| The official e-newsletter of those Wild Milton Mavericks!! | |
October,
2005 |
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| Chairman's
Update.... |
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By:
Geoffrey Barnes gwb999 @ bellsouth.net
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‘Tis the season for refresh – two of them in particular. This month’s Roundtable is devoted to the Recharter process, in which each unit updates and renews its membership with the Boy Scouts of America...this is the point where each of us renews our commitment to the program at the unit level. It is also the time of the year when the District Committee itself renews its roster and we recommit to the honor of leading such an incredible District as Milton. The Milton District Nominating Committee is in place now, headed up by DeWayne Lusky (dlusky255@aol.com 770-569-5145). Every year, the seven key positions of the Milton District Committee are voted in. Check out the website for a brief description what these positions are responsible for. These positions are:
In Milton, we have a rule-of-thumb that the incumbent should not hold the position more than two years. This allows fresh ideas and new energy in each of these areas. Accordingly, some of the leaders who are holding these positions are willing to continue (if asked by the Nominating Committee) and some positions are open. However, I want to emphasize that all positions are eligible for refresh. I will add that it is quite an honor to be selected to hold each and every one of these positions. DeWayne is currently accepting nominations for these seven positions on the Milton District Committee for 2006. If you would like to be considered, or you would like to nominate someone to be considered for any of these positions, please let DeWayne know right away. Of course, it takes way more than seven people to run a District, especially one that is as active and energized as Milton is. On the website is also a list of leadership roles that Milton uses to run our wonderful operation. I have included the person who is currently filling the role in the event that you would like to contact that person to get more insight into what’s involved. You will notice some open slots – this is where we especially need your help. Look this list over and seriously think about volunteering for one of these positions. Even if the spot is not open, we are looking for individuals who would have an interest in helping with the area and learning how this function is performed at the District level. The youth
need our leadership – personal and energized – and we do it
for them! |
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GOT ................ TRAINING? |
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Karen
Dent
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| Milton District Expo... | |||||||
Randy
Townsend |
Scout
Expo is crammed full of fun for Scouts. With Over 50 scouting units participating, there’s an unbelievable variety of funs things to do:
All scouts should sign up through their unit or by using the form at www.miltonbsa.org/OA/helper/Expo2005Reg.htm
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| Advances in Advancement.... | |||||||
CONGRATULATIONS
TO OUR NEWEST EAGLE SCOUTS
1) Ever wonder why your Recharter packet always has the wrong rank listed for your scouts. Many times it’s because Council is slow updating their lists. Many times we can blame council’s inefficiencies. HOWEVER a large part of the issue is not turning in the advancement form when purchasing awards for your scouts. Those of you who shop at Atlanta Council Scout Shops (Bert Adams, Southlake, or Council Headquarters) can not purchase rank patches without submitting an advancement form. Those of you, who shop at Northeast Georgia Scout Shop in Lawrenceville, or Gainesville or University Spirit at Toco Hills, can buy rank patches without an advancement form. If you do it that way, please make sure you still submit an Advancement Form to Atlanta Council anyway. This way they can update your unit’s records. Also those forms are totaled and summarized for the District Advancement Chairman as well as for statistical analysis of Atlanta Council. More importantly The District Advancement Chairman reviews the advancement records for each for the year and then refers units that are not advancing to the unit’s Commissioner, so they can assess if the unit is struggling to survive. Most importantly it’s the right thing to do and isn’t that what we teach our scouts… So lead by example
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| At
the Expo.... |
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“FINAL LAP” Pinewood Derby Race Held at SCOUT EXPO – October 29th – All Day Event Open to new Scouts that have just built their new Pinewood Derby cars and to all scouts that would like to race a car they built previously. This event (Final Lap & Scout Expo) is also open to boys that have not yet joined Scouting that would like to explore all the fun activities. We will have extra cars available for visitors to race. Any Scout that BRINGS A FRIEND to Scout Expo will receive a limited edition collectors Recruiter Patch – If their friend joins Scouts, they will also receive their Recruiter Strip!
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| Sea Scouts ... | |||||||
Kip
Peterson KEP @ Thorsborg.com |
 PRESS
RELEASE
9 October 2005 Atlanta Sea Scout Team wins entry to 2006 William I. Koch International Sea Scout Cup. In a Regional Qualifier for the William I. Koch International Sea Scout Cup sailboat regatta held on Lake Lanier Georgia, Atlanta Sea Scout team of Ben Kiesel and Kenny Munn won the right to compete in the 2006 William I. Koch Sea Scout Cup in Miami. This regatta had eight teams that raced seven sailboat races on the 8th and 9th of October in 420-class sailboats. The winners are members of Sea Scout Ship 477 of Dunwoody, Georgia. There were two other teams from the Atlanta Council BSA, two teams from the Northeast Georgia Council BSA and three teams from the Great Smokey Council BSA in Tennessee competing for the honor of representing the Southern Region of the Sea Scouts. Celebrating their 76th year of operations in the Atlanta area, the Atlanta Sea Scout Squadron hosted this regional qualifier race as they own/operate 420-class sailboats that are used for interscholastic sailing competition. Membership in the Sailing team of the Atlanta Squadron is available to any Sea Scout in the Atlanta area. Sea Scouts are a part of the Boy Scouts of America and are available to coed youth 14 to 20 years of age. Further information on the William I. Koch International Cup can be found at www.seascoutcup.org. Information about the Atlanta Sea Scout Squadron can be found at www.atlantasquadron.org
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| Health and Safety... | |||||||
Fire Starters To Use INSTEAD of Liquid Fuels BSA policies prohibit the use of any liquid fuel for the purpose of starting any fires. Yet, often in a hurry, some adult leaders will allow the use of these fuels, or possibly use liquid fuels, themselves, while starting a fire. Interestingly enough, from my own personal experience, the ones most likely to stray from BSA policies on liquid fuels are the ones entrusted to not only follow the rules, but to TEACH the rules to our youth members. It might be true, in some instances, that an adult has been properly trained and instructed to use liquid fuels in the course of their work or vocational activities. And they may be tempted to feel just a little “superior” to the policies and rules as established for “normal” folks. But the policies of the BSA are for ALL Scouts AND ALL Scouters! Even in the best of circumstances, if an adult is using any kind of “cheater” to start a fire, the youth will be very quick to notice, and will attempt to imitate the example given to them by their leaders. The highest priority duty of an adult leader is to keep Scouting SAFE, while keeping it fun. It could be said that the second highest priority is to always set the example for the behavior that we want the youth to follow. Still, it is possible to BE PREPARED to light a fire in any kind of weather, under any conditions, without the use of liquid fuels. Here are a few examples, some of which will need some advance preparation. Do this as a troop or crew activity, and your youth will not only learn new skills, but have some fun, while learning what it means to be prepared. They also learn respect – for their leaders, and for the BSA policies those leaders enforce at every level of troop or crew activity! Any of these can be used instead of liquid fuels!
Items that work well, even in the rain:
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| Spring Camporee Programs... | |||||||
| Milton
Spring Camporee April 21-23, 2006
Spring Camporee 2006 is scheduled for Friday, April 21, to Sunday April 23. Camporee 2005 was a great success due to the combined teamwork of the participating Troops. Camporee 2006 will be built with that same spirit of teamwork and fellowship.
John Morrow is the Milton Camporee Committee Chairman. The first meeting of the Camporee Committee will be Thursday, November 3 from 6:30-7:30 PM at Alpharetta Presbyterian Church. This is the same location as our monthly Roundtable meeting.
Each Troop or Crew planning to participate in the Camporee should send 1 or 2 Scouts as their Unit Representatives, as well as 1 or 2 adult Advisors to this meeting. These unit representatives will be responsible for coordinating their unit’s contribution and participation in planning and conducting the event.
At the Kickoff Meeting
on November 3, we will discuss potential activities and locations for
the Camporee as well as assignments for units to complete. This committee
will meet at this same time on the first Thursday of each month until
a different schedule is required. |
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| Religious Relations | |||||||
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The
Brotherhood Trail, 12/4 -Sam Proctor, RRC Scout Law 12-A Scout is Reverent. Scout Law 4-A Scout is Friendly. God is good!
Despite Friday evening's rain and Saturday morning's drizzle, this year's
Duty of God Encampment proved to be a great success. There were some 450
faithful in attendance to learn about the diversity of belief's represented
within the council; including Catholic, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Latter
Day Saints and Protestant. Milton's
own Ralph Clements lead Saturday night's council fire, assisted by Roger
Mahler and Randy Townsend. There were outstanding skits (many new ones!),
a number of funny 'run-ons', presentations, insightful stories of leadership
and commitment, and flag retirement of 21 flags. Throughout the weekend, displays and informational materials about Religious Recognition awards were available. We also displayed and discussed the new "Duty to God" promotional patch, available through PRAY Publications (www.praypub.org). Based on the offerings of this year's event, all attendees qualified for the promotional patch, as well as a 10 commandment walk patch, to be supplied through their own units.
REMINDER: The 2006 DTGE will shift to late October. The dates will be October 27-29, 2006. Mark it on your calendar now and start encouraging units to include the 2006 DTGE in their program plans. |
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| From the Council.... | |||||||
Dear AAC High Adventure Crew Leaders, I invite you take advantage of a training opportunity not offered in many councils. The 16 hour Wilderness First Aid Basic (WFAB) class is an American Red Cross. The Boy Scout Volunteer leaders who bring the training to you have been trained as WFAB Instructors by the Metro Atlanta Chapter of the Red Cross. To date, we have offered the course four times, and we have scheduled two classes between now and summer 2006. The first class is November 11-13, 2005 and the second class is April 21-23, 2006. Although the first aid requirement to attend Philmont and the Northern Tier is Standard First Aid, both bases are considering increasing the requirement. Mark Anderson from Philmont emailed me, "Starting with 2006 we are encouraging crews to have at least one person certified with the 16 hour course offered by the American Red Cross, "Wilderness First Aid". We will take several years to phase in a change in requirements." The course we teach in the Atlanta Area Council is the course he is referring to. This course is different from the first aid we teach in rank advancement and merit badges in several key areas. We teach a complete and methodical victim assessment that is not covered in standard first aid. We teach victim monitoring to allow you to collect information important and useful to rescuers and advanced care providers. By far the most popular teaching tool we use is the scenario. The staff (AKA, The Not Ready to Die Players) act out several different common backcountry incidents, and the students working in small teams or patrols assess the victim and prescribe care for the victim. One final point I would like to make. We teach Youth (14 and older) alongside Adult Scouters. We think it is logical for the youth as well as adult leaders to be prepared to respond to wilderness first aid emergencies. Registration forms and other information about the course can be found at http://www.cbdistrict.org/index2.htm click on the "Wilderness First Aid Course info" link. |
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| Scoutmaster Minute | |||||||
This
months Scoutmaster Minute is courtesy of: |
The Game and the Purpose I recently had the privilege of directing a Milton District Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills (ITOLS) course for Boy Scout Leaders. The training staff for this course was, in the tradition of our district, an expert group, motivated, and very enthusiastic about the subject matter. The twenty-four participants, in turn, were enthusiastic students and we all had a great time on our adult weekend campout at Bert Adams. The participants learned a lot about how to teach traditional Scout skills to eleven and twelve year old first year Boy Scouts. They learned about knots, fire building, camp cooking, lashing, first aid, woods tools, patrol team building, back packing—many of the things young people join our scout units to learn about and do. We had a traditional campfire so that the prospective adult leaders would understand how the leaders of a troop should put together this high point in any troop’s weekend outing. At the end of the course, the participants even got to play in a short competition to reinforce the skills they had learned. In short, the course participants received instruction in much of Baden-Powell’s “jolly games” of scouting. At the end of this course, as with any course in scouting, participants filled out course critique forms to give the staff feedback on how to improve the instruction for our next course. Those of us who have attended Wood Badge know that…”Feedback is a Gift. It Truly Is.” The “gifts” we received will insure that those of you who attend ITOLS next fall will get an even better course. One of the “gifts” gave me particular pause to reflect on the content of our staff’s instruction. At our campfire, participants and staff passed a “talking stick”, and strictly voluntarily shared what Scouting means to us and our reasons for being at training. In a critique one of the participants wrote, “The part that will have the least value was, the campfire with skits and songs. Eliminate some of the soft-touchy-feely. Focus on skills.” What this leader meant was, stick to the games. As adult
leader trainers, as adult leaders of young people in this great scouting
program we need to remember, probably daily, that Scouting is games…but
with a purpose. Over the years I have had many parents tell me that their
children did not need scouting because the family went camping and the
children were taught all those “scout things,” the games,
by the family. That is a truly a fine thing. The uniqueness of Scouting,
though, is the purpose that goes with the games. In Scouting we talk about
duty to God. We value patriotism. Reflection is part of every activity
we do. We encourage communicating about what our God, our country, our
family and our Scouting, mean to us. Cut out songs and skits around a
campfire in the evening at the lake at Bert Adams? Refrain from saying
what scouting means to you among scouting friends? Remember the purpose.
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BSA
National Website - Atlanta Area
Council - Milton District Website |
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