The Past, Present and Future
Fellow Scouters,
It is hard to believe that I have been serving you all for a year now. I thought I would take a moment and reflect back on what we have accomplished in the past 12 months. To help you understand what your Friends of Scouting gifts support, and what are future plans are.
- We have retained our entire staff. The DE you have now, you had 18 months ago, and that stability is a good thing. We also successfully recruited Regina Jeffries back to the team.
- 8 new Executive Board members have joined the team.
- Council finished Silver in the Journey to Excellence in 2017.
- Developed a new website and camp management system.
- Upgraded the council newsletter (The Council Compass) (You can register here if your not currently receiving it)
- Developed and printed an Annual Report and professional Friends of Scouting literature.
- Developed and printed the Unit Program Planning Calendar.
- Restarted Camping Committee, Endowment Committee, Nominating Committee, Hi Adventure Committee.
- Kicked -Off a capital campaign to raise funding to build a dining hall at Knox Scout Reservation
- Held first Creek River Day Camp program.
- Improved the annual council budget process.
- Cleaned, painted and organized the council service center.
- Replaced the roof at Camp Daniel Marshall.
- Provided Ranger Greg with a new efficient mower for camp.
- Added storage shelving to the Schwaab Maintenance Building
- Cleaned and renovated the Knox Camp Office
- Built 6 mile long bike / hiking trail. (In progress)
- Developed and implemented the Camp Master program.
- Purchased 10 mountain bikes for camp.
- Added Electricity to boat house at Knox Scout Camp.
- Named all campsites, and built campsite bulletin boards at Knox.
- Bought new trap thrower for trap range.
- Added storage at Rifle Range.
- Successful launch of Camp Card program that provided over $15,000 in funding to units.
That is a pretty exciting list. So what do we have in store!
- Effective NOW, we have an automated Merit Badge Counselor system! This system has been in development since December and has gone live just this week. Scouts and Leaders can easily find available Merit Badge Counselors, and MB councilors can easily recharter each year.
- June the Family Program goes live with girls joining the Cub Scouts for the first time!
- July 14th is a council wide Cub Scout Leader Training Opportunity.
- We will continue to raise funds for the dining hall project, and plan to have it up and running in 2019.
- In 2020 we will celebrate our 100th anniversary.
- We plan to add campsites to Camp Daniel Marshall, and renovate the chapel to become a training center.
- At Knox Scout Reservation we are working to increase our Aquatics Programs, Shooting Sports Programs and add a biking program.
- We are working to become the 2nd local council camp in America to be SCENES Certified by the World Scout Bureau.
- Feb 2019 we will see girls begin their quest to become an Eagle Scout.
- We have many exciting councilwide programs coming, the 2018 Spookoree, Webelos Camp, Scout Camporee's training opportunities and early in 2019 we will hold the University of Scouting.
Your support of Scouting makes a major impact. Your time, talent and treasure are all critical to the success of our shared mission of helping prepare young people to make moral and ethical decisions over their lifetime by instilling in them the Scout Oath and Scout Law.
We have done an excellent job with our Friends of Scouting campaign thus far this year, having raised over $175,000. We remain about $50,000 from our goal. If you have not yet donated, and would like to you can do so here, or feel free to give me a call here at the service center.
I have enjoyed getting to know you all, and I am impressed with what we have accomplished in the past 12 months. I look forward to working with you as we move forward.
Yours in Scouting,
Dan Rogers
Scout executive.
