Troops help with ECOH

[Scouter&mom]

What does your troop do to help with Eagle Court of Honor? Just be available, provide some financial assistance, do the whole thing, or only provide Scouts as requested?

 

What gifts does the troop provide? The expensive Eagle Presentation kit, the less expensive Eagle presentation kit, frames or shadow boxes, or just the certificate that comes from National?

 

 

[John-in-KC]

Here is what we did:

 

1) Scoutmaster was available to be MC.

 

2) Unit (Troop/Crew) provided the less expensive Eagle Presentation kit and the BSA cotton Eagle necker, or the cost of same (family pays the rest) for the more expensive items.

 

3) We had several folks who assisted in coordinating letters of congratulation.

 

Now, we did our ECOHs in groups, because these young men were HS classmates, and by and large had grown up from Cubbing together. The Parents Committee of the Whole

 

- Found a facility

- Let the boys seek out their Guest speakers

- Developed the programs (one young man in EagleSon's group did the cover artwork for their group)

- Shared costs of the reception

 

Troopmaster was a Godsend, we were able to use it to help coordinate their histories in Scouting

 

I do know other Troops which do fully prepackaged ECOHs, and the parents and boys fall in on the plan.

 

I know one young man who did his in the Campfire Ring at Scout Camp, and his reception was at the dining hall.

 

HTH. Congratulations are obviously in order.(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

[eisely]

Our troop generally leaves the legwork to the parents of the new eagles. The troop also provides a budget of $100+ (not sure of the current amount) per eagle for the parents to spend as they see fit. Anything over that is the parents' responsibility. We help with scheduling the facility, but that is about it, unless the parents make specific requests.

 

One other thing that we ask of parents is for parents of life scouts to actually help out with the reception on the day of the ECOH to liberate the parents of the new eagles to bask in their sons' achievements.

[Twocubdad]

The ECOH is a troop function, so the SPL runs it with the SM, CC and COR making the actual presentation. The presentation kit (I don't know what grade, I actually didn't know there are different ones) is provided by the council at no cost. For a reception, the troop provides a sheet cake with an Eagle emblem done by the local grocery store bakery department. And we have his name engraved on the Eagle plaque.

 

Anything else is provided by the family.

 

Gifts? The troop has invested 5-7 years and hundreds if not thousands of hours in this young man. Isn't that a sufficient gift? It has always seemed to me the Scout should be giving his leaders a gift. Personally, I like the scene at the end of "An Officer and a Gentleman" where all the new officers give the DI a silver dollar.

[Eagle69]

In my troop we did it all. The Eagle Kit we present is the standard one that you get at the Scout office since it is free if the unit is a FOS participant. I never got into the letters bit, but we planned the ceremony, bought the cake, reserved the church for the reception and ceremony, developed and printed the programs. The Scout got his own speaker.

[Crew21_Adv]

Scouter&Mom,

 

 

I've attended a only a few ECOH that were run by the Troop as a standard. Most that I've attended, and my own son's are done by the Eagle Families. Usually, a celebration for the Eagle. We expect distinguished guest and families come and say "Dang! That's a neat Ceremony and a great party".

 

The troops are always there for the boys, with youth and adults escorting, speaking, setting up, and etc. The Eagle rank would not be possible without the work done for the Service project. But the primary effort and preparation is done by the families.

 

I've normally experienced seeing that the Troop help. But 90-95, maybe 99 percent of the ceremony and reception is done by Eagle family. I would expect that the troops would gladly bend over backwards for fellow Scouting families, but only after being asked pleasantly. But no, I wouldn't make assumptions that the Troop would automatically do anything for an ECOH.

 

Scouting Forever and Venture On!

Crew21 Adv

[scoutingagain]

In the unit I serve, the troop buys the basic award kit, medal patch, parent and mentor pins. For the last couple of Eagles we also purchased Eagle knots, as the boys had aged out by the time the ECOH was held.

 

The unit typically pays for a cake, and a flower arrangement for the Eagle's Mom. The unit also coordinated letters of congratulations from politicians, etc. The unit also provides the Eagle's family a list of local pols and VIPs that are typically invited. i.e. local state rep., state senator, selectman, IH and COR. We have been fortunate as our local state rep has shown up at about 80% of the ECOHs and if he was not able to, sends a personalized letter, not a form letter.

 

The Eagle and his familiy choose time and location in coordination with unit leadership. They pay for meals, refreshments. They have ranged from backyard hot dogs & burgers to catered affairs. Our family chose to give the unit a new Dutch Oven in appreciation of their efforts to help our son along his scout career.

 

The troop runs the ceremony, with any minor additions/deletions the Eagle wants, i.e. specific guest speaker,i.e a teacher, coach, or mom wants to read a poem, whatever. It's his ceremony.

 

The SPL acts as MC and the boys run the ceremony. This is big and sometimes a hurdle for the Eagle's parents. For my wife, she just didn't see how the SPL could do it. For many of the adults and relatives attending this is one of the few times they see youth acting in a leadership capacity in what they believe will be an adult run function. In the seven plus years I've been associated with the unit and some 8-10 Eagle COHs, the boys have never let us down in an Eagle COH. And to see our group in action sometimes, they can be as unruly and as undisciplined as 11-17 year old boys can be, but they always come through in an ECOH.

 

SA

[IM_Kathy]

my sons troop supplies the badge, medal, mother & father pin, and the mentor pin.

 

the boy asks those he wants to have a role in his ceremony if they are available and willing to help out and tells them exactly he would like them to do... he asks the adults too. Some times a boy knows exactly who he wants to do what and goes right up to them and says it all... then he'll have just a couple of small jobs and will just anounce "hey guys I need x scouts still for my ceremony who is able to help" and that's how he'll get his last few.

 

the parent(s)/guardian(s) supply cake, punch, and nuts or the like for refreshments.