My Mom and a Rescheduled Eagle Board of Review

There are a lot of things I am embarrassed that I did as a kid. One of them is the way I treated my Mom. I was horrible to her especially as my Dad was away on assignments for the military. She broke a handful of wooden spoons on my behind. I deserved it plus more. I even punched my Mom in the arm once. Not my most shining moment. It wasn't premeditated but that in no way excuses my behavior at all. You don't ever, ever hit your Mom. I yelled at her constantly and raised my voice often. Often my Mom would call my Dad and then hand the phone to me so he could "talk to me" in a very loud tone. Never fun. 

Recently I climbed out of my car to do an Eagle Board of Review. In the parking lot a boy was yelling at his mother. My gut reaction was "If this is my Eagle Board, we need to reschedule so he can think about what he did." This boy was my candidate. I called my boss, I talked to Mom and Dad and I talked to the Scout. I explained I was concerned about his actions. He took no accountability for his actions and explained it was his Mom's fault. Either way I asked Mom and Dad multiple times if rescheduling would hurt or help this boy. Both said help.

6 days later I met this boy again with Mom and Dad to hold his Eagle Board of Review. This boy was totally different. I met with Mom and Dad again ahead of time and explained some of the things I had done to my Mom and just wanted to get their son's attention. His Mom and Dad started crying thanking me for trying to help. Both explained that this has been a wake up call for their son. I hope the lesson sticks. I also hope I continue to get those gut feelings to help others.

After talking with Mom and Dad I went to talk to the Scout to tell him we was going to get a fair Eagle Board of Review. And he did. His Scout Spirit was different on try #2. He is a good kid. Hopefully he changes for good.

I know I have.

My Mom, a wood spoon and I!

Board of Review???

I had a neighboring Scout leader call me to set up an Eagle Board of Review.  I got the certified application and set it up before my regular Scout meeting.

I sat in the parking lot and no one showed.  Not even the leader who scheduled the meeting showed up.  So I gave them the benefit of the doubt and just chalked it up to mis-communication.  On my way out of the Church building after my Scouting meeting someone mentioned to me about the Eagle Board.  I told them it was supposed to be at 6 PM.  He thought it was 8.  He pulled up his email and told me I was right but told me the boy is here waiting for his Board.

Upon further investigation.....

No Board members had been assigned to sit on the Board as there were emails going around in the unit asking to sit on the Board but no takers.  So we had no Board members there to sit and with discussion with the boy he had not reference letters or ambitions letter written.  He was a sweaty from playing basketball with his Crew.

There are two failures here and I know you are not going to like that I don't put most of the blame on the boy.

1.  Where was the Scout leader to coordinate all of this including making sure the boy had read all the requirements and was prepared including all his paperwork?
2.  Why hadn't the boy read the Eagle Rank Application?
3.  Where was the Scout leader??????

Eagle Board of Review - Becoming small in stature

I have an Eagle Board of Review set up for Thursday with a member of the Area 70 and my Stake President set to be on the Board.  Oh brother........  More nervous for me than the boy.

Email to Advancement Team

What follows is an email I sent to the BSA's Advancement Team about a concern I had.


Advancement Team:

I was wondering if I could get some clarification on Scouts who bring reference letters to their Eagle Board of Reviews.  I have always collected these at the end of a EBoR and taken them with me.  Recently I did an EBoR where a father played a significant role in helping select members of his son's EBoR and actually tried to sit in on the Board.  I invited him to leave at the beginning and he left.  When I attempted to leave after the Board, he demanded to have his son's reference letters back.  I tried to explain to the father the policy but to no avail.  I told him I would check into it and get back to him (along with returning the letters) if I incorrectly remember the policy.  Am I not supposed to take these reference letters with me?  Am I making a mistake by taking them?  I have talked with my District's Advancement Chair and she said only LDS units don't give these letters to Eagle Candidates.  (I have never heard of that before especially being in an LDS unit.)  She said non-LDS units present these letters to the candidate after they have received Council approval for their Eagle.

So am I supposed to collect and keep these letters?

Whatever answer you provide, could you give me some though on to why it is the way it is?  I am not trying to get anyone in trouble.  I just want to do it the right way!!


Fishgutts
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Hello Fishgutts,

Thank you for your message. We can help with a clear answer which can be found in the Guide to Advancement, topic 9.0.1.7. If you don't have a copy you can access it at no cost via the link under our address line below. This publication has been recently rewritten and addresses most advancement issues you will ever encounter.

First, the Scout is not to bring references with him to the board of review. The board has the responsibility for collecting these. The Scouts role in the process is limited to requesting recommendations, or better, delivering written requests that the council or district has created for this purpose. The contents of the references are confidential--no one sees them but the board of review--not the parents, or the Scout, the unit leader, or anyone else--pretty much just the review members. Those providing the references shall not be given the opportunity to waive this confidentiality.

At the close of the board of review, the letters are held by the council and destroyed once the Eagle credentials are released by the national Advancement Team, or once any appeals have been resolved.

This procedure is exactly the same for our LDS friends as for anyone else in the country. If non LDS units are returning the letters they are violating national policy. All advancement procedures apply to all units regardless the chartered organization.
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9.0.1.7 References Contacted


Council advancement committee members—or others designated—contact the references appearing on the Eagle Scout application. This may be done by letter, form, or phone call. For reasons of privacy and confidentiality, electronic submissions are discouraged. It is acceptable to send or deliver to the references an addressed envelope with instructions, and perhaps a form to complete. The Scout may assist with this, but that is the limit of his participation. He is not to be responsible for follow-through or any other aspect of the process.
It is up to the council’s designated representatives to make every effort to collect the responses. If after a reasonable effort no response can be obtained from any references, the board of review must go on without them. It may not be postponed or denied for this reason, and the Scout may not be asked to submit additional references or to provide replacements.
Completed reference responses of any kind are the property of the council and are confidential, and only review-board members and those officials with a specific need may see them. The responses are not to be viewed by, or returned to, the Scout. Doing so could discourage the submission of negative information. For the same reason, those providing references shall not be given the option of waiving confidentiality. Once a review has been held, or an appeal process conducted, responses shall be returned to the council, where they will be destroyed after the Eagle Scout credentials are released or the appeal is concluded.
In Boy Scouting, advancement references are required only for Eagle Scout rank. The council determines methods of contact.

New Eagle Scout Project Workbook

While studying the new Eagle Scout Project Workbook, I found this quote especially interesting:

Eagle Scout projects must be evaluated primarily on impact: the extent of benefit to the religious institution, school or community, and on the leadership provided by the candidate.  (Page 3)

I find this wording especially helpful for those of us who sign off on Eagle Scout projects for boys.  I can think that this only makes projects more goal oriented and more focused on the true purpose of the project ~ to show leadership and to "help other people".  This shouldn't just be a project for a rank.  This project should make a different in the Scout's life but also those he is serving.  I have seen some projects that were just thrown together with just the faintest of leadership skills.

Eagle Board of Review

Not too long ago I did an Eagle Board of Review.  It was an absolute visit to the dentists.  The boy called me after he was 18 from Idaho (I am in TX) where he was spending his 2 month vacation to let me know that when he got home he needed a Board of Review.  When he returned he was sitting at 18 years old 2 months.  When he got home, he called me and told me about a problem he had with his Eagle Scout Leadership Project packet.  I asked him to it on his doorstep and I would come by, take it and look at it.

When I appeared to get it and looked at it, my mouth dropped to the floor.  3 incomplete, half signed packets.  One of the "Eagle Project Packets" wasn't even the BSA approved packet yet it had the signature from the organization that would be receiving the project, the charter organization rep and the unit chair.  And to make things worst, a District Advancement Rep had also signed a non-BSA packet.  My mouth fell even further.  I got mad.  LDS leaders had no clue that they were supposed to use the BSA approved Eagle Leadership packet?  They not only failed the boy, they failed themselves.  So, I calmed down to make a few phones calls to his leaders and my boss on the Advancement Committee getting his approval to make these three into one semi-perfect packet.  I was upset.  The boy seemed to be doing this half excited and his unit wasn't providing the proper motivation.  He half filled out one legal packet and then decided to half fill out another legal packet.  There was no rhyme or reason.

So here comes the Eagle Board of Review.  First thing I notice is that the requirement on the Eagle Scout Rank Application that talks about who he did his Eagle Project for and how many hours, he had listed a 10 hour service project he had done.  At this point, I was pushed over the limit.  I was ready to scream.  Again, the boy is doing things willy-nilly and the unit isn't looking over the paperwork but just signing the paperwork.  Maybe they were just taking his word that he had filled it out right.  Is there no pride as to the things you sign?  This wasn't a homework packet being signed to go back to a teacher.  This was supposed to not only impress me but the BSA.  The boy didn't seem to care and the unit either didn't care or they are just uneducated.  I don't think the later is the case as I have done 3 others in this unit and this seemed to be the only one with issues. 

His Bishop was going to serve on his Board and before we started I told the Board that I wasn't really excited about this Board of Review.  I had worked too hard on this.  Please don't think I expect puppies and fluff clouds in this line of work.  I really don't but I feel like I went above and beyond when assigned leaders could have fixed these issues.  Some may just think this is part of the job.  And it may be.  I felt like the boy didn't deserve Eagle (start the hate-mail now!!).

UPDATE:  Since writing this post, I have been contacted by the Council.  Why you might ask?  The boy since moving to Texas over two years ago, has never, ever been registered as a Scout in his Ward.  The Council will not process his application because he was never a Scout in the Council.  This enrages me.  Talk about failing the boy.  Talk about adults that have no clue as to what they are doing.  Talk about screwing up the simple things.  I better stop now.

UPDATE #2:  This Scout now needs National to approve the fact that he can even apply to be an Eagle because he was unregistered while he worked on Scouting.  Also because he is over 18.  Then he has to apply and pay for each year he has gone unregistered.  Then it goes back to National to see if they approve it.  We are also now needing his records from his previous Council.  NOTE TO ALL LDS SCOUTERS:  KNOW YOUR STUFF!  Boys lives (and emotional lives) hang in the balance.