Eagle Scouts - Page 2

Dknight

United States5223 Posts

June 07 2008 12:21 GMT

#21

I became an Eagle Scout back in 2005. I did a project concerning fire hydrants and telephone poles - since it snows a lot in the winter, plows/people shovel in the fire hydrants so my basis was it'd help a) avoid this problem in the winter and b) help the fire department find them if people still shovel them in. The hardest part, I feel, is the donations. That was such a bitch going to all the different places -.-

I loved BSA. I still go camping/hiking/kayaking whenever I can which unfortunately, isn't much.

micronesia

United States24761 Posts

June 07 2008 14:53 GMT

#22

On June 07 2008 13:52 fight_or_flight wrote:
So how much time/effort does it take to go through the boy scouts? (I know absolutly nothing....don't know if I've ever even seen one irl.)

You start at ~12-13 years old and age out as a youth when you turn 18. Getting all the way to eagle requires a large amount of camping and other work (but varies somewhat from troop to troop and area to area).

Falcynn

United States3597 Posts

June 07 2008 16:23 GMT

#23

On June 07 2008 13:52 fight_or_flight wrote:
So how much time/effort does it take to go through the boy scouts? (I know absolutly nothing....don't know if I've ever even seen one irl.)

Here's a list of all the requirements needed to get through each rank.
http://www.usscouts.org/advance/boyscout/bsranks.asp
Everyone starts out rankless, but usually get Scout by their first meeting since it's not really hard. Then getting up to First Class should take about a year or year and a half depending on how much time you choose to put into it and how willing the troop is to help you (or how willing they are to just give it to you, I'm not gonna deny that there are some troops where obtaining Eagle is pretty easy =/).

Then obtaining Star and Life require mostly merit badges (everything else will pretty much be taken care of if you're active in the troop). Some troops (and/or parents since anyone can become a merit badge councilor, you just need to file in the appropriate paper work) will practically give away the merit badges, some troops will actually add requirements. So the difficulty of rising through the ranks vary with the troop. In my troop we followed strictly by the book, so it was about average.

Then getting Eagle is probably the hardest, since not only do you need a lot more merit badges (actually that should be easy assuming you go to the summer camps/don't slack off), but you have to organize a service project that benefits the general community.

This involves first finding an organization that would need the help. Then writing up a report describing what it is you plan to do, how you plan to do it, the materials you need, an approximate budget of how much it'll cost you and if you'll be able to get donations, and why the community will benefit from this project. Then you have to go to a committee meeting of the adult leaders and present it to them there so they approve it and sign off on it (or you can just go to each committee member separately and have them sign it off one by one).

Then you actually do the project, the difficulty of which depends almost entirely on what you chose to do. Some people paint fences, others restore Vietnam era warships.

Then you do a board of review which is essentially just an interview between you and a few council members. If you've gotten this far already this last part is probably just a formality. After this they mail all your stuff to the national office where it'll get approved (assuming everything is filed correctly) and they'll mail all your stuff to the council office where you can go pick it up. Then you have your Court of Honor (isn't 100% required, but it's very much encouraged) which is a formal ceremony where they award you your badge.

micronesia

United States24761 Posts

June 07 2008 17:59 GMT

#24

Very nice description of the scouting ranks etc.