Should adults help with Eagle projects?

[Garrison Cap]

I took my son to help an Eagle candidate do his project, and was surprised to see all the other adult leaders out there pitching in. It was a construction job, but it was all done with hand tools. There was no reason to have grown-ups out there, except to get the job finished more quickly.

 

Late, I was talking to an ASM in another troop who's son just finished his Eagle project, which was very similar in nature. All boys. No adult help.

 

How do you do this in your troop? Shouldt an Eagle project be completely scout-run? Or am I all wet?

[gcnphkr]

Scout run.

 

But there is nothing wrong with adult labor. The challenge is preventing the adults from taking over.

[Eagle92]

I think the idea for the project, the planning, organizing, recruiting of workers, fundraising, etc should be done by the Life Scout.

 

However, the scout needs to use his resources to get the project done. Say for example a Scout wants to do a "Toys for Tots" drive for a a local hospital, and he has an in with someone at the hospital who can hook him up with the folks to get it approved on that end, I have no problem.

 

If a scout has an idea to build something sketches it out, etc and then talks to a professional about the idea, bringing out the drawing he made and allowes the adult to not only redraw them to professional standards, but also suggests improvements that the scout can choose to do or not, I have no problem wiht it.

 

I don't even mind the adults working on the project, as long as they do not try to take over the project. Sometimes there are things that only the adults can do, like using powertools.

 

But if the adult hands the scout the project to do, the adult does the organizing, etc, and it is really the adults project and not the scout's, THEN I have a problem.

 

BUt if your troop doesn't want adult involvement, that's your decision.

[moosetracker]

The Eagle project needs volunteer labor as it cannot be done by the scout alone, or it shows no leadership.. But if the scout chooses not to use scouts for the volunteer labor, that that is exceptable. Example would be if the scouts Eagle project was for his church, and he had all his volunteer help from the members of the church.. I do think though that the SM or some other designated person from the troop or district should have the right to come and witness the workdays just to make sure the Scout is indeed the one running the project and it hasn't been taken over by the minister or someone else the group is more use to taking direction from.

 

One of the new changes of the workbook is that the troop or Eagle board cannot tell the scout who he must use..

 

If the boy does only use troop labor, then our troop has never seen anything wrong with adult and youth labor. Some of our adults will though hang back and not help unless asked to, sort of testing the scout out to see if he would ask, or just assume.. If not asked, then they don't help. Maybe it's their way to payback the scout for when the scout only did what was asked of him on campouts..

[Basementdweller]

who cares who does the work as long as the Eagle candidate is doing the leading and project management.

[perdidochas]

As long as the adults are labor and not management, I don't see the problem. I've participated in Eagle projects as labor. I just do what the project manager (Eagle candidate) wants me to do.

[chaoman45]

Like everybody says, as long as the Scout is leading the project.

 

I don't know if it's a rule, but projects can't use ladders or certain tools by young Scouts. So it sometimes becomes a matter of you HAVE TO have adults.

[Gunny2862]

Concur, the central point is the Scout being the project lead and managing all aspects of his project even if he winds up not picking up a tool once - it's a Leadership project for him.

Of course I'd prefer to see him doing work and not just standing around watching, there's active management and there's loafing while others work.

 

As far as my helping, it's an issue if I'm thinking about much more than doing what I was directed to do and of being safety aware while monitoring that the Scout is actually leading the project. Beyond that, I'm doing to much.