Troop 33's guide to Eagle Courts of Honor


Hopefully every Scout who joins Troop 33 will one day earn the rank of Eagle Scout.  When that day happens it will be time to hold an Eagle Court of Honor to recognize that Scout for all of his hard work.    This guide will help the Scout's family in how to go about planning that event.

First off we should say that how an Eagle Court of Honor (ECOH) is done is completely up to the family. We have a stock ceremony that you can use if you want it, or you can do something completely different. Be aware that if you use our ceremony on a Monday night you will likely get MUCH more participation from the Troop member than if you plan it on a Sunday at your family's place of worship. Some Scouts have chosen to do it at Camp Ajawah, which is a nice setting, but sometimes hard for family members to participate.

An ECOH is designed to recognize a specific Scout, but if a Scout wants to he can team up with another Scout who just earned his Eagle and do a joint ECOH.   There are pros and cons to this which will be addressed later.

ECOH's can be planned any way the family wants to do it.  While we have a few examples of ways people have done it in the past, those are examples only and can be modified however the Eagle Scout and his family want to do it.  There are a few things that we do suggest however.

Here is an example of an ECOH program:

                                                                           





                         (Insert Picture of Eagle Candidate here)

                                           Scouts Name  #(whatever number)






 TROOP 33
EAGLE SCOUT CEREMONY

Westminster Presbyterian Church
Monday, May 18, 2009

Chapel - 8:00 p.m.

Presentation of the Colors
  
Introduction of Eagle Scout Candidates - (Person doing that)            

Speaker - (Speaker's name)

Scoutmaster Comments

Introduction of Eagle Scout Family - Scoutmaster

Presentation of Eagle Scout Badge - (Person doing that)

Eagle Scout Recognition - All Eagle Scouts present

Taps


This has normally been done as a 8.5x11 paper printed horizontally and folded.    There are programs that can be purchased at the Scout shop if you want.  Every Eagle Candidate get's a coupon from the Council office to have an Eagle Picture made.  It's recommended that this picture be used on the left page in this program.  If that picture is not available then any picture can be used, especially one that shows the Scout in a Scouting setting. Some Scouts have used a montage of pictures of the Scout throughout their time in Scouting.

Also be aware that this program is the families responsibility to get printed.

As for the actual program on the right side, we basically start all ceremonies with the presentation of the colors.   Usually the SPL will take care of that end of things, however if the family has someone special in mind that they would like to have do it, that is up to them.   After that someone will get up and go to the microphone, (the family can choose who), and they will ask the Eagle Candidate to come up and have a seat in front of everyone.  They will then say some nice things about the Eagle Candidate.

One of the big decisions for an ECOH is who to get to be a speaker for the event.  Usually it is a person who has been a mentor in some form for the Eagle, or a special teacher, coach, etc.  Someone who usually has known the Eagle for many years and can relate to their growing up as a young adult.  The person who is asked to be a speaker should be told that they need to keep their comments to about 15 minutes or so.  In the past we have had some difficulties with speakers going on WAY TOO LONG, and it can be disruptive when other Scout's parents come in to pull their Scout out of the ceremony to take them home to do homework.  Note that if there are multiple Eagle Candidates as part of the same ceremony, we usually only have the same speaker for both of them.  This can be considered one drawback for doing it this way, since it needs to be someone that both Scouts agree on as speaker.

After that the Scoutmaster can make a few comments about the Scout's time in the Troop, usually telling some short humorous story about something funny that happened to the Scout that might not have been quite as funny at the time :-).

We usually then have the Scouts who presented the flags at the start of the meeting get the flags and stand behind Eagle Candidate.  We then ask the Scout's family members come up on the stage and stand behind the Scout as well.  The Scoutmaster will introduce them to the audience.

The Scoutmaster will then have the Eagle Scout recite the "Eagle Scout Oath".    This is usually printed on the back page of the Eagle Program.  Here it is:
I reaffirm my allegiance
to the three promises of the Scout Oath.
I thoughtfully recognize and take upon myself
the obligations and responsibilities of the rank of Eagle Scout.
On my honor I will do my best,
to make my training,
my rank,
and my influence,
count strongly for better Scouting,
in my troop,
in my community,
and in my contacts with other people.

After this is completed the Scoutmaster will ask the person presenting the Eagle badge to retrieve it from where it is placed, (usually on a side table), and to pin in on the new Eagle Scout.  This person can be anyone the Scout wants it to be, (or the Scoutmaster can just pick one of the Assistant Scoutmasters to do it).  After that is done the Scoutmaster will have the new Eagle Scout to pick up a rose from the table and present it to their mother as a recognition for all of her help in them reach Eagle.  The Scoutmaster will then have the Eagle Scout get a tie tack from the side table and present it to their father.  Then, if the Scout chooses, the Scoutmaster will have the Eagle Scout retrieve the "Mentor's Pin" from the table and present it to someone who has made a difference in their life.  Some Scouts opt to not do this because it can be difficult to choose who to give it to.  This should be decided before the ceremony whether or not the Eagle Scout will do this.

The Troop will provide the rose and will have the Eagle packet with the Eagle Scout badge and pins.

After that the Scoutmaster will ask that all members of the audience who are Eagle Scouts to come forward and congratulate the Eagle Scout.

Some Scouts have chosen to make some comments at this point, but it's not required at all, (in fact most Eagle Scouts would VASTLY prefer to not do it).  If the Eagle Scout wants to they are more than welcome to do it.

At this point the Scoutmaster will remind the audience that there will be refreshments in a different room after the ceremony, and then invite the SPL to come up to do the closing ceremony.  The SPL will ask the crowd to rise, and then the Color Guard to advance to the front of the crowd, (they are usually right behind the Eagle Scout still), then the the SPL will ask the crowd to bow their heads.  At this point the bugler will blow Taps from the back of the room.  The family will need to arrange to have a bugler there, (with a bugle :-), and it's not a bad idea to have a fall back just in case.

After the Color Guard has filed out the SPL will announce that the Court of Honor is over and everyone go get some refreshments.  On the subject of the refreshments typically we have had cake and ice cream along with some punch of some kind.  That is optional of course, but if it's not there the Scouts will notice, (these are 11-17 year old Scouts), so it's not a bad idea to have it.   It's not encouraged to go overboard on this because by this point it will be 8:30, (if done at the tail end of a regular meeting), and most parents will be wanting their Scouts to leave pretty quickly.

As for what other things to have at the reception afterward the ECOH you can have photo albums with pictures of the Eagle Scout's time in Scouting.   If desired you can have a slide show going with those same type of pictures.  That needs to be arranged in advance.   Other things have included old pinewood derby cars, cub scout shirts with all the various stuff sewn on them, and so on.   Many times it's fun for everyone to look back on the Eagle Scout and seen them when they were just a little kid and see how much they have changed over the years.

The ideas described have become sort of the standard Troop 33 Eagle Scout Court of Honor over the last couple of years.  There is NO requirement to do it this way, however if the family opts to do it differently they need to make sure that they have all of the program covered.  Lately we have been doing these at 8pm after a regular meeting is finished early.  This is handy because you get more Scouts and their parents to come to the ECOH.  If you chose to do it on a weekend, there is a good chance that you will get a lower attendance.   We generally avoid doing ECOH's as part of a regular Court of Honor because by the time everything is done it is usually pretty late.

If you have any questions at all about any of this, please talk with the Scoutmaster about it.

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