Money management for Eagle projects

[Trevorum 24]

How do the Eagle candidates in your unit manage their funds?

 

Lately, many of our eagle projects have had pretty sizeable budgets for materials. Many have been in the $300-$500 range, with some budgets up to $1500. Raising these monies is a major undertaking itself for the candidate, often taking several months or longer, with funds dribbling in from a variety of sources.

 

Some troops allow candidates to "park" tagged funds in the troop account for later withdrawal. Other troops assume that custody of the money is the candidates responsibility.

[oldsm 10]

In my troop the scout holds on to all funds. Developing the means of managing funds and accounting for them is part of the process of demonstrating the leadership required by an Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project. How he manages the funds is just one aspect of the project report.

 

In my opinion, if a troop serves as the repository, it is depriving the scout of a significant portion of the opportunity to demonstrate leadership in his project, which is after all the primary purpose of the project. If a troop starts to handle the money, I can see where it could start to exert unwarranted influence on various aspects of a project.

 

Hopefully, a candidate will have completed Personal Management merit badge before undertaking his Eagle project - the project is a great place to put into practice what he learns in the MB.

 

If Eagle is supposed to represent the "cream of the crop" of scouts, then having the scout be totally responsible for his project heightens the value of Eagle.

[EagleInKY 14]

We have an Eagle project starting up with a budget of around $1000. The beneficiary (local school) is handling the money. All donations are coming into them and they are handling reimbursements.