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[quote=Anonymous]I volunteer for Girl Scouts and BSA, and our Gold Awards are similar to Eagle Scout awards but have a different philosophy behind them, and they take take longer and have a far more bureaucratic approval process to get projects moving. I have thoughts!

hopefully I can provide some insight into where the wheels may be coming off. I'll also add up-front that at least where I live, Eagle Scout awards have a bad reputation for being all about using other people's volunteer time to make one kid look good. I know the whole point of the project is that a Scout is supposed to bring people together, but you should be aware of the prejudices people might be bringing to the conversation. Girl Scout Gold Awards are different in that they are self-run and funded and don't use others' labor in the same way, so we have easier community buy-in for Gold Awards.

Get on the phone or show up in person. HS kids hide behind email under the guise of "being professional" but they are usually doing it to avoid the energy and courage it takes to go and have conversations in person or to pick up the phone. If you find a contact person via email, don't try to keep the conversation going by email- set up a time to go and meet in person or to have a phone call or (least-preferable) a zoom call.

Also, you need to talk to him beyond "ideas" about a service project and get him to frame his project as something that is essentially fully thought-through and just needs the location/approval/etc.

I volunteer with another community organization and we are inundated with volunteers who have "ideas for a project" but ghost us when it's time to do the work to make it happen. I don't have the time to hand-hold someone through 80% of a project and then be on the ground for the final 20% of it while someone else gets all of the credit for my org's work. I've had that experience and am very protective of my org's resources now.

It's possible that the groups your DS is reaching out to have had similar experiences and don't have the resources to nudge your DS from "idea" to making the project happen. He's going to need to show more initiative and more planning to get the attention of the partners he needs to see this through.

If you are really stuck, look up Gold Award resources from Girl Scouts. There are some great free resources and first-person write ups that provide a ton of information about how to handle roadblocks, how to gather resources and volunteers, and how to engage with the community. [/quote]

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