A Pow Wow is a day long training event for adult Cub Scout Leaders.
Our "Tool Time" Pow Wow offers many new tools for you to provide a great Cub Scout program. The tools you will learn at Pow Wow will take you way beyond you Basisc Leader Training. Two very important things will happen for those who attend the "Tool Time" Pow Wow.
You will learn many new program ideas to help turbocharge your Den and Pack programs.
Pow Wow offers Cub Scouters time to interact socially, discuss great ideas and find friendly faces you can contact when problems arise in your unit. Priceless!
When: Saturday, November 5, 2011
Where: Santa Maria LDS Stake Center, 908 E Sierra Madre,
Santa Maria, California 93454
Time:
8:30 a.m. registration and gathering
8:45 a.m. Opening
9:00 a.m. classes start
4:00 p.m. end
Featuring:
6 sessions of hands-on classes
Scheduled time between classes for discussions & networking
Lunch with chat time and displays of resources
Den Chief Training is NOT being offered. Den Chiefs are however, encouraged to attend other Pow-Wow sessions with their den leaders.
It is time for you to nominate volunteers for the highest award a local council can bestow, the Silver Beaver Award.
The Boy Scouts of America has recognized the need to acknowledge the invaluable services that men and women render to youth . Of the millions of registered adult volunteers in Scouting, only a select few are presented the Silver Beaver Award annually in each local council.
The Silver Beaver Award is the council-level distinguished service award of the Boy Scouts of America. Recipients of this award are registered adult leaders who have made an impact on the lives of youth through service given to the council.The Silver Beaver is an award given to those who implement the Scouting program and perform community service through hard work, self sacrifice, dedication, and many years of service.
The Silver Beaver Award began as a medal in 1931. Soon it was determined the weight of the beaver was more appropriate for a silver beaver pendant suspended from a blue and white ribbon worn around the neck. Starting in 1932 the award has been presented on a ribbon.
Traditionally in Scouting recipients of the Silver Beaver Award are presented their award at the annual council dinner. A committee of previous Silver Beaver Award recipients select the number of allowed recipients (The council is limited in the number of awards they can select each year based on the council registered membership.) from the current nominations.
So take some time and consider the Scouters you know who have provided distinguished service to our council. Then take the time to submit your nomination of these good Scouters to the council. Your attendance at the council dinner will help demonstrate your support of all the Silver Beaver Award recipients. You may even acquire a greater appreciation for how important a quality Scouting program is to our youth.
Deadline for submitting naminations for 2012 awards is December 5.
Last March 2011, the BSA’s National Court of Honor announced the addition of the North Star Award, an honor similar in prestige to the Silver Beaver Award.
The main difference? It’s only available to non-Scouters.
The North Star Award is a way for councils, areas, regions, and the national council to “recognize individuals for significant contributions.”
This could include, for example, someone who contributes land, a certified public accountant who has served the council for years, or someone honored in the Distinguished Citizen Awards program.
Councils, areas, or regions submit this form to the Boy Scouts national office in Irving, Tex., to begin the nomination process.
To recap, there are now four national-level awards of this type:
Silver Beaver: Council-level distinguished service to youth
Silver Antelope: Regional-level distinguished service to youth
Silver Buffalo: National-level distinguished service to youth
North Star Award: Distinguished service to youth by a non-Scouter
The leader packet will be released in November, once we know what to use for a logo. We are inviting Scouts to design our logo this year. There will be more information coming, but we wanted to make sure you knew that we are going to do this again. We want to make it bigger and better than any of the previous ones. It’s a fun day, and we look forward to seeing you there!! Anyone that would like to be involved with the planning of this, please contact Lynn Johnson.
Any questions, please contact Lynn Johnson
home phone: 489-6072 or email lynnhjohnson@gmail.com
December Fundraising Events
Join us for one of the major dinners supporting Scouting in California's Central Coast.
Santa Barbara County
On Saturday afternoon, December 3, Los Padres Council will hold Scouting: A Celebration of Youth, beginning at 2 pm. This event will be held at the home of Dale & Rosanne Marquis (3911 Via Laguna in Hope Ranch). This is a casual afternoon program of great food, wine, silent auction, and entertainment. There will be a moving tribute to leadership by local Scouts and alumni.
San Luis Obispo County:
On Wednesday evening, December 7, Los Padres Council during the Major Member Dinner will present for the very first time the Outstanding Eagle Scout Award. Our honoree is Donald Cone who has made Scouting a major part of his life for 78 years. During the dinner we will hear an address by Rick Cronk, former National President of the Boy Scouts of America and a major supporter of the World Scouting movement.
To learn more about either of these two great events, click on the accompanying artwork or link. Please pass on this information to others in your business or circle of friends who would be interested in helping Scouting.
Voice of the Scout
In 2012, the Journey to Excellence program will launch the BSA’s first nation-wide effort to directly engage with our membership base. The initiative is called the VOICE OF THE SCOUT (VOS), and it is a system of continuous surveys and reports that will capture the value our members, parents and volunteers are associating with Scouting. Through these experiences we can understand what is driving word-of-mouth referrals to Scouting and loyalty to our program, which is represented by a Net Promoter Score. Results from surveys will display on an interactive dashboard and reports will be sent monthly, delivering the information in a clear way for making improvements where they will matter most.
VOS will become a new criteria in the 2012 Journey to Excellence recognition program. With no benchmarks established yet, VOS will be scored as bonus points for bronze, silver and gold levels. Bronze will be awarded for councils that Opt-In and train Key 3 representatives for 2012 (see below). Silver will be awarded for councils that have email addresses for 60% of all registered members in ScoutNET. Gold will be awarded for councils that achieve an overall average Net Promoter Score of 45%. (See your Council Toolkits for an overview of the Net Promoter Score or visit our JTE webpage at http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Awards/JourneyToExcellence.aspx.)
While 2012 is an Opt-In year for bonus JTE points, 2013 will include all councils. Here’s what you can do NOW to prepare, even if you decide not to Opt-In this Fall or Spring:
Make email fields a requirement at each & every information collection effort anytime you get names, phone numbers, etc. This will advance your communication capabilities as well!
Train your registrars on the critical importance of updating the system within the week of when new emails are received. ScoutNET is the database that we will send Voice of the Scout surveys from, so by making this a rock-solid process, you will get the most current insight from those that matter most to Scouting’s future.
Choose a VOS leader on your staff who is capable and listening and is inspired to serve Scouts to be your champion for this program. Choose someone who responds promptly, reacts rationally and most importantly will be courteous and empathetic to any issues that surface from the responses. Voice of the Scout is a Council Operations initiative with development by the Information Delivery Group and market research insight from the Research & Innovation Group. Program consultation and support is provided by M3Planning, a strategic consulting partner of the Boy Scouts of America.
For more details about VOS Contact Program Manager:
Michael Watkins, Mission Impact Mike.Watkins@scouting.org
Attention Scouts, Leaders, and Parents or Guardians
Eagle Scout rank requirement 5 has been reworded. To support that change, a new Eagle Scout Service Project Workbook has been created. Through Dec. 31, 2011, Scouts have a choice to use either the new workbook or the one it is replacing. Scouts whose Eagle Scout service project has already been approved by the council or district under the former wording of requirement 5—and using the former workbook—should continue with the same workbook. If their project has not yet been approved by the council or district, they may elect to use the revised requirement 5 and the new workbook. Starting Jan. 1, 2012, Eagle Scout candidates—unless they have already submitted a plan for approval by the council or district under the former requirement—will be expected to fulfill the revised service project requirement 5 using the new workbook.
Winter Sports Safety
The first snow of the season has already fallen in many parts of the United States, and it is the perfect time to review not only the Sweet 16 of BSA Safety but also portions of the Guide to Safe Scouting specific to winter sports safety.
As a reminder, the BSA recommends the use of helmets in all winter sports activities including sledding and others requiring sliding devices. Helmets are required when participating in downhill skiing, snowboarding, and the operation of snowmobiles.
Winter Camping Safety
There is magic to camping in winter. It is one of the most challenging of outdoor adventures. Special consideration should be given to winter camping safety as covered in the Guide to Safe Scouting.
BSA & Bookshare
Bookshare Makes Printed Scouting Materials Accessible for Those With Disabilities
One important part of becoming a Scout is reading Scouting books and manuals. From hiking and camping to reading and citizenship, Scouting materials provide valuable lessons. Through a partnership with Bookshare®, Scouts, unit leaders, and parents with qualified print disabilities can get accessible versions of important Scouting materials all in one place.
Bookshare is an online library of accessible e-books that allows readers with print disabilities to listen to books, see words and hear them read as they are highlighted on a screen, read in Braille, and much more! Bookshare has more than 100,000 books—including Scouting materials—that can be read on desktop computers, laptops, Apple iPads, iPhones, iPod touches, MP3 players, and other assistive technology.
Memberships are free for U.S. students with a qualifying disability; non-students and adult Scouters will get a waiver for their setup fee (use the promo code: SCOUT) and will only pay $50 annually. All members receive free reading software.
Using Bookshare:
Helps Scouts, unit leaders, and parents to read
Provides easy access to Scouting publications all in one place
Helps Scouts keep pace with their peers
Makes Scouting more accessible and meaningful
For more information on how to take advantage of this program, read the Bookshare brochure.
You will learn many new program ideas to help turbocharge your Den and Pack programs.
Den Chief Training is 
Download the Halloween Safety Flyer
It is time for you to nominate volunteers for the highest award a local council can bestow, the Silver Beaver Award.
In This Issue
Tken from the blog, 
Scoutorama is Coming!!!
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