Mohawk District Monthly news & updates
2/1/2021 | Issue 2
District Chair Corner
Friends of Scouting
February is when we kick off our annual Friends of Scouting Campaign. This year we are approaching Friends of Scouting (FOS) a little differently than we did in the past. We are setting a goal for each unit and we are offering two ways to conduct your unit’s FOS campaign.

Goals were based on the districts FOS goals and are essentially $/scout. As an incentive to meeting your unit’s goal, units that meet their goal by March 31st are eligible for class b t‑shirts. Additional information will be provided in February to the unit FOS coordinator.

Units have two options for conducting a 2021 FOS campaign. You may continue with a traditional district led presentation during a Blue & Gold banquet, a Court of Honor, Parent Meeting, or any other event where a majority of your unit’s families will be involved. If you are interested in having the district give the FOS presentation, please contact me (baprice68@gmail.com; 608.509.8506) or Margaret Williams to schedule.

Units also have the option of conducting their own FOS campaign. If you are interested in conducting your own campaign, please contact me (baprice68@gmail.com; 608.509.8506) or Margaret Williams for additional information. We are putting the final touches on presentation and training material and will need to discuss the event with your FOS coordinator/presenter.


B. Andrew Price
Mohawk District Chair
608.509.8506 (M)
District Commissioner Corner
The Mohawk District Needs Your Help, by volunteering to become a Unit Commissioner.

Unit Commissioners are adult volunteers who serve and counsel one or more units (Cub Scout Packs, Scouts BSA Troops and Venturing Crews) and act as a district representative between the unit and the district.
Unit Commissioners help units succeed by make contact with units and offer advice and being a good listener.

A good Unit Commissioner may not have all the answers to all the questions but a Trained Unit Commissioner will know were to get the answers.

If you are interested in offering a helping hand to Scouting Units please contact me, Bob Quackenboss at rfquacke@wisc.edu Volunteering to be a Unit Commissioner is a great way to share your knowledge and skills you have learned in Scouting and stay a active Adult Scouter. I suggest give it a try.

Yours in Scouting,
Bob Quackenboss, District Commissioner 608-469-2145, rfquacke@wisc.edu
Finance updates
FOS
Friends of Scouting
February is when we kick off our annual Friends of Scouting Campaign. This year we are approaching Friends of Scouting (FOS) a little differently than we did in the past. We are setting a goal for each unit and we are offering two ways to conduct your unit’s FOS campaign.

Goals were based on the districts FOS goals and are essentially $50/scout. As an incentive to meeting your unit’s goal, units that meet their goal by March 31st are eligible for class b t‑shirts. Additional information will be provided in February to the unit FOS coordinator.
Flower Sale
Flower Sale
The Spring Flower sale will offer your unit a chance to sell hanging baskets, Flats of flowers for creating your own flower beds and Geraniums. Plants for shade and sun areas are available. They will be delivered the week of May 17,, 2021.

Click here for more information
Camp Card Sale
Camp Card Sale

Please order your unit camp cards at the link below so that we know how many you need.
 
 
The camp card webpage will be continually updated to reflect the sales progress.

Click here for more information
Mohawk District Award Nominations
Due February 28
Please consider nominating outstanding adult volunteers in your Pack, Troop, or Crew for one of several district awards. We strive to honor those adults who have gone above and beyond ensuring every youth receives the Mountain-Top Scouting Experience. Please help us identify those adults that are deserving by submitting a nomination form for those you believe deserve to be recognized.
     Spark Plug - Given to individuals who has been able to take an idea and produce the necessary spark to make a specific activity or event successful.
     Critical Link - Given to individuals who consistently does a great job contributing to the success in their unit.
     Unit Scouter of the Year - Given to individuals for their noteworthy volunteer service above and beyond normal expectations at the unit level (as determined by your unit)
     Chartered Organization of the Year - This award recognizes the noteworthy service provided by the Chartered Organization above and beyond normal expectations.
     Community Organization of the Year - Given to non-Scouting community group or organization for noteworthy service in their support of Scouting at the District level.
     Hiawatha - Given to individuals for their noteworthy volunteer service above and beyond normal expectations at the unit and/or district level.
     District Award of Merit - Given to individuals who render service of an outstanding nature at the district level.
The fillable nomination forms, with more information on each, can be found here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1o9fEEEZNOfdYxwdiNFOf-6E_o6rA_pHE?usp=sharing         
 
District award nominations must be submitted by Sunday February 28, 2021
 
Please consider nominating outstanding adult volunteers who deserve to be recognized for their impact at all levels of Scouting. Some national awards available include: Unit Leader Award of Merit, Scouter's Training Award, Scouter's Training Key, Commissioner Arrowhead Honor, Distinguished Commissioner Service Award, James E West Fellowship, Veteran Award, and more. A full listing of available awards is available here: https://www.scouting.org/awards/awards-central/
Membership
Unit Welcome bag
Bryan on Scouting ran a great article on how to welcome new cub scouts to your cub scout pack. What do you do to welcome new scouts and families? The following summarizes the Bryan on Scouting article.
For a new Cub Scout family, nothing says “we’re glad you’re here” quite like a handcrafted welcome bag containing a few Scouting essentials and an invitation to the pack’s next hike. Oh, and snacks help, too. The value of the approach is that it:

 Makes new members feel welcome.
 Involves the pack’s existing Cub Scouts in the greeting process.
Gives the pack’s new recruits a few items they’ll need for their next hiking adventure.

Welcoming new members and families helps make them field right at home. The welcome bags also deliver bite-sized chunks of information. Few families have time to read a thick packet of information. But they will appreciate information that is succinct, timely and relevant.

The bags are created not by a bunch of adults but by the Cub Scouts themselves. Use the construction project as a group activity before you hold your open house or ‘Back to School’ recruiting event.

What might be inside a welcome bag?

A handout explaining the Scout Oath, Scout Law and Scout handshake
A list of the Cub Scout Six Essentials
A card containing the Outdoor Code
An invitation to the pack hike scheduled for the following week
 Your pack’s uniform numerals
A Cub Scout Handbook, corresponding to the new member’s age
 A neckerchief and/or neckerchief slide
Handmade treats, like cookies or a cupcake
A fridge-door-ready information sheet containing your pack’s calendar and pack leader contact information
 
What’s in your unit’s welcome bag?
Training
Training
IOLS/Baloo Training - April 24 - 25
What is BALOO?  BALOO stands for Basic Adult Leader Outdoor Orientation. It is the Cub Scout leader training required for any Cub Scout den or pack outdoor event, including pack camping overnighters and Webelos den overnighters. This training is recommended for all active adult leaders. Prior to attending, participants must take the online BALOO Prerequisite Training. Login with your my.scouting.org username and password.
What is IOLS? IOLS stands for Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills. This hands-on Boy Scout leader program gives adult leaders a practical introduction to the patrol method of a boy-led troop by teaching many of the practical outdoor skills they need to lead Scouts in the outdoors. This training is required for all Scoutmasters, Assistant Scoutmasters, Venturing Advisors, and Venturing Associate Advisors. Other registered adults are also encouraged to attend.
 PARTICIPANT FORMS
Each participant must complete BSA Annual Health and Medical Record (Parts A & B) and turn it into the health officer upon arrival. A BSA Annual Health and Medical Record form can be found online here.
ACCOMMODATIONS
You will be sleeping outside in Tents. If you have a special need or mobility issue, please bring it to our attention when you register.

Registration coming soon. Check the council calendar for a link.
Camp-O-Ree
Your Mission Should you choose to accept it….
Calling all secret agents! Meet at camp Indian Trails on April 23-25, 2021 for a series of challenging Day and Night Ops Missions.   

The “Mission IMPossible” Camporee program is different than anything we have done before.

The main programming begins Saturday Evening at 6:45 pm at the campfire ring. During the camporee, CIT will be swarming with “secret agents” doing their best to accomplish several fun but challenging “Night OPS Missions.”

Your Night OPS mission, should you choose to accept it, begins at 19:00 hours (7:00 pm). Night OPS Missions include Laser Gauntlet, Enemy Encampment, Espionage Adventure, Secret Agent, Jaws of Death, Blind Escape, Stealth Hike, Agent Rescue, and Fish in a Barrel.

Day Missions will Include Merit Badges, Open Programming Time for Troops, and Field Games.  

As always, should you or any of your force (patrol) be captured, the secretary (scoutmaster) will disavow any knowledge of your actions. 

Scout Patrols will be given secret orders that will direct them to their first night mission. Additional clues will be provided following each event. Patrols will be scored on proper rotation between the events. 
  • All Agents will report to Headquarters for the Jaws of Death Cracker Barrell by 11:30pm.
  • A total of 6 missions will be completed under the cover of darkness.
  • The missions will conclude at 11:15pm and all Agents should be in their campsites and quiet by 12:30 am - SPL’s must report back to the camp staff once their full headcount is complete

I hope to see all there.

Cody Butcher
Mohawk District Camp-O-Ree Committee
Scouting for Food
Scouting for Food
In 2020, we barely pulled off Scouting For Food (SFF) in early March before the coronavirus pandemic altered the freedom with which we personally interact. Everything shut down and millions of people lost their employment and income. The number of our fellow citizens who turned to community food pantries for food security assistance exploded. That need continues unabated to this day.

For 2021, some Mohawk District units have learned that the food pantry with which they work needs support in a different way than in the past. They need a more targeted type of food collection. They are not willing to accept a general collection of all types of food and other non-perishable household items (toilet paper, toothpaste, etc.). Some want only fresh/new products that do not require them to sort the collections for outdated/expired items.

So as we move toward March, it is absolutely important and essential that all participating Mohawk District units immediately contact the food pantry with which they work to find out the guidelines and limits they may have for the kinds of donations they need and are willing to accept. Depending on what you learn, you may or may not actually need door hangers as in the past.

Units in Waunakee and Middleton have recently done targeted collections for pantries in their communities by getting permission from a grocery store to have Scouts hand out a sheet with the local pantry’s “top ten” list to people entering the store and then have Scouts at the exit doors collecting what people have purchased to donate. This approach has been very successful and satisfactory to the pantries.

A unit contemplating this approach to meet their pantry’s needs will want to contact the grocery store as soon as possible to get permission to do this on the specified date, and to share the “top ten” list or similar targeted requests so that the store might have the opportunity to increase their inventory of those items for the date(s) of the collection drive.

Another option may involve using the door hangers as in the past but using the optional label spaces to specify the pantry’s list of items they need and/or will accept.

Our Mohawk District SFF Coordinator, Tom Gilbert, will be sending you another email message with this same information. Please help him, help us, prepare to support your SFF efforts by responding to him as soon as possible. Contact your food pantry now and find out how they would like your unit to support their operations. Tom will be asking you to reconfirm the number of door hangers you need based on what you learn from your food pantry. Thanks.

Tom Gilbert, 608-225-9383, tomjang@aol.com
Order of the Arrow
Order of the Arrow Logo
OA Elections Coming Soon
Elections will be handled completely virtually this year and we are not going to start performing elections until the end of March. Why? So that we can get Scouts who have slowed their advancement more time to get to First Class. So that we allow more time for Scouts to get their required 15 nights of camping (virtual camping is allowed). Lastly, so that we can allow Scouts to find Virtual Long Term Camp programs and complete them if they did not go to a Long Term Camp this summer. What is a Long Term Virtual Camp? It is an event that you complete advancement in a virtual environment over five or more consecutive days. Think of online merit badges or advancement up to first class five nights in a row with an outdoor component such as an extended hike. These events must be approved by your Unit Leader and could be a Unit led event, District or Council led event, or a Lodge event. This type of camp can be individualized for each camper. Talk to your Unit Leader and make a plan. They can contact Juluspahl@hotmail.com with any questions about a virtual Long term camp.