Different Eagle Project.
J. Hugh Sullivan
several years. Most court houses have records in storage which haven't
been seen for 50 or maybe a hundred years - and they don't have the
manpower to do anything about it.
An Eagle candidate plans to review the files, put the papers in
treated plastic sleeves, and file them in chronological order. He
plans to scan the important documents to disk and put a copy in the
library. All people involved in the procedure will wear white cotton
gloves. Of course his plans have been approved by the appropriate
county officials.
I presume there are so many records that he will not be able to review
all of them and this could be a continuing projrct for other Scouts
and/or volunteers.
Hugh
Emma Pease
Sounds very worthwhile. I assume he has consulted an archivist (the
local librarians should be a good source for this).
Emma
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J. Hugh Sullivan
According to his writeup he got the idea from a small gathering at the
court house and there was so much stuff they did a little and then
left. He talked to the authorities at the court house and they have
approved the project and so has the troop. All he needed to start was
my sig.
I called him (he lives about 35 miles from here) and made a few
recommendations. I like several before, during and after pictures. We
suggest they create a scrapbook for the Board to review - moms love to
keep those things. I reminded him that participation is not limited to
Scouts - librarians and court house employees might volunteer. I also
suggested coverage by the newspaper.
He'll get some help from his dad who has been in Scouting a long time.
Watch for me on 2 January - I'll be in the top deck on the 50 yard
line at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. I'll have on a white sweater with a
small Alabama logo and no hat. 8-) I'm leaving for Dallas tomorrow
morning.
Hugh
Emma Pease
I was asking about the archivist since such a person might be able to
advise him of what to do if he discovers something beyond the
capabilities of the volunteers (e.g., papers stuck together or flaking
away).
> I called him (he lives about 35 miles from here) and made a few
> recommendations. I like several before, during and after pictures. We
> suggest they create a scrapbook for the Board to review - moms love to
> keep those things. I reminded him that participation is not limited to
> Scouts - librarians and court house employees might volunteer. I also
> suggested coverage by the newspaper.
Certainly. I know I've been a volunteer when I was a girl scout on a
couple of eagle scouts projects. The closest to this one was a
catalog of all the disused graveyards in the town (the town had 20+,
mostly old family graveyards some dating back to the 1600s). The idea
was to record what was written on each gravestone (not always possible
since some gravestones had eroded too much).
> He'll get some help from his dad who has been in Scouting a long time.
>
> Watch for me on 2 January - I'll be in the top deck on the 50 yard
> line at the Cotton Bowl in Dallas. I'll have on a white sweater with a
> small Alabama logo and no hat. 8-) I'm leaving for Dallas tomorrow
> morning.
Good luck in the game. My own team has not done well this year.
Robert Haar
> Genealogy and record preservation has become a big thing in the past
> several years. Most court houses have records in storage which haven't
> been seen for 50 or maybe a hundred years - and they don't have the
> manpower to do anything about it.
>
> An Eagle candidate plans to review the files, put the papers in
> treated plastic sleeves, and file them in chronological order. He
> plans to scan the important documents to disk and put a copy in the
> library. All people involved in the procedure will wear white cotton
> gloves. Of course his plans have been approved by the appropriate
> county officials.
This sounds very worthwhile. The only question that I would have would be
how the Eagle candidate is going to use others to do the work. Since
leadership is as important as Service in the Eagle Project, he should use
every opportunity to lead others in doing the work rather than ding it
himself.
A scout here had a similar project but it had to do with photographs. A
local historical society had a disorganized collection of old photographs.
The scout's Eagle project was to sort, organize and preserve the
photographs. He researched archival methods of store old photos and did a
small amount of cleaning and then taught these methods to the volunteers
working on his project.. He went beyond the original proposal and scanned
all the photos, tried to determine the historical setting (date, place,
etc.) and created a database that facilitates searching the collection.
I applaud this scout for coming up with a project idea that is not the usual
"build a nature trail" project.
J. Hugh Sullivan
wrote:
We've got more trails than the Indians had. 8-)
There are several steps to the process as he outliuned it - I look for
leadership also.
He plans to have 3 people opening and/or unfolding documents; he will
have from 1-3 people putting the documents in plastic sleeves and 1 or
more sorting in chrono order. I am told he is a computer whiz so he
might be the one to burn the CDs.
One other project I like is stencilling house numbers on curbs in
front of residences. In any town a lot of houses don't have easily
seen numbers and it makes it tough for emergency vehicles to locate
them. The police department usually knows the places that need the
numbers most.
Hugh
ALBERT WISDOM
"J. Hugh Sullivan" <sull...@adelphia.net> wrote in message
news:43b2c24a...@news1.news.adelphia.net...
Hugh,
Where I am "stenciling house numbers on curbs" might be a problem since
there are organizations that do that professional as a fund raiser for non
profits.
I worked with a scout in my city that did it with a twist. He stenciled
warnings not to dump on all the storm drains in the city. The city did not
have a list at that time of all of them.
It turned out to be a very big project, but very worthwhile.
Ernie
J. Hugh Sullivan
The pros don't come around very often here. They would skip our house
but I would notice any new ones on the block. Our number is getting
sorta old so I might tell the next one he has to redo my house for my
approval of his project. 8-)
I thought about that but decided that the places they paint would be
mostly in the lower income sections as recommended by police, etc..
That's where addresses are sometimes difficult to find and people
don't have any spare change.
Of course they are told to ask each resident if it's okay to paint the
numbers and hardly any refuse. I've gone out to look when they are
painting and several people ask to have theirs painted or ask if they
are going to paint on their street. It's another opportunity to
advertise BSA and Eagle projects.
Thanks, Ernie
Hugh