Clarifying the flat rate fee for adult campers

Here is a message from Scout Executive Jim McMullen regarding Cub camp and leader fees...


Many thanks for your enthusiasm about Summer Camp and for helping our Cub Scouts to get the very best experience possible.

For those of you who were able to join us for Wednesday’s camp kickoff, thanks for braving another cold night out for camp conversation (plus a great bowl of chili!).

Most of our summer camp documents are already available on the council website: www.itcbsa.org under the camping tab.

In the next week you can look for anything new that we handed out last night, including the CSW Resident Camp Program Guide and some new handouts for Day Camp.

I also wanted to take a moment to clarify last night’s discussion regarding adult participation at Resident Camp and the new ‘flat rate’ fee for adults.

In no way do we want to discourage parents from enjoying the camping experience with their sons. One of the hallmarks of the Cub Scout program is that it gives parents and boys the opportunity to have fun together. As a parent, I attended Camp Sam Wood with my son Nick 5 summers in a row, and we have cherished memories of those times.

The purpose of the change in the fee structure is to simplify the payment schedule and to improve the quality of your summer camp experience.

To clarify, the old fee structure with ‘free’ and ‘fee’ leaders was terribly confusing for many of our camp coordinators who had to guess at the final ratio, as well as for us at the office when figuring out final payments due. Not only that, in some packs it created friction over the decision of who got the ‘free’ slots. The flat rate is intended to take the guesswork and the headache out of the equation.

It is true that the ratio of adults to Cub Scouts has grown steadily over the past few summers. In 2014, there were 4 adults to every 5 Cub Scouts at camp. From my perspective, it’s great that so many parents want to enjoy the experience with their sons. It does put some strain on the campsite equipment, as well as the dining hall & shower facilities, but those are welcome challenges that we’re constantly striving to improve.

When you do the final math, you’ll find that the average amount of adult fees will be a bit higher than last year. We tried to keep that number as low as possible while still being able to improve on a couple of areas that leaders highlighted in the customer satisfaction survey that we conducted last fall, including food service, not enough ‘rainy day’ alternative program equipment, and leaky tents. We’re doing our best to address each of those concerns for 2015 (we’re hoping that Mother Nature cooperates as well!).

Sorry about the long-winded message, but I didn’t want to leave anyone with the wrong impression.

Using Facebook to promote your pack or troop

The internet has made it easier (and cheaper) to spread the word about Scouting. Now, with Facebook (beloved by young and old) we can share our experiences with countless people in our communities and around the world -- and advertise the awesomeness that we do.

In this day and age, the internet is the perfect marketing tool because, as you know, boys and parents alike are addicted to their smartphones. So, the more often we can put content onto that device, the more often we can have interactions with them…daily, every other day, weekly,  it’s up to you!

Prior to the internet we had to rely on mass marketing endeavors that were costly and time consuming (banners, fliers, handouts, advertisements, newspaper reports, etc). It’s so easy to market now.

For prospective Scouting families, a Facebook page will attract them to our organization. For new Scouting families, it will keep them in your unit. For the long-term Scouting families, it can serve as a communication tool more so than a marketing tool (so they can’t say they never got your phone call or email message – how often have you heard that while leading a troop or pack?!).  

Over the next few pages we will look at simple, inexpensive ways to take advantage of the internet.

Building your page

When making a Facebook presence make it a “page” and not a “person”. A page can be liked and viewed by anyone (which is what we want --- MASS EXPOSURE). A personal page needs people to be added as friends, and the public at large cannot, in most cases, look at the content of your page (which defeats the purpose of your Facebook efforts). Likewise, you shouldn’t make a “group” for your unit as most groups are invitation only and many Facebook users steer away from groups because they are stereotyped as free-for-alls.

To create your page on Facebook go to this link:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/create.php

Once there, six classifications will be presented to you. Choose the “Company, organization, or institution” category.

Then, fill out your unit name (example: “Troop 18 – Gasport, NY”). Keep in mind that your category and name cannot be changed once your page is created. So type wisely, otherwise you’ll have to delete the entire page and start fresh.

Facebook will then ask you to upload the main photo for your page. This photo will appear as your icon every time you comment on a post or your post appears in a fans news feeds. Ideally, it should be your unit logo.

Next, Facebook will ask for your “about” information. This will be a 2 or 3 sentence description of your unit. It will be on your main page, so make it descriptive but short.

Managing your Facebook page

Your admin panel is the main hub for managing your unit’s page. It's filled with various features and options to optimize your page and your monitoring of it.

The “Edit Page” section provides various options. The first option, “Update Info” will allow you to enter a description, which is an extended version of the “About” information you entered earlier. Share lengthier and more detailed information in your description such as a brief unit history, meeting times/locations and a list of names of the unit leadership and phone numbers and emails for the unit leader.

You can also manage the roles of your page administrators. This allows you to invite various leaders/board members from your unit to be administrators on your Facebook page in order to respond to comments or create messages specific to the unit activities, without giving them complete power over your page. My advice: Allow no more than 2 administrators --- you don’t want too many people involved as you want a consistent message post-after-post and you don’t want someone to put out questionable or errant information about the unit.

The other options under 'Edit Page' allow you to manage your notifications and add page permissions.

Using your Facebook page

Once your page has been built, invite scouts and their parents, local newspaper reporters, community leaders and friends and family to be ‘fans” of the page. The more the merrier!!

To really add some pizzazz to your page, add a cover photo. Be sure to select a creative horizontal image that will appeal to users who land on your page --- like your scouts doing something really cool at camp or a picture of your whole unit.

When posting to your page, be sure to put lots of content -- and varied content -- on the page. Some things you should post include:

Lots of picture from camping events and other activities
Stories and photos of community service projects
Updates on the subject matter of upcoming meetings
Details on upcoming campouts
Anything that would make a prospective scout join your unit!

Be creative.

Post often.

Use Facebook as an in-unit communication tool and a means to share the good news of the unit with the community at large.

Make the posts awesome…every post will help bring more boys into Scouting!

Monitoring your page

While having a gorgeous Facebook page is awesome, you want to ensure you're monitoring how fans are interacting with it. Be sure to respond to comments and messages as needed to ensure your fans know you not only care about them, but to avoid the detrimental impact of ignoring some folks like disgruntled parents and scout-haters from the community (they exist!). Spam can ruin a Facebook page and its efforts. So, visit your unit page as often as you visit your personal page or your kid’s Facebook pages.

Examples

For a good example of a good Scouting Facebook page, check out the Council’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/itcbsa 

Not to toot our own horn, but it’s chock full of useful and fun info, news, photos, and interaction -- it is far and away one of the most active Facebook pages in the BSA’s Northeast Region.

Questions

If you have any questions about building or maintaining your page and keeping it healthy and vibrant, please do not hesitate to contact Council President Bob Confer by email at Bob@conferplastics.com or phone Monday – Friday; 5:00 AM till 4:00 PM at 1.800.635.3213. 

Iroquois Trail Council was GOLD in 2014

We're excited to share the news that the Iroquois Trail Council achieved the BSA's 2014 Gold Level Journey to Excellence Award.

This is based on the cumulative results of every unit in the Council. Thank you to each of you for the time and effort that you invest to bring an excellent and exciting Scouting program to your town.

This is a major accomplishment and a reason to celebrate. This is first time since 2011 that we’ve been honored as Gold. Only 25% of councils across the country achieved Gold in 2014.

We're pleased to present a summary of 2014 Scouting Program Highlights as a download at:

http://itcbsa.org/Joomla/images/Forms/2014AnnualReportProgramHighlights.pdf

Journey to Excellence planning documents for all program levels are available at: Scouting.org/JTE  

Camp Program Launch & Chili Dinner - February 25

  

ITC Camps

Join us for a hearty meal (courtesy of your Order of the Arrow Lodge) and to review 2015 program details for Camp Sam Wood, Camp Dittmer, and Day Camp.

The event will be held Wednesday, February 25th at 8221 Lewiston Road (Route 63), Batavia.

The chili dinner will be served at 6:30 pm. At 7:00 pm we will have the program launch.

Make your youth camper deposits that night to qualify for Early Bird Discounts on Resident Camp Fees.

Please RSVP to Judy.Anderson@Scouting.org

Buchanan to headline BoyPower Dinner

Our annual BoyPower dinner has always had some great keynote speakers. This year is no exception.

Our speaker for the May 28th event will be Gale Buchanan, who was an Under Secretary in the US Department of Agriculture. A great speaker for a Council that has agriculture as its largest industry.

Details on the event will be available in a few weeks.

Here's a brief bio about Dr. Buchanan:

http://www.leadershipinagriculture.com/authors/GaleBuchanan/

Pack 62 uses Pinewood Derby as a recruiting tool

How do you bring more boys into Scouting? Invite them to your most exciting events --- just like Pack 62 is with their Pinewood Derby that's open to the public. What a great way to recruit!

Here's the Orleans Hub's story about it:

http://www.orleanshub.com/news2015/Holley-Scouts-open-Pinewood-Derby-to-community.htm

Volunteers needed at district and council levels

Scouters & Scouting families,

I need your help.

The Iroquois Trail Council has some immediate needs for volunteers at the district and council levels. The list of the open positions – many of which are brand new duties – can be found below.

Please know this, though: I’m not necessarily looking for your help in those roles…I need your help in filling them.

Your plate is full when it comes to your unit; you have weekly meetings to run, campouts to plan and attend, and summer camps to visit for a week at a time. You already do a lot for Scouting -- and I appreciate that immensely.  

What I’d like you to do is to reach out to a parent in your troop or someone in your neighborhood or church who may not have had the time or interest at the troop level (not everyone is as comfortable as you are working with children…it can be a daunting task for many adults). Their unique skill sets or project management abilities might translate well for what we need. Plus, in most cases, the time demands will be far less intensive for these responsibilities than they would be at the unit level.

If you know of someone interested or someone who may be a good candidate, please contact me and Council Executive Jim McMullen via email. My address is bobconfer@juno.com  and his is Jim.McMullen@scouting.org

Yours in Scouting,

Bob Confer

Marketing committee (council level)  -- 4 total openings, 1 of which will be the chair: This new committee will meet in Batavia once per month and develop and implement marketing and advertising strategies that will be employed at the unit, district and council levels. We need 4 people with an advertising or public relations background for this committee. One individual from the 4 will be chosen as the marketing chairman and he/she will report and interact with the Council Executive, Council President and Vice-President of Membership on a regular basis as well as attend the monthly membership meeting in Batavia.

Local school administrator (council level) – 1 opening: We would like to recruit one individual who is a superintendent, principal or vice-principal to attend our monthly board meeting in Batavia so we can bounce ideas off him/her regarding the best way to recruit kids at schools, develop new projects/posts/clubs within schools, etc.

Corporate Friends of Scouting champion (district level) – 1or 2 openings per district: As a council we do a great job of utilizing Scouting families for Friends of Scouting but we don’t do so well at procuring gifts from large corporations or small businesses. For each district we’d like someone with an extensive networking background (someone who is an active Chamber of Commerce member, Rotarian, or Lion) to spearhead these efforts. General workload will depend on how much of a go-getter this person is as a fundraiser. This person will attend the monthly district meetings/roundtables and report to the District Chair, District Executive and the Council’s Vice-President of Finance while having regular interaction with the Council Executive. It might behoove us to have a couple of folks handle this task in each district due to the centralized-nature of communities and the “borders” put up by those communities (as an example, someone might have a lot of contacts in Lockport, but Medina is a different story…different communities, different counties, different community/networking organizations).

Risk management committee (council level) – 1 opening remaining: This new committee will handle a wide variety of risk management issues from property & insurance issues to public policy to the development of Council by-laws (which will be first and foremost on their radar). This committee will meet every other month, likely in Batavia. Once per year the committee will tour our properties. The chair of this committee will report to and interact with the Council Executive and Council President.  

Eagle Alumni committee (council level) – 4 total openings, 1 of which will be the chair: This new committee will begin to develop a number of Eagle alumni initiatives from outreach to regular get-togethers to scholarships to events recognizing our newest Eagles. This committee will meet every other month, likely in Batavia, and should be made up solely of Eagles. Workload outside of the meetings depends on the events/activities the committee is willing to undertake. The chair of this committee will report to and interact with the Council Executive and Council President.  

     

Lockport golf tournament chair (District level) – 1 opening: District level golf tournaments have proven to be successful in our Council (without affecting our Silver Lake Golf Tournament) so we would like to have one in Lockport to capitalize on the number of businesses and willing donors in our Council’s largest city and town. This person will work independently with a committee of his/her choosing and will report to the District Chair and District Executive.

Council diversity chair (council level) - 1 opening: This new position will aid in our goal of bringing Scouting to underserved populations -- namely, African-American and Hispanic families within our urban/large village communities like Lockport, Medina, Albion, and Batavia. This individual will work closely with the President and Council Executive in reaching out to church/school/community leaders of those sub-communities and recruiting leaders and youth who will join our existing units.