Eagle Ceremonies

[gwd-scouter]

Does your troop Committee (or other leaders) help an Eagle plan his ceremony?

 

My son earned his Eagle in 2001 and we were completely in the dark about planning a ceremony. No one in the Troop offered any help, just said "it's your ceremony, do whatever you want."

 

I know the Scout can have whatever kind of ceremony he wants, wherever he wants, etc. etc.

 

My question is simply, how many of you out there have Troops that actually help and work with the scout in the planning (i.e., script, location, speakers, food, etc.). And, if you do help, what kind of help?

 

 

[Eagle1984]

The troop I am currently with has no knowledge of what it takes to plan am Eagle Court of honor. We do however have several adults that have been in the program 30+ years that actually offer to help the scout and parents with the planning of the special occasion. I, myself planned as much of my Eagle COH myself without any help from my troop or parents. The troop presented me with a nice gift.

 

The troop could/should buy or at least offer to buy some of the things that are presented(ie, the Eagle Kit), the cake and some of the decorations only if the parents cannot or will not pay for the stuff for one reason or another.

 

If the scout has substantial monies left in his troop account, he should be able to use that to help for some of the supplies, if not all of it. In my troop if there are monies left in the scout's account, it reverts back to the troop general fund.

 

I hope this helps some.

[OldEagle4Life]

In my troop, we typically have multiple boys make eagle a year (3+ is not uncommon). As a result, due to the complexity, the amount of planning, time needed to organize one, and anything everything else that goes into planning and executing an ECOH, we typically only do 1 a year. While some people argue that this lessons the signifigance of an individual achieving Eagle (no one in our troop complains along these lines, I would say because we don't present the option of individual ECOH's, if someone ever asked for one and would be willing to help/do most of the planning, we would of course allow it).

 

For us, making Eagle is like adding an extention onto a family, it should be a grand event that everyone can see and appreciate. We have an elaborate ceremony, plenty of letters of recongnition garnered from around the nation, Candle lighting ceremonies, etc.... The boys write their own bio's of their time in the troop and how scouting has affected their lives, and either they read them, or the MC will read the bios to the audience.

 

What I'm trying to get at is that the Troop takes care of everything for the Eagle, as to say "You've done your part, you earned all the ranks, the advancement, the Project was plannend and implemented successfully, your parents have lived through your tenure as a scout, now sit back and relax while we honor you one more time" The troop takes care of everything for the eagle.

 

From buying all of the Eagle Kit supplies, to ordering a large (or several large) cakes, to getting the letters from around the country in on time to give to the scouts. The only thing that the boys must do is help with a little of the actual physical setup (we ask the eagle familes to come in the day before and help do a little cleaning and arrangement rather than asking the rest of the boys from the troop to do so) and they are responsible for making out the invitations (which we buy for them) to send to whomever they want at the ECOH.

 

In my troop's mind, the Boy has done enough, now we will do the rest. But if someone did want their own individual (and indvidualized) ceremony, they would be granted it.

[OldGreyEagle]

In the troop I serve we have had miltiple Eagle ceremonies and although normally we do individual ones. Actually, its not the Troop that does it, its up to the family. They are usually held in the sanctuary of the CO, but they have been held in other places as well.

 

After years of telling parents that scouting is for the boy and trying to stamp out parental "helping" on requirements and Eagle projects this is the time we tell the parents they can do as much as they want.

 

We have a CD that has various ceremonies on it as well as invitations, programs, addresses of dignitaries, etc. that is passed around and this year we have a committee member whose job is Eagle Court of Honor Liason, to help parents with the process.

 

In the past the Troop would give each Eagle the red wool jacket, the problem was no one ever wore it, and with 3-4 Eagles a year, it was quite an expense. When the scoutmaster's son made Eagle, he received a plaque commerating the day. (traditons can change!)

[SueM]

One of my Wood Badge Ticket items was to research and participate in helping the family plan an Eagle CoH...we had a good many boys coming up and being a new Scoutmaster, I wanted to have some options available for the boys. The troop had archived quite a few of the past presentations and i also bout the Mark Ray book on the Eagle Court of Honor (which you can generally find at your local trading post!) so I had some reference materials to work from.

 

They ARE very individualistic and I would suggest that you first sit down with your son and find out what he wants...an elaborate presentation or a simple one...who he would like involved in it, etc. Some boys choose to do theirs at a quarterly CoH with the troop..we had one boy choose to do his at our annual Troop Outdoor Thanksgiving dinner. We also had one boy who a group of us did a "surprise" presentation to because he just wanted us to hand him the things with no fanfare and we felt that he needed at least SOME recognition. (he and his family go to the same church as I do and the CC does, so we did a simple presentation after the service with his mother and father's permission and help)

 

If you would like to email me..I'd be happy to help in any way I can.

 

sue m.

[gwd-scouter]

Thanks guys for your posts.

 

The Eagle ceremony in question is not for my son. He earned his Eagle in 2001 and he had a very nice ceremony - planned mostly from a combination of ceremony ideas he downloaded from the Internet, then asking guys in his troop to perform various parts.

 

Because he had no help from the Troop in the planning, we always assumed that was the way it's always done. So glad to hear I'm not alone in thinking that the Troop should do something to help.

 

This is our first Eagle since I became SM and he seems very reluctant to have any ceremony at all. He's really a very shy fellow. His mother, of course, is pushing for him to have a nice formal ceremony. We talked and he's decided he'd like something very informal, i.e., backyard bonfire and barbeque is really what he wants. No uniforms, no big fanfare, no long speeches, just a nice gathering of his friends and family.

 

While it's not what I would consider an appropriate formal recognition of this young man's achievement, it really does suit his personality and sounds like fun.

 

On with the show!

 

 

 

 

[Kaji]

There's a case to be made for either one, really. My troop left it to the boy to plan out, which was really nice in many ways when planning my own ceremony because it meant I could have the details as I wanted (we were sponsored by a church, so we could use the sanctuary for the place, I could pick my own priest to say the blessing and benediction, and I could ask those who were most meaningful to me on the way to earning my Eagle to do things such as MC, give the charge, present the award, etc.). Personally I don't see something wrong with either one, and I kind of like how some people have been saying that in their units the troop usually does it, but the boys have the option to plan their own ceremony if they choose to do so.

 

In the end what it boils down to, really, is that it's the boy's achievement, and it's important that he be allowed to celebrate it how he sees fit to do so (so long as he's not doing anything illegal/conflicting with the Scout Oath and Law).

[SueM]

gwd-scouter,

 

We have actually had "surprise" Eagle presentations for boys who said they didn't want a formal ceremony. We had a boy who went to the same church as the CC and my self..his Eagle project was done for the church too, so several of us got together with his parents and just surprised him and did it after the service with just a few curious people around. I think that in the end, he really appreciated the gesture that we made.

 

Perhaps you could do it at a troop CoH or other occasion...even at a campfire at a regular camping trip!