Life-To-Eagle Seminar

[Billiken]

My brother's council (St. Louis) holds, at the district level, seminars called Life-To-Eagle. The meetings are for both scout and parent(s).

They detail what's required in an Eagle project, the BOR process, leadership requirements, etc.

This was/is the first I've heard of this.

My district/council does not offer this.

Does yours?????????????????

[Mrw]

Seeing as we are neighbors, no. I had this discussion with another of our adult leaders recently though. My two son's both have earned their Eagle, his is a Life scout right now.

He had come across a site on the web that gave detailed instructions on all the steps to getting and completing a project and filling out the application, etc.

He thought we should copy all this out and put it in a binder for each newly minted Life Scout in the troop to follow.

As I already give them each an Eagle packet with all the paperwork and basic instructions (as put out by Council), I said we need to give them a little bit of credit for being intelligent, and there was no reason to kill extra trees.

Unless the district advancement guy is getting a whole lot of requests for things that would not be appropriate projects, this really shouldn't be necessary.

Our troop has just set a COH date for our 23 Eagle and we will have two more in the next few months, with at least three more next year. They have all managed to figure this out by themselves without too much difficulty.

[vpalango]

Our district has offered this type of seminar in the past. At the moment I don't think any are offered, so I'm going to do it myself with the boys that have recently finished thier requirements for Life.

YIS,

[pipestone1991]

Accually, I think a seminar like that would in turn have more boys get their Eagles and not "miss it" by a few months due to laziness and misinformation (i.e. not knowing where to start).

[momma_bee]

I had been wondering along these lines myself.

We only have one Scout to worry about at this time, and his ideas for project don't sound quite right to me. (I'm not being judgmental, but when I heard one idea, I wondered how it would be viewed)

Meanwhile, I set in at a Gold award training session for a Senior Girl Scout troop and it was about an hour of information, questions and answers and brainstorming and was run by a representive from the council office.

I heard ideas 'tweaked' to make them Gold award-worthy. I heard specific ways that an idea would or would not count and I heard parents / leaders told that it was the GIRLS project, not theirs. (as in, "If that is what they want to do, it is their project and you have to let them") They were talking about how to track hours and who was responsible for what (answer: girls are responsible for everything, leaders could back up records themselves, but didn't have to do so)

Now, I realize that I'm talking about GS, but still, it was such a good idea my first thought was 'why don't we do this for the Boys?'

Are you talking about the BSA site with the Eagle packet, or a troops site of ideas? I'd love to see it, just to get our potiential Eagle motivated.

[616kayak]

we have no council or district programs liek that. My new SM is bringing some Life to Eagle helpers who are realy just active eagles to help.

[Chief J]

Our District/Council does not have any formal breifings for the Scouts. The District Advancement Chair has held several meetings with the Troop Scoutmaster's to relay his expectations and how he wants things to work.

I have recently had several Scouts attain the Life Rank and plan on doing this soon so they all know the expectations.

Chief J

[ccjj]

Our council has a "Star to Life Seminar". At this seminar, they go over Eagle requirements and give each boy a paper that says he attended and it must go to the council service center with his Eagle Application.

ccjj

[vpalango]

Our council has a "Star to Life Seminar". At this seminar, they go over Eagle requirements and give each boy a paper that says he attended and it must go to the council service center with his Eagle Application.

Hmmm.... I wonder why the attendance paperwork "must" go to the council service center? It's certainly not something that's anywhere even remotely in the Eagle requirements. What happens with a Lone Scout who does things correctly, but without much council support, and doesn't go to the semiar, does he get refused his eagle?

I'm not saying boys shouldn't be encouraged to attend a seminar like this, in fact I think they (and thier parents) should be strongly encouraged to do this. (Parents sometimes need to get educated on the process even more than thier sons do). But I'm a little concerned with it becomming a requirement.

YIS,

[FrankJ]

ccjj wrote:
Our council has a "Star to Life Seminar". At this seminar, they go over Eagle requirements and give each boy a paper that says he attended and it must go to the council service center with his Eagle Application.

I suspect that was in the mind of the leader of the training. Eagle to life seminars are useful but not the only way to get the information. If the leaders at the council level think they are "required"; they are the ones in need of training.