Eagle Letter of Recommendation

[ASM59]

Good Day,

 

It's been a couple years since I've been actively involved in our Troop. It has been as long since posting here. I am currently working as a small group leader in our Church's youth program. One of the boys in my group has asked me to write an Eagle letter of recommendation for him. I am honored to be asked and can honestly write a great letter of recommendation for this candidate. My question is to whom does a letter of recommendation go?

This Eagle candidate handed me two stamped envelopes and asked that I send a copy of the letter to both addresses. One is to the Council office (I'll probably write on the envelope to direct the letter to the district advancement committee). The other envelope is simply to an individual in the town where the Scout lives. I asked who this person is, and he responded that she is the Troop's Eagle Mentor; the person that helps guide the Scout through the process of getting his Eagle Rank. I have written recommendation letters before, but they always went directly to the Council office or to the District Advancement Chair.

Any thoughts on this? Is this normal? Is there a normal?

Thanks,

ASM59

[Gunny2862]

"Normal" depends on your Councils and Districts Advancement and Eagle coordinating chairs (at least thats who it is here..., as those people change so does "normal".

I'm not used to sending off two letters in two different directions for the same Scout but, read the sentence above...

[Oak Tree]

All of our letters go to the council office. Email can go to the council office and also to the district Eagle board chairman. The district's instructions to the person providing the reference are that the email should not be copied to any other recipient.

 

The Guide to Advancement states "Completed reference responses of any kind are the property of the council and are confidential, and only review-board members and those officials with a specific need may see them." I don't see that the troop's Eagle mentor has any need to see the recommendation. Ours certainly doesn't.

[Gunny2862]

Okay I missed that part, our Troops Eagle mentor would have no need to see the letter unless they also wound up on his Eagle Board.

[eisely]

The council office is probably the last place I would send such a letter. Under current rules only the members of the EBOR are supposed to see these things. I would find out who is organizing the EBOR and speak to that person. He or she may have specific instructions about to whom to send your letter.

[Eagle732]

The letters go to whoever is chairing the EBOR. They remain unopened until the board convenes so the person submitting needs to make mention of that on the envelope so they don't get opened accidentally.

At least that's how we do it. Here the Units do the EBORs with one district rep.

 

[frankpalazzi]

We have the Eagle advisor or CC receive the letters and submit them to the chair of the EBOR. The Eagle Scout then receives those letters in a binder with all of his other congratulatory letters, presented at the Eagle Court.

[IM_Kathy]

here they get mailed to Scout Master, which I'm currently in that position. I then bring the unopened letters to the boys eagle board for the members of the board to read.

 

and to make sure I do not open them the boys address it to them C/O me or put down eagle letter on bottom corner of envelope.

[qwazse]

Here, the boy collects them and takes them with his app to council HQ.

We try to get him to gather them before the SMC.

Saves stamps. Keeps the boy responsible.

[Oak Tree]

National tried to clear up things with the latest Guide to Advancement and Eagle Leadership Project Workbook, and they also tried to make it clear that councils/districts are not supposed to add requirements to the Scout. It's clear from some of the above comments that not all councils are following along, but just for the record, here are a couple of excerpts from the Guide to Advancement 2011:It is acceptable to send or deliver to the references an addressed envelope with instructions, and perhaps a form to complete. The Scout may assist with this, but that is the limit of his participation. He is not to be responsible for follow-through or any other aspect of the process.AndThe responses are not to be viewed by, or returned to, the Scout. Doing so could discourage the submission of negative information. For the same reason, those providing references shall not be given the option of waiving confidentiality. Once a review has been held, or an appeal process conducted, responses shall be returned to the council, where they will be destroyed after the Eagle Scout credentials are released or the appeal is concluded.I do want to thank everyone for posting what their council's policy is.

[qwazse]

First, no mention of references in the project workbook.

 

Second, no mention of method of collecting references on the application. Not even a citation to the advancement guide on the eagle app. The guide suggests a closed process, but -- although nothing on the application suggests that the boy should collect open references -- nothing suggests that council will collect closed references. So, I chalk it up to folks treating Oak Tree's quotes as guidelines, no mandates.

 

In general, I write open references. I've never been in a position of having to say something extremely negative, and I have no problems writing about a person's "eccentricities." You can count on me talking about you to your face in the same way as I would talk about you to someone else. IMHO, that's what trustworthy means. So, if council did collect references, I would probably still give a copy to the scout.

 

I suspect, in the OP's case, the boy's eagle mentor collects a copy of the reference for redundancy. A council can be a black hole when it comes to paperwork.

[NJCubScouter]

In our troop the letters are to be addressed to the Scoutmaster. If the Scoutmaster is attending the Eagle BOR (not as a member, just for "moral support" for the Scout), the SM brings the letters (in their sealed envelopes) to the BOR and gives them to the chair of the BOR (who is a member of the District Advancement Committee; all other BOR members are members of the troop committee.) If the SM is not attending he gives the letters to one of the troop committee members who will be part of the BOR, who gives them to the chair. At the beginning of the BOR, with the Scout out of the room, the chair opens the letters, reads them and passes them around. At the end the chair collects the letters, and I don't know what happens to them, but I am going to assume that he destroys them as the guidelines say. The letters never reach the council office, nor are they ever shown to or given to the Scout.

[NACAP]

Letters are not required to hold an EBOR. The Scout is only required to list his references on his application, hence no mention of letters or method of collection on his application. Don't know why you would think references would be mentioned in the Project workbook. Councils determine the method of contacting the references listed. GTA reference is para 9.0.1.7.

 

 

[eisely]

It is correct that a scout can go to an EBOR without anybody ever having contacted the references provided or having letters in hand. It is difficult to imagine a situation where this might occur. If I were on such an EBOR I would be inclined to defer a decision until a later date when at least some of the references would be in hand. The only reason to consider not deferring a final decision would be considerations revolving around deadlines associated with the scout's 18th birthday.

 

A scout can request an EBOR under a variety of circustances. Such an EBOR must be held, but it does not follow that an EBOR convened under such circumstances will automatically vote the eagle award up or down. An EBOR can legitimately request more information in order to make a more informed decision.

[NACAP]

eisely: While this might be a rare occurence, if you did what you are suggesting, you are adding to the requirements and the scout could appeal and he would win.

 

The Scout's requirement is to provide names/contact info on his application and that's it. Also you are not allowed to hold up an EBOR for lack of responses to the council's requests from his references. I've held EBORs with as few as one response.