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For use exclusively by  Winnetka Troop 20 Scouts

The fact that a young man is an Eagle Scout has always carried with it a special significance, not only in Scouting but also as he enters higher education, business or industry, and community service. The award is a performance-based achievement whose standards have been well maintained over the years. Not every boy who joins a Boy Scout troop earns the Eagle Scout rank; only about 4 percent of all Boy Scouts do so. This represents more than one million Boy Scouts who have earned the rank since 1911. Nevertheless, the goals of Scouting—citizenship training, character development, and personal fitness—remain important for all Scouts, whether or not they achieve the Eagle Scout rank.

Basic Eagle Scout Rank Requirements (pages 446-447 The Boy Scout Handbook):

• Be active in your troop and patrol for at least 6 months as a Life Scout.

• Demonstrate Scout spirit by living the Scout Oath and Scout Law in your everyday life.

• Earn 21 merit badges including 12 required by the Boy Scouts of America and one required by Troop 20:

1. Camping
2. Citizenship in the Community
3. Citizenship in the Nation
4. Citizenship in the World
5. Communications
6. Environmental Science
7. Family Life
8. First Aid
9. Lifesaving or Emergency Preparedness
10. Personal Fitness
11. Personal Management
12. Swimming or Cycling or Hiking

1. Cooking (a Troop 20 requirement only, not eligible for Star/Life rank Eagle badge requirements)

• Leadership: While a Life Scout, serve actively for a period of at least 6 months after the Life rank Board of Review in one or more of the following positions of responsibility: Patrol leader, senior patrol leader, assistant senior patrol leader, troop guide, den chief, scribe, librarian, historian, quartermaster, junior assistant scoutmaster, chaplain aide, or instructor.  Venture crew leadership positions including president, vice president, secretary and treasurer also qualify to satisfy this rank requirement.  Troop 20 requires that the scout obtain written documentation related to the fulfillment of this requirement.  A simple letter or e-mail from an ASM or other troop leader who supervised the leadership effort indicating the dates of service and qualifying leadership position will usually suffice.

• Project: While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community.  The project should benefit an organization other than Boy Scouting.  The project plan must be approved by the organization benefiting from the effort, Troop 20 and the Northeast Illinois Council’s (“NEIC”) Potawatomi District Advancement Chairman before you start.  You must use the Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook, BSA publication # 18-927, in meeting this requirement.  Keep in mind you may attach additional sheets to provide the Project Description, Project Details or for Carrying Out the Project sections.  Label the additional sheets clearly and initial each page.  NEIC recommends a minimum of 100 hours of service for the project.  Troop 20 requires at least 40 of the candidate’s hours to be part of the total.

• Take part in a Scoutmaster conference. 

• Successfully complete an Eagle Scout board of review.

The requirements 1-6 above must be completed before a candidate’s 18th birthday.

For more information, see National BSA Advancement Policies and Procedures, publication # 33088.

Practical advice and other considerations                                                                             1-Sep-06

• The Life to Eagle packet   This packet may be obtained from the Troop 20 Advancement Chairman.

The Life to Eagle packet contains:

• Eagle checklist (blue page)
• Important Instructions for Eagle Scout Candidates (yellow pages)
• Four copies of the instruction letter to individuals that will be asked to provide letters of recommendation for the Eagle Scout candidate (white pages).  NEIC has also included a notice that one recommendation must come from a religious reference (lime page)
• Eagle Scout Application and instructions
• Notice from Northeast Illinois Council staff that it requires 10 working days to process an application (orange page)
• BSA National Eagle Scout Scholarship application form (blue pages) – note deadlines
• Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook

If the candidate reads the material in this packet he will have a good idea as to the basic requirements to advance from Life to Eagle Scout.  The following website may also be helpful in preparation.

http://www.eaglescout.itgo.com/index.html  The website includes the following topics: The requirements for the Eagle Scout rank, Understanding the Project Process, Finding, Planning and Carrying Out the Project, Prepare your Write-up, Completing your Application, the Eagle Board of Review , and Eagle Scholarships.

2. Carefully review and prepare the Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook:

http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/eagleproject/18-927D.pdf           Service Project Workbook

http://home.flash.net/~smithrc/eagleprj.htm                                        Eagle Project Planning Guide

http://www.danbeard.org/pdf/Eagle_Project_Checklist.pdf    Eagle Project Checklist

Please contact Mr. Sholten when you begin to think about your project.  The project must be approved in advance by Troop 20 and then by the District.  The Troop 20 approvals must be obtained from the Troop 20 Scoutmaster and a Committee member (Mr. Sholten).  To the extent either of these two gentlemen is not available for an extended period of time, an alternate for either signature is the Troop 20 Advancement Chairman. It is quite likely that revisions will be required during the review process.  Therefore, you should submit your project for Troop 20 review at least two weeks prior to the date you are planning to submit it to council.  The goal here is to reduce the number of revisions that will be required by the District.  The District approval is done on a monthly basis at the Roundtable meetings that are held the second Thursday of each month from September to May, and at other times at the convenience of the District Advancement Chairman or his designee.  The District Advancement Chairman requires the Troop 20 approved written project description to be delivered to him by the last day of the month.  Scouts should be considerate of the Troop 20 and NEIC leaders and should be mindful of the deadlines outline above. Troop 20 leadership and/or the NEIC District Advancement Chairman are likely to make suggestions that must be incorporated into the written project description in order to obtain approval.  Your role as the project leader must be written into the project description and every step clearly spelled out.  If direction is not written into the plan, it will be forgotten.  A well written plan provides sufficient direction such that it could be executed by another scout.  NEIC has also requested that the benefiting group provide a letter at project inception approving the project.

3. Read and prepare the Eagle Scout Rank Application:

http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/eagleproject/58-728.pdf

The application is part of the Life to Eagle packet.  The Troop 20 Advancement Chairman can help provide the required dates for the application.  NEIC advancement records must also be checked and reconciled to the application.  Don’t procrastinate on this process as copies may be obtained anytime by calling the NEIC office.  The date joined a boy scout troop is the application date, not the date of the Scout rank award. To the extent a scout joined Troop 20 from another troop, please provide contact information for the prior troop advancement chairman and/or council administration.  All high school age Troop 20 scouts are dual registered in Troop 20 and the Venture Crew.  The application should be completed with Troop 20 as the scout’s unit, without reference to the Venture Crew.

The dates of service for your Leadership requirement must be noted.  Troop 20 requires that each scout obtain written evidence of leadership from a scout leader upon completion of qualifying leadership activity.  This simple letter or email should include a) the scout’s name, b) the qualifying position, c) the dates of service, and d) a comment on the leadership activity.

Practical advice and other considerations                                                                            

Up to six persons may be listed that could provide recommendations on the scout’s behalf.  Four of the people listed on the application must be the persons who will provide written letters of recommendation. The Religious reference must be listed on the application and should be able to testify as to the scout’s belief in God (this reference may be a parent or Scoutmaster).  The Employer line may be left blank as appropriate.  The form letter to be sent to those providing recommendations is included in the Life to Eagle packet.  A pre-addressed envelope to be returned to the District Advancement Chairman will be provided to the scout at the time the application is being prepared.  Recommendations will be returned to the Eagle Advisor and not be made available to the scout.

NEIC will provide a very thorough review of the Eagle Application.  NEIC staff requires ten working days to process Eagle Scout Rank Applications.  Should errors be found, additional time may be required.  NEIC will pass completed applications to the District Advancement Chairman who will then contact the Eagle candidate directly related to next steps (including scheduling the Board of Review).   The District Advancement Chairman will ask for the original (and 2 copies) of your Eagle Project workbook along with a copy of your statement of ambitions and life purpose.  The project info is provided to the adults that will conduct the Eagle Board of Review and will be returned to you (keep an extra copy for your records).

Prior to your Scoutmaster’s conference, write your statement of ambitions and life purpose.  In this statement you should list awards and positions held in your religious institution, school (dean’s list, AP classes), camp, community or other organization during which you demonstrated leadership skills.

After the Scoutmaster’s Conference is completed, Troop 20 requires that you meet with two Troop 20 Eagle Reviewers.  The Troop 20 Advancement Chairman and/or Troop 20 Eagle Advisor have a form to be signed by the Eagle Reviewers.  The Eagle Reviewers should not sign the original application!

4. Potawatomi District handles all Eagle boards of review.  The board of review must be completed no later than three months after your 18th birthday. You are required to wear a complete class "A" uniform.  The boards of review are held monthly at the District Roundtable meetings that are held the second Thursday of each month.  The District Advancement Chairman requires that the Eagle Application and all other paperwork/submissions be complete two weeks prior to the prospective board of review date.  Should you have any questions in this regard, please call the District Advancement Chairman.

Contact information:

Troop 20 Leadership

Mike Hedge, Scoutmaster                  mikejhedge@aol.com             139 Bertling Lane             501-3108

Bill Sholten, Eagle Advisor                  waslks@aol.com                   956 Sunset Road             446-4879

Stan Grace, Eagle Advisor                  sgrace77@earthlink.com        811 Tower Road               446-7367

Jim Colley, Advancement Chairman     jcolley@bolerco.com              302 Forest Street             784-1707

Bill Yurek, Past Advmt Chairman         byurek@avreco.com               647 Lincoln Avenue          446-2490

Rob Lanphier, Committee Chairman     rlanphier@williamblair.com      250 Birch Street               441-8995

Troop 20 Eagle Reviewers

Roger Grabowski                               264 Sheridan Road                   441-7511

John Hoff                                           1479 Tower Road                     441-9059

Tom Peterson                                    790 Prospect                           441-7337

Jim Rohner                                        429 Sheridan Road                   446-2846

Nelson Shaw                                     1523 Tower Road                     446-2981

If Eagle Reviewers are not available, substitutes may be approved by the T20 Advancement Chairman or Scoutmaster

Northeast Illinois Council / Potawatomi District Advancement Leadership

NEIC, Advancement Chairman         Hal Gilpin                         gilpinh@aol.com                            362-2546

NEIC, Staff Advisor                         Jim Neubaum                    jneubaum@neic.org                       433-1813

Potawatomi District

Advancement Chairman                  George Sullivan                  sullivangp@sbcglobal.net              H) 251-2266        

                                                    1040 Locust Road, Wilmette  60091                                       C) 848-0504

District Project Approver                 Tom Handler                      neorrt2000@aol.com                      983-9843

                                                    8251 Olcott Ave., Niles   60714