District Chair Updates

alpineheader Greetings fellow Alpine Scouters! My name is John Dietz and I am proud to serve as your Alpine District Chair, a Volunteer position. I am very pleased to say that Alpine is one of the very best Scouting Districts in the Pacific Northwest. It is also a large one in terms of sheer territory and the number of Scouts, Families and Scout Units we serve.

We are truly "Volunteer Driven and Professionally Guided." Through our mutual Volunteer efforts, our District serves around 2,000 Scouts in almost 100 Scout Units. Our territory ranges from Newcastle in the West to North Bend in the East, and from the North Sammamish Plateau area in to well South of Issaquah including Mirrormont. Our Scout Units consist of Cub Scout Packs, Boy Scout Troops, Varsity Scout Teams, Venturing Crews, and even a Ship! We have a BIG District. There is only one (1) professional scouter to give us a hand: our very own Christina Coonradt, the Alpine District Executive. Christina is here to help guide us, but the day-to-day efforts required to make our Scouting Programs successful comes from the strength of our Volunteers.

There are many ways to get involved at the District level and to contribute to our Scouting Movement beyond your Pack, Troop, Team, Crew or Ship. To help our District meet its Goals and Objectives, I along with my fellow Alpine District Leaders are looking to expand the Alpine District Committee Team. If you would like to join us, or know someone who might be a great resource to give us a hand, please let me know! There are many, many opportunities for Volunteers to help out, with Roles both small and large. We'll find the right role for a Candidate, and the BSA provides Free or Low-cost Training for most Volunteer positions. Past experience as a Scout or Scouter is not required to offer your Support of this fine Organization - we are truly interested in finding Quality people to help us serve our Movement.

"The district chairman is the top volunteer Scouting leader of the district in a defined geographical area, whose job is to motivate a talented team of people. They preside at district committee meetings and represent the district on the council executive board. They are responsible for the membership, program, and finance functions of the district."

– A Handbook for District Operations

We will be posting a description of the Positions we are currently seeking candidates for. Many of these Volunteer Roles offer opportunities to expand your Leadership & Management experience at the same time you "give back" to both Scouting and to our Communities. This experience, like the positions available, can range from the very simple to the extremely challenging. We can match the right opportunity to your skills and preferences. So please, do contact us if you or someone you know are interested in helping the BSA beyond your local Scout Unit.

District Chair Update for September 2011

Greetings Alpine Scouters,

Our community Schools are back in session, which signals the start of another great Scouting Year! I hope you all had an outstanding Summer with your Families & experienced some great Scouting Adventures or Events, and that you have had a chance to relax a bit and recharge. Now we begin the New 2011-2012 Scouting Year, and we all have the very best of reasons to do our best as Volunteers & ScoutParents: we do this for the sake of our Scouts and their Families. With that in mind, please take a few minutes to think about how your Scout Unit can do the very best on the following important initiatives as we start this great new Scouting Year:

UPDATE your Scout Unit's "Be A Scout" Information:
- Please have your Unit Leader, Committee Chair, or Chartered Organization Rep do this right away if you have not done so already – It's Easy & Quick to Do: Just Click This Link for instructions
- If your Unit has not updated your information, then your Scout Unit's map pin location, recruiting contacts, primary meeting location(s) & times, and other information are likely incorrect.
- Parents, older Youth, and Adult Volunteers looking for a local Scout Unit are often directed to BeAScout.org and the use of this site will continue to increase. Recruiting Yard Signs now reference the BeAScout.org web address, as do many BSA flyers & posters, and the Public Service Announcements on TV and Radio.
- We need all Scout Units to have correct information on the BeAscout.org site or it will greatly reduce the effectiveness of all our collective Membership Campaigns, and it can frustrate Families looking for a local Scout Unit to visit or join.
GROW - Recruit New Scouts - Reach Every Eligible Youth in your Communities:
- Your Unit should be attempting to grow your Scout Membership by 10% or more.
- Our national Vision is to recruit "every eligible Youth in America."
TRAINING - Help your Leaders to get Trained:
- Every Scout deserves a Trained Leader.
- Help your New & Existing Leaders to understand their roles, responsibilities, and all their required Training.
- In our Chief Seattle Council, ALL Direct Contact Scout Leaders are to have completed their required Training before this October's Re-charter.
- Please, try to get folks up-to-speed on the new Positions and help them to get their Training completed.
JOURNEY TO EXCELLENCE - Replaces the old "Quality Unit" program:
- It's time for you to begin tallying your Unit's Score for the 2011 Journey-to-Excellence (JTE).
- And next month (October) we begin our 2012 Journey to Excellence.
- For background, training and suggestions on JTE, please see the links on the Alpine web pages, and at the BSA National JTE.
- Most of the measures are Leading Indicators, and they are designed to help provide us with Standards to achieve that are met by good, well run Units.
- As you measure your progress toward the Targets, these measures provide you early warning of potential problems, and they provide benchmarking with other Units in your Area so that units can help one another to improve.
- Your Unit Commissioner can help you with that if you'd like - just reach out to them. The bottom line is that JTE should help you offer a better Program to your Scouts and Families.

On behalf of our entire Alpine District Committee, I want to thank you all for your personal efforts to help deliver our great BSA Program to our Scouts, and to help our Movement to achieve our Vision to "prepare every eligible youth in America to become a responsible, participating citizen and leader who is guided by the Scout Oath and Law." Please reach out to me or any of us on the Alpine District Committee via email or phone with any questions, suggestions or ideas you'd like to share that could help our Alpine District our Scout Units.

Yours in Scouting,

John Dietz, your Alpine District Chair

District Chair Update for May 2011

Greetings Alpine District Scouters! I want to publish my first District Chair Update with a specific purpose: to emphasize a key, fundamental difference between a Scout Unit and a Club or typical Organization. That difference is that we are all part of a Movement. Members of a Movement band together to change the world. In our case, that change is certainly for the better.

Our BSA Vision Statement: "The Boy Scouts of America will prepare every eligible youth in America to become a responsible, participating citizen and leader who is guided by the Scout Oath and Law."

-- Reference: Scouting.org

I sincerely hope that all of us as Members of our great Movement will try to reach out to, and include, as many eligible Scouts, Families, and Volunteers as possible.

	ORGANIZATION	MOVEMENT
	Function: noun	Function: noun
	Date: 15th century	Date: 14th century
	Definition: an association, a society, or a functional group –an administrative and functional structure	Definition: a series of organized activities working toward an objective –an organized effort to promote or attain an end
	For example: a business, charitable, or political organization	For example: the civil rights movement, or the Scouting Movement

-- Source: based on content from merriam-webster.com/dictionary

If we feel our Scout Unit is getting too large, then there is a good solution: we need to let our Unit Commissioner know that it is time to start a New Scout Unit in our area. If you are interested in learning more about this process, there is a good, well written plan for organizing new Scout Units which has just recently been published by BSA's National Council. If you are interested in serving as a New Unit Organizer, or a New Unit Commissioner, please contact a member of the Alpine District Committee (see our contact information). We would truly enjoy hearing from you!

Feel free to contact me via email or phone with any questions, suggestions or ideas you'd like to share that could help our Alpine District. And thank you again for the contributions you make each & every day for our Scouts & their Families.

Yours in Scouting,

John Dietz, your Alpine District Chair