Scouting Anniversary Week/Scout Sunday Recommendations

As we are quickly approaching Scouting Anniversary Week & Scout Sunday, we are requesting for your unit to consider ways to engage and recognize your charter partner.  Scouting would not happen without our Charter Partners and over the last year we have come to appreciate their loyal support even more.  Let’s be sure to use the upcoming opportunities to recognize their support and strengthen our ties.  Listed below are eight suggestions.  Consider choosing four: 

 

1. Post a Charter Partner shout out and thank you on all the unit’s social media profiles

2. Drop a thank you flyer with stats on the unit’s Scouting success in the bulletin

3. Do a volunteer project to benefit the Charter Partner (counts towards Journey to Excellence)

4. Write a thank you letter that all Scouts can sign sharing the success of the unit to the Charter Partner’s leadership committee

5. Piece together a collage of pictures from the scouting year the Charter Partner helps enable, frame it, and present as a gift to your Charter Partner’s committee 

6. Be as involved in the Scout Sunday service as you possibly can (serve as ushers, provide a bulletin message, picture/video presentations, scripture reading, flag ceremony, recite the oath & law, lead a prayer, ask members of the congregation who were Scouts to stand, formerly present the annual charter, award religious emblems, connect Scouting for Food to the service, etc.).  A full list of ideas can be found HERE

7. Invite the charter partner executive committee to a meeting

8. Have at least 50% of the unit participate in Scout Sunday

2023 Silver Beaver Class Announced

Join us in congratulating our 2023 Silver Beaver Class: Cathleen Palecek & Michael Wiggins. The Silver Beaver Awards will be presented at their respective district banquets. The Silver Beaver is the highest honor a council can bestow on a volunteer for service at a council level.

About Cathleen: Cathleen has been a Scouting volunteer since 2010. While in the Cub Scout program she served as an Asst. Cubmaster, Den Leader & Pack Committee Member. In the Scouts BSA program, she has served as an Assistant Scoutmaster for both Troop 250 Boys & Girls. At the District level, she has been very instrumental in the success of Webelos Woods for many years along with supporting numerous other events. At the council level, she is an active member of the Order of the Arrow, where she has received the Vigil Honor (Busy Mama Owl), for many years led an outreach Cub Scout program for the Boys and Girls Club of York County, completed and staffed Wood Badge training. Cathleen is also the recipient of the District Award of Merit & Whitney M. Young, Jr. Award. She is the mother of three boys (Elliot, Aaron & Isaac), two of which have earned the rank of Eagle Scout.

About Michael: Michael has been a Scouting volunteer since 2009. While in the Cub Scout program, he served as Den Leader & Cubmaster. In the Scouts BSA program, he has served as an Asst. Scoutmaster and Scoutmaster. He is also a current Crew Advisor. At the District level, he has served on the District Committee for a number years and led Day Camp. In the Order of the Arrow, Michael has served as a Chapter Advisor, helped support the Shoot-O-Ree and received his Vigil Honor (Committed Fox). At the council level, he has served as a Jamboree Scoutmaster, Shooting Sports Committee Chair, Merit Badge Counselor, and Council Day Camp Coordinator. He has also received the District Award of Merit. He is the father of two Eagle Scout sons, Eric & Anthony.

Council Service Center Work Day (12/10/22)

Join us for a morning of service as we improve the safety and appearance of the Council Service Center. We are looking for youth and adult volunteers. Our projects include:

  • Project 1: Clean the brush around the back parking lot to improve visibility and security.

  • Project 2: Cut back the large hedges that are growing on the side of the service center building and impacting the roof.

Please spread the word in your unit and use the below link to sign-up.

Silver Beaver Nominations Due 12/1

The Silver Beaver Award was introduced in 1931 and is a council-level distinguished service award of the Boy Scouts of America. Recipients of this award are registered Scouters who have made an impact on the lives of youth through service given to the council.

The nomination form is available HERE and must be submitted to the council service center no later than December 1, 2022. Completed nomination forms can be mailed to the Palmetto Council Service Center OR emailed to palmettocouncil@scouting.org.

Click HERE for a list of Palmetto Council Silver Beaver recipients over the years.

Recharter Instructions

Dear leaders:

If you need any help during the recharter process, please feel free to email trina.stapleton@scouting.org or call 864-585-4391.

Things to know:

  • Youth Protection Training is mandatory before an adult can be registered.

  • We prefer that you pay the council directly with a check. This makes it easier to correct some common errors that can occur. Otherwise, you may pay online.

  • All Adult and Youth applications must have the required signatures.

Steps to follow when processing your recharter are:

Ensure that the currently registered unit Key 3 leaders are correct in My.Scouting so they can e-approve member and charter renewals. This is essential and must be done as soon as possible since changes at this step can delay the subsequent steps. (If the person handling the recharter is not a key 3, they need to be put in as a key 3 delegate.)

  1. Check that all youth and adults are currently registered with the unit and appear on your roster in my.scouting.org.

  2. Complete and approve the on-line Unit Recharter process. This can be found by logging into Internet Advancement 2.0 and clicking on Recharter. https://advancements.scouting.org/ Internet Advancement can be accessed through your Scoutbook or my.scouting account.

  3. Pay the 2023 BSA Registration fees and the Council Fees.

    • Youth - $75

    • Adults - $45

    • Council fee (all members) - $12

    • Charter fee - $100

    • Scouts’ Life magazine - $15

  4. Applications for any new adults must be uploaded into the charter renewal as well as their Youth Protection Training Certificate and Criminal Background Check Authorization. This includes any adult who is moving from a Tiger Parent or Lion Parent into a leadership position and youth who have turned 18 and are moving from a youth position to an Assistant Scoutmaster position or a UP, VP or EP (Unit Participant, Venturing Participant or Exploring Participant). You will need to enter any adult who is on the charter as an AP or LP and moving into a leadership position or a youth moving into a new leader position or into a UP/VP or EP as New Adult and upload all required documents.

  5. Applications for any new youth must be uploaded into the charter renewal.

  6. Confirm that all required information has been completed on the adult and youth applications before uploading the documents.

  7. Note: A unit’s rechartering application cannot be approved by the National Service Center until all steps are complete.

The Key 3 leaders will receive an email for a final digital approval signature. This must be completed in order to finalize the Charter Renewal.

If you have chosen to pay by E-Check, please be aware that an email will be sent to you with instructions for verifying two micro deposits. These micro deposits must be validated by you in order to complete the payment process. Your charter renewal will not complete the submittal process until the micro deposits are confirmed.

To ensure a timely process of your Charter Renewal, be sure your CURRENT key leadership (including the COR and IH) have established their My.Scouting accounts and are ready to make approvals of new members and the charter renewal application. This message is only being sent to the unit Key 3 listed in My.Scouting If your Scouting role has changed, please forward this message to the person who now has your former role.

Your Unit Commissioner, District Commissioner, and District Executive are great resources to help you through this process.

2022 Summer Camp Expo Registration Live

Palmetto Council Scouting Family,

We are excited to announce our fourth annual Summer Camp Expo will take place October 13, 2022 at 6:30 PM at Woodland UMC in Rock Hill. This will be a council-wide event that replaces the October Roundtable for all districts. This event is for BOTH youth and adults from all programs. The purpose of this event is to give you the opportunity to meet with 30 camps across the Southeast to help select your 2023 (or beyond) summer camp. Each camp will have a representative there to answer all of your questions. If their camp offers in-council pricing, they have committed to honoring Palmetto units with that price. We encourage you to invite your youth leaders to attend too. We have asked all of our participating camps to also share information about staffing opportunities too. In 2022, we had Scouts work on over six camp staffs. In addition to Scouts BSA camps, there will also be Cub Scout resident camps. A meal will be provided to those who attend in-person. If you cannot make it in person, no problem. Troop 925 has a group of Scouts who will be interviewing each camp and will broadcast via Zoom. This is truly a one of a kind event that is FREE and also helps save your unit money! Register TODAY to attend in-person or virtually!

Family Den Pilot Program

Since the inception of the Family Pack concept, Cub Scout packs and Councils throughout the nation have requested BSA consider adding a Family Den option for Family Packs that would allow both boys and girls to participate within the same age/rank dens. Additionally, the recruitment of girls into Cub Scout packs has resulted in, on average, 1-3 girls in a family pack. Often, the girls are in different grades, making the formation of an all-girl age/rank den a barrier to joining or having a quality program experience.

 With a great deal of encouragement from members nationwide, the BSA will be testing the Family Den concept in councils for the 2022-23 program year.  Palmetto Council applied and was accepted as a pilot Council.  We are now offering the opportunity to participate in the pilot to all of our Family Cub Scout Packs.  Requirements for a pack to participate are as follows:

  1. Charter Partner and Pack Committee must agree to the pack’s participation

  2. Agrees to use ScoutBook to set up all dens

  3. Assign a registered adult leader in the pack as the representative to the council for the pilot. This representative agrees to participate in the Pack Pilot Kick-off Webinar on June 30th and if unable to attend the live webinar, to watch the recorded session by July 8th

  4. 5th grade dens (Arrow of Light) will remain single gender to properly prepare youth to join a single-gender Troop in Scouts BSA

  5. Agree to have a registered adult leader as the den leader for each den

  6. The pack must sign a memorandum of understanding by no later than June 24th

Please note that this change ONLY applies to the Cub Scout program. The BSA remains committed to the single-gender program design of our Scouts BSA program, and the Scouts BSA program will continue to only allow single-gender Troops. Chartered organizations always have the option to select from the numerous BSA program offerings; no single program or format is mandatory. The option for Cub Scout family packs to utilize family dens builds on the experience Scouts have had in our organization while at the same time ensuring every girl can participate in our time-tested programs with fewer barriers to participate.

If your pack is interested in participating please contact me at  (Taylor.Thomas@Scouting.org; 803-519-8262).

2022 Popcorn Sale Training

Unit Key 3 members & past Kernels,  

 As your unit plans your Ideal Year of Scouting this summer, one of the key components is raising the necessary funds to operate your adventures.  We believe the popcorn sale can raise the funds you need to fund your unit.  However, to be successful you need a couple of key ingredients (a strong leader who is trained).  If you are not the right contact, please share this with the correct person.   

  1. Identify the right person to be your unit popcorn kernel. We have created position descriptions to help you identify the right person. This should be someone who has a positive attitude, is organized, who believes in setting families up for success and has the ability to motivate/engage scouts and families. Once you have this person identified, have them register on the Trail’s End Website.

  2. Have the kernel register for kernel training. We will be offering training on June 9th in Rock Hill and June 23rd in Spartanburg. Attend the training most convenient to you. During the training we showcase any of the new Trail’s End features along with our new council programs. All kernels who attend training receive extra commission for their unit. The training is so key because it is the launch point for you planning your sales, gives you all of the tools (several new this season), connects you with other kernels in the area AND this year will feature a time of fellowship. We know kernels work hard and we want to show them a good time for their hard work!

A couple of stats from our 2021 sale:

  • On a per Scout average, our top unit averaged $1,467/Scout. This was a Scouts BSA Troop with 27 registered Scouts!

  • The top Scout over $9,000 ($3,200 in his Scout Account). He was a 5th grader from Boiling Springs, SC.

  • The top unit sold $48,000 and earned over $17,000 in commission.

  • One Scout had a customer give a $1,000 donation to our American Heroes program last year during a Show-N-Sell.

  • On average, Scouts sold $250+ per hour at store fronts.

  • Unit Commission Received Council-Wide: $165,000

  • Council Commission that was invested into our local programs: $154,000

 

Please let us know if you have any questions.