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Scouting News for the DC Metro Area

Leaders

Unit Contacts – Letting Units Know We Care

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For the first time in several years, our council is currently on track to achieve only a bronze level in the “Journey to Excellence” unit contact metric. The good news is that we have time to turn this around before year-end. As has happened in past years, I expect our commissioner staff to record a large number of simple and detailed contacts during the re-charter season.

As all the District Commissioners know, I value metrics to the extent that they help us spot areas for improvement. The important and meaningful goal is that all unit-level Scouters know that unit commissioners care about them, and that units have a connection to the resources, friendships, advice, and activities in the district. This is a noble goal. Recording unit visits is the way we expect unit commissioner to indicate that they are actually fulfilling this meaningful goal.

In 2018, the national “Journey to Excellence” team added a requirement to have one detailed assessment per unit to the unit contact metric. The important and meaningful goal is that unit-level leaders and unit commissioners have a discussion about where the unit stands and develop a few concrete plans on how to improve. This also is a noble goal. Recording detailed assessments does not take long, and is a simple natural by-product of an activity unit commissioners have been doing for decades. Yes, we are asking unit commissioners to do slightly more data entry, but the reason is that with this extra data entry we can easily see at a district level where units might need more service.

Allow me to use my home district, Francis Scott Key (FSK) District, as an example of how these metrics can be useful. Here is a chart (from the end of September) that uses the recorded unit contacts and detailed assessments to give a quick sketch of unit service in the FSK District.

From this chart, we can spot a few interesting things. The horizontal line shows how many contacts a unit should have received according to the Journey to Excellence standard, which is one contact per every two months (for a total of 6 per year). At this point in the year, each unit should have received five recorded contacts. You can see that 57 out of 79 units have received contacts this year. Unit commissioners may have contacted the 22 remaining units, but these contacts are unrecorded so do not show in the chart. We can see on the chart that 9 units have 4 contacts, so are just one short of the standard of 5.

The blue segments indicate simple contacts and the orange segments indicate detailed assessments. The very first unit in the chart, Crew 796, has received 5 simple contacts but no detailed assessments, so is excluded from the Journey to Excellent metrics. FSK District has 12 units like this, so when the unit commissioner performed a detailed assessment (perhaps when the unit commissioner reviews the year-end unit Journey to Excellence scorecard with the unit), these units will achieve the minimum standard required by Journey to Excellence (which is one detailed assessment per unit plus enough simple contacts).

What about the units with no or fewer than five contacts? I know that my good friend Bill Desmond, who is the District Commissioner for FSK, is working with resource constraints, like most commissioners. These units may be strong and in less need of unit contacts, or maybe they have been visited but the contacts have not been recorded, or maybe FSK is short on commissioners in those neighborhoods, or maybe the units have already folded and cannot be visited. The metrics are a quick view but the folks in our districts will have more detailed “localized” knowledge. These charts provide commissioners with the tools they can use to prioritize commissioner service, as we get closer to the year-end finish line, and I trust Bill Desmond and all of my District Commissioners to “do their best” in providing service to our units.

Assistant Council Commissioner Rick Manteuffel posts these reports to the commissioner folders each month. I ask all commissioners to use these reports as input in prioritizing commissioner service in our districts. This is not to buff our metrics, but rather to ensure our units are getting the commissioner service they need and deserve.

400 Scouters Take Part in National Day of Service on the National Mall

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On September 22nd 400 Scouters were welcomed by the Trust for the National Mall as they converged to volunteer their time and effort to a variety of Mall-related service projects. The day also marked the National Environmental Education Foundation’s celebration of the 25th Annual National Public Lands Day. Known as the largest single-day volunteer effort, this year’s theme of resilience and restoration was inspired by a pressing need to address the effects of a spate of natural disasters and extreme weather that have taken a terrible toll on both public lands and those who depend upon them.

With over 35 million visits and 3,000 permitted events annually, the National Mall is the most visited National Park in the country. This level of use in “America’s Front Yard” puts an enormous strain on available resources, so volunteer efforts make a massive difference; a difference that is estimated to save the National Park Service nearly $1 million in annual labor costs. Scouts engaged in river clean up, painting  park benches, and spreading mulch.

Participating Scouts also received a commemorative patch, lunch, and a few other goodies courtesy of event sponsors.

Service is at the core of Scouting, and with National Parks serving as the backdrop to many Scouting adventures, outings such as this one bring participants ever closer in their relationship to the parks.

 

The One Million Pound Challenge to Feed the Area’s Hungry

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NCAC will be kicking off the 31st annual Scouting for Food on November 3. Scouts will distribute door tags to homes throughout our Council, then return on November 10 to collect non-perishable food items that will nourish the area’s hungry.

Scouting for Food (SFF) is one of the largest annual food drives in the DC metropolitan area. Last year Scouts collected one million pounds of food, and this year’s goal is to top that. Capital Area Food Bank and other local food banks will use these items to help with its distribution of 45 million pounds of food – equivalent to 37.5 million meals – to 478,100 people through a network of 500 partner agencies and direct service programs.

“With thirty million Americans, including six million children, going hungry at some point every month, this is a way for us to help directly,” says Craig Poland, CEO and Scout Executive of the National Capital Area Council. “Scouting for Food helps local families in need and teaches our Scouts the importance of directly serving the community.”

SFF is held every fall prior to Thanksgiving. Local food banks rely on it to stock their shelves for the upcoming holiday months, when food demands are the greatest.

Items in highest demand include:

  • canned protein (tuna, chicken, peanut butter)
  • soups and stews (chili, beef stew, meat-based soups)
  • 100% fruit juices (all sizes)
  • grains (boxed macaroni and cheese, pasta, rice)
  • cereals (low sugar cereals, oatmeal)
  • canned vegetables & fruits
  • condiments
  • hygiene products (diapers, toilet paper, tissues, soap, toothpaste).

Scouting for Food is co-sponsored by Capital Area Food Bank, the Safeway Foundation, and WUSA9.

Great Falls NPS VA Cub Scout Day Brings Together NPS and Scouts for Fun and Service

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On Sunday, September 23, over 130 Cub Scouts from across NCAC came together at Great Falls Park in Virginia to celebrate 100 years of partnership between the National Park Service and Boy Scouts of America. Cub Scouts got up close and personal with a Great Horned Owl, Screech Owl, Barred Owl, Red Shouldered Hawk, and Barn Owl. They also were able to touch corn snakes, and observe other snakes feeding. Most Scouts also stretched their legs as they took part in hikes ranging from one to three miles along the river.

“Some of the best moments in Scouting take place in national parks,” said Andrew Turner Au, Park Guide at Great Falls Park. “My first experience as a Scout was in the National Park Service climbing Old Rag in Shenandoah Valley. I am tremendously grateful for what Scouting provided me when I was young and what it has taught me.”

Turner Au has been giving back ever since, creating opportunities for Scouts to explore NPS by promoting Eagle Scout projects at Great Falls, providing merit badge programs, offering rank requirement opportunities, and arranging other Scouting activities in the park, such as Cub Scout Day.

On this day, he was proud to report that nearly all Scouts completed the junior ranger book, earning the coveted Junior Ranger Badge. Scouts also did a good turn on their hikes by picking up litter and learning about Leave No Trace (LNT).

LNT activities were conducted by Scouts in Troop 55, and Cub Scouts received LNT certificates after reciting the seven principles from memory, watching an LNT video, and picking up ten pieces of trash. According to one volunteer on site on Sunday, the park hasn’t looked this clean in years.

Cub Scouts who stayed at the park the whole day earned the NPS/BSA patch for learning, helping, and inspiring others about the National Park Service.

“Each year Scouts spend more than 60,000 hours on volunteer projects to restore or enhance our national parks,” said Turner Au. “This service is not only integral to Scouting, but also provides a great benefit for NPS.”

For more information regarding Scouting or volunteer opportunities within Great Falls National Park, please contact Park Guide Andrew Turner Au at andrew_turnerau@nps.gov. Special thanks to Park Rangers Cheryl Breese, Susan Finta, and Franice Sewell for their support of the Cub Scout Day program.

Autumn – A Time for Rejuvenation

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Typically, people take time to reflect and rejuvenate twice a year: on New Year’s Eve, and in the spring as the hellebores and crocuses start to bloom.

In our Scouting calendar, we have third turning point for reflection: autumn, as we start recruiting the next generation of youth into Scouting.

This year, as the leaves start to change, the days shorten, the youth in our communities go back to school, and as Lions and Tigers (including girls!) enter Scouting, we have additional reasons to pause for reflection.

First, this fall is an amazing once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for all of us in Scouting to welcome both girls and boys into the program. As we successfully roll out Family Scouting in our communities, even more youth will have access to the character development and values-based leadership that Scouting promises. I ask that all Scouters, and especially commissioners, pause to reflect on how we can support Family Scouting.

  • Here are three questions for reflection:
  • How can we ensure new youth and adults who join Scouting feel welcome and supported?
  • How can we ensure new girl troops are started in a way that they will deliver a quality Scouting program in a sustainable way?
  • How can we ensure that a young kindergarten or first grade girl who wants to join Scouting has an opportunity to do so?

Our Roundtable Commissioners are starting a “Five Minutes for Families” initiative that encourages each District Roundtable to be discuss how to roll the Family Scouting effort out, what tools to use (such as New Member Coordinators), and how boys troops will need to work on recruiting.

Second, with our incoming new Scout Executive Craig Poland, we all have the opportunity to think about how we can improve as a council. Craig has a powerful passion for Scouting, and inherits an incredibly strong council from Les Baron. While we have strengths that we should strive to retain, we also have what I consider to be a sacred responsibility to continuously improve on behalf of the youth we serve. I ask all Scouters, and especially commissioners, to start thinking about ways we can improve so that we are prepared to work hand-in-hand with Craig and our professionals.

Here are questions for reflection:

  • Is there anything we should stop doing as a council because it just isn’t working?
  • What can we start doing to serve more youth, better?
  • What are we doing well as a council that we need to continue?

Please share your ideas through your District Commissioners, and then on to me.

Our council is truly great but we can never rest on our laurels because the youth and communities we serve change, the environment changes, and we must always look for ways to be better. As we reflect on this, I believe one powerful source of ideas is learning from other councils and youth organizations.

Third, as a movement we face significant challenges. We are living through a dramatic collapse of the American civic society, which, as the book Bowling Alone by Robert D. Putnum documents, started in the 1990s and impacts all facets of civic society (including civic-minded groups like the Boy Scouts of America). Our movement has been one of the heroic survivors in the across-the-board societal collapse that has impacted local houses of worship, service and civic clubs, neighborhoods, hobby clubs, and local political involvement. People simply do not connect with each other in common public spaces the way they used to, and many of us mourn that loss.

During this collapse of American civic society, those of us who have remained committed to Scouting have served as shining lights on the hill by maintaining our civic mindedness.

  • Here are questions for reflection:
  • How can we remain relevant and teach the next generations of youth the value of civic society?
  • How can we involve more people in our communities with our project to improve American civic society?
  • How can we strengthen the bonds we share, and help others to understand how powerful personal bonds across groups serve Lord Baden-Powell’s vision for world peace?

We have powerful new technological tools available to us, such as Scoutbook and visual storytelling on YouTube and Instagram. Please think of ways we can leverage these tools to reinvent ourselves (while staying true to our mission), and how we can help restore our civic society in an increasingly diverse yet interconnected world. Our council membership and marketing committees are hard at work exploring these questions and are welcoming of feedback.

We live in a truly exciting season of rejuvenation. Let’s find ways we can improve so we can improve the lives of young boys and girls as individuals, and improve our civic society as a whole!

NCAC Bids a Fond Farewell to Les Baron

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It is with mixed emotions that we bid farewell to Captain Les Baron. Yes, that’s right: captain. After 38 years as a professional Scouter, Les is headed out to sea. If you need him now he can be found in Florida waters offering tours and fishing trips with Brown Dog Adventures.

During the eight years he spent as our Scout Executive, Les helped our Council grow and accomplish an amazing amount. Under his leadership nearly 100,000 young people joined Scouting, more than 12,000 earned their Eagle Scout Award, and we recorded more than 4 million service hours.

At the same time we were growing our summer camp programs and facilities. Goshen Scout Reservation posted record attendance numbers, built a new dam, rennovated one dining hall, replaced another all together,  added a STEM program, and celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Camp William B. Snyder celebrated its 10th anniversary, added a new STEM Shack and woodworking shop, built a new dining hall, and is now running near capacity all year round.

During this time our council also merged with the U.S. Virgin Islands Council. Working with local families, he forged new relationships with community organizations that have revitalized Scouting in the Islands. Camp Howard M. Wall  has also been rebuilt as such an exciting high adventure destination that starting next year it will be part of Sea Base’s program.

He accomplished all of  this while paying off our council’s debt and growing the endowment to almost $13 million.

But perhaps the best thing that can be said about Les is that the changes he made will endure beyond his time here. Their impact will be felt for generations to come as the families he helped welcome begin their own traditions of Scouting.

Les was the steady hand on the tiller during times of great change for Scouting, reminding us that through it all our our core values remain the same. They are our guiding star through stormy seas.

Now that’s a lasting impact!