The Great Trail Council's decision to replace unit level Eagle boards of review (EBoRs) with district level boards of review beginning on Jan. 1st of this year has led to many changes.  One of the most significant is that district advancement committees are now responsible for running all EBoRs in their districts and for finding folks to serve on those boards.

The Seneca District advancement committee needs your help in creating a pool of volunteers to serve on Eagle boards of review.

Our immediate need is to find Scouters and current supporters of Scouting who are willing to serve.  Since these individuals already understand Scouting and since many have already served on EBoRs, they can begin serving on our district boards right away.

All Scouters and supporters from all units -- troops, crews, posts, even packs -- are welcome to join the volunteer pool; as are merit badge counselors and district members-at-large.  And by all, we mean all, even Unit Leaders and Assistant Unit Leaders.

The Great Trail Council has also asked us to include members of the community on our Eagle boards of review.  This request is aimed at strengthening Scouting's ties to our communities.  If you know of someone in the other circles you travel in -- social, fraternal, religious, professional, etc. -- who would make a good board member, please talk with them about volunteering.

Anyone who wants to volunteer or learn more should open the "Volunteer" page using this link.  There's a new section called "Serve on an Eagle Board of Review" with an e-mail link that will reach the advancement committee.  We'll take care of explaining things and answering questions.

The requirements for scheduling a district level Eagle board of review through the GTC Service Center have been updated.

When the new program for Eagle boards of review was announced, the plan was to have all Eagle recommendations submitted directly to the council Service Center by the individuals writing the recommendations.

In January of this year, at the quarterly meeting of the GTC Advancement Committee, it was recognized that this original plan created problems that could not be solved to the benefit of everyone concerned:  the Eagle candidates, the district advancement volunteers, and the Service Center staff.

It was decided to return responsibility for collecting Eagle recommendations to the unit advancement committees, as was the case in the past, since units are in the best position to track down late or missing recommendations for their Eagle candidates.

As before, units should collect recommendations on a best effort basis. An Eagle board of review cannot be postponed or denied because of references who fail to return recommendations.  (Guide to Advancement 2019, Sec. 9.0.1.7)

IMPORTANT:  Now, however, units have the additional responsibility of submitting collected recommendations to the Service Center before an Eagle board of review will be scheduled.  Scheduling will be done ONLY when all required Eagle paperwork has been submitted.

The required Eagle paperwork now consists of:
1)  The candidate's Eagle Scout Rank Application (512-728_WB_fillable).
2)  A copy of the candidate's "Statement of Ambitions and Life Purpose."
3)  A copy of the Contact Information page from the candidate's Eagle service project workbook (Proposal Page B).
4)  All returned Eagle recommendations for the candidate (in their original sealed envelopes).

Finally, there is a new GTC Eagle recommendation form:  "GTC Eagle Scout Rank Recommendation (2020-FEB-a).pdf."  It can be found on the GTC website using this link.

National Council has updated the Annual Health and Medical Record (AHMR) forms, 680-001_AB and 680-001_ABC.  You can download PDFs of the new forms from Scouting.org using this link.

You do not have to fill out a new form just because it's 2020. An old form filled out in 2019 is valid through the end of the 12th month after the date the form was signed.  (e.g. A form completed any time in June 2019 will be valid until 30 June 2020.)

All new Scouts and Scouters should use the new form.  Anyone replacing an expired form should also use the new form.

How can you tell a new form from an old form?  The new forms say "2019 Printing" in the lower right corner of each page while the old forms say
"2014 Printing."

For more information, please read the post There's an updated Annual Health and Medical Record to use in 2020 on the "Bryan on Scouting" blog.

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