Number of refrence letters for EBOR

[Mrw]

And some of the boys go ahead and request their own letters anyway.

The candidates should not be involved personally in transmitting any correspondence between persons listed as references and the council service center or advancement committee. BSA forms 927 and 936 under the 12 steps to Eagle.

If you request 10 and 5 return them, what 5 go on the application since it looks like your council requires the letters prior to their certification? Do you redo the application to match the actual letters?

The boys are told they should see me and I will ask for the reference letters, but if they go ahead and do that on their own, there is not much I can do about it. And no, it does not seem to matter if they match the references listed on the application.

[VenturingL]

For those of you who inquired in the past - my son has STILL not had his EBOR. I had emailed his DE on a different matter related to Eagle; he copied the DAC on his response. On Nov, 20, (EBOR was to have bben the 13th) the DAC emailed me & asked what troop my son was in & which District person sat on his EBOR. I filled DAC in on the cancellation & the reason why. I also told him about the email I got from SM.
Long story getting longer: No word from anyone. I emailed the Eagle advisor on Dec. 16th to see if there were an update yet. Kept asking my son to send the email or call, but he doesn't want to talk to him or troop (although I did get him to register as adult - just trying to keep the door open). Answer was advisor is busy getting the last of the boys who age out this year through their projects and SMC's (troop has had 9 since 9-1-08), and the EBOR would probably be rescheduled for first week in Jan. since holidays are coming up.
I ripped off an email to DAC.
He copied Eagle Advisor on response, who in turn, responded yesterday & listed all the reasons why the EBOR was taking so long. Basically pointing the finger at my son. He stated at one point that he had been unable to reach 1 of the references & 1 hadn't returned his calls. THIS WAS NEWS TO US!
1. In earlier email, he said he shouldn't have scheduled EBOR until the letters were in; that he needed to let the Council Advancement Committee follow up on the missing references.
2. Now it appears HE'S the one doing the follow-up.
3. NO ONE said anything to my son, asked for additional references, asked him to check phone numbers, asked him to at least talk to whomever wasn't returning calls and explain the urgency of making that call back.

I responded that if he would tell us which 2 were still missing, I would give my son new envelopes for them & we'd try again. I know what you're going to say, but I'll walk a thin line between tyrant & peacekeeper to see this through. No response yet. DAC has been copied on everything since Tuesday.

Yesterday I sent a separate response to the fingerpointing email to just the DAC & the District designee for the EBOR, pointing out a few inconsistencies. I also point blank asked whether or not we should expect the 12 Steps From Life to Eagle to be followed or if it were just a suggestion on how a scout or troop might proceed. No respone on this one yet either.

Tomorrow is the last day of school until January. If one of the references missing is a teacher, there will most likely be no contact until Jan. All are back to school on the 5th; my son's 90 day "grace period" for EBOR is up on the 10th.

Sorry to write such novels - just need to vent sometimes. I really thought DAC would show more interest.

[wagionvigil]

I really do not understand why you have not at least "threatened" to contact the National Office as Eagle is controlled through National. They are not following proper proceedure on their Idea as to what is required for an EBOR. Council Execs really do not like calls from National about these things and they usually cause trees to be shaken not stirred.

[evmori]

Everyone realizes letters aren't required, don't they?

[VenturingL]

OK - I emailed the CC & included a line about being sorely tempted to contact National, but have not done so yet. I also said if she copies the SM or advisor I'll probably get an email that threatens to melt my computer screen.

[smtroop168]

Yes, this is pre EBOR. And I may suggest that if they give me an extra name or two we might not have to chase after someone to get them all returned. But all they need to give is five. And some of the boys go ahead and request their own letters anyway.

See my post on the 34 languages.

As quoted above by smtroop168, what you are doing is against BSA policy collecting the references on the troop level!

I don't think collecting the (non-required) letters at the troop level is against BSA policy, it's the scouts involvement in the process that's wrong. Our CC handles the reference contacting process after he gets the scout's Eagle application. Our council registrar just certifies dates, not sure I want them to do much more.

[smtroop168]

Tomorrow is the last day of school until January. If one of the references missing is a teacher,

Wagion is a teacher. Send him a form.

Actually if your Council Exec is not engaged, he needs to be. Otherwise National's Director of Advancement is Bill Evans 972-580-2000.

In earlier email, he said he shouldn't have scheduled EBOR until the letters were in; that he needed to let the Council Advancement Committee follow up on the missing references.

We've covered this and the EBOR should not be held up due to non-return of references. Ref ESLP 12 steps to Eagle

If I could ask your morons why they are jerking him around, it would be "what do you hope to accomplish by your actions?"

[VenturingL]

This reply isn't to the original question, but wanted to give an update. My son had his EBOR on Jan. 8. Went well; paperwork sent on. I did send email, with copies of email chains I had with SM, Eagle advisor, & CC attached, to Scout Executive and District Director before the EBOR was scheduled. I know it hit the SE's mailbox because I received an out of office reply (was over the holidays). One of the points I made was that I have never been contacted for further information, clarification, etc. and I still didn't have answers to my questions from anyone other than the troop (well, other than you guys, of course) & I didn't trust troop's correctness. I still have heard nothing.

Meanwhile, we're planning my daughter's Venturing Silver Award ceremony (did you know they have blank invitaitons similar to the ones for Eagle? Found at National Museum's Scout Shop last weekend), son's eventual Eagle ceremony, regular Venturing stuff like meetings, campouts, recruiting efforts, VLSC (in 10 days), finals week at HS, registration week at college, trying to get actual work done at work, my house cleaned, the neighbor's dog to stay in its yard---just normal every day stuff!