FOUR EASY STEPS TO
PLANNING AND COMPLETING YOUR
EAGLE SCOUT LEADERSHIP SERVICE PROJECT


            The Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project is probably the most challenging advancement requirement in all of Scouting, but it is also probably the most important of all and the most rewarding to complete.  It’s your golden opportunity to use some of the knowledge you’ve acquired along the Trail to Eagle, to demonstrate the leadership skills you’ve developed and to learn how to manage a large project involving many steps and lots of people.  But even more important, it’s your big opportunity as a Boy Scout to make a meaningful and lasting contribution to your religious institution, school or community.

            Most scouts seem to put off their project until well after they’ve earned all of their 21 merit badges, sometimes until their senior year of high school when it is almost too late to complete their Eagle Scout requirements.  (You must complete all of your requirements including your project before your 18th birthday.)  For some of you, things are very busy now -- busier than you hope they will be next month or next term.  For others, it’s tough to come up with a good idea for a project.  And some of you who have helped work on your friends’ Eagle projects worry about whether you, too, will be able to organize so many people to complete such a big project.   Practically every scout who ever did an Eagle project had all of these concerns and more.

            The good news is that it’s not as hard as it might seem if you start now, before things get even busier, and if you break the project into discrete steps.  Think of the last mountain you climbed.  When you were standing at the bottom staring up at the peak, it looked huge and you might have wondered how you would ever make it to the top.  But you didn’t get anywhere just standing there with your pack on your back.  You plotted a course on your map, you took the first step, and then the next step, and then the next one.  Along the way, you had to stop once in a while to take a break and make sure you were still on the right trail.  The same goes for your project.  You set a goal, plan a way to get there and then start moving -- step by step.  You might make a few mistakes along the way, but that’s OK as long as you keep checking to make sure you’re on the right trail and as long as you keep moving.  The first step is always the hardest, but once you start down the trail you won’t want to turn back.

            Here’s one way to start breaking your project down into manageable steps:


STEP 1: DEVELOP AN IDEA

            For some reason, it seems that developing a project idea is always the hardest step.  Start by developing lots of possible ideas by reading the requirement itself, thinking about what others have done and talking to adults in your troop, church, school and community organizations.  Look for needs that you might be able to help fill with a little help from the troop and your friends.  Think about groups that you would enjoy helping and projects that you might have fun doing.  Perhaps most important, talk about your ideas with your parents and the troop’s adult leaders, who have experience with past projects and can help narrow down your choices.

Understand the requirement - The very first thing you need to do is read the requirement itself, which is very straightforward. This comes right out of the Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook that is discussed later:

As stated in the Boy Scout Handbook: While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to your religious institution, school, or your community. (The project should benefit an organization other than the BSA.) The project idea must be approved by the organization benefiting from the effort, your unit leader (Scoutmaster, Varsity Scout Coach, Venturing crew Advisor), unit committee, and by the council or district advancement committee before you start. You must use this Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook, No. 18-927A, in meeting this requirement.

Understand how the National interprets it - Beyond the requirement itself, the National Boy Scouts organization provides only these additional guidelines in the Workbook:

Originality

Does the leadership service project for Eagle have to be original, perhaps something you dream up that has never been done before? The answer: No, but it certainly could be. You may pick a project that has been done before, but you must accept responsibility for planning, directing, and following through to its successful completion.

Limitations

Routine labor (a job or service normally rendered) should not be considered. Work involving council property or other BSA activity is not permitted. The project also may not be performed for a business or an individual, be of a commercial nature, or be a fund-raiser. (Fund-raising is permitted only for securing materials or supplies needed to carry out your project.)

Size

How big a project is required? There are no specific requirements, as long as the project is helpful to a religious institution, school, or community. The amount of time spent by you in planning your project and the actual working time spent in carrying out the project should be as much as is necessary for you to demonstrate your leadership of others.

Understand how the Knox Trail Council interprets it - The council does not impose its own additional requirements, but the council leadership and the local Eagle Scout Board of Review are charged with reviewing and approving all Eagle projects as they see fit, consistent with the requirement and the guidelines outlined above.  While the council sends your single-page Eagle Scout Application form to the National after your Eagle board of review, neither your workbook nor other information on your project is included.  You should keep in mind that the Knox Trail Council has gotten very strict in applying the requirement.  For example, they emphasize that:

•    You must be a Life Scout to start your Eagle Project, and you will be required to enter the date of your Life Board of Review on your Eagle Scout Rank Application.  The Council will not accept projects or work done while a Star Scout.

•    The project must provide community service.  It may not be done for a business or individual, be of a commercial nature, or be a fund-raiser. (Fund-raising is permitted only for securing materials or supplies needed to carry out your project.)  Routine labor (a job or service normally done) should not be considered.

•    You need to demonstrate leadership of others.  This is as important as the service provided, if not more so.  You will need to give examples of how you directed the project rather than doing the work yourself.

 

Further, the council expects at least 100 hours of work, by you and the individuals you directed in the project.  This is not an official requirement, but it is their interpretation of what constitutes a project significant enough to count as an Eagle project.  Keep track of the hours you and others spend working on the project (by name of the individual and the date the work was done).

Think of past projects as examples - One of the best guides to the right kind of project (the right organization, the right types of end result, the right size, etc.) is the list of projects that have been completed successfully by scouts in the past and approved by the local Eagle Scout board of review.  Attached is a list of examples given by the National in the workbook, provided by the Knox Trail Council in their Trail to Eagle seminars, and completed successfully by scouts from Troop 157 over the last few years.

Look for a need - As you start thinking about possible projects, look around your religious institution, school or other community organizations for things that need to be done and opportunities to help other people. Look at other churches and schools, too.  For example, you might attend St. Peter’s Church, but our troop is affiliated with St. Julia’s church and there might be worthwhile project ideas there, too.  You might attend the Weston High School, but there might be a project at the Country School or Woodland School worth considering.  And remember that your “community” is not just the town of Weston.  It certainly includes the greater Boston area (particularly some towns that are less affluent than ours) and possibly even a much larger area for certain types of projects.  Indeed, you might have an easier time finding an opportunity to make a real difference in people’s lives outside of Weston, where things are not as well taken care of already.

Ask people for suggestions - Some people are very focused on community affairs and the needs of other people.  Try to figure out who they are and ask them for ideas.  For example, if your parents or neighbors devote some of their time to certain local charitable or service organizations (e.g., the Lions Club, Weston Historical Society, WEEFC, etc.), ask them to introduce you to the leaders or managers of those organizations.  Talk to the pastor of your church, who will not only be aware of the needs of his parish, but also of opportunities to reach out to those in need beyond the parish.  Talk to your teachers, the school principal, your football coach or others who have been involved in service projects in the past.  At the High School, for example, Mrs. Marsh coordinates community service and is always thinking about projects.  Ask your parents or troop leaders for ideas, but then talk to many other adults as well.

Bounce your ideas off the Troop’s adult leaders - Once you have a few ideas that you like, or maybe even one that you really want to do, talk to the troop’s adult leaders to get their reactions. Describe your ideas, including who will benefit from the project, how they will benefit, how many people you think it might take to complete the project, what materials might be required, and when you might do it.  They’ll give you their sense of whether you are on the right track and maybe even build on your idea to help make it better.  They can refer you to other people who might be able to help you get the project off the ground, suggest ways to secure the necessary materials and generally help you focus your efforts.


STEP 2: PLAN THE PROJECT AND GET IT APPROVED

            Once you have an idea that you like and that seems to make sense to your parents and the troop leaders, you need to start planning it out and getting both your project idea and plans approved by the proper organizations, your Scoutmaster, the Troop Committee and the Knox Trail Council.

Identify a sponsoring organization - Your project needs to be sponsored by some religious institution, school or community organization.  Beyond the fact that you will need a representative of this organization to sign your Eagle Scout application, someone ultimately has responsibility for the area where you will be working and/or where your project will have impact.  In most cases, this person is very easy to identify.  For example, if you plan to paint the church basement, the right person is the church’s pastor.  If you are doing a project at a school, the proper representative is probably the principal (and if it’s not, he can tell you who it is).  If you’re doing a project for a homeless shelter, it would be the executive director of the shelter.  Be careful when you consider projects for the town itself because there are often many different officials, boards or other organizations that might need to be consulted, including the Board of Selectmen, Board of Health, Conservation Commission, Weston Forest and Trail Association, etc.  It is certainly possible to obtain all of the necessary approvals, but the more people and boards involved, the more difficult and time consuming the approval process -- before you even start the project.  Also, keep in mind that some town organizations are friendlier to Eagle projects than others.

Identify the organization’s representative and set up a meeting - Once you have identified the appropriate sponsoring organization, call the top executive and ask if he/she is the right person to work with on your project.  In general, the right person is the individual who has the organizational authority to approve the project and to authorize whatever specific work you plan to do.  For example, you could ask the school janitor if you might re-varnish the gym floor, but if the school principal is the only guy who can authorize that particular work, you ultimately need to talk to him and work with him as your sponsor, not the janitor.  Once you find the right person, call to explain your idea and make an appointment to discuss the project in detail.

Meet with the representative at the project site - When you meet with the sponsoring organization’s representative (the person who can authorize your work), review the Eagle Scout project requirement, describe your project idea, explain how it would work and start discussing your plan.  The representative will help you understand the organization’s needs, highlight constraints and possible problems, provide ideas about how to simplify or expand the project to make it more valuable, and refer you to people who can help.  Be sure that before leaving you have a common understanding of exactly what will be done, how it will be done, and when the various steps will happen.  If it is not possible to agree on all of these details, be sure you leave with an agreement on how and when you will complete this important planning discussion.

Take the “before” pictures - Many projects involve some sort of physical change to the project site, for example, new shelves, painted walls, newly planted trees, etc.  If you project fits into this category, be sure to take photographs of the way the site looked before you started working on your project.  You will include these in your project workbook which will be read by the Eagle board of review.  The best time to take these pictures is when you first meet with the organization’s representative at the site.

Think about how you would do the project - Your meeting at the site will get you thinking more deeply about all of the steps that you’ll need to complete your project.  Start writing these steps down, in the order in which they must occur.  Focus on all of the specific actions that need to be taken, not just the end result.  For example, the task “paint the wall” needs to be broken down into several tasks such as 1) get the paint, 2) move the furniture and put down drop cloths, 3) scrape the old paint off the wall, 4) fill the holes with spackling compound, 5) sand the wall, 6) paint the wall with primer, 7) paint the wall with the finish coat, and 8) clean up.

Think about the people, materials and tools  needed to do a good job - Once you have a basic idea of what steps will be needed to complete your project, it will become clearer how long the project might take (both absolute number of man-hours and the number of weeks it will take to complete all of the steps), the materials required (such as paint, wood, glue, etc.), and the tools you will need.  Keep in mind that Scouts are not permitted to use power tools, but adult helpers can under certain circumstances.  If the materials needed will be expensive, you will also need to begin thinking about how you will raise the money to buy them or who might donate them.  Ogilvies has in the past been very generous about donating materials for Eagle Scout projects, but you should ask the Troop’s adult leaders before approaching them to donate materials.

Ask for help - Perhaps this goes without saying, but you should be sure to ask for as much help as you need throughout your entire project, and then ask for more help.  Asking for help is not just what to do when things start going wrong; it’s part of the process and necessary for completing your project successfully.

Get an Eagle Service Project Workbook - The Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook must be used in working on the project.  This can be the printed booklet or the downloadable version available at http://www.scouting.org/boyscouts/eagleproject/dload.html.  It is strongly recommended that you use the downloadable RTF (Rich Text Format) version.  This version allows you to fill in your Eagle Project information on your computer’s word processor so that you can later spell check the document, and make changes without a complete re-write.  You can then print your project proposal, get the required signatures, and then later add the final write-up to the same document.

Start keeping track of your time - When you first opened your Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook, you probably noticed that the final write-up requires you to state the number of hours you spent on your project, divided into hours you spent planning the project and hours you spent carrying out the project.  It also asks you to list the hours spent by scouts and other individuals helping you execute the project.  You should start keeping track of all of these hours now, ideally in two time charts.  The first chart should track your time, for example with each row representing a day spent working on the project and the columns including important data such as the date, the specific tasks you did on that date, and the amount of time spent on each task.  The other chart should track the time spent by others on your project, with the names of the individuals, what they did on each date and the amount of time each person spent on each task that day.

Write up the project in the workbook - The Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook starts by asking you to describe the project you plan to do.  This description will generally be 2-3 paragraphs long, or perhaps a half page of typewritten prose.  The workbook also asks you to identify the group that will benefit (name, address, and telephone number) and to describe how the project will benefit the group.  This description of the benefits might be a few sentences long to as much as a paragraph long, depending on your project. You also need to provide the date you discussed the project with your Scoutmaster and the name and telephone number of the representative of the group that will benefit from the project.  The workbook then asks you to:

Plan your work by describing the present condition, the method, materials to be used, project helpers, and a time schedule for carrying out the project. Describe any safety hazards you might face, and explain how you will ensure the safety of those carrying out the project.  If appropriate, include photographs of the area before you begin your project. Providing before-and-after photographs of your project area can give a clear example of your effort.

These project details are likely to take several paragraphs (4-6) to describe fully.

Ask your parents and the troop’s adult leaders to review your write-up - When you complete your write-up of the project description and the planning details, show it to you parents and to a few of the troop’s adult leaders.  They will help ensure that the project is well conceived, adequately planned and clearly described for the members of the council’s Eagle board of review to approve.

Show your workbook to the organization’s representative - After you have made the necessary changes and corrections to your write-up, show it to the representative of the organization who will benefit from the project.  It is often easiest to fax or e-mail this document and to ask the person to call you with any comments or suggestions.

Get your workbook signed - Your Scoutmaster, Troop Committee, and council or district advancement committee must approve your project idea before the project is started.  The workbook has lines for each of their signatures.  The Scoutmaster and Troop Committee Chairman’s signatures can usually be secured at one of our regular troop meetings.  You can make another visit to the organization representative to get his/her signature, or simply fax a blank signature page, ask him/her to sign it and fax it back to you.  Attach this fax to your proposal and write “see attached page” on the line above the Scoutmaster’s signature on the main signature page.

Send your workbook to the council for approval - Once you have the signed approval of the first three people mentioned above in your workbook, make a copy of your workbook and take or mail your entire original workbook to the council office to obtain the final approval.  The Council’s address is: Knox Trail Council, 490 Union Avenue, Framingham, MA 01702. Workbooks are generally processed at the council office on Wednesday mornings.  The council will return your workbook by mail once your project has been approved, with the signature of the chairman of the council Eagle board of review, who is currently Larry Belden.  Please allow 2-3 weeks (from the Wednesday after your project is received by the council) for review and approval of your project before you plan to start work on it.

Wait for approval - Do not begin working on your project until you have the signed original back from the council.  This is a technicality, but an important one: your final write-up asks for the date on which you began your project and this date should not be before the date on which the council advancement committee chairman signed your workbook to approve the project.  If you do not receive your workbook back in the mail with the approval signature within about 3 weeks, call the council office at (508) 872-6551 and ask for the advancement chairman, who is currently John Fortini, to see where the process stands.


STEP 3: DO THE PROJECT

            When the council has approved your project -- and not until then -- you can begin working on it.  You will need to expand on the plan you included in your project proposal, line up your helpers, and lead their efforts.  Part of this challenge is management -- ensuring that the necessary materials and people are at the right place at the right time, and that everyone knows what to do.  Part of it is coaching -- helping everyone understand how to do what you’re asking and motivating them to do their best work.  And part of it is troubleshooting -- planning ahead for all of the possible problems that could arise, preventing them where you can and fixing them where you can’t prevent them.

Continue keeping track of your time - Remember to continue keeping track of the time that you and others spend on the project.  It’s a lot easier to keep track to all of these hours along the way than it is to reconstruct these time logs at the end when you need to complete your project write-up.  Also remember that your job is to plan and lead the project, not to do it yourself.  When you complete your project and review your time logs, the majority of your time should show up as planning, and the hours spent by your helpers actually working on the project should be far greater than the hours you spent working on the project yourself.

Expand your plan; put together a calendar and materials list - Your project proposal included a few paragraphs on “planning details” including the method, materials to be used, project helpers, and a time schedule for carrying out the project.  Now you need to expand on that plan so that you and your helpers will know exactly what needs to be done when and by whom.  You might find it helpful to get a calendar (e.g., one page per month) and write down all of the specific tasks on specific dates, so you’ll know which tasks need to happen in what order.  This calendar will also help you tell whether you are running ahead or behind your schedule.  You also need to get very specific about the materials and tools you will need, how you will pay for them or