LIFE TO EAGLE  

This guideline was generated with the intent of aiding Scouts in their quest for the rank of Eagle.

Specific requirements may change, so you are advised to consult the latest revision of the Scout

Handbook to ensure their currency. It is hoped that with the use of this guideline, the high standards

of accomplishment recognized in those who have achieved the rank of "Eagle" will be consistent and

generally enhanced.

That Last Step from "Life" to "Eagle"

* Congratulations on reaching the rank of "Life Scout."

* Your next step is to "Eagle."

* How do you get there from here?

The basic requirements for obtaining the rank of Eagle can be found in your handbook, but for your convenience, the key ones are listed below, plus specific guidelines on what is expected of you to fully satisfy all aspects of your Eagle candidacy.

Age & Timing - Ranks & Merit Badges

• All requirements for Eagle except meeting with the Boards of Review must be completed before your 18th birthday.

• This is an important point, for some requirements, such as the "Personal Management" and "Family Life" merit badge, require a minimum of (3) months to accomplish. Those merit badges that include minimum time requirements MUST be started well before the Scout's 18th birthday in order to complete those merit badges in time. For example, starting a merit badge that requires 3 months of work only 1 month before a Scout's 18th birthday means that the Scout will be unable to complete the badge before his 18th birthday, and if the badge is Eagle required, means that he will NOT be able to complete his Eagle requirements before his 18th birthday. Therefore, the Scout will remain a Life Scout forever.

• Also, the same minimum time applies to leadership time. For example, Eagle
  
  Requirement #1:

This states that a minimum of 6 months of being active in your troop since obtaining your Life Scout rank is required. If you wait too long to achieve Life Scout, then obtaining Eagle will be impossible time wise. Scouts must plan well ahead to make sure they earn their Life Scout Rank BEFORE 6 months before their 18th birthday. This is all the more reason why Scouts should not wait to the last minute if they are set on wanting to become an Eagle Scout!

Time In Rank

• You must be active in scouting as a "Life Scout" for a minimum of six (6) months.

Scout Spirit

• Your personal conduct must be consistent with the full meaning of "Scout Spirit"; i.e. living every day according to the Scout oath and law.

Scoutmaster's Conference

• You shall, as a "Life Scout," meet with your Scoutmaster for a Scoutmaster's conference.

Leadership

• As a "Life Scout," you must hold a position of leadership within your unit for a minimum of six months, satisfactorily demonstrating this quality to your scoutmaster and/or other adults from your troop.

Following are those leadership positions that will satisfy this requirement:

• Junior Assistant Scoutmaster

• Senior Patrol Leader

• Patrol Leader

• Assistant Senior Patrol Leader

• Quartermaster

• Scribe

• Librarian

• Den Chief

• Troop Guide

• Chaplain's Aide

• Leave No Trace Instructor

• Order of the Arrow Troop Rep

Merit Badges

• You are required to have a minimum of 21 Merit Badges: (14) required and (7) others.

• Required Badges

• First Aid

• Citizenship in the Community

• Citizenship in the Nation

• Citizenship in the World

• Citizenship in Society

• Communications

• Swimming or Hiking or Cycling

• Emergency Preparedness or Lifesaving

• Environmental Science or Sustainability

• Personal Management

• Personal Fitness

• Camping

• Family Life

• Cooking

* Additional Merit Badges

•  ________________________________

•  ________________________________

•  ________________________________

•  ________________________________

•  ________________________________

•  ________________________________

•  ________________________________

Eagle Service Project

• As an Eagle candidate, you must:

Plan

Develop

Give Leadership to Others

in a service project of a significant level helpful to a religious institution, school, or community.

• The guidelines for the Eagle Service Project are included below in this packet.

Read them Now.

• After you've digested the requirements for an acceptable Eagle Service Project, you are ready to take the necessary steps. these are laid out in order below to help you plot your progress.

• Familiarize yourself with other resource material: Advancement Procedure Booklet, Requirement Book, etc.

Letters of Recommendation - Eagle Board of Review

Required for the Eagle Board of Review, the Scout needs to obtain letters of recommendation from his parents, a school teacher, a neighbor & spiritual leader. Contact Troop 82's Advancement Chair to obtain the forms and instructions for the letters. The Scout will need to personally deliver the forms and instructions to those he is seeking a letter of recommendation from. The letter writers will need to write their letter and then place it into a sealed envelope, which they return to the Scout. The envelopes MUST remain sealed, and brought to the Board of Review by the Scout. The letters will then be opened & read at the Board of Review by those adults participating at the Board of Review.

For the Letters of Recommendation forms, download the document by scrolling all the way down and downloading the top document called:

KEY ELEMENTS OF THE EAGLE PROJECT

Remember, the major elements of the Eagle Project Guidelines are:

Choose Beneficiary

Project Idea

Project Plan

Develop

Give Leadership to Others

Final Reporting

• Choose your project; discuss your project IDEA with the Troop 82 Eagle Scout Service Project Coach & Scoutmaster. An Eagle Scout Service Project beneficiary can be any official non-profit organization, such as your local place of worship, school, town, service organization (such as the Elks), First Aid Squad, Firehouse, YMCA, Girl Scouts of America, or other non-profit organization, as long as it is NOT the Boy Scouts of America! Nor should the project benefit your own troop, camp or meeting place. Choose your beneficiary, and give them the document “Information for Project Beneficiaries”.
  
  A project should be chosen that will capture your interest & passion, as you will be proud of your accomplishment for many years to come! You MUST first choose a beneficiary, and then work with your beneficiary to come up with a project IDEA. On a plain piece of paper (or email or Word document), write up your IDEA as a simple one paragraph (approx.. 4 to 5 sentences) description of who your project is for, where it will be located and what the project will involve. Have your Coach and Scoutmaster review your IDEA. Once your Coach and Scoutmaster have approved of your IDEA, move to the next step, which is to use the official WORKBOOK and prepare your Project Proposal.

• Determine the task effort and requirements; e.g., materials/ manpower /time/ scheduling/etc. While there are no requirements for how much time a project should take to complete, a project should be both challenging to the Eagle Scout candidate, as well as to demonstrate his leadership of others. Most projects fall into the range of approx. 100 to 300 hours total to complete. These hours includes everyone who is involved in the project under the leadership of the
  Scout.

• Using the most current version of the official Eagle Scout Service Project Workbook, write up your proposed project up to and including the "Project Proposal" section by answering the following questions:

(a) What is the project?

(b) Who will benefit? How will they benefit?

(c) What official has been contacted from the group benefited?

(d) How much help do you need to carry out this project?

(e) What materials are needed?

(f) How do you expect to get and pay for this material?

(g) Make any graphs, sketches, take "before" pictures, videos, etc. which will help describe the planning you've done to get ready to carry out your project?

(h) After getting this information together, organize it and put it into a rough draft. Ask your Eagle Scout Service Project Coach to review it for content, and readability.

(i) Legibly write, print, or type (preferred) your proposed "Eagle Scout Service Project" request using the Eagle Scout Service Project Workbook.

(j) Print a hard copy for your own records and keep the electronic file safe & secure. Always make a backup electronic file.

(k) HINT: Write up the Project Proposal so that it can be read and easily understood by a person living in Texas, and has NO knowledge of the local area or the beneficiary involved. This is because many projects are reviewed by National BSA, whose headquarters is located in Texas. They don't know Wall Twp., New Jersey, or the exact place where your project will be completed! (m) If your project requires fundraising, then you MUST complete the FUNDRAISING APPLICATION in your workbook. This will require two approval signatures. Note – If you just plan to solicit for materials and money, and/or can get these items donated, then you do NOT need to fundraise, and do NOT need to fill out a fundraising application. Fundraising is raising money needed to purchase materials that are not donated. Solicitation is ASKING for donations of money and materials. Example of fundraising: Conducting a car wash.

• Obtain approval of your Project Proposal and Fundraising Application (if you plan to fundraise). This requires the following 4 approvals: Eagle Scout Service Project Coach, Scoutmaster, Project Sponsor & Thunderbird District Advancement Committee Chair. You must obtain the District Advancement Chair's approval before starting your project. DO NOT DO ANY ACTUAL WORK OR FUNDRAISING FOR YOUR PROJECT UNTIL ALL 4 APPROVAL SIGNATURES HAVE BEEN OBTAINED! If your project requires fundraising (car wash, yard sale, etc.), you need to also complete the fundraising section in the workbook, and also obtain the necessary approvals before fundraising can begin.

• Now you're ready to work on your detailed Eagle Service Project Final Plan in your project workbook. Once the final, detailed plans are complete, you are now ready to actually begin to lead your team and work on your project to completion. Have your Eagle Project Coach review and comment on your Final Plan BEFORE you begin actual work.

• Start to actually WORK on your project. This is where you will provide leadership from start to finish, and insure that the work gets done both safely and to the satisfaction of your beneficiary.

• After your project is physically done, it is not actually TOTALLY complete until all the paperwork has been completed. This includes your Eagle Scout Service Project Report in your workbook. Work with your Eagle Scout Service Project Coach to insure your workbook is fully correct & complete. This is followed by two more important approval signatures - one from your project beneficiary, and the second from your Scoutmaster.

• You are now ready to present your completed workbook at your Eagle Board of Review! (which occurs after all other Eagle requirements have been completed.)

Eagle Scout Service Project Helpful Hints

• As you plan, develop, and lead your project, keep detailed and accurate records of the manpower expended by name/date/time. along with any changes or deviations from your original plans. These changes could involve such things as using more or less material or even a different material. It could possibly be an entirely different approach to the project due to changes desired of the end product,  or a more efficient accomplishment of the task.

•  Changes from your original plan are acceptable so long as the end project satisfies the intent of the original project.

• You should keep a diary in which you keep track of what happened while you planned, developed and led the project. You will find this diary to be a big help when you write your report.

• It is important that you keep track of the dates and amount of time contributed by all the people who help you, Scouts, friends and or other adults.

•  Your last step to complete the "Eagle Service Project" is to write the final report.

• This report, along with your Eagle Application, will be submitted to the local council as part of your "Eagle Board of Review" and then forwarded on to "National" for their approval.

• Obtain a letter from the benefitting organization as to satisfactory completing the project.

• Your "Final" Project Report should follow the outline provided in your Eagle packet.

• Since you used this same format for "selling" your project, all that should be required is to add the new information which reflects the actual completion.

• This Final Report must be readable and be presented with
    your project title and name on the outside.

EAGLE BOARD OF REVIEW

Now You're Ready For Your Board of Review.

Eagle Board of Review

• After you have completed or satisfied the requirements for Eagle you are required to go before the Troop Committee for review and approval. Following are the preparations necessary to complete this step:

• Have your advancement chairperson confirm your records with the Boy Scout Council's Registrar (a verified application).

• Make an Appointment with the Troop Committee Advancement Chairperson for an "Eagle Board of Review." A member of the district Advancement Committee will participate in your Board of Review.

• Bring to this Board of Review your Eagle Application form, completely filled out and signed by your Scoutmaster.

• Bring with you your "Eagle Service Project Report" plus two to three copies  (one copy for the troop records and one for council records).

• You are required to obtain four letters of reference which you must bring with you in their sealed envelopes.

• Appear at the appointed time, and place, in full uniform, for your Eagle Board of Review. Remember, be prepared to answer questions pertaining to your Scouting Spirit, past, present and future.

• If approved, the applications and reports will be forwarded to Council Headquarters by the Troop Advancement Committee .