January 2020 Newsletter

Welcome to the our new district news letter! We on the district committee aim to use this as our primary way to communicate information about what’s going on in the district. You can expect to see information about what was discussed at each month’s meeting, updates on programming, and much more.

Nominations for our annual awards banquet are due Friday the 17th. The banquet itself is January 25th at Fullerville Baptist Church at 7pm. The cost is $10. Please reach out to Scott Bates directly at (770) 549-6684 if you have any questions.

Please join us at this month's Roundtable, this Thursday, January 16, from 6:30pm to 8:30pm, at Villa Rica High School. The Cub Scout breakout will be about celebrating Scouting's birthday, so that means help with planning your packs' Blue & Gold banquets. The troop breakout will be all about the money, with tips for unit fundraising, accessing council Scoutreach programs, and ways to help your Scouts earn the Eagle-required Personal Management merit badge.

District Committee Meeting Notes #

• Program: Georgia Deakin took us through the 2020 event calendar. There are several confirmed events and several that are best guesses based on what happened last year. The current list of events is posted on our website but please keep an eye out for updated dates and times as we get more information.
• Training: Kyle Taylor gave us an update on all things training. Youth Protection Training is an essential part of being a leader in Scouting. YPT (like all program safety certifications such as Hazardous Weather) must be renewed every two years, and for many leaders in our district, that means 2020 is a renewal year. The latest version of YPT can be accessed on the BSA Learn Center via my.scouting.org to renew today!
• Camping: Barry Griffin talked camping and reminded us that events absolutely must be uploaded to Scoutbook to count towards JTE (this includes units using TroopMaster).
• Advancement & Recognition: Doc, aka Ken Calain, talked about our upcoming adult recognition banquet and advancement. He also let us know that, for now, anyone needing to schedule an Eagle Board of Review should reach out to him directly.
• Marketing: Gene Liverman gave us an update on the district website and presented the idea of starting to use this news letter, and Mailchimp in general, for communications instead of mass-emails. He also talked about getting others setup so that they can easily post and update content on the website themselves.
• Membership: Andy Camp let us know that we exceeded our membership recruitment goal for 2019 and had one of the strongest recruitment falls in the council.

We need your help! #

Around half the positions on the district committee are currently vacant. We currently need everything from event coordinators to committee chairs. Please reach out to Helen Albrightson if you are willing to help. She can be reached by email at halbrightson@gmail.com or by phone at (678) 910-3314.

Save the date #

Our Camporee is scheduled for March 27-29 at Clinton. More information will be shared as soon as the details are finalized.