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Topic is Leader Recognition and Awards
Tuesday, January 8 – 7:00 PM – American Legion – Middlebury Tuesday, January 15 – 7:00 PM – Methodist Church - Shaftsbury 2019 Ethan Allen Klondike Derby / Winter Olympics Feb 23 2019 Timber Ridge Ski Area Windham, VT  Each troop will need to bring the following supplies:
Any troop that has at least ½ of their members may and are encouraged to participate in the EA district group OA elections. Please register and prepay before the event. No payments will be accepted at the event. Flyer and registration form are available at the Ethan Allen District Activities Page. As your District chair, I wanted to bring you up to date on information from the district.
First, for some good news. Due to work done by you and Scouters in your units, we have for the first time in many, many years increased our registration numbers! Overall, we are up just a couple of Scouts, but we have increased our Cub Scout numbers by over 20 youth. Here’s hoping we have finally turned the corner of year to year decline. Second, we have met our Friends of Scouting (FOS) goal. The money raised by this program helps fund our Council office, provides camperships for summer camp, and supports many of the activities and training throughout the Council. Third, summer camp keeps on getting better. For Camp Sunrise and the Cub Scouts look to see facility improvements throughout the camp. New leantos, improved archery and BB gun shooting ranges, and the start to a new shower house. I think the even the fireplace in the dinning hall will be complete by the start of camp. Mt Norris saw a 30% increase in Boy Scouts this past summer. Program and facility improvements continue to make this the camp of choice for Scouts in and out of the Council. If any Cub Scout Pack or Boy Scout Unit would like a camp representative to come a Pack or Troop meeting and do a promotion, please let me know. We would be glad to set something up. Now for some information: As you have probably found out, the hardest thing in getting charters completed is the new Youth Protection Training. I have heard many complaints about how user un-friendly the national web site is. I urge you to try to do everything possible to get you charters in before the end of the year. Along with charters, is the Journey to Excellence (JTE) sheets and goals. Just like your units, our district has a JTE measurements. Right now, we stand at Bronze level, but are a mere 25 points away from achieving Silver. One area as a district we are measured on, is community service hours. The application to record service hours is very easy to use (not like YPT). I know all units do community service all year long, but we don’t record the hours in the national data base. Please consider recording the hours. Here is a link to the web site: https://servicehours.scouting.org/UI/Security/Login.aspx Awards. It is important to recognize your fellow Scouters for all the volunteer work they do. We all have folks in our units that always seem to volunteer for everything or do an incredible job with an activity or event. Maybe they extend their help beyond just a unit and volunteer with other groups or for our District or Council. There are many ways to recognize them. Either a simple recognition at an event, or awards within the BSA (Scouter pins, Den Leader pins, District award of Merit, Silver Beaver). Speaking of District award of merit. Nominations are due into the district by March first. Here is a link to the form: www.scoutingvermont.org/district-award-of-merit.html And what better way to recognize them than at our annual District dinner, Saturday March 30th at the VFW in Rutland. This is a chance to rub elbows with fellow Scouters and friends. We would love to see units present awards to fellow Scouters. We also have District awards such as, Cubmaster of the year, Scoutmaster of the year, Scouting Sparkplug, Activity dates. Here are a few dates to add to your calendars: 2/23/18 Klondike Derby 3/9/18 Cub Scout Winter Fun Day 4/26-28/18 Spring Camporee Plus, many more dates within the Council for activities and training. Please check the Council web site for more information. To close, I want to wish all happy holidays and happy new year. Please save some time to spend with family and friends. Like I have told our Troop when I was Scoutmaster. Put down the phones, step away from the tv, and go outside for a walk. Take the kids, take your spouse or a friend and just enjoy. Look around and be thankful for all we have. So many memories can be made when you make that time. Happy holidays, Russ Baker Ethan Allen District Committee Chair Greetings everyone!
Question for you. What is the number one reason Scouts quit? Sports? Unreliable leadership? Other outside interests? If you answered to one of these, you would be incorrect. The number one reason based on exit surveys done by our National BSA Service Center is Advancement, or lack thereof. Immediate recognition is one of the most important parts of the Scouting continuum that keeps Scouts in the unit. Our November roundtables will be focusing on that exact topic; Advancement. Rank Advancement, Activity Pins, Merit Badges, Special Awards and Recognition and much more. In addition, we will be reviewing the recharter process for your unit and try to answer any and all questions you have on how to complete the process, what all is involved, overcoming obstacles and ensuring it is on-time and fully complete. This is also a great time to have a Scout Store order delivered or to give paperwork or other items to a Council or District representative to take back to the Service Center in Waterbury. Finally, as always there will be information on upcoming activities and events, 2019 summer camp fees and registration information and the usual fun and fellowship associated with any Scouting occurrence. Spread the word and plan a car pool with the other leaders of the pack or troop to attend one of two Roundtables in Ethan Allen District: Tuesday, November 13 – 7:00 PM – American Legion – Middlebury Tuesday, November 20 – 7:00 PM – Methodist Church - Shaftsbury Ethan Allen district has much to be proud of this year and you have been a big part of our successes. Let’s plan a December party to celebrate! See you soon! Greetings Ethan Allen Scouters.
The year is quickly coming to an end. All the charters have been handed out. This year the BSA has made it a little easier to get them completed. There are many things that are tied to the charter, that will help our district succeed. A couple of major items are:
On a completely different note. Mark your calendars for our District Dinner, Saturday March 30th at the VFW in Rutland. This is a chance to rub elbows with fellow Scouters and friends in our district and to publicly recognize them for their service to Scouting. We would love to see units present awards to fellow Scouters. We also have District awards such as, Cubmaster of the year, Scoutmaster of the year, Scouting Sparkplug, and of course District Award of Merit. This year the District Award of Merit application is due by March 1st. Up to two Ethan Allen Scouters can receive the award each year. Send all applications/Nominations to: Jim Rivers, Advancement Chair 160 Lower Hardscrabble Road Bristol, VT 05443 [email protected] Here are a few links to awards, including the District Award of Merit: www.scoutingvermont.org/district-award-of-merit.html http://www.scouting.org/home/Awards http://www.boyscouttrail.com/square-knots.asp That’s it for now. Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have. Your District Committee is here to help you succeed. Thank you, Russ Baker ([email protected]) Ethan Allen District Committee Chair Scoutbook, the web based application that is used for communicating and tracking a Scouts advancement, as of January 1st 2019, it will be free!
If you would like to get a jump on how the application works, brush up on your current skills, or learn some new tricks and add-ons, come join us at this month's Round Table. Our North meeting is 9/11 at the Middlebury American legion starting at 7:00 pm The South meeting is 9/18 at the Shaftsbury United Methodist Church starting at 7:00 pm. We hope to see you there! Scoutbook tracks advancements, leadership training, you can upload photos and videos, send messages to leaders, Scouts and parents, plan events and activities, adjust positions within charter org, assign an Eagle coach, and create reports for the unit. Scoutbook solves the major pain point of keeping track of Scout advancements, but it has many other functions that benefit leaders, parents and Scouts. The purpose of the Introduction to Leadership Skills for Troops (ILST) course is to teach Scouts with leadership positions about their new roles and how to most effectively reach success in that role. It is intended to help Boy Scouts in leadership positions within their troop understand their responsibilities and to equip them with organizational and leadership skills to fulfill those responsibilities. Completion of ILST is a prerequisite for Scouts to participate in the more advanced leadership course National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT).
NYLT 2019 staff Brock Quesnel and Nate are offering this training to all 1st Class Scouts in the Ethan Allen and Calvin Coolidge Districts Saturday Morning, September 29, at the Fall Co-district Camporee at the Rutland Fairgrounds. Scoutmasters are encouraged, but not required, to attend with their Scouts. Please RSVP with the number of Scouts attending to Dean Silloway at [email protected] to ensure that we have adequate materials for all interested. Ethan Allen District Fall Program Kickoff You are personally invited to attend a fun-filled, informative and festive district-wide kickoff to the fall program year of Scouting! Why: To provide consistent and timely information and support materials to unit and district leadership. To prepare for the best fall Scouting season ever! To give unit leaders the tools needed to provide a high quality and fun-filled program to the Scouts! FOOD –FUN – FELLOWSHIP-PRIZES!
Dates, Location and Time – August 18 – Mendon Fish and Game Club – 1:00 PM - ??? 17 Chittenden Road, Chittenden, VT Food and Supplies: District leadership will be cooking hot dogs and hamburgers. Everyone else is asked to bring a dish to pass and $5.00 per person to cover the cost of the meat, buns, condiments, and drink. Prizes and Patches: Every person attending will receive a special patch that will be issued only for those who attend. There will be no sales after the event. In addition there will be a grand prize drawing for two $100 camperships; one for Mt Norris and one for Camp Sunrise. Winner may use the campership as he or she see fit. Program agenda:
Fall Recruitment Campaign Rollout for Cub Scout Packs
District stuff
The Ethan Allen District leadership invites all adult leaders/parents to join us for our annual Fall Program Kickoff on Saturday, August 18 at the Mendon Fish and Game Club! This is a fun-filled event designed to give everyone the tools and information necessary to ensure that we are all ready to welcome back the Scouts and new families who want to be part of Scouting. You are guaranteed to walk away with a renewed knowledge and understanding of what’s new in Scouting, a variety of support materials for our annual fall recruitment campaign, a very “special” patch and a chance to win a $100 campership! So don’t delay, sign up today! For more information, click here.
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