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FEB 2016Finishing Your Eagle Paperwork Is NOT The Hardest Part!
Posted by Jason Petty | Rank Requirements, Scout Leader HelpsFinishing Your Eagle Paperwork Is NOT The Hardest Part!
Over the years of working with Eagle Scout candidates, I have seen many times where finishing the paperwork scares them more than anything. Because of this, there have been quite a few that have earned all their merit badges, served all their leadership time, and finished their project, then they freeze and don’t want to finish that paperwork and turn it in. Don’t let this happen to you!
The myth I want to bust today is that the paperwork is hard to finish. If you are this same point, this is the easiest part to complete, compared to what you have done already. I wrote another post that covers all the paperwork you need to turn in here: What Paperwork Needs To Be Turned In For Eagle Rank.
Today I wanted to talk about the last section of the Eagle Scout Service Project Workbook called The Report. For some reason, this is the number one thing that most scouts do not want to fill out.
This section should only take any candidate one hour to fill out or less! Most scouts take much less time than that. This should be the most fun part also, since it is just reporting on how your project went. You are done with the project! You should feel excited at this point! I worked with three candidates that that were at this point in their progress and waited over one year to just finish this part. Don’t let that happen to you.
All you have to report in this section are the following:
- Date you started and ended
- Description of the project and the impact it had
- What went well and what did not
- What changes you made during the project
- What was challenging
- How did you demonstrate leadership, challenges, rewards and what you learned being the leader
- Did you have shortages or overages in materials that you planned
- Hours spent on project by you and others
- How you paid for the project and how you got the money
- Pictures
- Signatures
If you look at this list carefully, it is all the same information that was already collected throughout the Eagle Project process. It is just a matter of gathering it and putting the information in the form.
I hope by reading this you realize that it is not worth stalling and putting this off. Just get it done and turn it in. You will be grateful for the rest of your life that you did!