Zekiah DistrictCommittee Meeting

January20, 2016

Attendees

Jim Thomas, Bob Davidson, Jeannine James, Alex Hydrean, Chuck Loscocco, Kelly Phipps, Bob Swartz, Jacob (youth), Lee Schadt, Diane Fisher, Bob Peregoy, Margaret Bennett, Paige Johnson

Around the Room (Headlines)

All in attendance were asked to provide a succinct “headline” of their principal current concerns to bring everyone up to speed on what all is going on across the committee. These headlines will be discussed further in the subsequent meeting segment.

District Chair (Jim Thomas)

  • Presented the Committee with minutes for their perusal/comments/corrections along with reports showing the progress of Zekiah District in JTE, FOS, Donations, Trained Leaders, YPT, Boy Scout Advancements, monthly membership,and recruitment.

Detailed Summary of Activities

This segment of the meeting allows each functional element of the committee to discuss their past, present and future activities/concerns for 5 minutes. It is not an opportunity for problem solving though it does support discovery of issues and opportunities. Problem solving will take place during the “Big Rock” segment of the meeting or will be done during separate meetings of the functional teams.

ADMINISTRATION (Jeannine James)The Health & Safety Chair position has been filled.

Nominating (Bob Swartz)

  • A motion to approve David Storm as member at largewas made, seconded and passed
  • A motion to approve Laura Hall as member at large was made, seconded and passed

Marketing and Communication Chair (Kelly Phipps)

  • Council website is up and running. They are still working out some kinks.
  • Marketing Chair is working with Bob Davidson to update the Zekiah webpage
  • New email addresses for each Committee on the Administration side have been setup.
  • More people are starting to view the Zekiah District Facebook posts. Activity has increased 31% in the past 12 months.

Health & Safety Chair (Glenn Belmore)

  • Glenn will chair this committee but chooses not to be a Member At Large

PROGRAMS (Chuck Loscocco)

Camping & Outdoor Chair (Dean Bramell)

DAYCAMP: Joanie Landicho will be passing the torch to Johnathan Juracko. She will continue to advise as needed.

OA (Chris Burgess): Reported by Jacob (youth). The OA has announced a possible year round service project similar to that of Scouting For Food. They are in the preliminary stages. They are hoping to start collecting food at various grocery stores beginning in March. They have already spoken to a few stores and have received positive results.

Training (Vacant): Chuck is talking with a candidate about possibly becoming the Training Chair.

WOODBADGE PROMOTION (Jim Thomas): Woodbadge training: registration is already 1/3 full for May.

BOY SCOUT TRAINING (Jim Thomas): ScoutMaster training is still being planned. Need to lock down dates soon. University of Scouting reservations are currently open. The number of trained leaders, compared to last year, is higher.

CUB SCOUT TRAINING (Stu Richman): Reported by Jim Thomas. Stu Richman is setting up a meeting in February to expand the WEBELOS Weekend program.

VENTURING TRAINING (Jim Thomas):A new venturing crew is being formed. As soon as they are ready, we need to set training dates. We need at least 2 weeks heads up.

COR TRAINING: There is another possible person interested in helping Gerry Wise with the COR Training Program – Mark Hobgood.

Activities & Civic Service (Vacant): A Chairman has not been identified as of yet.

PINEWOOD DERBY (Stu Richman) Reported for Stu - The Pinewood Derby is currently on schedule. It will be held on 5 March at the Mall.

SPRING CAMPOREE (Bob Peregoy): No formal report. Planning Conference for camporee will be on Wednesday, 27 January at 6:30pm at the Barracks followed by a District Calendar Planning meeting at 7:30 pm.

Advancements(Vacant):

RELIGIOUS EMBLEMS COORDINATOR (Toni McGowan): Reported by Chuck Loscocco. Scout Sunday is approaching. It needs to be advertised to all Units.

26 February is the Jewish Shavuot

21 February there will be a Protestant Service at the Baptist Church in Alexandria. A flyer is forthcoming.

EAGLE BOARD COORDINATOR (Michele Bramell): Reported by Chuck Loscocco. Michele and Jocelyn have been working together to make this transition smooth. There will be an Eagle Advancement next week. Michele has been reviewing proposals and recruiting new members to sit on the Eagle Board of Reviews.

MERIT BADGE (Vacant): We have quite a few Merit Badge Counselors listed, many whose YPT is flagged as expiring within the next 90 days.

STEM (Gerry Wise): Reported by Jim Thomas. Gerry is working on coordinating with others about the STEM program.

DISTRICT AWARDS (Vacant): Reported by Chuck Loscocco. The names for the District Award will be submitted to James Hamlin.

The Key 3 Award/Mary & Bill Thomas award: 6 names submitted for consideration

Baden Powell Award: 2 names submitted for consideration

Shield of Service Award: 2 names submitted for consideration

Unit Award: 3 Units submitted for consideration

The nominations are low. We will be sending out another email blast requesting nominations.

DISTRICT DINNER: Will take place on Wednesday, February 17 at the Legion. Next year it is recommended not to have it on the same evening as the monthly District Committee meeting. Food is being handled by Joanie Landicho. She is currently going over the menu and pricing and will get back to us shortly.

Membership (AlexHydrean) Presented printed reports for all to view. Membership is currently down. There is a new troop with 11 Scout that was established – Troop 2421. (3 of the Scouts are new to Boy Scouts, the other 8 transferred from another Troop).

FINANCIAL DEVELOPMENT (Vacant)

FOS (Vacant): Reported by Jim Thomas. The report that reads 29% of the District’s Goal of FOS has been met is deceiving. There were a significant contributions made from District Members that skews those numbers. We need to follow through with the Units. 15 units have responded through email but only ¼ have scheduled for a FOS presentation. So far, 4 Troops/Packs have had their FOS presentation resulting in only 1 Pack meeting their FOS goal.

  • Last year there were much more lower gifts and a few substantial gifts. The trend, thus far, is setting up to be a long year of FOS. Most dates will be in March, April and May. We have strongly urged the Packs not to combine their FOS presentation with their Blue & Gold.

GOOD SCOUTER DINNER (Vacant): Previous recipients of the Good Scouter reward have been asked to contact various businesses for donations.

COMMISSIONER (Bob Davidson)

  • Reminder that Roundtable has been moved to the 1st Wednesday of each month with the exception of February. Next month’s roundtable will be the 2nd Wednesday due to a conflict with the church.
  • Staff meetings will be held 1 hour and 15 minutes prior to Roundtable.
  • Recharter – 7 units still have not turned in their recharter.
  • All troops will be renewing their charter.
  • JTE- Diane has collected the JTE. 22 out of 32 units have reached a rating of Bronze or higher

BIG ROCK(Jim Thomas)

  • Yellow Pages: Jeannine James has volunteered to work with Bob Davidson on updating and distributing hard copies (at Roundtable) of Yellow Pages. The Yellow Pages will include email addresses/phone numbers of the Key 3 of each Pack/Troop.
  • Members At Large: Everyone who has accepted the nomination of being a District Member at Large is expected to support functional teams. There shouldn’t be any vacancies for positions with as many MAL volunteers we have. We especially need FOS presenters. Those MAL that remain inactive will be asked to step down.

Adjournment

  • Meeting adjourned at 8:40pm.