Eagle CoHs - a good problem to have!

[Trevorum]

Last night I was contacted by the parent of a newly minted Eagle. He wanted to coordinate with me in setting the date for the ECoH and requested a regular meeting night next month. Figuring that I'll just ask the SPL to reschedule the program that had been scheduled for that night, I agreed and asked him to confirm with the CC and the CO.

 

After penciling the calendar, this got me to thinking. Our troop currently has more than 25 Life Scouts, many of whom have completed all requirements or are very close to doing so. If very many of them want their ECoH on a meeting night, that's all we'd end up doing for the next year! We've never had such a densely packed cohort before and we've never had to set a restriction on scheduling ECoHs (a good problem to have!). To avoid having to tell a Mom or Dad that, "No, we can't have your ECoH on a meeting night even though we just did that two months ago..", I'd like to get the committee to address this issue in advance.

 

What are your thoughts on this? Can the committee set a restriction on scheduling Eagle courts? Is this a bad idea? Is there another way to handle this?

[OldGreyEagle]

In the troop I serve, Eagle Courts of Honor are generally held on sunday afternoons in the church. Thats by tradition (no, its not a by-law). We have had Eagle courts in the home churches of the boys on different days, but the Troop has the philosophy has been its the Boys day and he gets to plan and hold it any place he wishes. No one has ever asked to do it at a meeting, its a special day, it deseves a special circumstance

[Vicki]

Trevorum, I haven't been around as long as some here, but my gut reaction is that setting limitations on ECoHs is a bad thing. That said, I think, if I were you, I would try to keep track of when their paperwork goes to National and pencil in time periods accordingly. If "many" of the 25 have "completed all requirements or are very close to doing so", the differences in actual completion time plus the lag time for National to approve should add up to enough spacing to get your program in and not burn your troop out on ECoH. Wouldn't hurt to mention that this is coming up at the committee meeting, though.

 

I'd be more worried about your poor Scouts having to work all those Eagle projects!

 

It'll be interesting to hear how folks respond.

 

Vicki

[Vicki]

I like OGE's approach - we've always done ours on meeting night...I don't know why, probably has something to do with the availability of the Scouts at other times. We know we have the scouts on meeting night.

 

Vicki(This message has been edited by Vicki)

[Bob White]

We have always left it to the scout and his parents as to the where or when. I can remember only scout in nearly 30 years who had it done on a meeting night. All ther rest were weekend dates.

[scoutldr]

I agree that an ECOH is a special occasion and should be afforded a special time. If you have 25 LifeScouts, you will be averaging a COH every two weeks. If all your troop does is attend COHs, when are the other Scouts supposed to do Scouting?

[dsteele]

Congratulations on your Eagle Scout and planning the court of honor. Congratulations as well on having 25 Life Scouts. One note: 25 Life Scouts won't translate into 25 Eagle Scouts in a year. Some will drop out, some will simply never complete it, and some will become Eagle Scouts.

 

As to holding an Eagle Court of Honor on a regular meeting night (which I assume means the Eagle Court would supercede the meeting,) I would simply guide the Eagle Scout to the realization that one of his duties as an Eagle Scout is to help his lesser-ranked fellow Scouts. He should do this in a couple of ways 1) provide the Scouts an opportunity to be inspired by his receiving of the Eagle badge and 2) allowing the other Scouts the opportunity to progress in Scouting on their own without robbing them of a troop meeting.

 

Not a by-law. Not a rule. Simply advice.

 

Unc.

[hendrickms24]

My old troop always had an Eagle Scout dinner for all of the Eagles.

I know that this can be very expensive and also cause problem.

When I earned my Eagle Scout rank, I was told to wait for a couple of months so the other two scouts getting Eagle could get it at the same ceremony eliminate the monetary cost. I end up wait for about 5 months. Since, I was 18 yrs old and tired of scouting (I been cured of that) all I wanted was my medal. I looked into what an Eagle ceremony is supposed to prove that a Dinner was not the only choice. This is the information that I found. An Eagle ceremony can be a Dinner or a stand alone ceremony, or one that is at a Court of Honor. The Ceremony at COH needs to be separate from the rest of the COH. The one example given was at the end of COH turn the lights off and when the place is quiet then turn the light back on and start the Eagle Ceremony. I think

 

Let the Scout make that decision on which Ceremony he wants and if the there is more then one scout that has earned Eagle then group them together.

What ever you do please dont take the Troop meeting away from the other scouts.

 

[purcelce]

I say go with it on a meeting night. It just might motivate those life scouts that are close to being "Life Scouts for life".

 

Also the Eagle Scout should be able to have his COH where and when he wants it.

 

If you feel it will hamper the troop meeting. Attempt to have your SPL taylor the meeting to just last 30 minutes after the coh.

 

I think it can be done.

 

 

 

[Trevorum]

Most of our Eagle ceremonies have been on weekends or other evenings. All of our Eagles choose their own ceremony date/time. We don't dictate. Three years ago we had a very impressive quintuple ceremony.

 

The fellow under consideration has a guest speaker who is only available that night of the week, so I agreed to having his ECoH on the meeting night. Within the last year, we had one other Eagle who scheduled his CoH on a meeting night. It was a welcome change of pace and exposed the younger crowd to the impressive recognition ceremony. I know many of them were motivated. However, I don't want Eagle COHs to replace our regular troop program!

 

As unc. points out, not all of our Life Scouts will go the distance. But their track record over the 5 years I've been with the troop is pretty darn good. I estimate that 90% of the boys who make Life in our troop will earn their Eagle. If those guys see a couple of ECoHs on meeting nights, they might think that is a good option; if too many want meeting nights, I will have to say "no". I'd like to avoid that sticky situation in advance.

 

So my question (still) is: Can the committee set a restriction on scheduling ECoHs? Or, on second thought, maybe I should just counsel each candidate at his SM conference...

 

[Eagledad]

Hi All

 

Our troop ran into the same situation while I was SM. We had a new Eagle every month and a half. One Eagle chose to have his COH during a Troop COH and all of a sudden that seem to be the trend. Our committee had the exact same discussion that is going on now.

 

Trev, we decided to not interfer because it was to hard to predict the future. Instead we gave the families several examples of past Eagle COHs so they could choose what would fit best for their family. That worked pretty well because some scouts don't want a big ECOH and others want a wedding size ECOH. We did have one rash of three ECOHs during Troop COHs in six months time. But we have none like the since.

 

My advise is don't worry about it until it becomes a problem. Approach the families with several ideas and allow them to choose. I found it is usually the socuts who follow the trend, but the parents who advise on what is best for the convenience of the family, visitors and speakers.

 

Barry