and CEO has to approve.

He isn't even focusing on the actual Eagle Application at this time. He just wants the Eagle project paperwork over and done with.

More often than not, this is the most learning part of these projects. I'm not sure it's a bad thing.

Barry

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...