Baden-Powell Service Association

I want to encourage our adult members and those around the Minnesota, Missouri and New Hampshire areas to really make an effort to attend one of our upcoming Brownsea Training Camps (BTC).

BTC is the first and most important step in adult, Rover training within our association. Attending one will help you and your group get off to a great start, by

1. Introducing traditional scouting, scouting history & tradition, BPSA and WFIS.
2. Give you hands on experience in learning all the outdoor/scoutcraft skills needed to teach a 1st year Pathfinder.
3. Provide a learning environment by having you participate as a member of a patrol on a Troop campout, giving you insight into how groups and the patrol system work.
4. Earn your investment as a Rover Squire, your first step in the Rover program.

(Check out photos from last year’s Missouri BTC -http://www.flickr.com/photos/kopper/tags/mobtc2012/)

As with any youth program, the quality of the program starts from the bottom up, through the training of adults and volunteers who understand the fundamentals, methods and aims of the program; and are creative and enthusiastic enough to take the time to “be prepared” as a Rover and leader of younger scouts.

I have no doubt that this is you. Follow one of the links below and register for your spot in one of our upcoming BTC events near you. It’s one weekend that will cover a lot of ground and invests you in the program you’ve chosen and want to see succeed!

North East (New Boston, NH):
https://www.wepay.com/events/spring-2013-brownsea-northeast

Mid-West (Marine on St. Croix, MN):
https://www.wepay.com/events/spring-2013-brownsea-minnesota

Mid-West (St. Louis, MO)
https://www.wepay.com/events/spring-2013-brownsea-missouri

The Baden-Powell Service Association is looking for volunteer applicants for the following positions!  Applications for these positions should be sent in by January 31, 2013.

What are we looking for in our volunteer staff?

Consider one of these positions if you…

• believe in our mission to bring traditional scouting to the US within the context of a coed, inclusive environment,
• have time and enthusiasm for our cause and program,
• are willing to work hard to help BPSA succeed as a youth program, and
• are 18 or over and are currently registered as BPSA member or eligible to register upon acceptance of the position.

If you meet the above criteria, read on; you could be a great fit for one of these needed roles within our organization.

The following list gives a description of the responsibilities and expectations of those roles as well.  Read carefully and if you’re interested in applying for a position, follow the instructions after the list to submit your application.  Keep in mind that BPSA is a volunteer-run organization and we do not have any paid full- or part-time staff.  Our organization’s success is up to the commitment and ethusiasm of our members.

1. Treasurer
2. Regional Commissioner (Northeast)
3. Regional Commissioner (South)
4. Regional Commissioner (Midwest)
5. Regional Commissioner (Southwest)
6. Regional Commissioner (West)

Treasurer (1 position)

As part of the Executive Committee (HQ), the Treasurer is responsible for managing and tracking the budget and finances of BPSA. The treasurer should have a background in or experience with finance, budgeting, fundraising and other money matters. Among the duties of Treasurer are:

• Yearly financial filing for organization, Federal 501(c)3 and State
• Keeping financial records and receipts, archiving them and making them available to HQ
• Coordinating with each area of HQ (Quartermaster, Secretary, CC and others) on creating and managing a budget for each area
• Presenting our fiscal status in a report each quarter to HQ and yearly to our members
• Managing our bank account/PayPal account and other resources, ensuring security and appropriate access to funds
• Coordinate with other ad-hoc committees on fundraising efforts and expenditures

As a member of the HQ Executive Committee, you will also be a voting member and integral part of the organization. You should be available for any quarterly or other staff conference calls and make yourself available to HQ membes and ad-hoc committee chairman as needed. The ability to track and manage a budget are important in this role; as is the ability to communicate well with others, both written and oral.

Your experience and creativity can be brought to bear on proper financial management techniques, tools and methods to be employed by the BPSA; as well as best practices in communicating to our HQ staff and members. Keep in mind, this is a volunteer-run organization, and as a volunteer, you’ll need to be able to manage your own time and tasks in a way that not only helps the organization, but allows you the time to do your current work and be with your family—each of those is important to all our volunteer members and we understand that working with a large, volunteer organization can take a lot of time and effort.

Regional Commissioner - Northeast, Midwest, South, Southwest and West  (5 positions)

BPSA membership and chartered groups are growing each year. To help provide a point of contact for members, Group Scoutmasters and others involved or interested in the BPSA program, we are putting in place volunteer Commissioners at the “regional” level.  Currently, we’ve divided up the country into 5 primary regions: Northeast, Midwest, South, Southwest and West (see below).

Commissioners serve as liasons and also representatives of their respective regions with HQ. Regional Commissioners are also considered voting members within their region. The primary responsibilities of Regional Commissioners are as follows:

• Provide a first point of contact for members and non-members in their region about BPSA and our program
• Help new and existing groups in their region maintain and build a good program
• Coordinate, organize and work with other BPSA members in the region to provide training camps and activities
• Enable effective communication with members, groups in the region regarding program and policy
• Provide news and updates to BPSA HQ on regional activities, training and other events
• Work with local groups and members to ensure BPSA and our program receive attention via news and other media sources
• Network within the region to help find sponsors and supporters for the BPSA
• Attend any quarterly HQ conference calls or meetings and provide input and ideas

Regional Commissioners are also able to delegate work to other BPSA members, groups or ad-hoc committees as needed for meeting any of the above goals. If funding for a particular activity, event or undertaking is required, the Regional Commissioners should bring it to the attention of the Treasurer and also before HQ at a regular meeting for approval.

Great, so how do I apply for one of these positions?

Volunteer applications should be sent via email to hq@bpsa-us.org.  The “subject” line should mention the position being applied, and the following information should be provided in the email:

Full Name: (First M. Last)

Social Security #: We do require a background check for all positions.

Contact Info:  phone number, alternate email

Address: Postal Address

BPSA Scout Group (if any): If you’re registered with a group or as a Lone Scout, let us know

Resume/CV (attachment): If you have a resume or CV that provides background related to your position or that you might think is relevant, attach it.

Why you want to take on this position?  Give us a summary of why you want this position; what intrigues you about, what ideas you bring to the role and why/how you think taking on this role would be a benefit for BPSA and its program.

Remember, we need your application sent in to us by no later than January 31, 2013!

We look forward to hearing from you as we begin this process of staffing out HQ and working to make our organization and program more complete and successful!

Yours in Traditional Scouting,

BPSA HQ Staff and Committee

Our YouTube channel has lots of informative videos explaining our program to anyone interested. Please click here to watch and share them widely!

Our local St. Louis area groups got some front-page coverage in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch this morning, check out the article and leave a comment there if you can!

Congrats to our local groups and their leaders who are doing a fantastic job getting things going with the program!

BPSA’s fundraising efforts have come to a close and while we didn’t hit our target (which was lofty) we did bring in a total of $3,685! Thanks to you, our supporters and members, the BPSA can forge forward and tackle our first goal of gaining 510(c)3 status. This will help out at national and at the group level in numerous ways and helps open the door to more funding and support opportunities in the future.

We’ll be sending out the thank you’s, and gifts for our donors in the coming month. Keep up-to-date with BPSA US on our Facebook Page, Twitter, Google+ and on our Base Camp site as our organization and program blaze a trail into the future.

Again, thank you for your support and efforts; and we look forward to working with all of you in the future.

Yours in Traditional Scouting,

BPSA US Headquarter’s Staff

An interview with BPSA Chief Commissioner David Atchley has been posted on the St. Louis Beacon website. Click here for the story. In it, David discusses his scouting background, scouting in general and the BPSA program on a couple of perspectives, including the coed aspect. Be sure and give it a read, leave a comment on the article, and share it with friends.

Article Link: http://www.stlbeacon.org/content/26471/boys_scouts_alternative_081012

As some of you are aware, we have recently begun a fundraising effort through Indiegogo.com, which is similar to Kickstarter but for community and social efforts and start-ups. The BPSA is in a growth phase at the moment, which is great news.  We are brining in new members and gaining new groups as people become aware of the organization, our program and our mission. The BPSA staff and myself continue to work as hard as we can to keep up with all the needs of our new membership in this growth period, through handling orders via the online store, processing applications and charters, maintaining the web site and the resources we have available online, promoting and building the program, developing and providing training for adults and volunteers and more.

But to keep this momentum going and to continue to provide the best traditional scouting program and meet the basic needs of the organization and our members and groups, we need to be able to fund a number of very important needs:

1. Have BPSA incorporated, state and federal, as a non-profit youth association and obtain 501(c)3 status. As a youth organization, this helps cut down the costs for not only the organization, but we can extend this status to each of our chartered, local Scout Groups.
2. Be able to provide insurance coverage, extending to all chartered local units, covering minor medical/accident/liability.
3. Be able to handle and process proper background checks for all registering adult members in the BPSA as part of our continuing Code of Ethics and Youth Protection policy.
4. Provide a complete online store making uniforms, handbooks and other resources and needs available to members, leaders, volunteers and parents (at the lowest cost possible). Scouts and parents need to be able to get everything in one location, and as an organization we need to be able to provide a low-cost, traditional scouting uniform.
5. Build up our communication and program reach to help recruit enthusiastic volunteers to staff and run BPSA Head Quarters (HQ), filling many needed positions and roles to help the organization grow.  We’ll need to be able to maintain the web site, our social and community networks and sites and find other ways to reach out to people and keep our community of Scouts and Leaders connected.
6. Be able to provide ongoing and flexible training courses for leaders and volunteers in local communities, allowing for multiple training sessions per year and a local volunteer base that is trained and ready to provide a program. We need to be able to provide training in different parts of the country to make it accessible, and we need to be able to help reimburse our trainers and contribute to our national staff so they can get further, higher level training from other BPSA organizations and bring that training back here to the US.
7. Help us provide resources for local volunteers and parents to help encourage and realize the growth of the program by targeting at least 25 chartered Scout Groups with full program sections by the end of the 3 years. To make this happen, and to fully support those new units, all the above items are critical.

This is where YOU come in.  We need your help – our members, groups and supporters – in promoting our program through our fundraising efforts on Indiegogo.com!  Share the link above with your friends, family and other individuals or organizations/businesses that would support BPSA in its mission to bring traditional scouting to the US that is coed and inclusive.  Any contribution makes a difference!

The minimum contribution is less than 8 cups of coffee from your favorite barista at your local coffee house – $25.  It’s not much; but each small donation adds up and helps ensure the BPSA meets these goals.  With your help and support we can grow and expand this organization into the future and provide more resources and a better program for our youth and our groups.

Help us make a difference!

So, for any of our members and supporters that frequent redditors (see Reddit.com), I did an AMA, or Ask Me Anything a few days back.  The idea behind an AMA is that you make yourself available to answer questions from the reddit social community that might have an interest in what you’re doing and want to know more.  There were a number of really good questions and comments that I thought would be informative for our members and others who aren’t necessarily on reddit, or those that might have missed it.  Here’s the link below to the AMA for your slow reading pleasure.

If you find anything you want to ask, go ahead and make a comment on that thread (you’ll need a reddit.com login to do so) and I’ll definitely answer it as quickly as possible. You can also comment here on this post as well.  Thanks for the great turn out, it was enjoyable!

BPSA Commissioner AMA on /r/IAmA

We are officially launching our new BPSA Base Camp as an online gathering point/social networking site for connecting BPSA leaders, scouts, parents and volunteers with people interested in learning more or being a part of the Baden-Powell Service Association. Built on Ning‘s social-networking platform, the Base Camp offers members a chance to interact with each other in an online forum environment with added features found on most social networking sites, such as the ability to embed and share videos, photos, post blogs, events, live chat, and more. The Base Camp also integrates with other social-networking sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+ and Yahoo so that members can share Base Camp content with their friends on those other sites quickly and effortlessly.

While all content shared or posted on the Base Camp will be viewable by the general public, you must sign up and create a member profile to participate in the network. We’re hoping lots of people find this site beneficial in not only building our BPSA community, but also sharing scouting program ideas, activities, stories, and practices and use it to gauge interest in starting groups in certain parts of the country, discuss tradition scouting, leadership training, and how we can grow the BPSA to be larger and even more inclusive as a youth organization that champions “Scouting for Everyone!”

Please join us there today and help us get it under way!

http://bpsa-us.ning.com

Thanks!

David Atchley was interviewed by Don Marsh of KWMU‘s “St. Louis on the Air” program on Wednesday, July 25, 2012.
David Atchley is the National Commissioner of the Baden-Powell Service Association (BPSA). He is also the Scoutmaster of the BPSA’s 10th Daniel Boone Scout Group in Washington, Missouri.

Just click the player below to listen:

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This segment is also available for sharing on YouTube.