Garden State Council

This page was developed to help the Scout understand the expectations, help him prepare his proposal, and serve as a guide to carry his proposal to the project stage and completion. If at any time you do not understand what to do you should contact your Scoutmaster/Crew Advisor or the Council. Your project will require a lot of time to plan and complete. Remember that all requirements must be completed and certified at the Council Service Center BEFORE your 18^th birthday. Allow a few days for correcting anything you may have overlooked. There is nothing worse than turning in your project at 4:00pm the day before your birthday and being told you are missing a signature. Don’t wait until the last minute. All of the forms you need are at the bottom of the page as well as linked in this document.

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Your first step should be to read the letter you were sent from the Eagle Review Board Chairmen. Go to the NESA site and read the entire Eagle Scout Service Project Workbook and the checklist. Reading it all before you even plan a project will help you to understand the scope of what is expected from beginning to end.

Here are some projects ideas and project-friendly organizations 

Meet with your Scoutmaster/Crew Advisor and discuss your ideas for possible projects. After you have discussed it with your Scoutmaster/Crew Advisor, approach the beneficiary of your project and discuss your ideas with them.  Once you have all come to an agreement on what you are going to do you can begin to write up your project proposal. Use the online Workbook and save your work!   Your written proposal should be reviewed by your leader, a committee member and the beneficiary. When everyone agrees on what will be done and how it will be done they should sign your workbook on page 10. If there is fundraising required outside of your unit, family or chartered organization, you will also need them to sign an Eagle Service Project Fundraising Application. You are now ready to submit your proposal to Council for review by the volunteers on the Eagle Review Board.

Use your checklist and make sure you have:

□       Completed page 6 up to the section that says Your Council Service Center. Fill that section in with the following information:  Garden State Council    609-261-5850    693 Rancocas Road  Westampton, NJ 08060   info@bccbsa.org. The remainder of the information will be filled in at the Service Center by the volunteer reviewer.

□       The signatures of your Scoutmaster or Crew Advisor, the Beneficiary of the project and a Member of Committee from your unit on page 10.

□       If required, a completed Eagle Service Project Fundraising Application with the signatures of the Beneficiary and your Scoutmaster/Crew Advisor  (read the back of the application for guidelines)

Your project is now ready to come to Council to be approved. Put it in a binder and make sure it is neat and in order. You should bring your proposal to the registrar. Your project proposal paperwork will be looked over to make sure you have included everything. This is NOT a review of your proposal. That is done by volunteers; it is simply a double check to make sure you have everything in order to have your proposal reviewed.  Volunteer reviewers meet on Tuesday evening and review all of the project proposals that have been submitted since their last meeting. You should not expect to hear from them immediately regarding your project.  They may call and ask for clarification of particulars of your project proposal, it may be up to a week before you hear from them. Once your project has been reviewed you will be contacted and told if your project proposal has been approved, or if it needs a little more detail. It is not uncommon for a proposal to be returned for corrections.  Once you have received a call, or in some cases an email,  you or someone designated by your unit should pick up your workbook from the Service Center so that you can make changes or begin working on your project.

Once your project proposal is approved you can begin working on your project.

Some things to keep in mind:

□       You WILL need to file a Tour & Activity Plan with Council. Your unit leader will have to help you complete this once you have your dates scheduled. The Tour Permit needs to be brought to the Rowan Scout Resource Center and be reviewed at the front desk. Once it is reviewed and stamped you should keep it in your Project Workbook and have it at the work site.

□       Check with Council to make sure we have a record of all of your merit badges.

□       Save all of your receipts and document everything you do related to your project.

□       Prepare your letter of recommendation requests using the Request for Letter of Recommendation Form. You will need at least 3. These should be given to people along with a stamped envelope addressed to the advancement coordinator in your unit. They should remain sealed and with the advancement person until your Board of Review.

□       Remember that all requirements must be completed and certified at the Council Service Center BEFORE your 18^th birthday.

Your project is now finished!

Get all of your paperwork together and use the 2^nd part of the workbook “Eagle Scout Service Project Final Plan” beginning on page 11.  Do not make any changes to the first 10 pages! All of your changes will be recorded in this final section. Here you will document how your proposal was carried out, what worked, what didn’t work and how you handled the changes. In this section you will give much more detail than in your proposal.

Download the Eagle Scout Rank Application. Start at the top using your full, legal name. You should be able to fill out the entire front section. You will need some assistance from your leaders for the information on the back of the application. Please read requirement #6 very carefully, it has two parts.

(1)   Have a Scoutmaster/Crew Advisor Conference. At the conference you will sign your application, your Scoutmaster/Crew Advisor will sign the application and the Committee Chair will also need to sign it. You are all signing that all statements on the application are true and correct and were completed prior to your 18^th birthday.

(2)   Attach to your application a statement of your ambitions and life purpose and a listing of positions held, outside of Scouting, where you demonstrated leadership. Include honors and awards received during this service.

Your application should now be complete down to the words BSA Local Certification. Bring your workbook, your application and requirement #6 to the Council before 3:45pm, Monday thru Friday. The registrar will enter the data from your application into the ScoutNet program and sign the application once everything is confirmed as being accurate.  You will be given a signed copy.

Your project workbook goes from the registrar to the volunteers on the Eagle Review Board. They will contact you to schedule your Board of Review. Once you have your Eagle Board of Review, the reviewer will return all of your paperwork to the Council where it will be finalized for submission to the National Office. In four to six weeks the Council will receive your Eagle Scout credentials (a wall certificate, a wallet card and a letter of congratulations from the Chief Scout Executive) and will contact your unit advancement coordinator when it is ready for pick up.

 Click here for the national Advancement Resourse page on scouting.org

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