Dear
Advisors and Crew Committee Chairs:
This is your
monthly e-bulletin to all top Crew leaders in the Golden Arrow District.
Please delete or edit items not relevant to your Crew, then forward
to all your volunteers.
***If
your current Adviser / Committee Chair are not receiving this email and
passing it on to you. Please send me full contact
information and Crew # for the missing person(s). Thanks!
***
*** To add a
new recipient, please send me full contact information, volunteer position,
and Crew #. ***
***
Please check
that we have your Crew leadership info correctly listed on the Golden Arrow
web site at
http://www.goldenarrow.org/venture-units.html contact
James Cauble with updates***
*** Please
forward the EVENTS
AND
OPPORTUNITIES Section on to your Crew Officers ***
*** This
plus the last two months of this e-bulletin can be found on
http://www.goldenarrow.org/news.html
**********
ROUNDTABLE, DISTRICT,
AND
COUNCIL MESSAGES **********
1)
JUNE
ROUNDTABLE:
Venturing Roundtables
for the Golden Arrow District have been discontinued until a new Venturing
Roundtable Commissioner is found, see Item 2.
If interested in
the position, contact contact Jeff Hutchinson (see below for contact
information) or Farrell Gerbode,
farrell@alumni.rice.edu.
2)
FRIENDS OF SCOUTING FAMILY CAMPAIGN 2008: We are
done! Once again the Golden Arrow District led the
Council in generosity, increasing our donations by 24% over last year, and
shortening the time to completion by a full month! We
have raised over $215,000, one family at a time.
If your
FOS Chair is holding pledges, has leftover thank-you premiums, or needs more
premiums, please immediately send an email to Quartermaster Mike
Fitzgibbons: Maytreerd@aol.com You
can drop off or bring materials to Roundtable.
3) TOP
LEADERSHIP CHANGES: If you become the Committee Chair or Advisor, you MUST
turn in a properly filled out and signed
NEW
adult leader application to the Scout Office. Until this happens, the old
volunteer remains as the leader of record. No form = no
official change.
4) NEW
LOCAL TOUR PERMIT: Please note that a new Local Tour Permit has been posted
to the SHAC web site (under Forms):
<https://www.samhoustonbsa.org/Home/Forms/LocalTourPermit/Local%20Tour%20Permit.PDF>
Expiration dates for training are asked for, as appropriate for that
activity: Safe Swim Defense, Safety Afloat, Youth Protection Training, CPR,
Hazardous Weather Training - 2 years
Beginning
January 1,
2009,
Planning & Preparing for Hazardous Weather Training must be completed by at
least one adult prior to any activity requiring a tour permit.
This training is available online at MyScouting
(<http://www.scouting.org/Applications/MyScoutingFull.aspx>) and takes 30-45
minutes to complete.
5) CRIMINAL BACKGROUND CHECKS: All new leaders since April 2003 have had
criminal background checks. If you became a leader
before then and have not changed positions, a records clean-up project will
cause you to get a form letter. The letter will give recipients instructions
to visit a website, to "opt in" to a criminal background check.
Recipients who decline to authorize a background check will lose
their BSA membership. For more information, VIEW THIS
LINK.
<http://www.samhoustonbsa.org/Home/AboutBSA/CriminalBackgroundChec/Information/Information.PDF>
6)
TEXAS
YOUTH
CAMP
SAFETY ACT: Please note that if you (an adult over age 18) are attending a
Youth Camp in the State of
Texas,
you must follow specific procedures to be in compliance with State Law.
http://www.samhoustonbsa.org/Home/Camping/YouthCampCompliancePro/
7)
PROPANE
SAFETY ALERT: Meth cooks are using the propane tanks from exchanges such as
Wal-Mart, Kroger, etc. to fill instead with anhydrous ammonia. After they
are finished with them, they return them to the store, where they get
recycled for the next customer. Anhydrous ammonia is
very corrosive and weakens the structure of the tank. It
can be very dangerous when mixed with propane and hooked up to our grills,
etc. Inspect the propane tank for any blue or greenish residue around the
valve areas. If it is present, refuse to purchase that
one. See this website:
<http://www.npga.org/i4a/pages/index.cfm?pageid=529>
********** ADULT
TRAINING ********
8) ONLINE
WATER SAFETY TRAINING: Click here to take Safe Swim Defense and Safety
Afloat: http://www.scouting.org/pubs/aquatics/index2.html
9) VENTURING
LEADER SPECIFIC TRAINING: Adults who wish to be Associate Advisers or
Advisors should sign up for Venturing Leader Specific Training.
Out of district, there is a course on
Saturday 17 May 2008
in the Polaris District, contact Cindy King at polarisbsa.org. The next
opportunity for this in Golden Arrow is on
Saturday
6 September
2008
location to be determined. Please contact Kelia Ballou
at kelia@Ballou.cx or
713-661-1309
(H) before
1 September
if you plan to attend. A minimum of 5 people are needed
for the course to happen.
Requested
donation for the training is $7 (due at the training), which covers training
materials and lunch. For those trainees who have not taken the New Leader
Essentials training, an NLE will be offered immediately before the VLST
(i.e., at
7:30 am).
NLE is required along with VLST for one to be considered a trained Venturing
adult.
To
complete your registration please arrive at least 15 minutes before the
training (7:15
am
or
8:45 am)
that you will be taking. To pre-register or for more information please
contact Kelia Ballou (713-661-1309 or keliascout@ballou.cx).
10) WOOD
BADGE: Wood Badge is a mentally-intense 6-day leadership course designed for
all adult Scouters. It is hoped that every Cub Scout, Boy Scout, Varsity
Scout, and Venturing leader, as well as Council and District leaders and
professionals, will take it to help you focus on your responsibilities,
identify a goal, help you work toward that goal -- and give you the personal
tools to reach it. Upcoming classes in 2008 include:
·
SR-921 September 26-28 &
October
10-12, 2008
(begins Friday at
7:30 AM,
ends Sunday at
5:00 PM)
·
SR-922
October 9-11 &
November
13-15, 2008
(begins Thursday at
7:30 AM,
ends Saturday at
5:00 PM)
For more information and applications go to: http://www.shac.org/Home/Training/WoodBadge/
11) POWDER
HORN: Powder Horn will happen over three 2 day weekends;
21/22 March 2009, 4/5 April 2009 and 2/3
May 2009.
The first session will be at El Rancho Cima and we’ll have people
there starting Friday afternoon 20 March to let those in to a camp site.
The other two weekends will be at different, closer to home camps.
More information to follow, stay tuned. Bill Berry our course
director can be contacted at
scoutmaster@SR637.org if you’d like to join before the rush.
You also
might consider a course at Bear Creek Scout Reservation (near
Kerrville),
Sept. 19-21 and October 3-5. More info is
available at <http://www.alamopowderhorn.org/>
You can register online at <http://www.alamopowderhorn.org/register.php>
12) CANOE
TRAINING: Prepare for adventure safely by training all your adult volunteers
with these classes: http://www.samhoustonbsa.org/Home/Camping/Activities/CanoeProgram/
************
EVENTS
AND
OPPORTUNITIES **********
**********
HIGH ADVENTURE OPPORTUNITIES **********
13) PHILMONT
FOR ADULTS: Philmont is open to adults only during the
September through November for hikes (Autumn Adventure).
Need 7 to 12 adults. For more information talk to John
Curry and/or go to website: www.scouting.org/philmont/camping/season/autumn.html
**********
IN CLOSING **********
14) You can
contact your Golden Arrow District staff by email:
Jeff Hutchinson, District Director (jeff.hutchinson@shac.org) or
713-756-3337
Shannon Harlan, District Executive (shannon.harlan@shac.org)or
713-756-3338
The new
mailing address for the Scout Office is
P.O.
Box 924528,
Houston
TX
77292
15)
Thanks to our dedicated webmaster James Cauble, our Golden Arrow
District website has a wealth of information: www.goldenarrow.org
Mike
Fitzgibbons - Golden Arrow District Crew e-bulletin Editor – with material
supplied from the GAD Troop e-bulletin, Claudia Hackbarth Editor
"The information presented here is not
an official document of the Boy Scouts of America, but is solely my
volunteer work and responsibility."