Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Looking ahead to 2016's LDS week

A message from Bob Confer…


Throughout the year we have shared the news with everyone in the Council that we are moving ahead with a Mormon-only week at Camp Dittmer in 2016 that run from July 11 to July 16. We plan on running this LDS (Latter Day Saints) week every year in conjunction will the Hill Cumorah Pageant which is only 10 minutes away from camp.

Called “Zion’s Camp” it capitalizes on the Pageant experience and makes Camp Dittmer a major destination where we can celebrate friends, fun, and faith.

The need for this is apparent and the LDS community is raring to go! We are extremely excited to say that the sign-ups have been out of this world. We are looking at 400 scouts attending next year’s Zion’s Camp with troops coming from as far away as Virginia. That’s 3 to 5 times as many scouts as we have on a normal week. It’s awesome – it reminds me of the memorable experience I had as a staff member in 1994 when we had 450 campers for an LDS week (we’ve had only 2 such weeks at the Camp).

This will be a transformative event for Camp Dittmer, one that redefines its future and changes the type of programming and facilities that will be offered not only during Zion's Camp, but all “regular weeks” as well.

There is a lot of work that needs to be done – we will be working with various committees and work crews to address those needs up to (and beyond) the big event. If you’d like to volunteer to participate on any work crews, please email me at bob@conferplastics.com and I will your share info with the appropriate committees in charge of those tasks.

In the coming months and years we will address some of the items on our “wish list” that will become a definite “to-do” list because of this event and what comes from it….like re-opening Axoquenta and Kalutra, building shelters, launching an older boys program, making a family camping area and so much more.

Also, in late-winter I will be looking for some volunteers to augment our staffing for Zion's Camp. We will know more about who is needed and where at that time as the Church will be providing staff members as well.

I can’t say enough about how exciting this is. Camp Dittmer is a place I love dearly – it’s been a part of my life for almost 30 years now and a special camp that offers so much for our scouts. It will be awesome to see Camp at capacity, especially when shared with our friends from the Church who have never experienced Dittmer before. They'll be hooked!

I hope you have that same love for camp, too. It’s OUR camp – yours and mine. Let’s show it off next year, and make it EVERYONE’S camp, a true destination for troops from and outside of our Council.



Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Schuth brothers become Eagle Scouts



Two Boy Scouts from Kendall Troop 94 became Eagle Scouts at their Court of Honor on Monday, August 10. Matthew Schuth and his brother Nicholas Schuth, sons of David and Cathy Schuth, were also recognized for their achievement by Assemblyman Steve Hawley.

Matthew and Nicholas have an older brother, Michael, who is also an Eagle Scout.

Matthew's Eagle project was building a picture place at the Kendall Community Park. Beginning by clearing trees and brush, the site was then backfilled for planting arborvitaes. A foundation and concrete pad from a former building are the base for a vinyl Arbor and are accessible by the stone walkway. This low maintenance backdrop has already been used for many formal photographs.

Nicholas' Eagle project was improving the Kendall Food Cupboard. Housed in the Kendall United Methodist Church, this vital community service needed additional storage space. Wood shelving was installed to allow overhead storage for light weight items and a full wall of shelves that more than doubled the shelving used for food. All food was removed from the shelving, inspected and placed on the new shelving per direction from Marty and Zina Goodenbery.

Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Using Facebook to promote your troop or pack

With the fall recruiting period coming soon, it's imperative that your pack or troop have an online presence to maximize your efforts.

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:

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.