Saturday, April 27 marked the launching of the new Nobscot Trail Crew.

On their first day, the founding Crew members spent time receiving outstanding training on Nobscot history, tools, trail management and first aid. Afterwards, they hiked to Tipling Rock practicing practical trail work along the way.

The Nobscot Trail Crew adult advisors, Chuck Hurwitz, Pat Maher and Stroker Rogovin are all Eagle Scouts, Vigil Honor Members and collectively have over 120 years of Nobscot experience. In addition Stroker is a long-time is a member of the AMC Board of Advisors. Trail Crew Members received t-shirts and will earn a Trail Crew patch, Certificate and free membership in the Nobscot Alumni Association. The next meeting will be announced. In the meantime, if you’re interested in joining this ongoing, elite crew contact Alumni Association President Larry Bearfield.

Thank you to those who were able to participate in the March Roundtable! The night created a plethora of ideas I’m happy to be able to share with the district.

For those unable to attend, the March Roundtable revisited the factors to consider for new scouts, parents, and leaders wanting to join your unit.

• Click here to see the presentation slides
• Click here to see the detailed recap of the meeting

There was a request for an example annual activity permission form units could use. A big thank you to Troop 29 in East Bridgewater for allowing us to share their form!

• Annual Activity Permission Form

For those seeking to survey their units for capability the following forms may serve as some use:

• Cub Scout Talent Survey
• Scout BSA Talent Survey

There were questions about what training is required for specific adult positions. The national website offers a resource to simplify the training requirements.

• Position Trained Requirements

Thank you again to all that attended!

In April we went live, literally! For the first time the district made our roundtable meeting available online using Facebook Live. There are a few areas to improve on, but we appreciate all our virtual participants for attending and providing feedback.

April’s Roundtable meeting was broken up into four parts.

• Internet Safety – Bringing awareness to the Youth Protection Website as a treasure trove for adult leaders and parents.
  • We reviewed the YPT website to ensure leaders understood the valuable resources on the site. Specifically, how to direct parents to YPT material to further understand the measures in place to protect our participants. This can be found on the Youth Protection Website under the header Key Resources or by going directly to the Parent’s Guide website.
• Cyber Chip – In this digital age, there is an inevitability youth will be subjected to various virtual circumstances. Cyber Chip helps to educate and inform; providing learning on how to deal with uncomfortable or challenging situations. The Boy Scouts of America are partnered with site NetSmartz to provide the Cyber Chip program. Leaders may find additional content on the site’s Trends & Topic‘s page; providing resources to initiate dialogue and educate others.
• YPT Safety Videos – There are 3 program specific videos to further educate and inform safety awareness. Each of these videos are available for purchase from the Boy Scouts of America or can be found online for free on sites such as YouTube.
  • It Happened to Me (Cub Scouts) – The video creates open communication between a Cub Scout and their parent. The content of the training focuses on “Four Rules of Personal Safety” with each rule having a corresponding video scenario. Additional Cub Scout resources and the facilitator’s guide for this video can be found here.
  • A Time to Tell (Scouts, BSA) – Shows several strategies used to attempt sexual molestation. The scenarios in the video are broken into two segments, (1) recognition (2) resist and report, with a discussion portion between the two segments and at the conclusion of the scenario. The aim of the video is to educate in the three R’s of Youth Protection: Recognize, Resist, Report. Additional Scouts, BSA resources and the facilitator’s guide for this video can be found here.
  • Personal Safety Awareness Training (Venturing) – There are four video segments to the training: Suicide Prevention, Internet Safety, Sexual Harassment, and Date Rape. These are coming to age topics for maturing youth. The videos offer insight into the situation and allows discussion of the topics in a judgement free environment. Additional Venturing resources can be found here while the facilitator’s guide for this video can be found here.

Each of the above videos are a way to open dialogue with program participants. Comprehension of the identified rules, principles, and scenarios help better equip a participant to face or help others face these scenarios. Youth Protection is most successful when registered youth, adults, and parents understand how to keep others safe and recognize the tell tale signs for when something doesn’t seem right.

• QA Session – Our QA session focused heavily on utilizing Social Media. The Scouting Wire site offers a basic outline of the Boy Scouts of America’s social media guidelines.
  • There was a specific question regarding Facebook Groups. Facebook groups have three levels of classification: Public, Closed, and Secret. The privacy settings for each of these group types can be found here. Under no circumstance should a group created to set to Secret. The Boy Scouts of America do not permit any secret practices or organizations. The designation of Secret would go against this policy. At minimum, groups need to be searchable by the public; Public and Closed groups are searchable by the public.

The final point of the night was an emphasis on a need for youth to feel comfortable coming forward when an incident/ violation of Youth Protection occurs. There was a phrase used when I would train the Suicide Prevention segment of the Personal Safety Awareness Training. “You are better to lose a friendship than lose a life.” The sentiment of this phrase applies regardless of the scenario/ situation. An individual willingly disclosed something personal and deeply inflicting to their well being. We have a duty to act and take the information seriously. If we create an environment where there are repercussions for an individual afflicted, the individuals who need our help the most won’t come forward. Make the point to your scouts, leaders, and parents that helping someone in need to ensure their safety is more important than any action the person took to be in their situation.

Tax season is now over and Sachem District is holding a Paper Recycling Day Fundraiser on May 4th.

A truck from New England Security Shredders will be at the Crescent Ridge Dairy in Sharon located at 355 Bay Rd, Sharon, MA 02067 from 12:00 noon until 4:00 PM.

A minimum donation of $10 per box is suggested (although remember it is a fundraiser for the council’s Investment in Character Campaign).

You will receive a voucher for $1.00 off the purchase of any ice cream or sundae with your donation.

Mayflower Council is pleased to announce the addition of Davis Stockton to the Mayflower Council staff.

Davis will be serving as the Ranger for Camps Resolute and Nobscot.

Davis joins us from Twin Rivers Council in Albany, New York where he served as a Camp Ranger and most recently held staff positions with Westchester-Putnam Council in Hawthorne, New York

Davis will be a resident at Camp Resolute starting in mid-May.

Please join us in extending a warm welcome to Davis.

The New England Scout Shop in Southborough (Route 9) is now looking to interview and hire a new Part-time Sales Associate.

The opportunities are “Seasonal” with the possibility of becoming a permanent position. Work shifts we would need to fill are one to two days a week and include weekdays and Saturdays.

Previous sales/customer service experience is a plus.

The skill set enabling you to sew using a sewing machine would be outstanding and make the possibility of even more hours/shifts being available to you.

If you are interested, please stop by the Scout Shop for an application and to schedule an interview.

New England Scout Shop
23 Turnpike Road (Route 9)
Southborough, MA 01772

Open weekdays 9:30 AM – 6 PM
Saturdays 10 AM until 2 PM
CLOSED Sundays

Important Update from the National Council regarding membership forms:

New registration applications no longer have duplicate copies included. This was a conscious decision based on a units’ access to member information through BSA’s online systems. Units have access to both youth and adult leader information through both my.Scouting and Scoutbook, which is now free for every unit.

Both of these systems update overnight after the registration is posted by the council through ScoutNET, or immediately after an online application is approved by the unit. Additionally, privacy of personal information is a constant growing concern today and removing these additional copies helps to keep individuals personal information from being non-securely passed around or disposed of by volunteers.

If your Unit was not able to attend our April 4th Roundtable, not to worry.  We are making all the event flyers, training newsletters and other information available!

Click here for PDF of all April Roundtable Handouts

Our April Roundtable featured:

Metacomet District Executive, Nick Keyes, lead a discussion about recruitment tactics for your Units.  We brainstormed about methods that other Troops and Packs have used to recruit, having an online presence for your Unit, updating your BeAScout Pin through my.scouting, and much more.  Here is a link to the long list of ideas that we all contributed to.

Brainstormed Recruitment Ideas from Headwaters District April Roundtable

What can your Unit do to recruit?

• Plan fun events and have your Scouts invite friends, use buddy cards as invitations
• Make a detailed plan for your Fall recruitment campaign and talk with your District Leadership about the resources that Mayflower Council can provide to your Unit
• UPDATE YOUR UNIT’S BEASCOUT PIN
• Send a Unit representative to Roundtable for event and recruitment materials
• Reach out to local businesses to partner with, i.e. libraries, schools, newspapers, clubs, your chartering organization, restaurants, etc.
• Wave your Unit’s Flag! Show up to Town Events in Uniform, show your Town that you are there and you are active!  Put our Pack/Troop/Patrol Flags when you are at events or doing community service

Questions, comments, or ideas for the District’s leadership?

Send an Email to: Headwaters@mayflowerbsa.org

Our next District Roundtable will be:

May 2nd at 7:00 pm

Milford High School Cafeteria

31 West Fountain Street
Milford, MA 01757

Make sure to send a representative so that your Unit is kept informed and in the loop. Come talk with your District leadership, commissioners, committee teams and other Leaders!

See you there!

Congratulations to our Awesome Pinewood Racers!

On Saturday April 6th, Headwaters District had their annual District Pinewood Derby Race!

119 cars came and raced against each other to find our top 3 fastest cars for EACH RANK of our Headwaters Cub Scouts!  Parents, friends, Scouts, and guests voted on the COOLEST looking cars from each rank as well.

We hope that everyone enjoyed their time at the Solomon Pond Mall!

Here are our winners!

Lions

1. Cameron W. – Pack 3601 Southboro
2. Sam M. – Pack 97 Hopkinton
3. Blake T. – Pack 42 Marlborough

      Coolest Car: Liam M. – Pack 97 Hopkinton

Tigers

1. Tucker K. – Pack 100 Westborough
2. Sebastian C. – Pack 3001 Ashland
3. Frankie R. – Pack 97 Hopkinton

       Coolest Car: Sebastian C. – Pack 3001 Ashland

Wolves

1. Mack S. – Pack 31 Marlborough
2. Cole C. – Pack 926 Southborough
3. Josh S. – Pack 3501 Mendon

      Coolest Car: Henry O. – Pack 3001 Ashland

Bears

1. Ben P. – Pack 51 Marlborough
2. Danny J. – Pack 3004 Hopkinton
3. Braden L. – Pack 97 Hopkinton

      Coolest Car: Justin F. – Pack 3204 Milford

Webelos

1. Gavin B. – Pack 3001 Ashland
2. Corey L. – Pack 3601 Southborough
3. Bennett D. – Pack 3601 Southborough

      Coolest Car: Will J. – Pack 3033 Westborough

Arrow of Light

1. Tyler H. – Pack 3104 Hudson
2. Nate H. – Pack 42 Marlborough
3. Bodie C. – Pack 3104 Hudson

       Coolest Car: Skylar M. – Pack 42 Marlborough

We also had a Siblings Race and we were thrilled to have three awesome racers join us!  Congrats to our siblings that raced: Stella, Isabelle, and Graham!

Finally, a HUGE thank you to our AMAZING volunteers that helped make this year’s Pinewood possible:

Eric Martin, Mark Derderian, Damien Knox, Stephen Reade, Tom Hirsh, Andy Lindeman, Steve Silverstein, Eric Hobin and Mathew Dyer.

As well as our awesome Scout helpers:  Eli, Shelby, Joseph, Leo and Ian!

Click here for PDF of all April Roundtable Handouts

Our next District Roundtable will be on May 7, 2019 at 7:00 pm.

The Center At Medfield

1 Ice House Road
Medfield, MA 02052