The Eagle Scout service project

9.0.2.0. Eagle Scout requirement 5 Milestone

Plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community. One sentence of the rank, and seventeen topics of the Guide.

9.0.2.1. What a candidate has the right to expect Requirement

Questioning and probing for understanding, conducted in a helpful, friendly, courteous and kind-hearted manner, respecting the Scout's dignity. Expectations matching requirement 5 and asking no more than the workbook describes. Guidance readily available, while responsibility for success stays with the Scout.

Written as a list of entitlements rather than duties, which is rare in the Guide, and it is the topic to have open when an approval meeting is going badly. Questioning and probing are expected and legitimate; doing it in a way that is not helpful, friendly, courteous and kind-hearted is not.

9.0.2.14. It is a unit activity, and is governed as one Often forgotten Requirement

Every Eagle Scout service project is official Scouting activity and part of a unit's program: Youth Protection, two-deep leadership, the Guide to Safe Scouting and all current safety policies apply. Unit leadership should know the project plans and schedules.

Because the project is a unit activity, two-deep leadership and Youth Protection apply to it exactly as they apply to a campout. That is easy to forget on a Saturday at a beneficiary's site with parents who are not registered.

9.0.2.7. When the project has to change Decision

Candidates must be allowed flexibility, because no proposal forecasts every contingency. Essential elements should not change without good reason; when they must, the Scout consults the coach or unit leader and should share substantive changes with the beneficiary and those who preapproved it. Except in extreme circumstances, approval is not withdrawn.

9.0.2.12. Four things that are not true Requirement

The Guide addresses these under that heading, in those terms. Each one is something a unit, district or council somewhere is currently doing.

9.0.2.16. Messengers of Peace Optional Event

A service project with significant community impact in the personal dimension, the community dimension, or the relationship between humankind and its environment may qualify, and the ring patch is available from Scout shops. Since Eagle projects are conducted for religious institutions, schools or communities, almost all of them would qualify.

9.0.2.2. Work begins after the Life Scout board of review Often forgotten Requirement

Work on a project, planning included, begins after the Life board of review. That is not meant to stop an enthusiastic Star Scout from talking to a Scoutmaster, a religious leader or a principal about what a good project might be.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.0. Eagle Scout requirement 5.

9.0.2.15. What insurance covers, and what it does not Requirement

The general liability policy covers official Scouting activities, with registered adult leaders primary and unregistered adults covered in excess of their own insurance. Accident and sickness cover is a council option, mostly secondary and limited to registered youth and adults. Chartered organization cover must not be assumed.

9.0.2.5. Choose a beneficiary and a project Decision

A religious institution, a school, or your community. A council may emphasise local efforts but should not deny worthy projects of a wider scope, up to and including the community of the world.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.2. Work begins after the Life Scout board of review.

9.0.2.6. It must benefit somebody other than Scouting America Often forgotten Requirement

Projects must not be performed for Scouting America or its councils, districts, units or camps. The unit's own chartered organization is certainly a good candidate, as are other international Scouting organizations and other youth organizations.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.5. Choose a beneficiary and a project.

The exception people miss is the unit's own chartered organization, which the Guide calls certainly a good candidate. A project for the church that charters the troop is fine; a project for the troop is not.

9.0.2.7. Write the proposal Document

An overview, but also the beginnings of planning. The detail required depends on the project's complexity: enough for a reviewer to be confident the five tests can be met, and not so much that preparing it fails to respect the time it takes.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.6. It must benefit somebody other than Scouting America.

9.0.2.7. The five tests of an acceptable proposal Approval

Sufficient opportunity to meet the requirement; feasible; safety issues will be addressed; action steps for further detailed planning are included; and the Scout is on the right track with a reasonable chance of a positive experience. When the reviewer is satisfied these can be met, approval is granted.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.7. Write the proposal.

These five are the whole test. A reviewer who is satisfied they can be met grants approval, and a reviewer who wants more than the workbook describes is asking for something the Guide does not permit them to ask for.

9.0.2.7. The beneficiary approves Approval

The organisation benefiting from the effort. The workbook carries a beneficiary information sheet, "Navigating the Eagle Scout Service Project", written to explain the requirement and the rights that come with the benefit.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.7. The five tests of an acceptable proposal.

9.0.2.7. The unit leader approves Approval

One of the four signatures named in requirement 5 itself.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.7. The five tests of an acceptable proposal.

9.0.2.7. The unit committee approves Often forgotten Approval

The unit committee is responsible for this approval. A troop, crew or ship committee may designate representatives to act on its behalf, and that is a unit decision: neither district nor council may say how many committee members must be involved.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.7. The five tests of an acceptable proposal.

9.0.2.7. The council or district approves Approval

The reviewer works through the proposal with the Scout, and space is provided in the workbook to record the suggestions, cautions and concerns that a thorough review generates. Every attempt should be made to finish the approval in one meeting.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.7. The five tests of an acceptable proposal.

9.0.2.7. Nothing starts before all four approvals are in Milestone

The proposal must be approved before you start. That covers the project itself and any fundraising for it.

This is the single most common way an Eagle project goes wrong: a Scout starts collecting materials, or runs a car wash, before all four approvals are in. It is worth saying at the point the project is first discussed rather than after.

9.0.2.7. Started early: normally a different project May not apply Often forgotten Decision

Scouts sometimes begin fundraising, or the work itself, before approval. Normally the Scout should then select a different project. Where circumstances are compelling, so that leniency can be extended and a lesson learned without significant detriment to the project's purpose, the Scout may carry on and have it approved after the fact.

You have not answered "Did any work or fundraising begin before the proposal was approved?" yet.

9.0.2.9. Work with the project coach Recommended Task

The subject matter expert on the process and standards, designated by the council or district. Meets the Scout after the proposal is approved and before the plan is written, asks how the Scout will plan it, flags what could stop work or create a safety issue, reviews the plan for strengths, weaknesses and risks, and helps prepare for the board of review.

9.0.2.3. Write the detailed project plan Task

Planning and development require forethought, effort and time, sometimes more than execution does, and they are detailed once the proposal is approved. That order is deliberate: it is inappropriate to expect a Scout to invest the time detailed planning takes only to face the prospect of rejection.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.9. Work with the project coach.

9.0.2.10. Fundraising, if the project needs it Optional May not apply Decision

Permitted only for securing materials and otherwise facilitating a project. The project itself must never be an effort that primarily collects money, even for a worthy charity. Scouting America would rather Scouts chose projects that can be done at little or no cost.

You have not answered "Will the project need money from outside the exempt sources?" yet.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.3. Write the detailed project plan.

Two different things share the word. A project that primarily collects money is not an acceptable project at all, however worthy the charity. Fundraising to buy materials for a project is permitted, and needs council approval unless every penny comes from one of the four exempt sources.

9.0.2.4. Carry the project out Task

The part the requirement calls giving leadership to others. Final design issues are between the Scout and the beneficiary; the board of review decides at the end whether planning was sufficient and the requirement met.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.3. Write the detailed project plan.

9.0.2.8. Complete the project report Document

In most cases a Scout should fully complete the proposal and the report, and be strongly encouraged to complete the plan. The workbook must not become a basis for rejecting a candidate on technicalities that have nothing to do with the intent of the requirement.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.4. Carry the project out.

The workbook is required and it is not a checklist. Where filling in missing information or chasing a signature from somebody unavailable would be a hardship or a poor use of time, and it is clear the project was completed and approved, it is appropriate to accept it. Boards of review should ask whether the project met the requirement, not whether every line was filled in.

9.0.2.13. The beneficiary and the unit leader approve the finished project Often forgotten Approval

Report signatures need not be dated before the Scout's 18th birthday. It is a project that is required, and write-ups and signatures, though important, are supportive.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.8. Complete the project report.

9.0.2.13. Approval withheld: submit anyway May not apply Often forgotten Task

Where the candidate believes the project as completed meets the intent of requirement 5, it is appropriate to submit the rank application and the workbook without final approval, and if requested the Scout must be granted a board of review. If a unit board may not give a fair hearing, a board under disputed circumstances may be initiated.

You have not answered "Did the beneficiary and the unit leader approve the finished project?" yet.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.13. The beneficiary and the unit leader approve the finished project.

Discuss the risk with the Scout before taking this route, because the board may decide negatively. But the Guide is clear that beneficiaries unfamiliar with the process do sometimes decline over last-minute additions or a change of management, and in those cases it is appropriate to go forward and for the board to understand the requirement was met regardless.

9.0.2.13. The board of review evaluates the project Approval

Where an approved proposal and the effort after it represent planning adequate to the project, and the project was well led and carried out to the satisfaction of the unit leader and the beneficiary, only in a very rare case would rejection result. It would have to be clearly established that requirement 5 as written was not completed.

Usually comes after 9.0.2.13. The beneficiary and the unit leader approve the finished project and 9.0.2.13. Approval withheld: submit anyway.