BAS February 2012.Indd
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2012 Vol 1 February-April 2012 In this issue: Spring Boy Scout Recruitment Scout Executive’s Note - page 2 A steady fl ow of youth into a Boy Scout The three primary methods of recruiting Merit Badge troop is essential to maintaining the troop’s Sponsorship - new Scouts into your troop are: health. New Scouts bring energy and page 3 • Graduating Webelos Scouts from enthusiasm to the troop program. 100th local Cub Scout packs into your Anniversary Eagle troops Rank - page 3 To avoid the pitfall of shrinking • By hosting a troop open house for 6th membership, a troop should add at least Eagle Service graders or members of your charter Project - page 3 10 new Scouts every year. Having a year- organization round growth plan in place will help attract Commissioner’s • Developing a boy-to-boy recruitment new Scouts. College - page 4 plan such as bring a friend night. Edison Nation The fi rst step for any recruitment effort Challenge - page 4 All these and many more ideas should is to appoint an assistant Scoutmaster Popcorn Sale - be part of your troop’s program calendar. or Troop committee member to serve as page 4 Without new members, your troop program the troop membership chair. This person will become stale and less effective. By Notes - page 5 will develop and implement a year-round introducing new members on a constant growth plan that incorporates all methods Friends of basis, your troop’s program will experience Scouting of recruitment; working closely with Cub Recognition Plan - an infl ux of new members, new parent Scout packs in the community, the district page 6 volunteers, and new ideas. Help your troop membership committee, and the unit Endowment - stay healthy by recruiting new members. commissioner. page 6 High Adventure Training Courses - page 7 Voice of the Scout 2013 National Scout Jamboree - page 8 San Francisco Bay Area Council set to experiences at the unit and district within collect the Voice of Scouts, Parents & our council. Eagle Camp - Volunteers in March page 9 Surveys will stay open for three weeks, then NYLT - page 9 As part of a national Boy Scout of America information will be referenced for making Family Vacation program, the San Francisco Bay Area key decisions to drive Scouting forward, as Camp - page 9 Council is excited to announce their guided by the people that matter most- our Order of the Arrow participation in the Voice of the Scout. members. It will be a continuous program, Calendar - page 10 With over four million members, this in that we will launch these surveys twice New Eagle Scouts - program is being adopted as a key way to per year, with no household receiving more page 11 collect experiences and deliver upon the than one survey every six month. New Units - page expectation of members as they participate 11 in Scouting. Due to the sheer volume of surveys in this program, we must deliver via email to Scout Day at the Oakland A’s - page Beginning mid-March, parents, Scouts effectively and effi ciently collect opinions. 12 & Venturers over 14, volunteers and To make the most of this program we will Council Trip to chartered organizations will begin seeing begin asking for email updates regularly, Switzerland surveys delivered into their email inboxes so please make sure we have your most - page 13 for Voice of the Scout. The surveys have recent email by sending an email to JoAnn been designed to be very brief but will -see page 2 the Bay Area Scouter give needed insight into the variety of And in the end, our Council weathered the storm of a down economy…we did Scout Executive’s Note not fall behind. We balanced the budget with a slight gain…and we continue to express our sincere thanks and Reservation, Royaneh Scout Camp and appreciation to all of our loyal donors Ranchos Los Mochos and the numbers and supporters who helped to sustain us show it-with summer camp attendance fi nancially in 2011. at 4,278-an almost 820 participant gain over 2010. In the beginning of this message I spoke • Over the summer and thanks of our Council having what it takes to to one particular Friend of Scouting, make a difference in 2012. If you are nearly 20 miles of new hike and bike like me when “someone” says that “this trails were built at Wente following the year won’t be any better than last year” acquisition of a unique trail building or “we can expect more of the same” machine. And we continued with our you might feel kind of down or even established commitment to be a good disheartened. That’s because we know neighbor to the communities around our how hard we worked last year to achieve camps. all of the accomplishments mentioned above. However and in spite of this Ken Mehlhorn While we all know and understand the feeling I’m already convinced that we’ll Scout Executive value of Scouting, how do we tangibly achieve our goals-better-faster and more express that value to our communities effi ciently because we have the best and their leaders? One way is just Happy New Year! I always look volunteers in the entire country working continuing to produce citizens of goods hard at their tasks to make Scouting forward to what the new-year will character but other real and tangible bring. Many of us realize though that come alive for thousands of young evidence of our value is provided each people. What I’m saying is that we’ll 2012 will in many respects, be much the and every year. Scouting for Food same as 2011. However here in the San make 2012 different and successful is one huge annual success-our scouts because of our volunteers. Whether Francisco Bay Area Council I believe collected 148,000 pounds of food as our we have exactly what it will take to we personally give in to the notion that service project last year and to that food the coming year can only be as good as make a difference in the coming year. drive we added a new service element. I’ll get back to what I mean by this in a last year or not, doesn’t really matter We partnered with the Lions Clubs in because we already know that we’ll minute or so, but fi rst a moment or two our area and asked Scouts to collect about 2011. come out in excellent shape because we used pairs of prescription eye glasses. have …YOU! You make the difference! An estimated 3000 pairs were collected I am incredibly excited about what we which are refurbished by the Lions and have achieved together last year. Just On behalf of our president Rick sent overseas to areas that really need Pickering our Council Commissioner think of the strides our volunteers and them. And beyond that don’t forget all staff together, have made: Bree Bowman and our entire Executive those unit by unit day to day and Eagle Board-best wishes in this new-year. And Scout candidate service projects-almost thank you for making a difference. • Our Council began to measure 50,000 hours of service were devoted success through the new Journey to by scouts and their leaders to our Excellence program, a new initiative communities. that helps us deliver a quality Scouting experience and build a sustainable I’m optimistic about our trends in future for our program. And guess membership recruitment and retention. what…the fi rst year out of the box we Our traditional membership was almost became a GOLD Council-the highest ten thousand strong at the end of 2011. achievement level! That was up 3.0 percent from 2010. Voice of the Scout • Through our relationship • Our retention continues to be -from page 1 with our corporate supporters, we are one of the highest in the area and region preparing Scouts for the careers of at about 70 percent. This equates to tomorrow by continuing our hugely an average of about 7,000 youth re- Sebastian at [email protected]. successful Learning for Life programs registering annually. serving some 10,000 youth and we grew Please write email address change in the • Four of our fi ve districts subject line and be sure to include your our career Exploring programs by 30%. had growth in membership in 2011, name, unit, and unit number, or if you • We grew in the Quality arena compared to only two in 2010 and three by seeing an increase in Eagle Badges districts earned their own Gold JTE are a district registration, which district. presented (192); overall advancements designations: Mission Peak, Golden were up signifi cantly to more than 4,300 Gate and Twin Valley-congratulations to Voice of the Scout is how we will help and that doesn’t include over 7,200 the Key 3’s of these “excellent districts”. guide our decision-making for our future merit badges. We also commend the Peralta District on programs and operational delivery. • We continued to improve our achieving the Silver JTE award. Please take a few minutes of your time Council “crown jewels”-Wente Scout to participate! page 2 Advancement Eagle Rank Advisory Celebrates 100th Anniversary! San Francisco Bay Area Council To celebrate the centennial of Scouting’s Merit Badge Sponsorship Program top honor, all recipients of the Eagle Scout Award in the year 2012 will be We want to invite your company to • Banner Recognition at two Boy eligible to wear a become a Council Merit Badge Sponsor.