DOC Minutes 2025-02-06

Alameda Area District
Meeting Minutes 2025-02-06

Commissioner Meeting 

Attending:

• Rose Godfrey, District Commissioner
• Paul Smith, Unit Commissioner
• Melanie Smith, District Eagle Coordinator
• Richard Christman, ADC
• Charles Hoffman, Unit Commissioner
• Alex Garcia, District Executive

Agenda Items

• New District Executive
  • Alex Garcia introduced. His background is youth sports franchise administration.  No prior Scouting background.
• Unit Renewal Update
  • Many units continued to attempt to renew their charter in the prior manner. This has caused many renewal errors.
  • Unit commissioners need to be able to follow the units in trouble.
• Training
  • Only about 32% of our district registered leaders are trained.
  • Hazardous Weather Training is our current focus. Currently the report shows 59.2% of the registered leaders have valid training status for this course.
• National Commissioners Newsletter
  • There is an article about the Abilities Digest.
    https://t.email.scouting.org/r/?id=h393129d5,15e4edfc,15eb6659
    We should share this with unit leaders.
  • Linda Owczarz, is now vice-chair of the council Special Needs Committee
• NorCal Commissioners College
  • Feb 22, 2025  Plumber and Pipefitters Training Center Local 467
    1519 Rollins Rd, Burlingame, CA 94010
    https://www.norcalcommissioner.org/

District Operations Committee Meeting

Attending:

• Alex Garcia, District Executive
• Rudy Gonzalez, Field Director
• Rose Godfrey, District Commissioner
• Richard Christman, Assistant District Commissioner
• Ron Ratto, District Camping Committee Chair
• Nikki Maguire, District Advancement Committee Chair
• Linda Owczarz, District Special Needs Committee Chair
• Marcin Owczarz, Wekemnayon Village Advisor
• Melanie Smith, District Eagle Coordinator
• Paul Smith, Unit Commissioner
• Charles Hoffman, Communications Team, April Camporee Co-Chair
• Ariel Gonzalez, Joyful Chaos

Agenda Items

• New District Executive
  • Alex Garcia was introduced to the District Operations Committee
• Finance
  •  Popcorn
    • Robert Chan, the chair for the district, was not present
    • Our district fell short of our goal this year.
      • The council wishes to start six Packs in the district next year to increase our sales.
      • Need to stress that popcorn sales help unit funding.
    • The council had a $970 thousand sales goal including First Responder targeted donations.
  • Friends of Scouting
    • Our district goal is $65 thousand for 2025.
    • Last year’s goal was $113 thousand, and we brought in $83 thousand.
    • Currently less than 10% of Scouting families donate through Friends of Scouting. We need to encourage each family to donate something, even if only $25 per year.
    • FOS account for 10% of the Council Budgeted Revenue.
    • Chris Dempsey and Alex Garcia will be working to schedule FOS presentations to each unit in the district
      • They are looking for FOS presenters.
      • And they can use assistance in scheduling the unit presentations.
      • A FOS presentation script is available, but the personal experiences of the presenters is the most important aspect of the presentation.
• Membership
  • Our district currently has 1441 registered participants, which is up 24% over last year’s 1162 participants.
  • Our district has 60 units, which is up 3.5% over last year’s 58 units.
  • Jeff Smith is the advisor to assist in starting new units.
• Unit Service
  • Unit Renewals
    • Training Requirements, Youth Protection Training, Hazardous Weather, and AB-506 Training are still issues with many units.
    • We need to put together a “Lessons Learned” document to make next year’s recharter smoother.
    • Eleven units have not yet submitted their recharter request.
• Advancement
  • Mike Ransom is the new Council Advancement Chairman
    • Meryl Nygren is recovering from illness and will continue to head several sub-committees including the Eagle Extension committee.
  • Scoutbook Plus
    • This is the new tool which will replace both Scoutbook and Internet Advancement.
    • The new site: https://advancements.scouting.org/login uses the same credentials as Scoutbook.
  • Advancement Guidelines
    • The Guide to Advancement has been updated and effective 1/1/2025
      https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/33088.pdf
      Section 1.0.3.0 Significant Changes, has the most significant changes, but there are minor changes throughout the document.
  • The Eagle Project workbook is deprecated in favor of the Eagle Project process in Scoutbook Plus that can be reached from the Youth Profile for each Scout. Click on the Edit button start the process.
    • The Eagle Scout Project service hours are also reported as part of this process.
      https://help.scoutbook.scouting.org/knowledge-base/service-and-eagle-scout-project-activity-reporting/
  • Eagle References.
    • Only four references are needed. They are not restricted to specific roles or ages. 
    • Parents and relatives are discouraged from being references.
    • Unit Leaders and Committee Chairs cannot be references as their signatures on the application is their endorsement.
  • First Aid Merit Badge
    • This has been completely reworked.
    • It has been improved and updated, but 100% different.
    • Scouts starting the badge must use the 2025 requirements.
  • Citizenship in Society Merit Badge
    • This is done via Zoom with mixed groups of boys and girls from different units. Youth must be First Class and older scouts have priority.
    • Facilitators are actively recruited, and selected from applicants, interviewed, and trained in the role.
    • Scoutmasters nominate the Scouts to participate and they and the Scout’s parents should follow the emailed information to ensure that required responses are made to enroll in a session.
  • Domain Changes for email addresses.
    • Due to the council’s decision to change the domain name to reflect the new Scouting America name, please be aware that all email address are changing from @ggacbsa.org to @goldengatescouting.org.
    • Merit Badge Counselor applications go to Nikki Maguire for now as the district Advancement Chair.
• Training
  • Only about 32% of our district registered leaders are trained.
  • Those who took AB-506 training in 2023 or later will not need to retake the training unless the standards change. Those who took the AB-506 training before 2023 should take it again as their certification has now expired.
• Order of the Arrow
  • Camporee – April
    • The April Camporee is on target, Black Pug registration is awaiting final council budget project code clarification.
  • Camporee – May
    • Camp Tamarancho site has been obtained. Working on getting other plans finalized.
  • Camporee – 2026
    • District Camping Chair, Ron Ratto, and the two OA Advisors are working to select dates for the 2026 Camporee and the 2026 District Campout and select sites.
  • Klondike Derby
    • Feb 14-17. Need more OA Staff, but the event is sold out with a waitlist in place.
  • Induction Weekend
    • March 28 – 30, 2025. This event is full, with a waitlist.  Working to develop additional ceremonies teams to accommodate more candidates.
• Service Hours
  • Units and individuals are encouraged to report their Service Hours
  • Use the Scoutbook Plus tool. Currently there is no way to enter for multiple participants, this may be upcoming in the future for Unit Key 3 and Key 3 Delegates.
  • Alan Young is the staff advisor.
• Summer Camp
  • One third of Scouts BSA units have not reported their summer camp or high adventure plans for 2025.