Scoutmaster

Avoiding Eagle Scout Drama - part 4 -The Eagle Project

Open the Eagle Scout Project Workbook (opens PDF file) and you will find about 2 1/2 half pages of instructions about conducting the project written in less than 1000 words (966 to be exact).

Google the words "Eagle Scout Project" and you'll get about 1.4 million references.

Avoid drama by reading only the 966 words in the workbook. If you think this is adequate advice stop reading now and move on. Otherwise you can continue reading as I, unfortunately, add to the vast commentaries on the Eagle project out of necessity in the hopes that it will help someone avoid some drama.

If your Council Advancement Committee has amended the workbook (as mine has) get a clean copy of the current workbook from the link above. Check the National Eagle Scout Association site to be sure you have the correct iteration of the workbook (this is important). If, along the way, someone like your District Advancement Chairman insists on something outside of these 966 words insist (politely) that they show you in black and white the language from the BSA (not the Council Advancement Committee) upon which their instruction is based.

If it is not in the workbook it is not part of the requirement. I am writing principally on the administrative aspects of the project because the candidate themselves take care of the execution of the project and, ideally, no adult leaders from their Troop are involved in that phase of the project.
 
Here's the things that usually cause problems;

Originality
A perennial observation of Scoutmasters and other leaders is that Scouts seem to be doing similar projects over and over again. This must be a very common concern because the BSA has chosen to address it specifically.

Does the leadership service project for Eagle have to be original, perhaps something you dream up that has never been done before? The answer: No, but it certainly could be. You may pick a project that has been done before, but you must accept responsibility for planning, directing, and following through to its successful completion.

There is a clear answer to the question of originality - NO. Anyone who insists on originality is adding to the requirement which, we all know, is a big no-no. Remember that you may have seen a dozen Eagle projects that were very similar or exactly alike - but it is all new to the Eagle candidate.

No minimum number of hours is required
A simple statement - need I explain it? No 'target number of hours', 'average number of hours'. If stating these were important or helpful don't you think that the folks at the BSA who have seen two million Eagle Scouts would have included them?

Size
There are no specific requirements. Nada, none, no, not any.

How big a project is required? There are no specific requirements, as long as the project is helpful to a religious institution, school, or community. The amount of time spent by you in planning your project and the actual working time spent in carrying out the project should be as much as is necessary for you to demonstrate your leadership of others.

It is up to the Eagle candidate to design his project to adequately demonstrate his abilities.

The Scoutmaster's Role
Scoutmasters approve the project plan and may have a role in helping advise and coach the Scout as through the planning process. Sometimes Troops have an adult leader who is detailed to do this.
An Eagle Candidate is conducting his project to demonstrate his leadership of others. Who will ultimately pass judgment on whether or not he has done so? Not his Scoutmaster. The Scoutmaster signs off to certify the project "was planned, developed, and carried out by the candidate", not on the quality of the project or the leadership, this is not the Scoutmaster's concern. The Board of Review, and they alone, will evaluate this aspect of the project. 

Eagle projects may be simple, complex require thousands of dollars or not one cent. They may take months or days to complete and require tens or hundreds of hours on the part of a few people or a veritable army of helpers. They may have a tremendous impact or simply make a difference. Every project in this broad spectrum is valuable, laudable and important. There are few, if any, universal standards to the size, scope and originality of the project so every Scout, regardless of where he lives, his talents abilities or resources has the opportunity to become an Eagle Scout.

I readily guide Scouts to explore what others have done for projects and encourage them to be imaginative and expansive when planning their projects.  But I  guard that my encouragements did not become so coercive to be thought of as a requirement.

Last Minute Eagles

CA Scouter comments:

It would be interesting to hear your reflections on Scouts putting off Eagle til they're 17.5 years old and then trying to get their project and missing merit badges done in the small amount of time left. ... in a perfect world, the SM has been counseling boys not to let it get to this point, but as you say, Scout aged boys do a lot of things they shouldn't. Any reflections on this particular situation would be of value.

I hope this helps:

As you note Scout aged boys are still growing, even at 17 and a half. I have to laugh because I have two last-minute last minute lulus working hard on their projects right now. I do find this peculiarly provoking because I am a bit of a last minute lulu myself. I get a lot less upset about this now than I used to.

Over the years I have developed what I think is an effective way helping Scouts conceptualize what it is going to take for them to become Eagles, especially the element of time. We diagram a time line that begins with their Life Scoutmasters conference and ends with their eighteenth birthday. We factor in involvement in school, church, sport, merit badges,  and the average time to conceive, lead and complete a project. When they see the time line they have (at least for a while) a pretty good concept about what they need to do. I always tell them that they will complicate things tenfold if they wait, that they should have a plan and get things moving right away.

Very few of them have ever taken my advice.

I really don't think this will ever really change or that it is a new trend - I'll bet the first Eagle Scout was almost late getting a signature or something.

After two or three late season Eagle Scouts most Scoutmasters set out to fix the 'problem'. They dream up rules and regulations, policies and procedures designed to make the Scoutmaster's life easier. Despite all this some Scouts will still get a late start.

I figure that this is not a problem that can be fixed or regulated any more than the hundred other excesses and deficits that mark the life of any developing human being or ourselves as adults. When we sign on as Scoutmasters we accept that we are working with what Plato called "the most unmanageable of all the animals".  We can't protect them from the consequences of their actions, nor do we want to.

Part of the intensive learning process in achieving Eagle is developing an appreciation for planning and timing. I haven't ever done anything extraordinary to help my last minute lulus, they have to figure things out just like any other Eagle Candidate (only faster).

Whether a Scout starts working on Eagle in earnest with two years or two months left to go the most important thing is that they actually started.

Floyd Starr (founder of Starr Commonwealth, the first residential treatment center for 'juvenile delinquents') is famous for saying "There is no such thing as a bad boy". I agree but, from time to time, some of them can be a real pain in the butt.

Avoiding Eagle Scout Drama - part 3

So far we have determined that needless drama can be caused when a Scoutmaster seeks to impose his ideal vision of an Eagle Scout on the advancement process. In addition we have discovered Baden Powell founded Scouting on the idea that it would offer Scouts a way to challenge themselves towards achievement on an individual basis rather than against an ideal standard.

As a rule of thumb if there is no numerical metric applied to a requirement it is improper and against policy to create one.

So how in the world can a Scoutmaster evaluate Scouts fairly? If Scouts challenged themselves against an internalized standard then it is our task to learn how each Scout evaluates their individual performance. That's why we have Scoutmaster's conferences rather than Scoutmaster reviews. Conferring is an exchange of information, a discussion, a series of questions designed to establish a common understanding.

During conferences for ranks that require leadership tenure I ask plenty of questions about the Scouts experience with the leadership position:

• What was your most and least successful moment as a leader?
• What would you change about the way you did the job?
• How do you evaluate your performance, did you fulfill this requirement?

If I have an issue with the Scout's performance and I haven't discussed this with him before the Scoutmaster's conference I consider that I am not doing my job. If I have had an ongoing discussion and the Scout hasn't made any effort to address the issue we'll discuss it further and try to find out what the real problem is.

Responsible Scoutmasters have an ongoing dialog with their Scouts that is marked by encouragement rather than fault finding. They address and resolve concerns and don't let become major problems.

Adolescence can be one long infuriating power struggle. Our work demands that we try to understand the process and not react out of anger. We especially do not want to turn a Scoutmaster's conference into a passive-aggressive, sanctimonious exercise of supposed power.

Scout aged boys do a lot of things they shouldn't and don't do a lot of things they should. Our role is to work with them, not against them, to recognize achievement and effort and downplay failure. We accomplish this by helping our Scouts develop personal goals, overcome difficulty, deal with disappointment and meet the challenges they define for themselves.

Avoiding Eagle Scout Drama
Avoiding Eagle Scout Drama part 2

Avoiding Eagle Scout Drama part 2

Scoutmasters need to understand what makes Scouting different from everything else - why young men and women have been Scouts all over the world for the past century.

Scouting's founder Baden-Powell envisioned a movement that would give everyone the opportunity to challenge and achievement based not on a single standard of performance but on a highly individualized, internalized standard. (Read Baden-Powell's thoughts on this here).

If we can encourage Scouts to define, internalize and follow an internal standard of acheivement we will have given them an set of skills that will immeasurably enrich their lives and communities.

Like many Scoutmasters I was initially frustrated by the lack of measurable metrics in Scouting. Just what is Scout Spirit? What percentage of meetings or camp outs must a Scout attend to be considered active? How does one measure the effectiveness of someone's leadership?

Metrics are missing for a good reason; every Scout and every Scout's circumstances in life are different. Scouts who are academically talented and Scouts who are poor students, from affluent families, from poor families all become Eagle Scouts. There are no class-a or class-b Eagle Scouts.

So one particularly common source of Eagle Scout drama is eliminated when Scoutmasters understand and embrace the concept of individual effort evaluated by an individualized standard. Can't you use this individualized standard to justify bad behavior, poor performance and indifference? How does a Scoutmaster hold Scouts accountable if everyone is going to advance anyway?

The answer is actually very simple, it should be part of every Scoutmaster conference and I'll write about it in my next post.

See also:

Avoiding Eagle Scout Drama

Avoiding Eagle Scout Drama

During my tenure as Scoutmaster I have worked with 50 Scouts who have earned the rank of Eagle. Becoming an Eagle Scout is beset by difficulties and so should it be, it is supposed to be challenging. Unfortunately these normal difficulties are often compounded by totally unnecessary complications that we'll call drama.

All too often this drama is caused  by the Scoutmaster.

Somehow there are a number of Scoutmasters who act like that they are the gatekeepers for the advancement system (especially the rank of Eagle) when they are supposed to be coaches, guides and mentors. Some Scoutmasters develop the idea that their personal standard of acheivement is all important.They wield the Scoutmaster's conference like a weapon making it a pronouncement of their often capricious judgment.

Now this all sounds pretty dramatic because it really is dramatic. Scouts and families take a huge emotional hit whose shock waves extend to other Scouts and their families.

Narratives of these dramas unfold as if they had been scripted; a Scout, having completed their Eagle project, six months of leadership tenure, 21 merit badges and six previous Scoutmaster Conferences sits down with his Scoutmaster who ambushes him with one of two (and often both) pronouncements that he has not met the 'active' requirement or has failed to show Scout Spirit. Sometimes the Scoutmaster may set the Scout a task to appease the Scoutmaster, sometimes the Scoutmaster just slams the gate closed.

Why does this happen over and over again? (Trust me, it does, I get emails.) Usually because the Scoutmaster either lacks an understanding of the advancement system and/or is just generally frustrated with is Scouts.

What do I mean 'just generally frustrated with his Scouts'?. The best explanation I have is drawn from personal experience. Most of us Scoutmasters develop an idealized concept of what an Eagle Scout should be and it becomes a standard by which we judge our Scouts. This idealized standard supplants the advancement process and results in a great deal of frustration.

It took me some years to understand that no Scout would measure up to the idealized standard I had developed. Upholding my idealized yet non-existent Eagle Scout was doing a lot more harm than good. The antidote to this dilemma was an understanding of what Scouting really is all about and what makes it different from every other field of endeavor - something that I'll explore further in tomorrow's post.

Eagle Projects Aren't Unit Activities

Here's an exchange from Ask Andy (an online column from a long-time Scouter and Unit Commissioner) about Eagle Projects.

There's a couple of levels of information going on in this exchange. First of all Andy does a good job of clarifying what actual policy is regarding Eagle Projects. They aren't unit activities and so do not fall under the oversight of the unit or Scouters. I'll add that Life Scouts conducting Eagle projects need as much latitude to actually lead the project as they can get. I have assisted with exactly three Eagle Projects in 25 years (one was my step-sons project). There is no way for me to go to a Scouts Eagle Project and not be the Scoutmaster.

The other thing to learn from this exchange is how  a well-intentioned, convoluted and ultimately wrong-headed approach is inflexible even in the face of a clear statement of policy.

Dear Andy,

I’ve respected you opinions in the past, but this time I think you’re wrong about two-deep leadership for Eagle projects, for a number of reasons…

1. In a Scout-led Troop, the Scouts are always in charge, but just because the Eagle candidate is in charge of his Eagle project doesn’t mean that we don’t need two-deep adult leadership.

2. The Eagle service project is a unit event in that it’s been reviewed and approved by the Scoutmaster and Troop Committee, and the Eagle candidate has encouraged his fellow Scouts to help him on the project by announcing it at Troop meetings, and his Scoutmaster has agreed to allow the Scouts’ participation to be counted as service hours.

3. Consider what would happen if a Scout gets hurt while working on an Eagle project and no adult leaders are present. Can we claim that it wasn’t a Scouting event and therefore we’re not required to have adult leaders there? I’d hate to see that in the newspapers.

4. "In-city" events that occur for less than a day don’t require tour permits, but they’re still considered unit events. Are you arguing that we only need two-deep adult leadership when a tour permit is required? That doesn't sound right to me.

(John Shriver, CC, Greater Alabama Council)

The short version is: Nope, nope, nope, and nope. Here’s why…

1. Yes, in fact, a Life Scout is absolutely in charge of his own project, and no one else should even suggest taking this away from him. The "Eagle project," after all, is much more about leadership than it is about service. Moreover, a Life Scout doesn't have merely other Scouts as helpers... he can recruit friends, neighbors, cousins, classmates, brothers or sisters, teammates, and on and on, so that having "adult troop leaders" hangin' around might actually interfere with rather than aid what this requirement is intended to accomplish.

2. The Eagle service project is absolutely not a "unit event," regardless of signatures. This endeavor belongs to the Life Scout and no one else. If a Scout "announces" his project and need for help at a troop meeting, this is just one of many venues open to him for recruiting. This makes it even more afield from a "unit event." As for a Scoutmaster "agreeing" to "allow" Scouts to "count" their time on a project toward "service hours," any Scoutmaster who didn't "agree" to this would need his head examined.

3. Regarding accidents, you're perhaps forgetting that the BSA-provided insurance is the very last insurance to kick in. All other insurances come first. This would include one's medical insurance if medical treatment proved necessary. The presence of adults from the troop would have no effect whatsoever on treatment or insurance. Besides, just what are you expecting to have happen? There are no chain saws or other powered equipment ever necessary to complete an Eagle project—hand tools should always be preferred, and this should be a part of the project plan. Moreover, no "headlines" would go away just because some troop adults were there and couldn't prevent the "accident."

4. If you carefully read the Guide to Safe Scouting FOR UNIT ACTIVITIES (that's the full title, and I've capitalized the part of the title we often overlook, for emphasis), you'll discover that it specifically states that there are events for which "two-deep leadership" aren't required, including, also, patrol meetings.

Thanks for providing the logic behind your answer. I appreciate it. Our difference stems from whether or not we view an Eagle project as being something outside Scouting. I don’t believe it is, and you do. While it must be performed for an organization other than the BSA, and people outside of Scouting can assist, it’s still controlled by a Scout and approved by Scouters. I don’t see any reason to define it as being separate from Scouting. We define what it is and set up fairly strict guidelines as to what must be done. How can we then say that it’s not part of our organization? The other difference is that I believe that two-deep leadership is an excellent idea for everyone involved (not for insurance reasons). I suspect that you do too. It may be restrictive at times, but then so are safety helmets and seat belts. (John Shriver)

No one until now said that an Eagle project is "outside Scouting." An Eagle project is "Scouting in action!" What it's not, however, is a "unit activity" (i.e., a "troop activity"). Therefore, two-deep leadership is absolutely not mandatory, for the same reason that a patrol of Scouts can have a meeting or even go out and do something all together and it's not mandatory that they have adults along—not because it's "outside Scouting" but because it's not a "unit activity." (As regards helmets and seat belts, these are laws.)

Eagle Project Guidelines - Avoid the Maze!

Eagle Scout Projects are actually very simple; any Scout can complete a project without a lot of fuss if he avoids the maze.

There is a whole lot of opaque, misdirected and downright wrong advice out there. Much of it may come from district or council level Advancement Chairpersons. Despite their best intentions these folks have erected a maze of confusing, contradicting directions that can leave Scouts and Scouters feeling frustrated.

One major way to avoid the maze is to ignore (that's right ignore) anything but what is said in two documents - The Eagle Project Workbook and the Advancement Committee Policies and Procedures book.

For some reason many Councils and Districts have issued an annotated version of the Eagle Project Workbook with oft times misguided information. In effect they have added (hardly ever subtracted) to the simple verbiage that describes an Eagle Project. A clean,current copy of the manual is always available at the National Eagle Scout Association website. If it is not in this manual it is not National Policy - enough said.

The 2008 printing of the Advancement Committee Policies and Procedures book is available here as a PDF document. Eagle projects are discussed on page 27-28.

A careful, literal reading of this section will dispel many myths and urban legends. Here are three persistent questions that have simple answers:

Must Eagle Projects be conducted under the two-deep leadership rule? Answer; no.

The Eagle Scout service project provides the opportunity for the Eagle Scout candidate to demonstrate the leadership skills he has learned in Scouting. He does the project outside the sphere of Scouting. As a demonstration of leadership, the Scout must plan the work, organize the personnel needed, and direct the project to its completion. ACPP Pg. 28

There are a few instances, such as patrol activities, when no adult leadership is required.
Guide to Safe Scouting Pg.12

Are there a minimum number of hours for the project? Answer: no.

There is no minimum number of hours that must be spent on carrying out the project. The amount of time spent must be sufficient for the Scout to clearly demonstrate leadership skills.
ACPP Pg. 28

Can the District or Council make special rules or amend the requirements for projects? Answer: no.

The project must also be reviewed and approved by the district or council advancement committee or their designee to make sure that it meets the stated standards for Eagle Scout service projects before the project is started
ACPP Pg. 28

No council, district, unit, or individual has the authority to add to or subtract from advancement requirements.
ACPP Pg. 3

If, in the course of planning, executing or reporting on an Eagle Project you are told something that does not make sense it probably is not official policy. Ask, politely, to see the policy any document published by the BSA- if it isn't there it isn't true.

More Eagle Scout Thoughts

Andy at "Ask Andy" writes:

In 1931, Jane Addams, founder of Hull House, received the Nobel Peace Prize; she was 91 at the time.Former US President Jimmy Carter is also a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize; he was 78 when he received it. Theodore Roosevelt, the only US President to receive this recognition while in office, was a mere 48 on receipt. But he wasn't the youngest. Lech Walesa was a mere 40 in 1983, when he received it; and Martin Luther King, Jr. was a babe of 35 when he received it. Should the NPP committee have held these latter three recognitions back for another two or three decades, so that the recipients' ages were more in line with others? The answer is, of course, No. Why? Because they'd "done the work."

I know a young man who will graduate from a major Ivy League university with a Masters degree at age 19.  Shouldn't the university have tried to slow him down, to make him wait, to stall him, till he turns 24 or 25 or so?  Of course not!  Why?  Because he' done the work.

There are, in the military, young generals and old generals, and in some cases very old generals.  How does this happen?  It happens when they are considered qualified by dint of having done the work, regardless of their age.

But what sets all of these apart from the ranks in Scouting's advancement program is that, in these cases, someone else must decide that the work's been done; in Scouting, this is virtually entirely up to the individual Scout.  This is perhaps why there's only one Eagle Scout Rank Application, and not separate applications for "Young Eagle" or "Old Eagle." When the work has been done, it's the work that is evaluated; not the age.

The Boy Scout advancement program is unique in several ways.  First, as stated, it is based on individual effort and is achievable by one's own vision and energies.  Second, it is not mandatory in any sense of the word: If a Scout wishes to earn this rank, there is nothing in the Scouting program that can stand in his way; if he doesn't, Scouting says that that's OK.  Third, no one "confers" or "bestows" the rank of Eagle (or any other rank, for that matter) on a Scout: He receives what he has earned.  Fourth and perhaps most significant, receiving of any rank in Scouting by one individual is not determined by the judgment of others: If the work has been completed, the rank has been earned.

It is the responsibility of a troop's adult volunteers to encourage all Scouts to advance in rank; it is not the responsibility of anyone to decide who shall advance and who shall not, or what their respective timetables will be.

Certain ranks have tenures.  Some people think these are to slow the Scout down (so he can "mature," etc.).  Actually, the purpose of the tenures is to give the Scout the opportunity to put into practice what he's learned, in a significant way.

Some people also think that "Eagle" is the pinnacle of Scouting, the end of the road, the finish-line, in a manner similar to earning a college degree.  But, when pressed, these same people will (perhaps reluctantly) agree that even college degrees go beyond Bachelor, and even go beyond Doctor.. Yes, there are "Post-Doc" educational opportunities!  When we think of Eagle as the end of the road, the tendency is to couple this thinking--however wrong--with the fact that one's 18th birthday ends the Boy Scout experience as a youth, and so we have young men who are encouraged to plan a seven-year program from Tenderfoot to Eagle because of a misguided connection founded on an inaccuracy. Now there's nothing inherently wrong with a seven-year program of progress, but neither is there anything inherently wrong with a two-year program of progress!  It's all up to each individual Scout.  The Boy Scout Handbook says so!

So much for age.  Let's move on...

Is rank advancement important?  Yes it is, because this is one of the ways boys become men: They steadily expand their knowledge, skills, and outlook on life.  However, advancement is but one-eighth of the methods Scouting employs to accomplish the ultimate goal of imbuing boys with the fiber of responsible, ethical manhood and citizenship.  There are seven other equally important methods by which Scouting attempts to do this, from the outdoor program to association with positive adult role models. Is the rank of Eagle important?  Yes it is, because it's an achievable goal for every boy who enters the Boy Scout program.  We are taught in management that, when we set gaols for ourselves or the group we're responsible for, those goals must be achievable.  Eagle is achievable.  But, historically, only two in a hundred boys reach this level.  Is this OK?  Of course it is, because even though not necessarily achieved by all, it nevertheless represents a target to be aimed for. The earliest Boy Scout Handbook called those who earned Eagle "all-around perfect Scouts."  This may have been a mistake.  "All-around" certainly, but "perfect"...?  I'm not so sure about "perfect."  In today's world, I think "all-around" works just fine.  In fact, I've never yet met an Eagle Scout who wasn't "all-around."  Eagle Scouts aren't "Scout nerds," largely because what is required of them inherently expands their world.

On "coronations"...

A Court of Honor recognizes advancements that Scouts have earned since the last court. Courts of Honor, in my opinion, need to remain this way.  I don't personally accept the notion of "EAGLE Courts of Honor," because while this rank is significant, so are Life, Star, and, Yes, Tenderfoot. Each one marks progress; each one deserves to be acknowledged. Besides, from a purely practical point-of-view, many fewer Scouts and parents attend "Eagle Courts" than do troop-wide Courts of Honor, and without these Scouts and parents, how can this rank be used to help promote the idea of advancement overall?  The plain fact is: It can't.

Moreover, the specialized C-o-H tends to be more a coronation than an acknowledgment of a rank earned.  (Even with the Motion Picture Academy Awards, Oscar winners are given 90 seconds to make their acceptance speeches, whether it's a single award or a group award.)

On what Eagle means...

I knew a man--president of a multi-million dollar corporation--who made a point of hiring men who were Eagle Scouts.  When I asked him why, here's what he said: "I know when I hire a man who is an Eagle that he knows how to set a goal and then figure out how to get there." On conclusion of a successful Eagle board of review, I share this thought with the new Eagle Scout: "The three best things about being an Eagle Scout are these: You've pleased and honored your parents, you've learned how to make good decisions for yourself, and you're going to absolutely delight the parents of your date."

Associated posts at Scoutmaster
Eagle Court of Honor
Eagle Projects
Holding Scouts Hostage - The 13 Year Old Eagle?

Holding Scouts Hostage - the 13 year-old Eagle?

The delightfully plain-spoken author of Ask Andy answers a question about "delaying the earning of
Eagle till Scouts are older and more mature… If a Scout earns Eagle by age 13, what’s left? "

A bit of ancient history:  I made Eagle at 15; my brother at 14; both of us stayed active in our Troop and in Scouting right up to 18, and then became ASMs (I went on to become Scoutmaster of the same Troop I'd earned my Tenderfoot badge in!).  More recently, I've sat on Eagle boards for 17 years olds who drop out right after their Court of Honor, and 13 year olds who stay in and active for the next 4 or more years, and everything in between.  In other words, something other than merely earning Eagle is operating here, and I'll tell you from experience exactly what it is:  It's the myth that "Eagle is the 'end of the trail'."

Too many of us who should know better are out there telling Scouts (and their parents) that Eagle is "The Ultimate," that "Making Eagle is a Life Goal," that "This is the PINNACLE of Scouting."  Horsepucky.  Eagle is a rank, pure and simple.  Yes, it's the highest (we're not counting "Palms" here because Palms aren't ranks), but advancement is just one of eight methods of Scouting.

Now I'll go further... To artificially and arbitrarily hold a Scout back from his own advancement goals is a form of hostage-taking.  In doing this, in purposefully delaying a Scout by throwing up roadblocks, so that he "stays in the troop longer" is a complete and total miscarriage of the Scouting program itself, to say nothing of the advancement plan.

Want Scouts to stay active in your troop?  Simple: Give 'em a program that enriches their lives, turns 'em on, and is fun.  When it works, it works magic.  I've seen troops that "get it."  There's one, in particular, that I have in mind:  It's older Scouts drive to their troop meetings! Got that?  Drove!  THAT is what you call a troop program that's a MAGNET. That's what Scouting's supposed to be.

To anyone harboring the misguided notion of holding a Scout hostage by stalling his advancement in order to keep him in the troop, I have but one response: SHAME ON YOU!

If you haven't discovered Ask Andy take a moment and look over his 100 + columns that serve as one of the best FAQ's on Scouting. Got a Scouting problem? After a nearly a hundred years here isn't anything new out there - ask Andy.

Associated posts at Scoutmaster
Eagle Court of Honor
Eagle Projects

Standards

In the past I have been guilty of griping about Scouts who 'don't know their skills' and troops that were 'Eagle Factories'. This put me on a mission to fix whatever I saw as wrong, to tighten things up and be darn sure that my Scouts earned their way.

I couldn't have been more wrong.

I spent a few years discouraging Scouts by throwing every possible impediment in their path. I was the worst kind of Scoutmaster- a self appointed guardian of an unattainable standard of perfection. What I became was a grumpy old man ready to swat any hand that reached for my holy awards.

Thankfully things have changed. Scouts need only encouragement, empowerment and a bit of kindness to reveal the potential they have within. Once they catch on there is really no stopping them. I have ceased to worry about the quality of their skills, their commitment or their honesty. My job is to put them in the right place at the right time - the rest they do themselves.

Dictating a standard of behavior, of skill, commitment or honesty to Scouts is frustrating. Getting them to find these things within themselves is a piece of cake.