When a group of volunteers is getting together to help you out during your Eagle Service Project, you will want to keep a record their time. This could be a bake sale, a car wash, construction, installation of a project, or any event where a number of volunteers gather.  Keeping track of your volunteer hours is very important for your final report, and an easy way to do this is with an “Assisted By” spreadsheet, which is available on the downloads page of this website.  This spreadsheet is different than a project log because it only tracks events with groups of volunteers.

First and foremost, always have a sign-in sheet for your events.  As Scouts and adults join you during the event, have them record their names, and enter the time that they start.  Also have them record the time when they leave.  (A sign-in sheet is also available for download on our downloads page.)  After the event is over, you can enter all the names from your sign-in sheet into your “Assisted By” spreadsheet, along with their hours.  The beauty of this spreadsheet is that it will automatically total the hours for each participant, as well as each event.

Let’s take a look at a sample Assisted By spreadsheet, also downloadable.  In this example, the Eagle candidate had four events, a car wash, assembly, painting and installation.  All four events are entered at the top of the columns, along with their dates.  He had six Scouts help out, two non-Boy Scout friends, two BSA adults, and two adults who are not registered as BSA volunteers.  (These are the categories requested in the Eagle Service Project final report.)  You can see that some of his volunteers were at one event, but not another.  For your fellow Scouts, you will want to let them know their final volunteer hours, because they can use these hours toward service hours required for rank advancement.

At the very bottom of the page, the Eagle candidate is keeping track of his own hours at the same event.  This one spreadsheet gives you the total hours for each event, how many hours each person puts into the event, and subtotals by the category of volunteer!  The totals for each event can now easily be added to your project log as a one line item.  Awesome!

Oh, the possibilities!

Coach Hunt