A few years ago as we were developing our long range plan
the property committee posed the question, “Which comes first the property
requirements, or the program requirements?” it’s a classic chicken or the egg
problem and when all your properties have seen better days and you have limited
funds to reverse trend, it’s a critical question and necessary to help the
committee know where to start! The answer the committee arrived at was neither
– the committee wisely realized strategy comes first.
Strategy tells us where we can and intend to
go. Listening to the Scouting community tells us where we should go. We
(Boston Minuteman Council) have been proud of our “recovery” over the past few
years – but it’s nothing compared to what is on the horizon.
Our strategy was built upon listening to unit volunteers
and developing solutions. To be honest, three years ago the council was hardly
in a place to start solving problems as we still had significant issues to
contend with – but we started both projects in earnest as soon as possible. The
strategy the council employed was to create “gravity” that would bring people
toward Scouting rather than “twisting arms” to get people to give or volunteer.
To create that gravity we focused on two things
b. Parent Engagement - Create opportunity for instant and high quality experiences with their son so they can catch the Scouting spirit along with him.
To achieve this we zeroed in on Camp Sayre. It seemed the
best way to serve the needs of our units was to develop a top notch camp, in a
convenient and popular location that would provide year round high quality
programs, great facilities, and weekly trainings, not to mention the
convenience of the scout shop, food options and the best shower house in any
Boy Scout camp in America. This is a long term strategic solution.
The development of this solution has been underway for the
past three years. It’s easiest to see the physical improvements. But the
volunteer staff improvements, customer service, quality program and marketing
have all been visible too. Each program (STEM Camp, Boy Scout Day Camp, Winter
Camp) is evaluated and improved from one day to the next, and new programs are
built on top of the lessons learned from the previous program. Each program
acts as a test pilot for the next. The weekend programs have lifted a blue
print from summer family camp. By providing various trainings every Saturday we
improve the quality of the courses at a much more rapid pace. And of course
train dozens and dozens more volunteers than ever before. By instituting
ScoutReach roundtables directly into Saturday programs we ensure that our
Scouts in disadvantaged neighborhoods have the same quality program as their
wealthier counterparts. The programs, training, facilities and the general look
and feel of the camp is designed to engage parents.
All this adds up to a massive shift in how a council is
defined.
The comments below are from the past month and half.
•
“This was our first time and
my son loved it...lots of great creativity and plenty to do...lots of different
ages served, too.” Parent – Oct 18, 2014 (pumpkin fest)
•
“Service is outstanding.
Staff friendly and helpful. Facilities clean and top notch. It gets better
every year. That is why we always return.” – Scout Master Oct 11, 2014
•
“Everyone from the camp
master, to the dinner staff, made our weekend fantastic...it was nice to see
what a Boy Scout camp and council can be...all about customer service and most
importantly...the boys!”- Scout Master Oct 4, 2014
•
“We had a great time. The
camp-wide campfire was quite fun for all. The staff are very enthusiastic
and helpful. Dinner was great. Thank you. We will come back next year!” –
Cub Master Sept 27,2014
•
“Everything from beginning
to end - communication, activities, and supervision at events - was beyond our
expectations.”- Parent Sept 20, 2014
•
“The staff was engaged and
knew what they were doing. And they taught in a hands-on mode that works
really well with both kids and adults. It was an excellent experience.” – Scout
Master Sept 20, 2014
It
took a while to get it right, and we haven’t yet hit our stride, but it is
close J Thanks to everyone who has
given their time, expertise, had patience being a part of the growing pains,
made a donation or otherwise contributed to this budding success.
We
held two Scouters Summits this week to reflect on the overall direction of the
council – all the writing above was discussed at those two meetings.
Additionally we discussed the current status of our long term debt, Camp
Massasoit and Camp Norse as well as the collaboration with Yankee Clipper Council.
Debt
Elimination: We have balanced our operating budget for the past
several years, and now, the external long term debt will be completely
eliminated by the end of the year.
Camp
Massasoit is in the final stages of being “re-purposed.” Over the past
three years we attempted 7 options including a solar farm, tenants, public camp
grounds and even a sand and gravel quarry. Most everyone is aware of the
solution we settled on, which had two components, partial land sale for debt
reduction and Annawon collaboration to allow a tenant into Massasoit. This
worked great for two years however, this spring in became clear that – unlike
the “Parker Mountain Solution” that option would not work long term. 100% of
those lot sales went to debt reduction and the final funding for Debt
elimination will come from a conservation easement at Storer.
These
developments, made it clear that we cannot properly maintain the property, we
have other property concerns that also must be addressed, and our Scouts and leaders
main focus is quality program and appropriate facilities, thus brought us back
to the “re-purpose conversation” about Massasoit without the burden of an
external debt. The properties committee is currently reviewing the final two
options conservation sale with camping rights, and an outright sale. We
anticipate one of those options to come to fruition during 2015. We also
anticipate the proceeds from a sale to be used for long term investment and
camp improvements – since we have a strong recent track record of a balanced
budget these investments will create long term very visible improvements. The
sentiment expressed over this decision has been consistent among everyone who
attended the summits and everyone we’ve talked with about this over the past 6
months as we moved closer to this reality: It’s a disappointing reality
but everyone is in reluctant agreement that we are on the right path and
stronger Scouting is the priority for every community.
Our
ongoing collaboration work with the Yankee Clipper Council is part of
a larger scale trend that many councils across America have and will continue
to go through for the foreseeable future. The two councils have spent much time
together and several beneficial collaborations have been created over the past
few months: University of Scouting, Scouting for Food are two programs. The
Marketing committees worked well together and shared the footprint for last
Spring’s billboard campaign, the combined social media programs and the Shane
Victorino letter. The membership committees also worked together creating a
collaborative purchasing power for flyers and promotional materials as well as
several helpful best practices. And finally, the two councils have begun to
work together to generate corporate funding for both councils.
However,
with all this success, it still a lot of work to collaborate relative to the
scope of the benefits. Our effort as a council must always center around what
is best for the Packs, Troops and Crews. We keep this in our sights every day.
Our council believes that a merger – not only with Yankee Clipper but other
councils too - is an eventual certainty. However, we do not support
merger for merger sake. We support a thoughtful and strategic approach to the
best way to organize to strengthen and grow Scouting.
The
types of collaborations mentioned above certainly provide a benefit so most of
those will continue for the immediate future. We will continue to be
neighborly and helpful when we can. We'll communicate any changes as they
occur.
