SCOUT EXECUTIVE'S MINUTE

Dear Fellow Scouters:

The new Centennial Quality Unit Award is the latest improvement being made in the Boy Scouts of America. Your Unit Commissioner should now have a copy of the new criteria and will be scheduling a time to meet with the unit's key leaders to explain the new award requirements. A major part of that meeting will be to review your unit's 2006 record of achievement and help establish your unit's major goals for 2007 as they relate to the new Centennial Quality Unit Award criteria. The criteria has been changed to reflect a "real world" approach to what is truly important in the life, strength, and quality of a unit and was developed by a task force composed of local Scouters who are very knowledgeable in current and successful field operations.

All units should submit a copy of their Centennial Quality Unit goals to the Northwest Suburban Council by absolutely no later than January 15, 2007. You may do this through your Unit Commissioner directly following your meeting with him/her. They can forward it onto the council or you may send one form in directly. District Commissioners and District Executives will be utilizing tracking charts to ensure that each unit has an opportunity to start qualifying for the award by completing the form.

The unit (Pack, Troop or Crew) can then spend the balance of 2007 working on establishing and continuing a high quality program, checking their progress on meeting those goals throughout the year through regular meetings, quarterly reviews, and impromtu "checkpoint" meetings. Your Unit Commissioner will visit with you in person and by phone in order to assist you in this process. The Northwest Suburban Council is also glad to assist you in this process designed to improve the overall quality experience of the individual youth member and unit experience.

Late in the year (after October 31st, but before December 31st) the unit may submit a completed Centennial Quality Unit Award form verifying that they as a unit have met their goals and qualify for the award. The Centennial Quality Unit Award will start with 2007 and conclude in 2010. Districts and Councils will have very similar goal setting and goal achievement processes.

Your unit will also be asked on the form to state how many visits your Unit Commissioner made to your unit during the year as a measurement of how much contact you Unit Commissioner has made in assisting your unit. A second qustion will be to ascertain if your unit participated in the Family Friends of Scouting Annual Giving Campaign AND participated in the Council Product Sales Campaign (popcorn and/or wreath sales).

Having personally reviewed the new criteria, its rollout plans nationwide, the ongoing year-round involvement of local Unit Commissioners, and emphasis on unit assistance in both the Family Friends of Scouting Annual Giving Campaign in the first part of the new year and the Council Product Sales Campaign in the later part of the year, I am very impressed with the new Centennial Quality Unit Award. I believe it will make a very positive impact on the quality experience of our members, units, districts, and council as well as across the entire BSA.

Best regards,
Stephen J. Taylor, CFRE
Scout Executive
staylor@bsamail.org