Earning Eagle Palms

9.0.3.0. Eagle is approved and validated by the National Service Center Milestone

Palms begin here and not before. The board of review has to be passed and the National Service Center has to have validated the rank. Nothing on this page can be awarded until both have happened.

Eagle Palm Requirements. Count the merit badges you already hold beyond the twenty-one Task

Every merit badge earned since becoming a registered member, minus the twenty-one used for the Eagle Scout rank. The number this leaves is what the first Palms are made of, and it is a counting job rather than a requirement.

Eagle Palm Requirements. Be recognised at once for every five you already had Often forgotten Milestone

ONE PALM FOR EACH FIVE, awarded immediately, with no requirements attached to any of them. This is stated in the preamble above the numbered list rather than as a numbered requirement, which is why it is so often missed.

THIS IS THE THING MOST PEOPLE GET WRONG ABOUT PALMS, AND IT IS STATED IN A PREAMBLE RATHER THAN AS A NUMBERED REQUIREMENT. A Scout arriving at their Eagle board of review with more than twenty-one merit badges is recognised immediately with a Palm for every additional five, and NONE of the three numbered requirements applies to those. Thirty-six badges is fifteen beyond the rank, which is three Palms, awarded at once. Read the numbered list on its own, which is what the eye does, and it appears that every Palm costs a Scout spirit conversation, an example and five more badges. Most Scouts' first Palms cost nothing at all.

Eagle Palm Requirements. Decide whether to work toward a further Palm Decision

The numbered requirements start here, and only here. Everything below this point applies to a Palm beyond the ones already counted, and the whole of it runs again from the last Palm each time.

THE DEADLINE IS THE 18TH BIRTHDAY, NOT THE EAGLE BOARD OF REVIEW. Guide to Advancement 9.0.3.0: all of the requirements, other than the Eagle Board of Review, must be completed before age 18 unless a Scout has been granted an extension to work on the Eagle Scout rank. So the board of review may fall after the birthday and the Palms already counted are unaffected, because counting badges already earned is not a requirement. Everything on this half of the page is. A Scout who finishes Eagle at seventeen years and eleven months has almost no time for a further Palm; a Scout who finishes at fifteen has years, and the difference is invisible on the requirements sheet.

Eagle Palm Requirements. Requirement 1: Scout spirit since Eagle, or since your last Palm Requirement

Demonstrate Scout spirit by living the Scout Oath and Scout Law, and tell how you have done your duty to God and lived the Oath and Law in everyday life. The window is measured from the Eagle Scout rank or from the last Palm, so it resets every time.

Usually comes after Eagle Palm Requirements. Decide whether to work toward a further Palm.

Eagle Palm Requirements. Requirement 2: continue to set a satisfactory example Often forgotten Requirement

ACCEPTING RESPONSIBILITY OR DEMONSTRATING LEADERSHIP ABILITY, and the "or" is in the requirement. No position of responsibility is named and no term of office is set, which makes this the least like the Star and Life requirement it resembles.

Usually comes after Eagle Palm Requirements. Decide whether to work toward a further Palm.

READ THE "OR". The requirement is to continue to set a satisfactory example of accepting responsibility OR demonstrating leadership ability. Both routes are open and only one is needed. THIS IS NOT THE STAR AND LIFE POSITION OF RESPONSIBILITY REQUIREMENT wearing different clothes: no position is named, no list of approved positions applies, and no term of office is set. Accepting responsibility covers a great deal that never appears on a troop roster.

Eagle Palm Requirements. Requirement 3: five more merit badges Requirement

Five additional merit badges beyond those required for Eagle or beyond your last Palm. The badges are what the Palm is for, and the other two requirements are what turns them into one.

Usually comes after Eagle Palm Requirements. Decide whether to work toward a further Palm.

Eagle Palm Requirements. Your unit leader initials and dates each requirement Approval

The requirements sheet carries a leader initial and date column against each of the three requirements and against each Palm earned. For a Venturer working on Scouts BSA requirements this is the crew Advisor, and for a Sea Scout it is the Skipper.

Usually comes after Eagle Palm Requirements. Requirement 1: Scout spirit since Eagle, or since your last Palm, Eagle Palm Requirements. Requirement 2: continue to set a satisfactory example and Eagle Palm Requirements. Requirement 3: five more merit badges.

4.0.0.2. The unit files an advancement report before the Palm can be bought Often forgotten Document

EAGLE PALMS ARE RESTRICTED ITEMS. Unit leadership may not purchase the insignia for presentation without having filed a report of the advancement. So the last thing between a Scout and the Palm is a piece of paperwork somebody else has to send.

Usually comes after Eagle Palm Requirements. Your unit leader initials and dates each requirement.

THE LAST STEP IS SOMEBODY ELSE'S PAPERWORK. Guide to Advancement 4.0.0.2 makes Eagle Palms a restricted item: unit leadership may not purchase the insignia for presentation without having filed a report of the youth's advancement. A Palm that has been earned, initialled and dated is still not a Palm anybody can buy until that report goes in. Units are asked to report at least monthly, so the gap is usually weeks rather than days, but it is the commonest reason a Palm is not presented at the court of honour everybody expected it at.

Eagle Palm Requirements. Palm earned, and the count starts again from here Milestone

Requirements 1 and 3 are both measured from the last Palm, so earning one moves the starting line. The next five merit badges are five beyond this Palm, and the next Scout spirit conversation covers the time since it.

Usually comes after 4.0.0.2. The unit files an advancement report before the Palm can be bought.

Eagle Palm Requirements. Wear the proper combination, not one Palm for each five Task

Bronze represents five merit badges, Gold ten and Silver fifteen, and only the proper combination for the number earned beyond Eagle is worn. Twenty beyond the rank is a Silver and a Bronze, not four Bronzes.