Registration for Akela’s Trail, the training formerly known as Pow-Wow!, is open!
Akela’s Trail is a 1/2 day virtual event, on November 20, 2021, which provides supplemental training for Cub Scout Leaders, Adults, and Partners. Please pass the information along to everyone in your Cub Scout Units!
Register today, https://scoutingevent.com/082-51296. 
Come join us for three sessions on November 20, 2021, via Zoom. We will offer over ten supplemental courses, which will aid all Cub Scout Adult Leaders and Partners, in putting on an effective and powerful program!
Registration coming soon!
We hope to see you and your fellow Cub Leaders and Partners at the training!
The ever-popular family camping with activities is available again this fall at Camp Snyder. You can choose from two weekends, October 22-24 or November 19-21. Cubs, Scouts BSA and younger and older youth can participate on either weekend. Sign-up quickly, because these weekends with program activities are limited to 150 participants.
Your Cub or Scout can be as adventurous as they want! They can work on handicrafts and leatherwork, be the BB gun champion, complete a project in the woodshop, shoot archery like Robin Hood, learn through STEM FUN and robotics, as well as climb the daunting Scouterhorn. And the whole family can take a nature walk guided by a Master Conservator or take a COFFEE break and be a SLACKER at the climbing area. And, on your own, your family can fish (bring your pole) or bike (bring your bike and helmet), hike, try the Geocaching course, and cook smores at your campfire. All program activities will be scheduled on an appointment basis to avoid long waits and provide COVID-19 virus precautions. The number of openings for each time slot is limited, so sign up soon to get the best choice of activities.
Families can register and sign up for program activities at https://www.gotosnyder.org/year-round-events/cub-scout-expo/ .
See you there!
We’re starting another MeritBadges@Home campaign and need your help!
The National Capitol Area Council (NCAC), Scouts BSA is looking for Merit Badge Counselors for the October 2021 session of the NCAC MeritBadges@Home program. Counselors will conduct remote instruction for Scouts through Zoom and collaborate through the Basecamp platform between a period of October 11-30, 2021. (Last three weeks of October). Use of both of these resources will be provided by the Council.
If you are interested in serving as a counselor, please follow the link below to view a registration form with additional information about the commitment. The counselor registration deadline is Friday, September 24, 2021. A suggested date and time format is included on the Google form, however, our format is flexible enough to match our counselor’s availability for date and time.
October 2021 MB@Home Counselor Registration Form (https://forms.gle/eq6uzpGXiRsETctp7)
Take a live look of counselors who have signed up (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ewHN5sOqgapXKU8lBuA8nkjBZEAdu_vTyKSVBUu25KU/edit?usp=sharing)
We will happily accept multiple counselors offering the same badge. Feel free to share these links with your Scouting and professional colleagues.
Here is the projected timeline of the event:
Counselor Registration Closes: Friday, September 24
Participation Registration Opens: Week of September 27
Week 1 & 2 Sessions Start: Monday, October 11
Week 2 & 3 Sessions Start: Monday, October 18
Closing up sessions: Sunday, October 31
For questions regarding this event, ping @Bill Pzedpelski on the NCAC Basecamp or contact bill.pzedpelski@gmail.com.
Thank you for your consideration,
Bill Pzedpelski
NCAC Advancement Committee
This summer, the United States Patent & Trademark Office hosted a multi-day virtual event for over 150 Scouts BSA to earn the Inventing Merit Badge. In July, youth were welcomed to a virtual learning session by Elizabeth Dougherty, the Eastern Regional Outreach Director of the USPTO and David Gooder, the Commissioner for Trademarks at the USPTO and Eagle Scout.
Keynote presenters included National Inventor’s Hall of Fame Inductee Eric Fossum and multi-patent owner Rory Cooper, both of whom are Eagle Scouts.
Stephen Yanchuk, the Special Advisor to the Director of the EROO – USPTO, led a session on intellectual property and helped familiarize scouts with resources such as the National Inventor’s Hall of Fame, USPTO’s virtual museum, and Google Patents. A panel of inventors – Dr. Stanley Fricke, Anna Hopen and Mitchell Kempisty – moderated by Tomeka Oubichon of the EROO-USPTO then shared their stories of why they invent. Finally, scouts split into breakout rooms to brainstorm their own inventions. Each breakout was facilitated by a couple USPTO or industry Merit Badge Counselors who shared their expertise.
The nearly 2 dozen merit badge counselors continued to counsel the scouts through a multi-week expedition during which the scouts invented various objects. All of the inventions had to “solve a problem” to meet the Merit Badge requirement as well as the ‘usefulness’ criteria required to earn a patent. Several scouts demonstrated prototypes in a virtual inventing showcase, some video clips of which are here.
In culmination of the event, scouts heard from another inventor, and BSA STEM Scout from Denver, Colorado, Gitanjali Rao. Gitanjali Rao was named the 2020 TIME Kid of the Year and had just recently received a patent for her device, lead contamination detecting device Tethys! You can watch the interview with STEM Scout Inventor Gitanjali on Facebook Live.
Our tremendous thank you goes to the many Inventing Merit Badge Counselors who made this learning session a reality. Over 100 Scouts BSA earned their Inventing Merit Badges with the tutelage of the USPTO’s summer events, and we are so grateful!
Above all, we thank the Eastern Regional Outreach Office of the USPTO for developing the infrastructure to counsel the Inventing Merit Badge and for encouraging youth inventors!
Family Camp at Goshen Scout Reservation was a great time this past Labor Day Weekend! Check out our Facebook page, www.facebook.com/GoshenNCAC, for more highlights from the weekend.
