Outside the Box Eagle Project Plan Rejected at District

[Tatung42]

A scout in my troop came up with one of the more interesting eagle project ideas that I have seen in a while.  Our district advancement chair rejected the idea saying that it is not appropriate for an Eagle project.  I guess he will just end up building a bench like everyone else...

His Eagle project plan is to hold a live esports tournament for the community playing a game called Fortnite.  He put together one of the best project plans that I have seen for an Eagle project, taking into account all aspects of holding the tournament including physical arrangements, marketing, schedule, rules, fundraising for prizes, etc.  He plans to show leadership by having a group of older scouts on his planning committee and delegating each scout to be charge of one aspect of planning and/or carrying out the tournament, while he oversees the entire thing.  Scouts in his entire troop will help with actually running the tournament.

His project coach is the vice president of the esports club at our local university, which has over 300 members.  Members of the club have expressed interest in coming to the event to host workshops on how to improve at Fortnite.  He is also making arrangements with a local twitch streamer (who is also an Eagle Scout) to be the announcer for the tournament and to stream it.

It is just really sad, because the scout is very passionate about the project.  Most of the Troop committee feels that even though it is a really unique idea for a project, it certainly would fulfill the purpose of an Eagle project.  The project would give the scout an opportunity to plan and develop a project, give leadership to others, and provide a benefit to the local community (although some like our district advancement chair might not understand that).

Edited July 6, 2021 by Tatung42

[ALongWalk]

Did the leader state why he didn’t think that the project was appropriate? I guess the “benefit” question is the sticking point. Was it a hard “no” or did he leave some room for adjustment? It seems like a neat project idea to me.

Edited July 6, 2021 by ALongWalk
Added the last sentence.

[T2Eagle]

I had a similar challenge with one of my scouts having an outside the box challenge.  I would ask the Advancement Chair exactly what criteria he thinks it doesn't meet, and then see if the scout an come up with something. 

In my scout's case it was showing that the benefit was "lasting".   So he arranged with another organization, not the primary beneficiary, to be able to do some recruiting to find volunteers (and donations) for a local soup kitchen.  Your scout might find a similar organization that could maybe use some tech friendly young people as volunteers.

I know one of the first answers some others are going to give is this is his project and it's for him to challenge the Chair.  But that's not realistic, and part of advocating for yourself and learning how to navigate the larger world is learning how and when you need to enlist allies for yourself.  

Feel free to help the scout overcome this.  Enthusiasm should be rewarded.

Or, yeah, he could build another bench.

Edited July 6, 2021 by T2Eagle

[CynicalScouter]

6 hours ago, Tatung42 said:

live esports tournament for the community playing a game called Fortnite

What is crazy is that in January Bryan on Scouting did a whole thing about just this idea.

https://blog.scoutingmagazine.org/2021/01/29/achievement-unlocked-how-to-organize-a-videogame-tournament-for-your-scouts/

[fred8033]

6 hours ago, Tatung42 said:

A scout in my troop came up with one of the more interesting eagle project ideas that I have seen in a while. 

Who was the beneficiary?  "community" is not acceptable.  You need a real entity:  non-profit, city, school, church, etc.  Events can be legitimate eagle projects.  

Out-of-the-box projects can be some of the best.  

This project might also be fighting the perception of a video game contest as not a real, significant thing.  ... Us old guys have a hard time with it.  Heck, I have a standing 10 guy golf trip every year.  We fly in and are always astounded that one of the massive hotels is now permanently branded as an esports arena.  ... We can't believe it's a real thing.  But it is.  

I might need some convincing, but if the beneficiary is real and says it helps them ... who would I be to argue.

 

Edited July 6, 2021 by fred8033