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To: All Volunteer
Scout Leaders in The Yankee Clipper
Council
From: John R. Skelton, Council President
Date: March 28, 2007
As many of you know,
at its meeting on March 22, 2007, the
Yankee Clipper Council Executive Board
approved the recommendation of the
Properties Study Committee and
authorized a sale of Camp Onway to the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day
Saints (Mormon Church) for $2,800,000. I
write to address briefly what this
decision means for our Council
First, this was a
difficult decision made after a lengthy
and detailed study process. In part
because of declining camp attendance, in
the fall of 2004 we commissioned a study
of our camps and other properties by the
Northeast Region BSA staff, and after
receiving several unsolicited offers for
our camp properties, in March 2005 we
appointed the Property Study Committee
to evaluate our camping programs and to
make a recommendation to the Executive
Board. After significant study,
including eight fireside chats and
hundreds of written submissions from
interested Scouters, the Committee
recommended a sale of Camp Onway, one of
two camps dedicated to Boy Scout
resident camp. The Committee also
concluded that even though the Cub Scout
camping operations at Lone Tree Scout
Reservation were suffering declining
attendance and performance, retaining
LTSR was important if there was to be a
comprehensive plan to revitalize the Cub
Scout program. You can read the entire
Report at our Council web site at
www.yccbsa.org.
Second, selling Camp
Onway represents a significant change
for our Council. In many respects, the
issue of a potential camp sale has been
lurking since the last merger in 1999
which added a third camp property to the
Council. While we made significant
membership strides in 2006, especially
in the Latino Community in Lawrence, the
recent decline in Scouting membership
within our Council, and indeed across
the Country, is unmistakable. In 1999,
before the last merger, we had two Camps
serving 8659 registered youth. In 2006,
and with Camp Onway, we had three camps
serving 8695 youth members. And, even
though 76.5% of registered Boy Scouts
within our Council attended a summer
camp program in 2006 (a percentage
higher than both the National and
Northeast Region averages of 61.7% and
65.8%, respectively) from 2000 to 2006
attendance at the summer program at Camp
Onway had declined from 788 to 522.
Also, unlike other Councils forced to
sell properties to pay off debt, this is
a sale to make us financially stronger,
more program focused and better able to
make the investments necessary to
increase membership, strengthen our
other properties and expand our program
offerings to more constituencies. It is
time to embrace change.
Third, the decision
to sell Camp Onway comes with much
responsibility, however. Simply selling
Camp Onway and investing the proceeds in
the Council’s endowment fund, while an
important step towards financial
stability, does not solve the challenges
we face as an organization. We need to
develop and implement new strategies for
growing membership, strengthening our
finances, and making our Cub Scout and
Boy Scout camping programs second to none. Given
the fundamental societal and demographic
changes occurring all around us, we also
need to focus more energies and more
resources on our challenged inner city
communities, and other programs such as
Learning for Life.
Most significantly, as I stated in my State
of the Council message one year ago, we
are burdened by the fact that we are a
"Council of Councils." Too many Scouters
focus their Scouting allegiance with a
particular unit, district and, as we
have seen most recently, a particular
camp. We must move beyond the vestiges
of past councils and work together as a
team, focusing on the common desire to
provide a quality Scouting program to as
many youth as possible. Simply put, we
need to make fundamental organizational,
operational and
philosophical changes.
There are already
several significant initiatives
underway. First, as recommended by the
Property Study Committee, we are seeking
new members and are restructuring the
Camping Committee around five distinct sub-committees: Program; Property &
Maintenance; Conservation; Business
Operations; and Marketing & Promotion.
Second, as an adjunct to a restructured
Camping Committee, we are in the process
of establishing an Ad Hoc Cub Scout
Outdoor Program Task Force which will be
asked to evaluate all of our Cub Scout
Camping programs and make
recommendations on ways to increase
attendance and the overall effectiveness
of our Cub Scout camping program.
Third, Don Balser,
the Council Vice President of Finance
will be reaching out for a commitment
from all our members to help make our
annual FOS campaign reach its full
potential. The fact that fewer than 10%
of our member families make an annual
FOS donation of any amount and that
nearly 30% of the total annual FOS
support comes from the current and a few
select former executive Board Members is
unacceptable. If we are to develop and
implement new and comprehensive
initiatives in the area of membership
recruitment and retention, technology
and marketing & promotion we need to
develop a stronger annual financial
base.
Finally, we will be
focusing on a Council-wide volunteer
recruitment effort for each of our
Council and District Committees. We need
to change the practice where we ask the
same volunteers to serve over and over
again. Just like one of the benchmarks
for the National BSA Strategic Plan, we
need more engaged and accountable
volunteers at all levels. For all of the
interested Scouters who want to help
guide the Council into the future, it is
time to get actively involved in our
District and Council level committees.
As a start, please join me at the
Council Coordinated Committee Meeting to
be held on Tuesday evening, April 24th
at 6:00pm at the North Shore Technical
High School, in Middleton, where we will
start to make a vision of change a
reality. We’ll have a light dinner at
6:00pm (cost: $5.00) followed by the
opening ceremony at 6:30pm, then
breakout meetings. For more information,
please contact 978-372-0591 and RSVP for
the meeting.
I look forward to
working with each of you as we strive to
make sure that a quality Scouting
program is available in every
neighborhood, in every community
throughout our entire Council. |
