Click Here to view from newsletter from the web.
If you would like more information email us.
Thank you Christina Morrell
Introducing New Staff Members! We are thrilled to have Sonya, Christina and Tyler join the Del-Mar-Va Council team.
Please welcome Christina Gianaris to the position of Assistant Outdoor Programs Administrator on our Support Staff. Christina has just moved to our council with her family and joins us after a successful customer service experience as the Assistant Manager at a WellMed Spa in the Philadelphia area. Her prior experiences in public relations, communications, social media, and proficiency with Microsoft Office will make her an excellent representative of our council.
The Del-Mar-Va Council is pleased to welcome Tyler Reardon, Executive Administrative Assistant to Development. Tyler is a graduate from Towson University with a degree in Business and a concentration in Marketing. Tyler’s previous experience includes serving as a marketing intern for the Branding Agency Substance 151 for charities, successful fundraising for the John Glaser Memorial Fund, and he was an Account Executive for Gannett's DealChicken.com, for the state of Delaware.
The Del-Mar-Va Council Popcorn Sale is up and ready to begin. We are pleased to offer and share the highest commission level to units across the country. Please be sure to review the timeline and materials at www.dmvc.org/popcorn.
The first important date to remember is the show and sell order deadline of August 22, 2012. Please be sure to complete your unit order prior to that deadline. If you need assistance, please call your District Popcorn team or the Del-Mar-Va Council at 302-622-3300. Materials have been distributed to your district popcorn leaders and additional materials and supplies can be downloaded from the site noted above.
Have a great sale!
The more I get out to visit district committee meetings and roundtables across Del-Mar-Va Council, the more of you I find have some connection to Exploring. We really don’t have a good handle on which of our current volunteers and parents were Explorers, either here or in another Council. If you were an Explorer at some point, we’d like to hear about it! Please drop me a quick note at mkekc@dmvc.org and tell me what type of Post you were in. We’re looking forward to a great fall of serving more high school students, and hope you’ll spread the word about the benefits of Exploring. Interested in finding out more about Exploring in Del-Mar-Va Council? Please visit our website at www.dmvc.org/exploring.
Matt Keck - Exploring Executive
Iron Hill District "K Ball" Tournament. All units invited. RSVP required per the attached flyer.
The 7th annual "K Ball" Tournament will be held along with the Iron Hill Roundtable, Tuesday August 14. St. Joseph’s Catholic Church 371 East Main Street, Middletown, DE.
Click here for the flyer.
Cub Family Weekends Rodney & Henson Scout Reservations October 12-14 and October 26-28, 2012 Click here to Register!
Looking for a great camping trip for your Cub Scouts and families? Check out the Cub Family Weekends this fall at the Rodney and Henson Scout Reservations!
Events are open for registration!
It will be a SPOOKTACULAR time!
Remember to bring your Halloween Costume for the haunted forest parade!
Area 2 Fall Camporee Akridge Highland Games October 19-21, 2012
Get those kilts ready for the Highland Games weekend camporee at Akridge Scout Reservation! It's going to be a blast.
Click here for registration and details!
Please contact Adam Brown, 410-409-9670 if you or a representative of your Troop/Crew can help with this camporee.
Civic Service Update
DMVC Scouts have completed 25,722 service hours so far in 2012.
Holy Civic Service Hours Batman! Wow, what a month July was for civic service in the council. Council hours took a whopping 45% increase during July. All of the districts had improvement in year over year hours led by Sussex (+44%),Two Bays (+40%) and the obsenely high 990% of Virginia. Fantastic job for the youth who performed the service and leaders who entered the hours; lets keep up the momentum and great work.
Click here to update your unit's service projects/hours.
Like nothing you have ever seen before or likely will see again in your Scouting career…..This place is truly awesome! I just returned from nearly a week at the Summit helping to run the Climbing Program for the Shakedown.
The Shakedown was designed to be a small scale test of some of the ideas and activities planned for the National Jamboree in 2013. Most of the activities were in the area designed for the visitors during the Jamboree (called Action Point). These activities included a climbing wall; BMX dirt track with neat hills and turns; skateboard park with ramps; a confidence course about 40 feet in the air in the trees; 4 Canopy tours where you go from platform to platform through the tree tops (each tour has 4 sections and takes about an hour and a half); and a monster zip line (and this is the smallest one they will build at 1100’ long). And this stuff is for the guests (and Scouts while guests are visiting)! But these are small scale models of what is being built for the Jamboree participants!
And there are absolutely phenomenal low gear and high gear courses for you mountain bikers. This is world class stuff. You should have seen the excitement of the Scouts who made it through the high gear course and the staff that got to “test it out”. I can honestly say, you will never see the quality and diversity of activities like these in one place anywhere else in the world. I overheard one adult leader who did one Canopy tour say “I’ve done lots of canopy tours before and I would have easily paid $100 each for my family to ride that one.”
They’ve also done a great job of staging all of the troop equipment (tents, cots, cooking gear, kitchen tents, carts for getting the food). This made the check-in easy! No gear to buy, inventory, load in a tractor trailer, unload, clean and put away like previous Jamborees. After medical checks, it was easy for troops to get all of their tents up and hit the activities. Most were ready to go within 2 hours of getting to their subcamp. And all of the gear is new, high quality stuff. All you need to bring is clothing for 10 days of non-stop fun!
And did I mention the climbing wall! We had a small 7 station wall for the shakedown but we still had nearly 1500 climbs by 800 Scouts over 2 days. But the real Jamboree includes climbing, rappelling, bouldering and a leap of faith in a huge area, hundreds of yards long. 100 Scouts can be climbing at the same time. I’ve heard it takes 350 staff just to run this area! And the climbs will be professionally set up to mimic climbs in the nearby New River Gorge. And guys, look out. Some of those Venturing young ladies really know how to climb!
And yes, this may be a simple thing but there are plenty of brand new toilet facilities and shower houses in each sub-camp. These are flush toilets.
Did anything go wrong? Sure, but that’s what a test is for. Yes, it rains in West Virginia (and it rained on us) and some of the buses got stuck so it took longer to get checked in (but the roads will be paved for the Jamboree). Yes, the showers are “ambient temperature” (another word for cold), but honestly after the first few seconds, a cool shower was a nice way to end a hot, sweaty day. Sure, it would have been nice to have more electricity/charging stations for our cell phones, but they have plans for that in the actual Jamboree. And yes, you need to be in good physical shape! This is not flat country. Some of the hikes to some activities like biking can be an hour or two from your sub-camp (depending on where you end up) and there are some steep hills to go up and down and up again.
For you staffers, the food was excellent. They tested some of the menu items out on us and if you’re working staff, you won’t go hungry. Even the lunches, which you pack yourself, were pretty good.
Now let me give you a sense of the scope and scale of this place. It is 10,000 acres, surrounded by 70,000 acres of national forest. And we are only using about 1,100 acres of the 10,000 that make up the Summit. It’s hard to picture, so turn your hand over, palm down. Imagine your entire hand, up to your wrist is the Summit. All we are using is the area from your knuckles of your thumb, index finger and middle finger to your fingertips; a small portion of the facility. And still this is HUGE!
The dam they are building for the manmade lake is massive. The amphitheatre being built into a hillside, looks down on the stage area in front of the lake. There will be no such thing as a bad seat in this place!
I could go on. Oh, I almost forgot about the white water rafting and the hike up to Garden Ground, the highest point of the Summit. The 1500 Scouts on this Shakedown got to experience all of this.
So, why am I writing this? If you’re old enough to go (at least 12 by the Jamboree) and First Class, you need to be there. If you’re a Venturer, especially females between 14 and 21, this is a phenomenal place to be. And if you are at least 16 and want to help out on Staff, we really, really need you (anyone on staff from 16 to 25 goes for half-price). Finally, if you are an adult Scouter, we need your help on Staff. Yes, you will work hard but this work is truly rewarding.
Go Big, Get Wild! And register now. Troops from Del-Mar-Va Council are filling up fast and we’ll close registration at the end of September.
You can use the following links to get started. You need to register in both places as a participant and just at the National site if you’re on staff.
Del Mar Va Council registration
National Jamboree registration
Paul Harjung
Del-Mar-Va Council Jamboree Coordinator
Click here to watch video from Youtube website.
Update on Training Awards for Adult Unit Leaders
In 2011, the National Council’s Awards Committee conducted a review of the hundreds of awards presented to Scouts and adults in the BSA. Many recommendations were made to update procedures and the awards themselves.
Among the recommendations was the update of the unit leader training awards requirements and a review of the Cub Scout leader recognition awards. These recommendations have been reviewed by the national volunteer training committee and a task force of unit-level leaders. Some awards have been eliminated and all of the requirements for the remaining awards have been updated.
The forms and requirements have been simplified. The committees do not believe that means easier. They are along the same lines and “degree of difficulty” as the previous requirements, but will be less complicated and consistent across the awards and the phases of the Scouting program.
The training awards and keys are designed to recognize unit Scouters for tenure, basic and continuing training, and successful performance in their leadership role.
The changes and other considerations:
The Cubmaster Award has been discontinued. Cubmasters may now earn the Scouter’s Key Award and may wear the Scouter’s Key knot with a Cub Scouting device.
The Cub Scouter and Pack Trainer Awards have been discontinued. Cub Scout pack leaders may earn the Scouter’s Training Award and may wear the Scouter’s Training Award knot with a Cub Scouting device.
The Tiger Cub and Webelos Den Leader’s Awards have been discontinued. All den leaders may earn a new Den Leader’s Training Award medal that is being created, and may wear the Den Leader’s Training Award knot (identical to the previous Cub Scout Den Leader Award knot) with the appropriate device. A Tiger Cub den leader device is also being developed.
Scouters who have earned the old awards will still be able to wear the old awards and knots.
Scouters who have begun to work on the Cub Scout Leader Recognition Awards will still be able to earn them as long as they are completed by the following dates:
Cub Scouters who have not started to work on an award may only earn the new awards and must use the new requirements.
Boy Scouting, Varsity Scouting, and Venturing awards, knots, and devices have not been changed. Only the requirements have been updated. Leaders who have started to earn these awards may use either set of requirements, but Scouters who have not started to work on an award may only use the new requirements.
Progress record forms with the new requirements for these awards can be found at www.Scouting.org/training.
Area 1 The Trainers EDGE Saturday, August 18, 2012 9am - 3pm
@ Delaware State Police Troop 2 100 LaGrange Ave Newark, DE 19702
Click here for promotional flyer.
What is it? A 'Train-the-trainer' course addressing behaviors and resources while offering hands-on experience in methods and media. Bring a note pad and a pen or pencil.
Who is it for? A required course to serve on Wood Badge and NYLT staff and highly recommended course for those that train others, adults or scouts, at all levels. All Districts and Areas are welcomed to attend.
Why? E: Explain, D: Demonstrate, G: Guide, E: Enable
Click here to register.
Climbing Instructor Training September 14-15 and Sept 21-22 Cost is $50 per participant; must be 18 or over.
Click here for printable flyer.
Del-Mar-Va Council BSA will offer a BSA Climbing Instructor training class for anyone interested in becoming trained as a BSA Climbing Instructor. Under the supervision of a Lead Climbing Instructor or a Climbing Director, Climbing Instructors can teach Climbing Merit Badge, conduct Climb On Safely training programs for adult leaders, and instruct youth in climbing and rappelling on natural rock, climbing towers, or climbing gyms, under the BSA program. Del-Mar-Va Council Climbing Program Staff, working within the BSA program structure, use Council-owned climbing equipment and facilities as well as some off-site facilities, and are covered under the BSA insurance program. The training is considered current for 2 years and can be renewed with a refresher course, or by ongoing participation in Council climbing activities.
For details and to register go to www.dmvc.org/climbing.
Leave No Trace Trainer Course November 9-12, 2012 Broad Creek-Camp Saffran
"The Boy Scouts of America has adopted the principles of Leave No Trace, which are easy to learn and apply. Every outing and activity should be conducted with Leave No Trace in mind. As young people mature, we will enjoy an increasingly beautiful environment because of the impact of their training in Leave No Trace. As members of the Boy Scouts of America, we should be good stewards of our environment through knowledgeable use of resources. We all must take responsibility for our decisions when we use the outdoors, and we should treat the environment with respect so future generations can enjoy the outdoors as we do today." Teaching Leave No Trace (BSA No. 21-117)
This course is designed to train boy scouts (age 14 and older), venturers, and adults (Cub Scout, Boy Scout, and Venture) to serve as Leave No Trace Trainers for Scouting and the wider public. For a Scout to serve as a Leave No Trace Trainer, he must complete the Leave No Trace Trainer Course.
The youth leaders of a busy outdoor adventure program must be able to apply Leave No Trace to a variety of activities in differing environments during all seasons of the year; all done in the company of Scouting youth and adults with varying levels of outdoor skills, self discipline, and commitment to an outdoor ethic.
Additionally, the course will provide participants with a deeper understanding of Leave No Trace to help individuals make a guide others in making good choices to minimize recreational impacts to help protect the wonderful outdoor locations they choose to enjoy.
Individuals planning trips to National High Adventure Bases, camp staff members, unit leaders and those in District or Council training positions are urged to attend. The fee for the weekend is $40. The fee includes camping fees, food, and instructional resources.
Registration deadline for the course is Novemeber 5, 2012.
Each participant will be expected to prepare a 10-15 minute presentation on his or her assigned Leave No Trace topic.
Campsite location, teaching assignments, equipment list and other course details will be emailed out to all participants on November 1, 2012.
Click Here to Register.
For additional information please email Thomas Willis.
Leave No Trace Master Educator Courses Set
Check out the 2012 BSA Leave No Trace Master Educator Course schedule in the Northeast Region. It's a fantastic course that teaches you best practices for recreating in the great outdoors in this part of the country with the perfect spin how to get your Scouts and Venturers engaged and living the LNT principles.
I took the course in 2006 and thoroughly enjoyed it and learned so much from some of the best outdoor ethics enthusiasts in the BSA. -Travis McCormick
Visit http://outdoorethics-bsa.org/me_courses.htm for more information about upcoming courses, including the Master Educator course being hosted by our neighbors in Chester County Council at Horseshoe Scout Reservation.
New Ways to Support Scouting
Did you know that there are companies out there that will not only match your monetary contributions, but will make a monetary donation in your name for the hours you have volunteered? That's right a contribution will be made in your name, by these companies, just for the hours you volunteer with your child!
Here is a partial listing of those companies. Verify with your employer if they are not listed.
Aetna
$300 for 20 or more volunteer hours
Allstate
AstraZeneca
$500 for 20 or more volunteer hours
$500 for 50 or more volunteer hours
Armstrong
$250 for 36 or more volunteer hours
Bank of America
$250 for 50 hours or $500 for 100 or more hours
Capitol One
$500 for 100 or more volunteer hours
Eli Lilly
$250 for 25 or more volunteer hours
GAP Inc.
$150 for 15 or more volunteer hours
General Motors
$250 for 50 or more volunteer hours
Intel
$200 for 20 or more volunteer hours
Lincoln Financial Group
New York Life
$500 for 60 or more volunteer hours
Pfizer
$1,000 for 36 or more volunteer hours
Starbucks
$10 per hour up to 100 hours ($1,000)
State Farm
$500 for 40 or more volunteer hours
Verizon
$750 for 50 or more volunteer hours
Wachovia (Wells Fargo)
$100 for each 24 hours volunteered up to $500
JP Morgan
$1,000 for 100 or more volunteer hours
Another 200+ companies will also match monetary contributions. Click here for the full listing of matching and contribution for your volunteer time. Check to see if your company is listed for either.
If you have additional questions regarding matching gift companies, or you see an error or omission please contact: Sonya Greene at 302-622-3300 ext. 112 or 113.
Nentego Lodge members at the National Order of the Arrow Conference opening show.
"There are many people that we meet in our lives but only very few will make a lasting impression on our minds and hearts. It is these people that we will think of often and who will always remain important to us as true friends."
-- Richard Bach
