The guys who handle this stuff are the worst. I had two boys go through this together (thank goodness). I sat with them through a 3.5 hr lecture at this old guy's kitchen table about how he preferred everything to be packaged. Totally ridiculous and unnecessary (not to mention contrary to the BSA directions on eagle applications). My boys were in full rebellion by the end of that ordeal. Then he rejected their applications. Then after resubmission it got kicked to another guy. When he wrote my boys a lengthy email about what kind of art supplies they should purchase/use for their next resubmission, I had to intervene.

Thank goodness I was on the council's executive board and had a lot of political capital to spend with the council executives — and I did. Those who don't are often caught in Eagle Purgatory for a long time. It shouldn't be this way. I ran out of energy before I could make headway with fixing the problem for everyone else. My boys have no idea what I had to do on their behalf. BSA deserves to die a quick but painful death.