2011 Guidelines for NESA Committees in Local Councils

At its essence, the National Eagle Scout Association is concerned with the perpetuation of the Boy Scout movement by bringing the power of adult Eagle Scout leadership in full support of Scouting in local councils. Eagle Scouts represent Scouting’s finest. We want to draw on these talented, experienced men who are knowledgeable about our program and who have had a rich experience in Scouting.


The fact that a young man is an Eagle Scout has always carried with it a special significance, not only when he participates in Scouting, but also as he enters higher education, business or industry, and community service. The goals of Scouting—citizenship, training, character development, and personal fitness—remain important for all Eagle Scouts through adulthood. By fully utilizing the strengths of our Eagle Scouts, we can do much to chart the future of Scouting. They can help transmit, from generation to generation, the ideals, ethics, and values that Scouting represents.


It is Scouting’s current leadership, largely at the council level, that will determine the future of our movement.


Resource Potential for Councils


Between 1912 (when the first Eagle Scout ranks were awarded) and 2011, well over 2 million young men have earned the Eagle Award. Roughly 50 percent of these Eagle Scouts are still living. We have started to tap into that vast pool to help expand support for Scouting nationwide.


Through 2008 and 2010 nationwide searches for Eagle Scouts, NESA has recently identified and updated records for nearly 500,000 Eagles. As a direct result of this effort, many of these individuals have only just become re-involved in Scouting at the council level. Many of them have already provided substantial volunteer and financial benefits to councils that have simply asked for their help.


We encourage council NESA committees to become more involved with connecting Eagle Scouts living in the council area. These committees can serve at the grassroots level as resources for helping to find and engage Eagle Scouts in their councils and in the Scouting program.


NESA membership applications and posters are available to local councils through the Bin Resource at National Supply Group in Charlotte, North Carolina. Applicants may also join online at www.nesa.org, under “Join.”

 

Establishment of a NESA Committee


The local council president appoints a NESA committee chair after consultation with the Scout executive. The chair must be an adult Eagle Scout who is a prominent figure in the community. The chair should report directly to the council president.


The chair, in consultation with the Scout executive, appoints committee members, who should likewise be Eagle Scouts and NESA members, or be willing to become NESA members. The NESA committee should not be a subcommittee of any council operating committee; it should be on par with the council’s camping, advancement, and activities committees. To be effective, the council NESA committee should include district and community representation and, if available in the council area, as many Distinguished Eagle Scouts as possible.

 

Suggested Duties of the Council NESA Committee


The council NESA committee’s primary role is to provide the council with dynamic and effective leadership to involve adult Eagle Scouts in active Scouting volunteer roles. In addition, the committee should do the following:

  • Assist in the search for adult Eagle Scouts who are not currently involved in Scouting and are not members of NESA. Refer them to www.NESA.org and the Eagle Scout Directory on the site so that their contact information can be added to the national database.
  • Ensure that all Eagle Scouts are enrolled in NESA, with particular emphasis on increasing life memberships and encouraging all Eagle Scouts to utilize www.NESA.org, stay in touch with NESA, regularly update their personal Eagle Scout records, and locate and identify Eagle Scout friends and acquaintances whose records are not up-to-date.
  • Be familiar with the benefits of NESA membership and promote those benefits, including awards, scholarships, the members-only social networking component of www.NESA.org, the site’s job search engine and online community, the virtual shadowboxes on www.myNESA.org, and more as the site evolves.
  • Activate ways and means that will result in every new Eagle Scout being presented with a NESA membership at the time of the Eagle Scout court of honor.
  • In coordination with the council advancement committee, recommend that adult Eagle Scouts be involved in such projects as advancement clinics, merit badge clinics, the merit badge counseling program, and district representation on Eagle Scout boards of review. If asked by the council advancement committee, then the council NESA committee could sponsor and staff such activities as merit badge shows and clinics.
  • In coordination with the council activities committee, be involved with conducting an annual Eagle Scout recognition dinner for young men who have received the Eagle Scout Award during the past year.
  • Conduct gatherings of Eagles, such as Eagle Scout dinners or breakfasts, for adult Eagle Scouts involved in any or all of the business professional, religious, academic, and military communities. Such a breakfast or dinner would be a useful networking function.
  • Review annual applications for the Glenn A. and Melinda W. Adams Eagle Scout Service Project of the Year Award, select the council winner, and submit an application for the winner to the national NESA office for consideration for the regional and national awards.
  • Identify and nominate Eagle Scouts for the NESA Outstanding Eagle Scout Award by completing and submitting the application (available at http://www.nesa.org/outstanding_eagle.html).
  • Identify and nominate adult Eagle Scouts for the Distinguished Eagle Scout Award by completing and submitting the application (available at http://www.nesa.org/distinguishedaward.html).
  • Inform council Eagle Scouts about NESA scholarships, assist in evaluating applications, and recommend adult Eagle Scouts for inclusion on regional scholarship application review committees.
  • Conduct various additional community service projects to showcase Scouting and Eagle Scouting.
  • Given the benefits and experience Eagle Scouts have received from their Scouting experience, assure that all known adult Eagles are involved as volunteer Scouters.

From time to time, the committee should also undertake any other activity approved by the council president and Scout executive that is designed to advance NESA’s objectives or those of the Scouting movement.

 

Ideas for Conducting Lost Eagle Searches


There are many ways in which council NESA committees can help councils identify Eagle Scouts in their area.

  • Utilize the database now available to the council through NESA, identify all Eagle Scouts living in the council territory, and stay in touch with those individuals.
  • Place ads in local newspapers and magazines and in local weekly or monthly professional bulletins, such as those published by a bar association. A member of the council NESA committee who is an attorney should be charged with finding and compiling a list of all attorneys who are Eagle Scouts within the council. The same would hold true for physicians, engineers, educators, etc.
  • Place ads in corporate in-house publications. In this regard, a representative from the major employers within the council should be charged with finding and compiling a list of all Eagle Scouts within their respective organizations.
  • An Eagle Scout representative for Rotary, Optimists, Kiwanis, Lions, etc., should be a member of the council NESA committee and charged with finding and compiling a list of all Eagle Scouts who are Rotarians, Optimists, etc., within the council.
  • Representatives from each religious denomination in the community should be charged with finding lost Eagles in denominational congregations within a community, for example, Baptist churches, Buddhist temples, Catholic churches, Churches of Christ, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Episcopal churches, Islamic mosques, Jewish temples, Lutheran churches, Methodist churches, etc.

Once identified, Eagle Scouts should be referred to www.nesa.org and encouraged to join NESA, with particular emphasis on life membership.

 

Strengthen the Connection


All Scouting alumni—in particular Eagle Scouts—are critical to Scouting’s future. Once the connection is made, we cannot let it fade. Council NESA committees are one way to help ensure Scouting’s future success. Cooperation between you at the council level and NESA at the national office is an important part of the process. Please let us know what you are doing and how it is working, and we will keep you posted with the success stories we discover.


Contact Bill Steele, director, Alumni Relations and the National Eagle Scout Association, at bill.steele@scouting.org or 972-580-2436.