Journeying to Excellence Together
The Boy Scouts of America is not a membership organization, it is a value-based character development program. But the only way we can develop character in young people is to get them into the program and then deliver a balanced program.

I mentioned in January's eTOTEM that the Centennial Quality Award has been replaced with the Journey to Excellence Award. Now at first glance, the guidelines can look very intimidating or scary.

The objective of the Journey to Excellence program is to ensure that our youth have the best Scouting program. There are a lot of outstanding units in the Chief Seattle Council and there are some that are struggling. The Journey to Excellence program provides guidelines to help all our units run a well balanced program.

Let's quickly review the guidelines:

• Increase advancement – the youth are learning skills.
• Retention – the program is exciting and the youth are staying in the unit.
• Growing in members – the program is strong with new boys or girls wanting to join.
• Trained and engaged leadership – having enough adults who know and understand the program to make it fun.
• Camping – have an outdoor program – that is why boys and girls join.
• Service hours – the youth are giving back to their communities.
• Budget – the unit has a budget for their program year so the youth know how much money they need to raise to have the activities they want.
• Meetings where parents attend – so they can see the value of the program.
• Recharter on time – to avoid minimal disruption to the unit.
• Assessing your unit annually – this is a great way to see what the unit is doing well and what needs to be improved on.

2011 Commissioner Convention
March 26, 2011 - LDS North Stake Center
Save the date, our location is confirmed. Our host will be the LDS North Stake Center, 5701 8th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105. Registration will be available shortly. The Commissioner Convention our annual conference & training for ALL commissioners and those interested in knowing more about commissioner service. There will be sessions for District Commissioners and Assistant District Commissioners, Unit Commissioners, Roundtable Commissioners and RT staff. We are working on the day's agenda and will have that available very soon. You can look forward to (as we have in the past) the opportunity for extensive discussion about critical issues that we face in the delivery of effective commissioner service. I have appreciated the feedback about offering an opportunity for training with real life examples of how to best apply the training. It's a great combination of training in a workshop setting. Remember...Every Scout & Venturer in the BSA deserves trained leaders & trained commissioners.

A Message From Our Council President
"Reading about nature is fine, but if a person walks in the woods and listens carefully, he can learn more than what is in books, for they speak with the voice of God." – George Washington Carver

We are fortunate here in the Pacific Northwest to truly live in God's country. There are not many places on earth where one can take in, at a single glance, majestic mountain ranges, forested hills, and magnificent bodies of water. But with our modern, busy lives, it is often difficult to make time to escape to the woods, head to the water, or climb in the mountains. Children these days, it seems, have even less opportunity to do so.

In his best selling book, Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder, author Richard Louv discusses the troubling trends in childhood obesity, attention deficit disorder, diabetes, and even depression, and reasons that they are largely caused by the disconnect between children and nature. How can we address this problem?

One way we can address this problem is to literally get outside! We are privileged in the Chief Seattle Council to have four outstanding camps in our own backyard: Camp Parsons, Camp Brinkley, Camp Pigott and Camp Sheppard. These are world-class facilities with outstanding staff, just waiting to be experienced by Scouters and adult volunteers alike. The opportunity to be outside, learning new crafts and activities, testing one's skills and nerves on a COPE course, signing up for a high adventure trip and enjoying the camaraderie of one's fellow campers are just a few of the delights in attending a Scout camp.

Registration is in full swing and we are just a few months away from the start of another camping season. Camp Parsons is already full for this summer, and Camp Pigott and Camp Brinkley are well ahead of their registrations from last year. If you have not yet signed up for one of the camps, I strongly urge you to do so.

See you at camp!

Yours in Scouting,
Tom Pigott

Downtown Breakfast
The 2011 Downtown Breakfast will be held on Wednesday, March 16th, 2011 at the Seattle Sheraton, Grand Ballroom. We are excited to announce that this year's breakfast will be chaired by Eagle Scout and CEO of McKinstry, Dean Allen. Building on the tradition set forth in 2010, the Chief Seattle Council will be recognizing another Pillar of Puget Sound to join the 2010 class of Phil Smart, Sr., Phil Condit, and Jack Creighton.

This is the Chief Seattle Council's largest fundraiser of the year. Funds raised will go towards supporting more than 40,000 youth and adult Scouting members in the Puget Sound area.

To get a table at the event or to reserve an individual spot, please contact staff advisor Ryan Larson at rlarson@seattlebsa.org or call at 206-902-2364.

Senate to Introduce Resolution Honoring BSA

Commissioner's Corner
2011 Commissioner Convention, March 26, 2011. Our host will be the LDS North Stake Center, 5701 8th Ave NE, Seattle, WA 98105. Registration is open and available online. There is a direct link from the council's home page. The Commissioner Convention our annual conference & training for ALL commissioners and those interested in knowing more about commissioner service. All of our sessions are applicable for Administrative Commissioners, Unit Serving Commissioners and Roundtable Commissioners and RT staff. You can look forward to (as we have in the past) the opportunity for extensive discussion about critical issues that we face in the delivery of effective commissioner service.

Our theme this year will continue to focus on "relationships". This is a topic that's always relevant. Our agenda is firming up and will offer sessions where we will talk about how to keep balance with family and Scouting. We're all very committed with Scouting and we all know that balance is key to not overextending ourselves. We'll discuss "Assessing District and Council Health". This topic is very much in line with our current efforts to develop our new council strategic plan. And we will spend a generous amount of time on the new "Journey to Excellence", "Unit Visitation Tracking System", as well as alternative options for tracking visits. Remember…Every Scout & Venturer in the BSA deserves trained leaders & trained commissioners. And for those of you who are tracking your participation for the Commissioner's Service Training Award (PhD knot), the majority of the sessions offered are 600 level & 700 level.

Yours in Scouting!
Kevin

2011 Membership
The past year has been a year of change within membership. Updated concepts and formats were introduced for Cub Scout recruiting. For a variety of reasons, all very well thought out, some units were disbanded. Renewed emphasis was placed on our Venturing program. By the end of the year all the hard work and concentrated efforts paid off. Chief Seattle Council increased Scouting membership over the year before in Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts and Venturing. 2010 was one of the best membership years we have ever had in our Council. We should all be very proud that we have provided the Scouting opportunity to an ever increasing number of youth. Thank you for all your efforts to bring the positive message of scouting to our communities.

The newly introduced Journey to Excellence performance recognition program will allow us to more closely monitor our membership growth. The program will help all of us track our units and districts in areas of outdoor activities, community service, camping, advancement and training. All of these combined help a Scouting program run effectively. A well run program is what keeps families involved with Scouting.

CAMP STAFF OPPORTUNITIES
Camp staff opportunities are available for Scouts and Venturers to work in our camp program for 2011. Positions include summer camp at Parsons, Pigott, and Brinkley. In addition, weekend positions are available for Camp Sheppard. Click here for an application.



PROVISIONAL CAMP
Do you have Scouts going to camp with their troop but want to go for a second week? Provisional Troop is the answer! Available at Camp Pigott and Camp Parsons – click here for more information.

Philmont 2012
Council treks available
Didn't make it through the latest drawing for a Philmont reservation? Good news! The Chief Seattle Council has reservations for four crews of 12 persons each (48 total) for Philmont in the summer of 2012. The crews participating in this council contingent will arrive at Philmont on July 12 and begin the trip back home on July 24, 2012. The fee for each participant is $740. Boy Scout Troops, Varsity Teams, and Venture Crews are eligible to participate unde r the following guidelines:

1. Philmont maintains a policy that a unit cannot participate in two consecutive seasons.
2. All participants, youth and adults, must meet the Philmont height and weight requirements. Those who do not meet the requirements will be sent home.
3. 2012 Philmont participants must be at least 14 years of age by September 1, 2012. To avoid disappointment, please do not request or expect exceptions.
4. Coed Venturing crews must have coed leadership.
5. All adult trek leaders must be registered members of the Boy Scouts of America.
6. Please consult the Philmont Planning Guide for additional policies governing the summer high adventure treks.

Service with a Smile - Serving Seattle's Union Gospel Mission







At first glance, Seattle's Union Gospel Mission seems like no place for a boy to spend the night. But if you are in Bothell's Troop 574, the UGM is the perfect locale for an overnight service project.

On a cold, Monday night late in December 2010, nine scouts and three adults from T574 spent their evening on a "Search and Rescue" van with blankets, food, coffee, and cold weather clothing, serving Seattle's homeless. The next morning, they served more than 600 plates of breakfast and led three chapel services for more than 200 homeless men and women with songs, stories, and sermons.

To serve Seattle's Union Gospel Mission with your Troop or Crew, visit www.ugm.org or call 206.723.0767.