Overview
The following steps have been outlined to ensure a smooth procedure for the Scout, the unit leadership, the local council, and the volunteers who are to conduct the Board of Review. Eagle candidates should share these steps with their unit leader so that they can fully understand the procedures that must be followed.

Every Boy Scout is eligible to earn the rank of Eagle Scout. However, the Council Advancement Committee feels strongly that in order to fully meet all of the requirements for the rank of Eagle Scout, the Eagle candidate should display maturity and leadership throughout this Eagle process. Taking charge of the Service Project from beginning to end, taking accountability for accurate and complete information on the Eagle application form, personally communicating directly with references and maintaining a productive, meaningful presence within the unit are all important factors related to maturity and leadership that the Board of Review is encouraged to consider when an Eagle candidate appears before it. Eagle Scout is not just another rank in the Boy Scout advancement program, it is awarded to recognize mastery of Scouting which is itself a demonstration of character, fitness and citizenship. No Eagle candidate will be denied if he meets all of the requirements, however, it is very difficult to meet all the requirements without being a leader.  The Council Advancement Committee has prepared these guidelines to help Scouts focus their efforts as they pursue their Eagle Scout award. We invite all Eagle candidates to pursue this goal and offer our full support.

Requirements
In order to advance to the rank of Eagle, a candidate must complete all requirements before his eighteenth birthday.

Requirement 1: 
Be active in your unit for a period of six months after you have achieved the rank of Life Scout.

This means that you are an active, contributing member of your unit, according to the standard set by your unit leader. The Board will rely on the unit leader to determine if the candidate has been "active enough". The standard should be established at the time of the Scout's Scoutmaster Conference when he is earning his Life Scout rank and should be re-examined over time as the Scout matures.  If you are not a participating member, leader and example in your unit for a total of six months after your Life Scout Board of Review date, your unit leader may not accept your performance for this requirement. Note that this time period does not have to be six consecutive months, only six months in total.  The unit leader should inform the Scout immediately if participation is not adequate to enable the Eagle candidate to improve his activity level.

Requirement 2: 
Demonstrate that you live by the principles of the Scout Oath and Law in your daily life. List the names of individuals who know your personally and would be willing to provide a recommendation on your behalf.

Simply list people who know you well. Try to get a varied selection. Don't list four teachers if you can instead select people from different areas of your life.

If you do not have an employer, it is permissible to put a line through that title and use the space to list another reference. Since a Scout is reverent, you should include a religious reference. Please use the special Reference Form prepared by Westchester-Putnam Council, which you should personally distribute to all references. This is to provide Board of Review members with written comments about the Eagle candidate. The Scout should communicate directly with the references by calling or writing to ask their permission to be used as a reference, and then personally sending or delivering the Reference Form with a pre-addressed stamped envelope so that the Reference Form can be delivered to the Board of Review Chairperson confidentially. If the Scout is uncomfortable asking for a confidential reference, another reference should be selected. Please note that the Eagle candidate's parents and unit leader are not responsible for these references, the Scout is responsible. The Board of Review will be encouraged to consider the necessity of adult involvement in this reference process to be a possible area of concern.

Requirement 3: 
Earn a total of 21 merit badges (required badges are listed). List the month, day, and year the merit badge was earned.

The 12 required merit badges are: Camping; Citizenship in the Community; Citizenship in the Nation; Citizenship in the World; Communications; Emergency Preparedness or Lifesaving; Environmental Science; First Aid; Cycling or Hiking or Swimming; Personal Management; Personal Fitness; Family Life. Preplanning is a necessary because some merit badges, such as Family Life or Personal Management, require at least three months to complete. List the actual merit badges you used for Star and Life ranks, as well as the rest needed for Eagle. Any checks made against the Star and Life dates you listed on your application can make it appear that you did not have enough merit badges to earn earlier ranks as per the Board of Review dates you listed for them.  On the Eagle Application there are two sets of required merit badges from which you can choose to do one from each group (Emergency Preparedness or Lifesaving; and Cycling or Hiking or Swimming). Both Star and Life ranks allow you to use two from one group, like using Hiking and Swimming as two required merit badges on your Star rank. If you have done this, make sure you select one as the required merit badge (cross off the other option on the application) and list the other required merit badge as a non-required merit badge (in one of the spaces numbered 13-21). The date earned for the merit badge is the actual day the merit badge counselor signed and dated your merit badge card. Do not use the date you received it at your Court of Honor. Your unit or District Advancement Chairman can help you with dates if you do not have complete records. Don't wait until the last minute to verify that you have the correct merit badges. It is a good idea to review your merit badges with your unit Advancement Chairman right after you receive your Life Scout rank and he or she will help you spot issues or problems while you still have time to complete work. The Scout has the final responsibility for earning all his merit badges, and merit badge counselors in Westchester-Putman Council at the unit, district and summer camp levels cannot alter or relax any of the merit badge requirements for any one at any time, no matter what the circumstances.

Requirement 4: 
While a Life Scout, serve actively for a period of six months in a position of responsibility. List only those positions served after Life Board of Review date.

The following are acceptable leadership positions. Boy Scout troop: patrol leader, assistant senior patrol leader, senior patrol leader, troop guide, Order of the Arrow troop representative, den chief, scribe, librarian, quartermaster, junior assistant Scoutmaster, chaplain aide, instructor, historian, Venture patrol leader. Varsity Scout team: Captain, co-captain, program manager, squad leader, team secretary, librarian, quartermaster, chaplain aide, instructor, den chief. Venture crew/ship: President, vice president, secretary, treasurer, boatswain, boatswain's mate, yeoman, purser, storekeeper. If it is not currently possible for the Eagle candidate to be elected to an office (for example, unit elections won't be held in time) there are several leadership positions that can be assigned by unit leaders, such as den chief. Again, the unit leader will determine the standard of acceptable level of service, just as he or she did in determining the acceptable level of "activeness" in requirement #1. If the unit leader does not register any complaints, the Board of Review must consider this requirement met if the total time of service is six months or more since achieving Life Scout rank.

Requirement 5: While a Life Scout, plan, develop, and give leadership to others in a service project helpful to any religious institution, any school, or your community. The project idea must be approved by your Scoutmaster and troop committee and by the council or district before you start. All Eagle candidates must use the Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook, No. 18-927, in meeting this requirement.

Eagle Project Workbook  [PDF, 365K]

This is the signature requirement of the Eagle Scout award and usually is a defining event in a Scout's life. The National Eagle Service prepared the Workbook to lay out an objective process for all Eagle candidates to follow. The most important guideline that an Eagle candidate must follow is to get written approval in advance of actually beginning to work on the proposed project. This approval is necessary to save time and effort. If approval is not secured in advance, and the Service project is not satisfactory in any way, the Scout will probably have to start from scratch. Please take this approval requirement very seriously. Remember, there are several approvals required for the project. The first is the verbal approval from your Scoutmaster (or project advisor within the unit) that your idea will qualify as a valid project. You need this before spending much time writing up the detail plan. After your advisor has helped you get the written plan in order and ready to submit, you will then need several signatures in the Eagle Service Project Workbook. A responsible representative from the organization you are doing the project for is the first signature required. It is also a good idea to get a letter from the organization if possible. Next, your Scoutmaster signs, followed by the Troop Committee Chairman after you present the project to the Troop committee. The project is now ready to present to the District Advancement Committee for approval. Note: you should keep a copy of the project write-up, exactly as is presented to the various committees, in case it is lost during the approval cycle. It is very important that you do not do any of the project, except planning, until the District Advancement Chairman has given written approval There are several excellent online resources that can offer Eagle candidates unofficial help with all steps of the Leadership Service Projects, including www.eaglescout.org.

Requirement 6: 
Take part in a Scoutmaster conference with your unit leader. Attach to this application a statement of your ambitions and life purpose and a listing of positions held in your religious institution, school, camp, community, or other organizations during which you demonstrated leadership skills. Include honors and awards received during this service.

The statement is an excellent opportunity for the Eagle candidate to tell members of the Board of Review about life outside of Scouting. List all the various awards and honors achieved or anything else that the Scout can show to demonstrate leadership skills, such as a letter from a principal or volunteer organization. The Scoutmaster Conference is the same format as those held for prior ranks, but the standard is raised. Make sure all the requirements have been completed and have everything ready for him or her to review. You might want to talk to him/her ahead of time to see what is expected in the way of documentation when you have the conference. Remember, this conference is a requirement for Eagle Scout and must occur prior to the candidate's 18th birthday.

Eagle Application
It is imperative that all requirements for the Eagle Scout rank except the Board of Review be completed prior to the candidate's 18th birthday. When all requirements except the Board of Review for the rank of Eagle, including the Leadership Service Project getting final approval signatures, have been completed, the Eagle Scout Rank Application must be completed and sent to the Council Service Center promptly. (Youth members with disabilities should meet with their unit leader regarding time extensions. The policy of Westchester-Putnam Council is that all decisions regarding time extensions for youth members with disabilities must be made at least 90 days prior to the Scout's 18th birthday and must be made by the Council Advancement Committee.)

The application should be signed by the unit leader at the proper place. The unit committee reviews and approves the record of the Eagle candidate before the application is submitted to the Westchester-Putnam Council.  Getting signatures is not a requirement for Eagle Scout rank, therefore signatures can be obtained after the candidate's 18th birthday if necessary. However, all 6 requirements must be completed by the 18th birthday, with no exceptions.

Eagle Application  [PDF, 39K]

When the completed application is received at the Council Service Center, its contents will be verified and the references contacted. This should take no more than 10 days.  The Chairman of the Board of Review then works together with the District Advancement Committee or its designee to review the Reference Letters and usually to contact these references either by letter or telephone. The Eagle candidate should have contacted those individuals listed as references before including their names on the application. The Eagle candidate should not be involved personally in transmitting any correspondence between persons listed as references and the members of the Board of Review. These reference checks are confidential, and their contents are not to be disclosed to any person who is not a member of the Board of Review.

The Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook, properly and completely filled out, along with any additional documentation or exhibits, must be submitted with the application.

After the contents of an application have been verified and appropriately signed, the application and Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook will be returned from the Council Service Center to the chairman of the Eagle Board of Review so that a Board of Review may be scheduled. Under no circumstances should a Board of Review be scheduled until the application is returned to the chairman of the Eagle Board of Review.

The Board of Review for an Eagle candidate is composed of at least three but not more than six members. One member serves as chairman. Unit leaders, assistant unit leaders, relatives, or guardians may not serve as members of a Scout's Board of Review. The Board of Review members should convene at least 30 minutes before the Eagle candidate appears in order to review the application, reference checks, and leadership service project report. At least one district or council advancement representative must be a member of the Eagle Board of Review if the Board of Review is conducted on a unit level. The Council or District Advancement Committees may designate more than one person to serve as a member of Eagle Boards of Review when requested to do so by the unit. It is not required that these persons be members of the Advancement Committee; however, they must have an understanding of the importance of the Eagle Board of Review.

The Eagle candidate's unit leader introduces him to the members of the Board of Review. The unit leader may remain in the room, but does not participate in the Board of Review. The unit leader may be called on to clarify a point in question. In no case should a relative or guardian of the Eagle candidate attend the review, even as a unit leader. There is no set of questions that an Eagle candidate should be asked. However, the Board should be assured of the Eagle candidate's participation in the Scouting program. This is the highest award that a Scout may achieve and, consequently, a thorough discussion of his successes and experiences in Scouting should be considered. After the review, the Eagle candidate and his unit leader leave the room while the Board members discuss the acceptability of the candidate as an Eagle Scout.

The decision must be unanimous. If the Eagle candidate meets the requirements, he is asked to return and is informed that he will receive the Board's recommendation for the Eagle Scout rank. If the Eagle candidate does not meet the requirements, he is asked to return and told the reasons for his failure to qualify. A discussion should be held with him as to how he may meet the requirements within a given period.

Appeals Procedure
If a unit leader or unit committee fails to sign or otherwise approve an application, the Eagle candidate may still be granted a Board of Review. The failure of a unit leader or unit committee to sign an application may be considered by the Board of Review in determining the qualification of the Eagle candidate. The Scout must contact the appropriate District Advancement Chairman in writing to begin this appeal and request a Board of Review.

Should the Eagle candidate disagree with the decision of his Eagle Board of Review, the appeal procedures should be explained to him at the close of that Board of Review. A follow-up letter must be sent to the Scout confirming the agreements reached on the action(s) necessary for the advancement. If the Eagle candidate chooses to appeal, the Board should provide the name and address of the person he is to contact at either the District or Council levels where appropriate.

Final Steps
Immediately after the Board of Review and after the Eagle application has been appropriately signed, the application, the Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook, references, and a properly completed Advancement Report are returned to the Council Service Center.

When the application arrives at the Council Service Center, the Scout Executive signs it to certify that the proper procedure has been followed and that the Board of Review has recommended the candidate for the Eagle Scout rank. The Eagle Scout Leadership Service Project Workbook and references are retained by the Council. The workbook may be returned to the Scout after Council approval but the reference letters should be eventually destroyed.

Only the Eagle Scout Rank Application is forwarded to the national Eagle Scout Service.

The Eagle Scout Service screens the application to ascertain information such as proper signature, positions of responsibility, tenure between ranks, and age of the candidate. Any item not meeting national standards will cause the application to be returned for more information. If the application is in order, the Scout is then certified as an Eagle Scout by the Eagle Scout Service on behalf of the National Council. Notice of approval is given by sending the Eagle Scout certificate to the local council. The date used on the certificate will be the date of the Board of Review. The Eagle Award must not be sold or given to any unit until after the certificate is received by the Council Service Center. The Eagle Scout Court of Honor should not be scheduled until Westchester-Putnam Council receives the Eagle Scout rank credentials.