Life to Eagle info

[Shell in WA- USA]

Has anyone set up a training for the boys for "Life to Eagle?" I'm working on setting something up for our troop boys and newly ranked star and life boys. But if someone has something I can springbaord from, it would help me out alot. Thanks!

[John-in-KC]

Miss Shell,

 

Our District has done Life to Eagle 101 twice at Roundtable. The first time we did it for Life to Eagle coordinators. That was so successful, we did it for Life Scouts on the trail.

 

Here are some resources we have on our district roundtable website (Thanks, Keith!)...

 

http://www.kaiserklan.com/roundtable/eagle/EagleProjectDocs.zip

(CAUTION: 20 Megabyte Download!!! ... 4 minutes even with broadband connection)

 

http://www.kaiserklan.com/roundtable/pdfs/EAGLE%20PROJECT%20REVIEW.pdf

This is the checklist our district advancement committee uses to validate a project.

 

From the BSA website,

http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/eagleproject/index.html

This is the Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project book start page.

 

I hope this stuff helps you, your unit, and your district

 

John

(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

[Shell in WA- USA]

Thanks. Soem I found some I didn't, this will help be get started.

[ManyIrons]

Shell, if you haven't already done so, try typing "Life to Eagle" into your favorite search engine. Apologies for offering "obvious" advice, but I did this several months ago and got about 10 pages worth of "hits". The only drawback to this method is that you have to slog through them all to find the ones that you like. If nothing else it may provide some "inspiration fodder".

 

One on-line package I've found very useful is the "Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Planning Guide" (http://home.flash.net/~smithrc/eagleprj.htm) written by a Scouter in the Longhorn Council. It's an unofficial companion to the BSA Eagle Project Workbook but it's been very helpful to some of our local Life Scouts.

 

Hope this helps.

[EagleInKY]

I haven't read this book, maybe someone can give us a thumbs-up or down. The book Go For the Eagle is available for $12.98 from www.scoutingbooks.com.

http://www.scoutingbooks.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=882905848

[frank10]

Can't say any thing about the book, but I would find an other vendor to buy from. My dealing with scoutingbooks.com was not what I expected from a business that supports scouting.

[EagleInKY]

Sorry to hear that. I've purchased a couple of things from them with no problem. I'm sure you can get it at Amazon and other places, I had just remembered seeing it there.

[Bob White]

Our District Advancement chair is getting ready to being quarterly "Life to Eagle" seminars for Life scouts, their parents and Scpoutmasters.

 

The 90 minute session will cover th details of the application packet and answer questions on the advancement process.

 

I'll let you know more as things develop.

 

BW

[LPC_Thumper]

Do I dare admit in this forum that I'm the Eagle Advancement Chair for our District?

 

Any way, I had a personal experience with that book. Don't use it. It presents some ideas that can be twisted not too far, and then create problems.

 

What we encourage troops to do is have someone that will sit down with the scout, and help him clean up his packet, and make things presentable. We offer helps twice a year to both these adults and boys during Roundtables. We actually make copies of good packets. We ask after the Board if we could please use theirs. This then gets High School kids learning about things like chart in Word, or something called Excel. They present charts and graphs, and digital photographs with captions, and ... It works well to keep them pushing on their reports.

 

Hidden information, we have only turned down one application. It was done by an 18 year old that had completed it in pencil and crayon (and I'm not just talking about his diagrams)

 

Hope this helps...

[VentureScoutNY]

John in KC, what is Life to Eagle 101 all about? Is it a class?

 

No disrespect to anyone that is a part of Life to Eagle training... If a Scout is going to earn the rank of Eagle Scout, couldn't one assume that he can get there without all of this extra help?

 

I'm sure the classes, seminars, or training times help the Scout to better understand how to fill out the forms, and what's needed with all the paperwork. I'm sure all of this is to better the Scout anyway... but is it all nesessary?

 

(Please correct me if I am wrong. If there is no such thing as traing classes to take part in for Life-Eagle knowledge ect... I am not familiar with them. )

[NeilLup]

May I second what VentureScout writes.

 

When I hear of "Life to Eagle" classes, "Eagle Scout week" at Summer Camp, "Eagle Scout chairmen" or "Eagle Scout" mentors in Troops, it spikes my blood pressure.

 

Eagle Scout is supposed to be hard, not just tedious or labor intensive and not just physically hard, but requiring initiative, gumption and growth on the part of the boy. The candidate is supposed to have to stretch himself, take risks and grow. The idea is not that it is like a seat on the train where everybody arrives at the destination but rather like bushwhacking through the wilderness.

 

Now I know that parents and Troop leaders don't like this approach. Many parents want the very short path to being able to put "Eagle Scout" on the college application and on to other things. They don't want any risk and want to reduce the time, work, and risk to the absolute minimum.

 

But that's not how things are supposed to be. Some boys, perhaps sadly, perhaps not, should not receive the Eagle Scout award and they should not consider their time in Scouting as a failure because of it. Certainly, it should take initiative and work and risk.

 

An Eagle Scout should be able to read. He should be able to read the requirements for himself and be required to make his own judgements on what is meant by the requirements. If he needs clarification, obtaining that is part of the game and HE should be the one that figures out how to do that. Will that mean that some boys don't make Eagle. Probably so.

 

My council has Life to Eagle seminars but I oppose them. We have a Merit Badge University too, but at least this year, they stopped offering most of the Eagle Required Merit Badges.

 

There is a lot of complaining about the diminished capability and quality of Eagle Scouts today. I don't believe that the problem is with the youth but with us. We don't demand enough and don't demand that in meeting the Eagle Scout requirements, the boy display that he really, really wants to be an Eagle Scout and that he physically, mentally, morally and emotionally takes himself to the next level to achieve the Eagle.

 

I am also vehemently opposed to bribes and threats connected with the Eagle like "no wings, no wheels." (You can't have your driver's license until you get your Eagle Scout.)

 

Sorry about the soap box. But I believe that if you want to do the greatest service for youth, your Life to Eagle seminars should have a session for boys where they read the requirements and discuss among themselves what they mean and how to achieve them. At the same time, there should be a separate session for parents and Troop leaders where they are told how to make the Eagle difficult for boys, how to let the boys do all the work and how and why to let the boys alone.

 

At our recent Merit Badge University, we had such a session on "Scouting 101 for Parents." We discussed Scouting from a boy's perspective and from a parent's perspective and talked about what really is going on in a Boy Scout Troop.

[dsteele]

Neil,

 

I couldn't be more in favor of your position if I wanted to be.

 

Excellent post and I, as a young Eagle who did it myself, couldn't agree more.

 

Great job.

 

Unc.

 

[Fat Old Guy]

I'm of two minds on the Eagle Advisor thing. I don't want to see some adult smoothing the road to Eagle but I don't like seeing a Scout running down the wrong path. We all know that BSA publications can be confusing for trained adults so what can they be life for a 14 year old.

 

An adult advisor can also remind the Scout that he is supposed to LEAD the project and NOT DO the project.

 

Unfortunately, too often the advisor seems to wind up doing half the planning (Do you think that you'll need shovels?).

[acco40]

Eagle projects are leadership projects, NOT landscaping projects, craftsmenship projects, etc. I've seen too many who view it as a "build something" project. While all are worthy goals, not all provide leadership training.

 

[scoutldr]

Ditto, NeiLup! No one has been able to explain why the percentage of Eagles hovered at 2% for so many years and now suddenly it's 4%. We do a Life to Eagle session at U of S, and I found it to be excellent, answering questions about leadership positions, recordkeeping, leadership project (it's the process, not the product), etc. If we are to do our jobs and produce a new generation of self-reliant, confident leaders (of society, not necessarily Scouting), we have to stop the spoon-feeding. That goes for the schools and colleges, as well.