From: ldg@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (lawrence.d.goldsmith)
Subject: Re: Seeking advice on Eagle Court of Honor
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 12:25:44 GMT

From article <1992Oct01.223720.19526@news.mentorg.com>, by peteg@std.mentorg.com (Peter Galambos SST-C2139):
> (Sorry if this is a repeat.  It didn't seem to go out the first time.)
> 
> My son has passed his Eagle Board and we're starting to think about
> the Court of Honor and have a lot of questions.  I'm hoping some
> of you who have been through this can offer some advice:
> 
I can share the way we do Eagle Court of Honors in our Troop as I have been
involved in about 7 of them in the last 7 or 8 years.

> 1) I've seen references to 'Woods Wisdom: Troop Program Features' in
>    regard to planning Courts of Honor.  Is this worth looking at?
Absolutely. Your Troop should probably have a copy of Woods Wisdom around
for your planning anyway. There is an older book entitled "Scout Ceremonies"
that contains almost the identical information as the ceremonies section of
Woods Wisdom if you Troop happens to have a copy of that.
> 2) Is it advisable to send out RSVP type invitations or are informal
>    invitations OK?
We use a letter from the Troop Committee Chairman as our invitations and
actually send 3 different variations of that letter. The first is a customized
form letter to dignitaries that we ask to RSVP. This group includes people
like: President of US, VP of US, US Senators from State, local Congressman,
State Legislators, County officials, Mayor of township, Superintentent of
Schools, Board of Ed President,  School Principal, and Eagle's special
invitees including family and organization reps from organization that his
project was done for. Another person to send an invite to is "Green Bar" Bill
Harcourt who sends back an excellent, inspirational letter.
This group of letters should be sent 6 to 8 weeks
before to allow time for responses in the form of congratulatory letters
for use at the Court of Honor.
  The second set of letters is not individualized but still asks for
an RSVP from people like Council and District officials. We make sure that
if the Eagle was on the camp staff, Jamboree troop, Philmont trek, etc. that
the adult advisors from those activities are invited.
  The final set of letters does not request an RSVP and is used for the
Troop members, Troop committee, all prior Eagle Scouts of the Troop, and
associated Cub Pack members. (Getting Webeloes to an Eagle Court can be
a great recruiting asset.)
> 3) How long of a ceremony should be planned?  What seems to be the best
>    time (Saturday, Sunday, afternoon, evening)?
We have always held an Eagle Court in conjunction with a standard Troop
Court of Honor that we hold 3 times per year and on our normal meeting
night. I know other Troops that hold them on Sunday afternoon.
The Eagle portion of the Court of Honor usually last about 1 hour.
> 4) What type of food/refreshments should be provided?
We have standardized on decorated sheet cake with the Eagle emblem
on it as the refreshments at our Courts with the addition of soda
and hot water for coffee.
> 5) Any advice on advance publicity?
Most of our publicity is after the Court and focuses on Eagle project as
much as the Court itself.
> 6) Any advice on format of the ceremony (what to include, what to
>    avoid, sequencing)?
See Woods Wisdom for a sequencing. We also try to include a slide show
of the Eagle's progress when possible. For awhile, we had a couple of
people who carried cameras to everything and took slides of everything
so we were able to generate a reasonable history of the Eagle but we
have had a couple of cases where enough slides do not exist to make
a reasonable show so we just drop it.
  Use the congratulatory letters and invited guests and intersperse them
to avoid just standing up there and reading a bunch of letters. Another
hint is to organize the letters before hand. At our last Eagle Court, I
organized all the letters into a looseleaf notebook using vinyl page
protectors which also had the advantage of being something to present to
the Eagle as a keepsake.
> 7) Any other interesting experiences/comments/ideas?
  There are always a few gifts that we give to the Eagle.
  The Troop Committee presents a membership in NESA (National Eagle Scout Assoc)
  We have been fortunate enough to get our Sponsoring Organization to
present the Eagle with the Eagle Stained Glass Tableau that is advertised in
Scouting about everyother issue.
  We also have a tradition of the Scoutmaster presenting the Eagle a
handmade gift that commemorates the Eagle Project along with a gag gift
related to the project. For example, our most recent Eagle's project was
painting the outside of the Fire House (our sponsor). This Eagle is also
very conscious about staying perfectly clean. For his gift, I made a
shadow box with glass front and mounted a pair of heavy duty rubber gloves
in the shadow box with an engraved brass plate mounted on the front glass
that said: "In case of paint, break glass."

Another area that we work hard on is the program. We get the standard
Eagle program covers from Scout Supply and get the program printed.
The center double page includes the Eagle's picture, list of awards (other
than advancement) such as positions, historic trail awards, high adventures,
etc. and a brief biographical sketch.

A final note for the Court is that I generated a detailed script for
the Court. This allowed me to tailor the ceremonies from the Woods Wisdom
versions and mix and match where appropriate. It also allowed me to
make sure that there was no surprises and prevented a lot of fumbling
of papers by getting everything into one place.

In summary, to run a good Court of Honor can take a lot of work and
planning but the effort has always been worth it as this is a day
that will always be remembered by alot of the people attending.

Good luck.
> 
> Pete Galambos  peteg@std.mentorg.com
> Committee Chairman, Troop 670  Columbia Pacific Council
> 

Larry Goldsmith  ldg@hoqaa.att.com
Scoutmaster, Troop 131  Monmouth Council (NJ)
Newsgroups: rec.scouting