Attending:
- Chris Dempsey, District Chair
- Rose Godfrey, District Commissioner
- Rian Tiernan, District Executive
- Ron Ratto, Camping Committee Chair
- Richard Christman, Asst. District Commissioner
- Melanie SMith, District Eagle Coordinator
- Nikki Maguire, Advancement Chair (online)
- Gary Baysmore, Member-at-Large
- Stephen Rodriguez, Member-at-Large
- Bonnie Bouey, Host, Community Member
- Robin Rees, Unit Commissioner
- Charles Hoffman, Unit Commissioner, Communications (online)
Agenda Items
Commissioner Service
- Unit Metrics status was discussed.
- Training of unit leadership is low. This is only checking the Committee Chair and unit leader. 8% of Packs and 27% of Troops meet this low standard.
- Hazardous Weather training is also low, less than 20%
- Superactivities such as Summer Camp, Pack campouts, and Sea Scout Cruises are not being reported. These must be entered manually in Scoutbook.
Advancement
- The committee is working to coordinate the work of the Advancement Committees from the three legacy districts,
- Alpha Merit Badge University is being developed that would have a low fee, say $25, and is aimed at lower income Scouts. Should also include non-Merit Badge activities.
- NorCal Advance-o-Rama will be Sep 18 & 18 at the Contra Costa County Fairgrounds.
- The Council Eagle Recognition Dinner will not happen this year due to a lack of interest. It is hoped that it will happen next year.
- Next year’s Advancement Day will once again be on the USS Hornet museum vessel.
- The option to hold a “Trades” merit badge day in conjunction with local Community Colleges is being explored by the Advancement Committee.
- The District Executive is looking to recruit local businesses to support and teach various merit badges aligned with their practice.
- Applications for Merit Badge Councilors submitted from mid-May through June may have been lost in the system before they could be approved by the Council. Please contact our Advancement Chair, Nikki Maguire, at [email protected] to fix this.
- Council STRONGLY encourages full adoption of Scoutbook Plus for Troops and Packs.
- Council is removing EPIC as a recommended online merit badge provider.
- Eagle Boards of Review are continuing to operate smoothly with a steady stream of Eagle candidates, and volunteers to sit on the boards.
Finance
- The priority is to recruit a committee chair and vice-chair for the Finance Committee.
- Charlie Howard-Gibbon has restarted the Nominating Committee to seek candidates.
- Our District Popcorn Kernal had to withdraw his participation. No replacement at this time will be sought, but we need this position filled for 2027.
- At this time, the Council Finance Committee is focused on Service Areas, not Districts.
- Currently our district’s Friends of Scouting is not meeting its goals.
- We have achieved 24.21% overall (32.95% of the Family goal, and 11.46% of the Community goal).
- Council has achieved 58.20% overall (65.49% of the Family goal, and 49.53% of the Community goal).
Membership
- This committee needs a Chairman and Team
- Two units are gone, Pack 815 and Troop 168.
- We most likely will not meet the goal to create the new units that council desires.
- A discussion was held on how to improve the membership chain. How to aid the retention of Scouts as they age from Packs to Troops to Ships, Crews, or Posts.
- Recruitment opportunities
- The next recruitment event is the Fall Festival in Castro Valley: Saturday, September 12, 2026 to Sunday, September 13, 2026. All units can participate, contact Rose Godfrey.
- Another opportunity is the San Leandro holiday festival, Dec 5th, 2026 in the evening. This opportunity is being explored currently, but has not been confirmed.
- Council is encouraging all units to hold one or two recruitment or open house events in the fall. Please contact our District Executive with each unit’s plans and dates.
- A discussion was held about different types of events and target audiences.
- The BeAScout.org site has changed.
- Units are encouraged to visit the Unit Pin page of their Organization Manager in MyScouting.org to ensure that all the new options are set correctly.
- You can see what your unit’s BeAScout page looks like by clicking the Fleur de Lis icon ⚜ in the column next to your unit on the district website’s BeAScout dashboard. The pencil icon ✎will take you to the Unit Pin page for your unit.
Activities
- A District Startup Meeting will be held on August 15 to plan the yearly calendar.
- Oakland Roots is holding a Scout Night on August 29th. See the district web site for more information and link to purchase tickets.
- Friends of Scouting Event team is still working on identifying a Community Honoree. They have identified a desired candidate, and have an alternate. A location, date, and full team to support the event are still needed.
- Scouting for Food
- November 7th and 14th are the flyer handout and pickup dates.
- The Alameda drop off site will be at the Elks lodge again. Looking for a second site in the Bay Farm area. Donations will be to the Alameda City Food Bank.
- The Oakland area campaign is expected to be headed by Steven Rodriguez. The drop off site is expected to once again be the Grocery Outlet, Broadway location.
- The team is working to find a coordinator for the legacy Tres Ranchos area, hopefully it will once again be the Three Crosses Church.
- Also the San Lorenzo Community Help Center in Hayward will be a drop off site.
- The Coast Guard Island Webelos Woods fall event is being moved to the 3rd week of October. This is a recruitment opportunity for troops to meet Arrow of Light Scouts.
- The Merit Badge Advancement Day on the USS Hornet is being planned for May or June. Richard Christman and Henry Ramos are leading this effort.
- A discussion was held about ways to encourage units to schedule and report service hours. Not just for Eagle projects, but all service hours including Scouting for Food. This should be done in Scoutbook Plus.
Camping and Outdoor
- Council Camping Committee
- 2027 Summer Camps will end in the last week of July.
- Council can get information on where units are attending Summer Camp from the AB-506 approval requests. They will follow up with the units that attended out-of-council camps to find out why they chose those locations.
- An incentive for units to reserve in-council summer camp sites by October 15th will be to retain the same fee as paid this year.
- Camporee 2026 had 159 youth and 51 adults registered. This was well over the target goals of 89 youth and 42 adults.
- Camporee 2027 is planned for April. 9-111
- Need an Adult Advisor for the Camporee.
- Requests have been made for new events
- The site may be either Rancho Los Mochos or Camp Tamarancho..
- Merge of the Order of the Arrow chapters Kaweah and Wekemnayon into a single chapter will be happening this fall, youth are already working on a name, identifying logo, organization, and meeting locations.
Training
- A major concern is the number of leaders who have not completed their position specific training. Especially the Hazardous Weather training module.
- A discussion was held about the possibility of doing online training, covering the same information as the National training, and possibly using the same training, but with a volunteer facilitator to make it more human, and to allow discussion.
- Another option is to have “Topics of Discussion” events to supplement the national online training with practical advice from experienced Scouters.
District Executive Representative
- Our district focus will be on strengthening the existing units.. Starting new units will be secondary. And Cub Scout units are the highest priority.
- Council would like each unit to hold two recruiting events in the fall.
- A discussion was held on the means of recruiting in Charter Schools.
- A discussion was held on the 2027 District Dinner. Need to set a date, and recruit a committee to put on the event.