Eagle Palm

Requirements

Requirements were REVISED effective January 1, 2018.

To see the changes which were made, Click here.

For the previous requirements, Click here.

These requirements become effective on August 1, 2017 and were further modified retroactively in October, 2017,

and again when the 2018 edition of Boy Scout Requirements was issued.

Note that Eagle Palms are NOT considered "Ranks" by BSA.

Effective on January 1, 2018, the VARSITY SCOUT program was discontinued by BSA.

After successfully completing your Eagle Scout board of review on or after Aug. 1, 2017, and being validated as an Eagle Scout by the National Service Center, you will be entitled to receive an Eagle Palm for each additional five merit badges you completed before your Eagle board of review beyond those required for Eagle. All current Scouts who have completed their Eagle board of review and who had not passed their 18th birthday before Aug. 1, 2017, are also entitled to receive Eagle Palms. For these Palms only, it will not be necessary for you to complete the requirements stated below.

After becoming an Eagle Scout and receiving the Eagle Palms you are entitled to, you may earn additional Palms by completing the following requirements:

• 1. Be active in the Boy Scouts of America for at least three months after becoming an Eagle Scout or after the last Palm was earned.¹⁴

  2. Since earning the Eagle Scout rank or your last Eagle Palm, demonstrate Scout spirit by living the Scout Oath and Scout Law. Tell how you have done your duty to God and how you have lived the Scout Oath and Scout Law in your everyday life.

  3. Continue to set a satisfactory example of accepting responsibility or demonstrating leadership ability.

  4. Earn five additional merit badges beyond those required for Eagle or last Palm.¹⁵

  5. While an Eagle Scout participate in a Scoutmaster conference.

You may wear only the proper combination of Palms for the number of merit badges you earned beyond the rank of Eagle. The Bronze Palm represents 5 merit badges, the Gold Palm 10, and the Silver Palm 15.

Notes:

For Venturers working on Boy Scout requirements, replace "troop" with "crew" and "Scoutmaster" with "Crew Advisor."

For Sea Scouts working on Boy Scout requirements, replace "troop" with "ship" and "Scoutmaster" with "Skipper."

¹⁴ Eagle Palms must be earned in sequence, and the three-month tenure requirement must be observed for each Palm.

¹⁵ Merit Badges earned any time since becoming a Boy Scout may be used to meet this requirement.

Eagle Palms are worn by youth members on the Eagle Scout rank patch, or on the ribbon of the Eagle Scout Medal.

Blanks in this worksheets table appear when we do not have a worksheet for the badge that includes these requirements.

NOTE: Scouts who earn three Palms may continue to earn additional Palms in the same order - bronze, gold, and silver. All requirements for Eagle Palms must be completed before a candidate's 18th birthday. The Palms beyond Silver can't be entered by units into BSA's "Internet Advancement" database, since there doesn't appear to be a way to record multiple instances of the awards, just the number of merit badges earned, but a Scout can still earn and wear the multiple Palms. The "Scoutbook" software does allow for recording additional Palms, and the "Scoutbook Lite" software should allow that as well.

The following Table shows how many and which Palms should be worn for various numbers of Merit Badges beyond the 21 required for Eagle Scout, and how long it takes to earn these palms ( assuming exactly 3 months between each Board of Review). To get to the theoretical maximum of 23 Palms (7 Silver Palms and a Gold Palm), a Scout that had less than 26 merit badges at the time of his Eagle Scout Board of Review would have had to have his Eagle Board of Review before his 12th birthday, and then have each successive Board of Review at exactly 3 month intervals, and have earned all but one of the 137 current merit badges. In the table below, the 4th column shows the number of months after earning Eagle, assuming the Scout had less than 26 merit badges at that time. For each group of 5 merit badges above the minimum that the Scout had at that time, reduce the number of months shown by 3. (So for example, if he had between 36 and 40 merit badges when he had his Eagle Board of Review, he could receive the first 3 Palms (i.e. his first Silver Palm) immediately, and then Palm 4 could be earned 3 months later, etc.).

(footnotes)

Source: BOY SCOUT REQUIREMENTS 2018

Page updated on: March 28, 2018