I don’t know about the rest of you, but this weather has me wanting to get outside. Of course, as I type that sentence the sound of rain pelting the metal roof of my patio picked up, so maybe I will stay dry in here. It is definitely springtime. Cub Scouts are earning their ranks and crossing into Scouts BSA, plans are being made for summer camp, camporees are happening, so much is going on that it has left many of us without much time on our hands.

Our council helped hold a College of Commissioner Science with the Heart of Virginia and Colonial Virginia councils in Richmond. Several of our commissioners were instructors and even more took part in the training. I am hoping to provide more training opportunities for our commissioners throughout the year, but every Scouter is invited to them. When registration opens it will be open for all. Training is one of the most important things that we can take part in as Scouters to help deliver a S.A.F.E. and quality program to our youth. So look out for those opportunities, like the Wood Badge course coming up this fall.

One piece of news that many of you may have heard is that Journey to Excellence has been retired after 2024. In its place, there are unit metrics that are based on information in my.Scouting and/or Scoutbook. Your commissioner team will be using this to start conversations with your units and build a partnership for growing Scouting in our community. These are benchmarks that National has developed that they consider traits of a healthy unit. I want you to be aware of these so that you know where our commissioners are coming from as we look to help you develop goals to work towards these.

I look forward to working with all of our Scouters to grow and improve Scouting in our council. If you have any questions about these metrics and how unit service will be changing with all of this, please reach out to me. I am happy to answer any questions you may have.

Yours in Scouting,

Matt Phillippi

Last week, we kicked off our council’s year of Scouting with our annual meeting. We talked about how 2024 went and looked ahead to 2025. We elected our executive board for the new year and bid farewell to Steve Hammond as our council president while welcoming in Mike White to the role moving forward. It was a great meeting to talk about the business of Scouting.

This is important for our units because they rely on this group to conduct that business so they can focus on developing the young people we serve into the citizens we want them to become. The role of the board is to be a resource for our units, providing them with the tools they need to offer the Scouting program in our council. Our commissioners are there to link the units and the board. To talk with our units about what they may need so that the board can make sure they have it or come up with a way to make things work with what we do have.

As we begin this year we will celebrate 115 years of Scouting in the United States next month. That is also 115 years of commissioner service, because commissioners have been there from the very beginning. Our role has always been to serve our units, but we are always changing things up a bit to meet the needs of our youth. This year is no different but our role remains the same: serving our units. Helping our volunteers provide a quality program to our youth. We will continue to work with the executive board to provide those resources that our units need to carry on the activity of Scouting, letting the board focus on the business.

I am looking forward to another year of Scouting in our council, especially as we celebrate 75 years of Camp Shenandoah in Swoope. We have lots of exciting things coming.