PREPARING FOR THE EAGLE BOARD OF REVIEW
Eagle Candidates:
Your Eagle Board of Review will be like no other Board of Review in your Scouting career. Up to now, the Board of Review has served as a final check on your successful accomplishment of a rank. The Eagle Board of Review (your Unit Committee) has done most of that by reading your Project Report, your Application and your Life Purpose Paper. Now it wants to determine if you are ready for a new beginning -- the rest of your life as an Eagle Scout.
You cannot study for an Eagle Board of Review. You have already spent your whole life preparing for it, making choices every day. One of those choices was to persevere to become an Eagle Scout. We will want to know why.
The best preparation you can make for the Board is to be yourself, at your very best:
- Put some time between your busy day and the Board. Two hours to change and eat calmly would be ideal. At least, plan a rest stop somewhere before the Board. This is your Board, so do not let the schedules of others force you to come from sports practice or other busy commitments if you can help it.
- Spend some time on your uniform in the days before the Board, so you are not rushing at the last minute. Clean it and press it (including your neckerchief). Make sure you have all the correct badges in the right places. Shine your shoes the night before. The Scout Uniform includes official shirt and trousers, your Unit neckerchief, belt and socks -- do not come to an Eagle Scout Board of Review in anything less than a full uniform . You want the Board to see your future commitment to Scouting, and your appearance is the first indication of that.
- Pack the paperwork the night before: original Application, Life Purpose paper, Project Report and Workbook, all the correspondence from your project, your Scout Handbook and anything else you may need. If in doubt, ask your Committee Chair or the Council Representative to your Board. If others have some of these things (the Application, for example), call everyone who should be bringing something to remind them. It's your Eagle Board, not theirs.
- Get a good night's sleep the night before.
- Get your blood sugar up. Have a meal before the Board. If you must come straight from school, practice or whatever, pack some fruit or a health bar. Eat it and drink some water at least 20 minutes before the Board.
- Finally, ask yourself why you want to be an Eagle Scout. Do it often in the days before the Board, and let the answers carry your thoughts away. See what they show you about your relationship to the Scout Oath and Law, what is really important in your life and how being an Eagle Scout relates to any or all of that. Have fun with it and be prepared to share what you discover with the Board.
We hope you will discover a little about yourself and that you will like what you discover.
[Note: I want to thank all the Eagle Scouts in the Monticello District who passed their Boards of Review between 1994 and 2001. You did it without these tips, and your struggles helped me put this page together. God bless you. -- Jonathan Hine, District Advancement, 1994-2004]
============================
If you have questions or suggestions about this page or this site, please let
us know .
updated: 17-Jan-2007.