Each Month
Three weeks before: notify the Scouts
Pull the roster from the sign-up and email every Scout on it. The email tells them what their slot means, when and where to arrive, and exactly what to bring for their kind of board. Copy the unit leader. The notification email template is a starting point.
Before sending, check the date line and any year-specific form links. The Eagle Scout Rank Application changes periodically, and out-of-date editions are returned by the council.
The district advancement chair generates the email from the SignUpGenius roster, which builds the To, CC, and BCC lines and flags sign-up data that needs a second look: troop numbers that don’t resolve, misspelled Scoutmaster addresses, thin adult turnout. The email ends with the roster of proposal reviews, final boards, and adult volunteers so Scouts can tell the district if they’ve decided not to attend.
As applications arrive: get them and pre-check them
A final board of review can’t be held until the council has verified the Scout’s Eagle Scout Rank Application. The verified original has to get from the council service center to the district advancement chair before the event. Work out with your council who carries it.
As each application comes in, and no later than the weekend before, run the pre-check checklist for every final-board Scout. Tell the Scout and their unit leader about anything missing while there’s still time to fix it.
The council signs applications at its Jefferson Service Center. The District Executives are there for their in-person staff meeting on Fridays, and a DE will sometimes bring the applications back on the Friday before the event as a favor. It isn’t part of their job, so ask nicely. The district advancement chair collects them from the DE’s house. Otherwise a volunteer drives to the service center to pick them up before the event.
The Friday before: match applications to the roster
Compare the council-verified applications in hand against every final-board reservation. For anyone whose paperwork hasn’t arrived, email the Scout and their unit leader. Sometimes a Scout had the council sign the application while they waited and took it home. That’s fine, but you need to know, so you’re not waiting on the council for it.
The weekend before: print and prepare
- Print the papers. Make enough copies for the roster: the proposal review packet and the final board packet. See Templates for what goes in each.
- Remind the event staff that the event is coming and ask each of them to RSVP.
- Update the laptops at home. Two or three machines pulling large updates at once can bring a venue’s Wi-Fi to a crawl.
- Update the event software, if you use it and it has changed since last month.
- Refresh any announcements slideshow with current links and this month’s news.
The proposal review packet contains the Service Project Review Board Report, the project-approved process sheet, the reference-letter instructions and request letters, and the project-approval congratulations. The final board packet contains the check-in checklist, the Eagle congratulations letter, the board instructions, and the pre-check sheet.