ECOH Ettiquete

[RememberSchiff]

It is the Eagle's choice and that choice should be respected. He and his family may plan a unique ceremony or they may follow a troop tradition or they may have no ceremony at all. The latter is not uncommon with "late" Eagles busy with planning college, graduation, entry into armed services,...

 

Long ago, my Eagle ceremony was much like Twocubdad except that was my preference and it went against the troop tradition of a separate ECOH.

 

My $0.02,

[moosetracker]

Personally I feel weddings have become outragous.. But it is what it is, I would never dream of telling my son & his fiance, that because I think society and tradition has blown it out of proportion, they can just combine their wedding with my sons Birthday party, have some cake.. And kill two birds with one stone.. (I have said "NO" to their desire to have the rehersal dinner at someplace that is like $35 a plate, especially when they are economizing the rest of the wedding..)

 

Between merchandising and human nature almost everything is blown out of proportion, Christmas, Birthdays, Valentines day... But, once the genie is out of the box, you can personally decide not to overdo and buy into the capitalistic world, but you can't tell everyone around you that they have to follow suit..

 

My husband & I don't celebrate Valentines day.. I get flowers at some unexpectant time, but never does he pay triple price to buy me flowers on Valentines day.. So, can we force everyone else to do like-wise? No.. And I would not even think of doing so..

 

Like it or not, due to tradition the Eagle has his day, anyway he chooses to celebrate it.. If the troop has many Eagles they may decide to combine it, but if you only get one Eagle every few years, most will not wait 7 years so that they can have a celebration with a group of 6 Eagles..

 

It is not up to you to tell them that they can not have more then a slap on the back and a handshake, because you don't believe it is worth more then that.. You can choose not to come to his celebration, but you should not force him to not have it, or mix your buisness in with his to streamline your needs & wants..

 

[SSScout]

Ettiquette...

Recently attended a ECoH. Nicely done, Boy's older brother, also an Eagle, was the MC. Dad, a SM, did the ceremonial stuff. Cousin played music, older Eagle did history of the Troop, all very appropriate and respectfully done. But...

They had a professional photographer who was EVERYWHERE, snapping pictures. I didn't really mind him, he did well to not be too intrusive, using a long lens to be in the back of things, mostly. Until the pastor was asked to give the benediction. The Scout and his family were up front with the pastor and when he raised his hands over the family to ask God's blessings on them, the photog ran right up in front, stood 3 feet away and snapped at least a half dozen FLASH pictures , all the while the pastor was inviting God's attention to our situation.

I was so aggrieved that at the punch and cookies afterward, I took the photog aside and politely (note the term) told him how dissapointed I was in his lack of decorum. He assured me that it was a once in a lifetime event, and the family would appreciate the pictures later. I suggested that the event was perhaps more important than the pictures and I thought he had greatly detracted from it in that final situation. He apologized for that. I hope I had an affect on his future behavior.I was surprised the pastor didn't mention it himself.

[SeattlePioneer]

Another problem with letting a family decide to have a heavily produced Eagle COH----

 

It puts pressure on the troop to repeat that for every other Eagle in the future when the interest in supporting such an event may not be there.

 

A Court of Honor is first and foremost a TROOP program. It is carried out for the purposes of Scouting and the troop, which happens to include the Scout who is receiving an advancement award.

 

If your troop has an active advqancement committee and families who anticipate having an Eagle participate in putting on Eagle ceremonies for everyone for a year or so then perhaps you can support more elaborate ceremonies.

 

But I'd be opposed to letting a family create an elaborate program for just their Scout. Setting up the Scoutmaster to replicate elaborate ceremonies for later Scouts when the resources aren't there would be the likely consequence.

 

 

[Stosh]

I depends on the Eagles themselves. I worked hard on esprit-de-corps with my boys and the last ECOH was nothing more than a reception added on to a regular COH. We started with the TF ranks, and worked our way up to Eagle. An additional fanfare was added at that point emphasizing the accomplishment, i.e. thank-you speeches by the Eagles, etc.

 

The families of the Eagles decorated the room with the Eagle's history and then hosted a cake reception following. It was very nice and wasn't the big, over-the-top thingy.

 

Your mileage may vary,

 

Stosh

[moosetracker]

I don't think if someone holds an elaborate one, it means the others must follow suit.

 

Our troop hadn't had an Eagle for a long time, so our first Eagle that comes around is the son of two wealthy parents. They hosted something to compare to a wedding banquet, rented Hall, fancy catered dinner.. The works.

 

Next Eagle comes along.. He wants nothing, he asks to be just given the award.

 

My son is next in line.. We find a Elks club in a wooded foresty area, they are willing to let us use the function room for free.. We have everyone bring a potluck..

 

Others follow ours in similar fashion, different places from their church's to a police function hall etc.. A few don't hold anything..

 

Now the first parents have son #2 come along for Eagle.. What does he choose??.. Pot Luck at a donated free hall.. He did not want to stand out..

 

That first Eagle, the pomp he threw. I won't deny I enjoyed the wining and dining, but because us normal folks could not match it, then it did not set the tone.. I think our sons a few years after did.

 

The one thing all our Eagles do though is choose a place that is not at our normal meeting place..

[UCEagle72]

I think it depends on the traditions of the Troop. I know that back in the unit I was in as a boy, they have NEVER had an ECoH. All Eagles are presented at the Troop Court of Honor -- has always been done that way since the Troop started in 1955.

 

And over that time, some 256 young men have earned the rank of Eagle.

 

The PLC feels that they want every scout, including that new "Scout" to see the Eagle being presented, so that they too get the sense that they can "do it."

 

Unfortunately, when I attend ECoH ceremonies here locally, I rarely see younger Scouts or even Cubs in attendance. So I agree with their reasoning.

 

[SeattlePioneer]

Here's another issue with the expectation of a fancy ECOH event:

 

 

At the last Troop I was registered in, the Scoutmaster frankly couldn't organize his way out of a paper bag. His son was a very capable SPL.

 

He earned his Eagle.

 

At that point, I pushed to schedule his COH in committee meetings. His parents demurred, saying that they needed to arrange to have the grandparents present. I kept pushing in subsequent months and they kept refusing to schedule their own son's Eagle Scout award.

 

It's been five years now --- still no Court of Honor award for this boy, now a man. I e-mailed him a few months ago offering to award him his Eagle at our monthly district meeting of officers or Boy Scout Roundtable --- no answer from him. (The troop folded a while after that)

 

Sad.

 

Simplicity is better than no COH at all!

(This message has been edited by seattlepioneer)

[SeattlePioneer]

>

 

For the right boy who has a history with his church and wants to share his accomplishment with that community, I think that's a great idea.

 

 

I also like the idea of having a wedding as part of a regular Sunday church service for the same reason. It shares the beginning of a new family's life with the life of the "eternal" parish community. Puts everything in perspective. (probably economical, too!)

 

Unfortunately, that's rare, for all the wrong reasons in my view.

 

Out of curiosity, did you choose to have the Eagle awarded at this church service, and if so why? It strikes me that that would be a pretty mature decision for a young man to choose his church over a troop meeting among his buddies for that award.

 

 

(This message has been edited by seattlepioneer)

[moosetracker]

We always have a good attendance of young & older scouts.. I have been to a few that are not from my troop to see good attendance of ages there to.. The last one was an ECOH for 6 Eagles.. Most were 18 yo's if there were any 17 yo's as this troop has a problem with it being there tradition to see who can get Eagle closest to their 18th BD, sort of like a game of chicken..

 

Nice ceramony.. But.. L-O-N-G.. there was 6 of this, and 6 of this, and 6 of this including different people getting up to pay tribute to each one seprately.. The young scout behind us, who was probably a recent cross-over was getting very antsy.. Can't blame him, I think we all were..

 

But as the SM said, they all crossed over one behind the other.. With all the other scouting stuff on the agenda, I could not see marking of 6 different days and each seprate ceremony would have been longer..

 

I think we only had 2 that were close enough they could have combined.. All ours are too spread out..

 

We had a son of a SM also not get a ceramony due to the family not being able to plan for it.. He did finally get presented his eagle award though 1.5 to 2 years later.. They kept saying they were going to do something, but never did..

 

Still you follow what the family wants.. There have been many a wedding that turned out never to happen due to the stress it put on the bride & groom.. So due to these few, all weddings should be cancelled, and everyone should elope..

[sbemis1]

Son's troop does separate ECOH only if more that 1 is being recognized. We attended one like that early in son's career. He will get his soon with two other youth, 1 of whom is travelling back from out of state and in fact earned his eagle there. Most of the youth elect to wait to be recognized with their friends.

[Eagle92]

Different units have different protocols. Some have very set traditions that the scouts don't want to break. Some have the tradition that the Eagle and his family plan a ECOH on their own. And some will only do 1 ECOH for everyone per year. Some will have it as a separate COH, some will have it at the end of a COH, and some have it at their CO's Sunday's services (which can get VERY packed for that one service).

 

Don't think there is a right or wrong answer to how to have an Eagle Award presented.

 

Oh except for maybe no FOS presentations

[SeattlePioneer]

>

 

 

Heh, heh! I just KNOW I'll be raising that issue just to stir the pot!

 

 

 

Good discussion here of the variety of ways troops handle this issue.

 

 

I'm surprised to find a second instance of a Scoutmaster who couldn't manage to plan a COH for his son. I thought that would be pretty unique, but noooooo!

[kari_cardi]

I'm attending a COH next week that is also a ECOH and Webelos crossover and FOS presentation with a potluck dinner. We are breaking all the rules!!!

 

But we are not, because of our troop traditions and the agreement of everyone involved. Expectations are everything. I am sure that if we had a Varsity Team, any awards would also be presented to them at the COH and no feelings would be hurt or toes stepped upon. It would make what promises to be a long night even longer though...

[packsaddle]

SeattlePioneer, To answer your question, I was the first Eagle ever for my troop. The troop was at least 20 years old but no one had ever earned the rank of Eagle. I remember well that the attitude of everyone in the troop when I moved up from cubs, including the leadership, was that Eagle was out of reach for those of us who were out of the 'mainstream' or something like that. It was a long time ago. But I was stupid enough not to realize I wasn't supposed to be able to do it so I decided to make it my goal. God and Country as well, another first for the troop. My troop was about as close to the Kudu ideal as I have ever seen personally.

Anyway, to finally get around to answering your question, we had no idea what we were supposed to do. So the idea of doing it during the Scout Sunday service just sort of floated to the surface, I think the first person to suggest it was our minister at the time, one of the nicest persons I have ever known.

And to this day, the people at that church who are still alive to remember it...do remember it well. Me too.