Welcome! This forum has a treasure trove of great info – Scouters helping Scouters! Just a heads up, though - all content, information, and opinions shared on this forum are those of the author, not the BSA.
I am interested in finding where the info is about required letters of recommendation for an eagle board of review.
My son turns 18 tomorrow and is about to leave for college out of state, but we’ve been told he can’t have an eagle board of review until all letters of recommendation have been received.
This is obviously something he has no control over (other than he obviously should have asked earlier and finished his requirements earlier).
Can anyone point me to policy on how many letters need to be received before a BOR can be scheduled?
9.0.1.7 References Contacted
Council advancement committee members—or others
designated—have the responsibility to secure
recommendations from the references appearing under
requirement 2 on the Eagle Scout Rank Application. This may
be done by letter, form, or phone call. For reasons of privacy
and confidentiality, electronic submissions are discouraged. It
is acceptable to send or deliver to the references an
addressed envelope with instructions, and perhaps a form to
complete. Scouts may assist with this, but that is the limit of
their participation. Scouts are not responsible for follow-
through or any other aspect of the process.
It is up to the council’s designated representatives to collect
the responses. If after a reasonably diligent effort no response can be obtained from any references, the board of review must go on without them. It must not be postponed or denied for this reason, and the Scout shall not be asked to submit additional references or to provide replacements.
Completed reference responses of any kind are the
property of the council and are confidential, and only
review-board members and those officials with a specific
need may see them. The responses are not to be viewed
by or returned to the Scout. Doing so could discourage the
submission of negative information. For the same reason,
those providing references do not have the option of
giving the reference directly to the Scout and shall not be
given the option of waiving confidentiality. Once a review
has been held, or an appeal process conducted, responses
shall be returned to the council, where they will be
destroyed after the Eagle Scout credentials are released or
the appeal is concluded
Zero need to be received and it is on the BOR to get them not the Scout. As long as all is complete on requirements other than BOR - there is basically an indefinite time frame.
I know your council and this would be out of character for the council as a whole - perhaps it is the District - I have good contacts to Office if needed
Just as an update, four people have told me that they have submitted letters for my son, and yet he has not been granted a board of review. He leaves for college tomorrow. I let our advancement chair know the BSA policy last week but he would not budge. Despite completing the requirements before his 18th birthday, my son is not an Eagle Scout. After so many years of scouting, this is a massive disappointment. I’ve been told that a video BOR will be “fine”, but of course now he won’t have his family to celebrate with him if this ever indeed happens. He’s moving on to the next chapter in his life.
something is not right with this scenario. Not following the guide to advancement with regard to the eagle process is just plain wrong and someone needs to know that
I would contact your Council office. Something is not right here. As we have stated, the EBOR cannot be held up due to missing letters.
In my Council, all EBORs are scheduled by the Council office, not the district volunteers. EBORs are held monthly with most being scheduled within 6 weeks of the application being received, many are scheduled for the next month’s EBOR night. It just depends upon how many are received in any month.
