SCOUT EXECUTIVE'S MINUTE

Dear Fellow Scouters:

So far the year 2007 has been a good one for the Northwest Suburban Council. Since January of this year we've been able to double the number of donors to the Capital Development Campaign. The McHenry County Health Department permits for the new Lakota Cabin, Pool, and Poolhouse were approved just yesterday --- now onto the Building Department. The NWSC has had balanced youth membership growth in Cub Scouting, Boy Scouting, Venturing, and Learning for Life nearly every month. Our camps and programs have had solid events with good participation and excellent critiques. Napowan looks great and had a super summer season. Our Friends of Scouting Annual Giving Campaign has secured $420,000 in pledges plus over 90% of our units have conducted some sort of Family Campaign within their unit. For the first time ever to my knowledge, 100% of our Executive Board are FOS and Capital Campaign donors. The NWSC conducted a terrific Wood Badge Course. Our staff conducted a New Unit Blitz making 36 sales calls in one day and secured agreements to organize 16 new units over the next year. We have a great "boy run" Order of the Arrow Lodge that is doing the right thing in nearly every category (and working on an improved Brotherhood conversion rate that will pay off next year and in the years to come). Chris Zarada has trained a newly invigorated Campmaster Corps. We actually have a volunteer based and extremely active Membership Committee thanks to Marie Diffley's leadership with volunteers conducting school rallies and being excited about membership as much as a member of the NWSC Professional Staff. We've increased the number of District Committee Members and Unit Commissioners. We continue to focus on and execute all of the various portions of our latest NWSC Strategic Plan.

But with that all being said, we still need to concentrate on just a few items between now and year-end 2007 in order to be truly successful. Those items are...

1. Meet the criteria for the new Centennial Quality Unit, Districts, and Council Award.

2. Ask just two or three more new youth to become members of each Pack, Troop, and Crew --- and then actually register them by year-end.

3. Sell more popcorn and wreaths --- this helps local units and the council equally. If each youth salesman sold just five more items we could clear up any financial concerns almost overnight. Remember to get Mom and Dad to sell at work!

4. Ensure that FOS pledges actually get converted into cash. While 90% of our units conducted Family FOS, only 20% of the parents made a pledge. Increasing pledges and cash by year-end make all of the difference.

5. Take training for your specific position. Every youth deserves a trained leader.

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