It wasn't run like a sacrament meeting... and the boys were involved / engaged and the parents and leaders weren't all trying to keep it under 15 minutes...
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It seems to me the only thing you've learned is that Caesar is a "salad dressing dude."
Good key note speakers help. I'm sorry if this insults anyone but most members of the ward are probably the worst public speakers in the world. Get someone dynamic to speak. Look around the stake or even the community. Often politicians, business leaders, and other community folks can be used to give a good talk. Another key thing is good planning. Make assignments early, run through the program before hand, practice flag ceremonies.
Location is another big thing. In the dead of winter the chapel can be fine but the cultural hall is better. Court of honors are supposed to be fun too! Outdoors is also great, weather permitting. Try a park or more natural area and incorporate some displays of the things the scouts have been doing. If a bunch of scouts recently earned their pioneering merit badges have a display of some of those things. Incorporate a pot luck or BBQ.
Sometimes it drives me crazy how we just fall into a rut in our wards. We are bound more often by habit and tradition than rules and commandments. We can't do it any other way because we have always done it this way. Hogwash!
Um, why are you having a keynote speaker at all? This is a young men's activity. If you want too much talking and crying, attend a young women's activity.
First, in keeping with the goals of scouting, it should be planned and led and MC'd by the boys (we have to let them take turns directing so they can get the communications merit badge).
There should be scout songs; skits, the scout oath and law.
The patrol leaders should hand out the merit badges.
The senior patrol leader should hand out rank advancements.
There should be ice cream.
The scoutmaster should give a scoutmaster's minute; it should last about ONE minute; and it should be the ONLY thing like a speech.
An Eagle Court is (or at least should be) something seperate from a plain old Court of Honor.
An Eagle Court is a more appropriate venue for having speakers, if it is done as a formal occasion.
What the Eagle Court ends up being is pretty much up to what the boy wants (and/or family). In our troop, we have had the whole range of boys who didn't want an Eagle Court at all to others who have had full scale multi-media presentations and a lot of pomp and ceremony (one even had the mayor of the city as a guest of honor at his since his project was for the city and approved by city council). Other boys who weren't really that big into the ceremony and "ritual" type stuff -- which unfortunately in my mind is more an indictment on parents and adult attitudes that portray Scouts as an optional extracurricular activity in the YM's program and therefore all the Scout spirit stuff is silly -- had a private pool party for themselves and the teachers / priests at a family's pool where the Scoutmaster presented their Eagle award in kind of a "oh by the way" fashion.
The secret, in my mind, to a good Eagle Court, is to have folks who are excited about Scouting planning, organizing, and then running it. Folks who understand the Scouting lore and who are good at pointing out that earning the Eagle is not an end, but a beginning and a lifelong commitment to living the principles the boy is supposed to have learned from the time he started in Scouts (hence, I am somewhat biased against boys being pushed to earn their Eagle at as soon a young age as they can because I don't believe many are mature enough to really grasp what it means to be an Eagle Scout).
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It seems to me the only thing you've learned is that Caesar is a "salad dressing dude."
What's the Eagles' Nest? We have a restaurant named that near here...
Somewhere near the front, or on the stand, they have an "Eagles' nest" where all Eagle scouts from the audience are invited to sit during the program. After the award is presented to the new Eagle scout, he is invited to sit with them. This is a very cool tradition.
Too often, the Eagle's Nest tradition (and ceremony that goes with it) is treated as an afterthought (like much when it comes to Scout lore and ceremony in the typical LDS troop).
When it is done right, you will want to have as many of the men in the ward who are Eagle Scouts there as possible (not just the troop committee / dads of scouts). It will sometimes really impress the boys (Eagle candidate and others) to see them all. At the beginning of the Eagle Court, the MC invites all Eagles to come and take their place in the nest, as Hoss referenced. At the appropriate time, an honor guard of one or two from the nest (should be someone the boy has chosen and has a special kinship to) leave to escort the "fledgling eagle" and his parents from the audience to the front for the presentation of the award, and then escort the new eagle to the nest after he has had the oath administered to him. The whole thing is much more meaningful when those in the Eagle Nest are included in some form during the whole ceremony, even if it is just to renew their own Eagle oath when the oath is administered to the boy.
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It seems to me the only thing you've learned is that Caesar is a "salad dressing dude."
I think Coco took over my account... I have NO idea how that got there... um... yeah...
To tell you the truth, I don't know how to make a Court of Honor "cool". I can't remember a single "cool" or "exciting" Court of Honor. Perhaps i was just a jaded teen, but I never really got too excited about them, other than the refreshments after the agony of the speeches was over...
As a teenage boy, I don't know what would've made things better... well... besides... the things already stated...
--Ray
PS> Not that I didn't like the awards. I liked those. Just all the pomp and circumstance... never impressed me... heck I thought graduation ceremony was a waste too, and for my master's degree, I didn't even attend graduation... (had a job in a different state by that time)... I'm just not big on ceremony outside of the church itself... which I think holds deep and important significance... unlike the ceremonies of men... which imo smack of something apostate...
-- Edited by rayb at 15:48, 2007-06-14
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
I always liked the speakers that had visual aids and involved the scouts in helping demonstrate the concept they were trying to convey. This way we were less likely to fall asleep. I remember one guy who spoke about the ways that a boy gains strength for life. He compared the young scout to a stick which when pressure applied broke easilly. Then he said that support of parents, scout leaders, YM's leaders, teachers, ect was like adding other sticks around the boys stick making it more difficult for the world to break the boy. He had each of these people come up and bring a stick to add to the boys stick. Soon the bundle of sticks was too strong to break. That talk from a court of honor was many, many years ago and I still remember it. Of course he forgot to tell me about the evil girl friend that would come along and convince me I didn't need the other sticks anymore and after I cast them off she proceeded to toss my stick into the tractor mounted mulcher where it was shredded into a million pieces.
Sorry 'bout your shredded stick, sales. No, really.
Maybe something like a big Indian powwow or something... My oldest will be getting his Eagle in about 2 or 3 years and I don't want to be caught at the last minute with no good ideas.
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Life is tough but it's tougher if you're stupid. -John Wayne
