Becoming an Eagle Scout

The ranks of Scout through First Class prepare a scout with the outdoor skills and citizenship. One goal of Scouts BSA is for every scout to achieve the First Class rank. The subsequent ranks of Star, Life, and Eagle are increasing demonstrations of a scouts leadership potential.

When to Start?

The serious planning for eagle scout starts as the scout becomes a life scout. For any First Class scout who has reached age 16, we also recommend that they plan out the timeline/activities tor each eagle as it must be accomplished by age 18.

The Four Parts of Becoming Eagle

The official requirements (last updated 2022) are here and supersede any information on this website. However, the following pages provide a more thorough description. Some sections have highlighted notes for coaches.

1. Merit Badge Requirements for Eagles:   By the time the scout reaches the Life rank, they have likely made significant progress on merit badge requirements.  Several of these badges are more time consuming than others.  Personal Management, Personal Fitness, and Family Life all have 3-month tracking requirements associated with them.  Cooking is also time intensive.  If you have not already completed these badges, make sure you factor the time commitments into your planning, particularly if your Eagle deadline is soon approaching.   Be sure to read the Merit Badge Procedures.

2. Leadership:  You can complete your leadership requirement at any point during your time as a Life scout.   Some scouts choose to knock out their leadership element right away knowing that there will likely be time constraints associated with high school or other extracurricular activities.  Other scouts might choose to complete the leadership requirement later.  

   1. 1. 1. • Ideally, the Troop’s goal is for Life Scouts to not only complete the required six months of leadership, but to remain active leaders for the continuation of their time in the Troop.  Life Scouts (generally older scouts) are critical to the development of our younger scouts, and therefore, the continuation of the Troop.  

            • Troop Guide and Instructor are ideal leadership positions for older scouts who have completed their required leadership position and are simply looking to stay active.  They provide excellent opportunities to continue giving back to the Troop by sharing your knowledge with the younger scouts.  Focusing on these roles also provides more opportunities for the election-based leadership positions to remain available to scouts who have not yet had a chance to serve in those roles.

            • Regardless of the approach you take with the leadership requirement, it is important that you stay active in the Troop as much as possible until your Eagle journey is complete.  It is important to maintain your relationships with the Troop as you approach your Eagle Scout Service Project.  You will need to rely on volunteers from the Troop during your project.  Experience has shown that if you become inactive with the Troop for an extended time period, but then reappear just in time to complete your project, it is much more difficult to recruit the necessary support from your fellow scouts.

3. The Service Project (this has a lot of detail including some contacts for projects as well as a list of past projects)

4. The Application and Recognition Process including the paper work, recommendation, life ambition statement, and board of review.

The Eagle Coach

The scoutmaster describes the role of the Eagle coach during the scoutmaster conference for the life rank as does the board of review for the life rank. The scout and scoutmaster will work together find the best fit for that scout.    Our Troop's list of Eagle Coaches can be found here.    The Eagle Coaches are responsible for:

• offering the scout guidance on any requirements to be completed for the Eagle rank

• advising the scout throughout the process of choosing and completing the leadership service project

• guiding  the scout through the Eagle application process

Once the scout has been assigned an Eagle Coach, that adult leader will be reaching out to the scout to discuss the path forward.  They will be available as a coach for any and all requirements and issues the scout faces until the entire Eagle process has been completed.   If the scout needs to be assigned a new Eagle Coach for any reason, please reach out to the Advancement Coordinator.

Domain Experts and Co-Coaches

The coach may suggest other domain experts who can help the scout with a project and even serve as co-coach. This will be done in a YPT compliant way.

Guidance for Coaches

   Coaches:

• Adhere to the service project process as described in Guide to Advancement, topic 9.0.2.9.

• Have no authority to dictate changes, or withdraw approval that was previously granted.

• Strive to make his or her involvement a positive experience.

• Encourage a Scout to make the kinds of decisions that will lead to successful outcomes.

What Should you Know As A Parent (click for more info)

How Does the Troop Kick off the Process

The scoutmaster conference for life scout: The scoutmaster discusses the eagle coach and gives the action for the scout to consider who would be a good coach. They also go through the process of choosing a project and verbally gives any project contacts.

The board of the review for the life rank: During the feedback session, the board reviews their merit badges with specific advice for the missing ones. They go over at high level the four steps above. The scout should get:

• copy of their advancement report

• the link to the website: troop280.org/eagle

In addition, there will be a binder with a blank eagle application and a blank Eagle Scout Service Project Workbook  to go through.

After completing the life board of review, the advancement coordinator will send out a brief email to the scout and parents with:

• A link to this page

• A file containing contacts for the eagle paperwork.

Items for Both Coaches and Scouts

1. Eagle Scout Service Project Workbook 

2. Eagle Rank Application (Don’t fill this out manually. Use the report feature in ScoutBook)

3. Guide to Safe Scouting

4. Safe Project Tool usage

How to Generate your Eagle Scout Advancement Report from Scoutbook*

1. Login to Scoutbook

2. From the “My Dashboard” page, select the “Report Menu” option

3. From the popup menu that appears, select the “Individual Record” option

4. Select the “Scouts BSA Report” report type and click the “Generate Report” button