Congratulations to the nine recipients of the 2021 National Venturing Leadership Award.

Two of the 9 award recipients are from the Mayflower Council. We could not be more proud of your accomplishments.

Two shining examples of leadership.

Last week, we communicated that the Webelos uniform will undergo a rolling change for fourth and fifth grade Webelos (effective for the 2021-2022 Scouting year).

Please note the decision has been made to hold off on this planned change until further notice. Any updates (if any) to uniform requirements will be communicated in future newsletters.

The BSA offers numerous awards to recognize the accomplishments of Scouts and Scouters. Some are much better known than others. Some of the lesser known awards include:

Founders Bar: Worn by youth and adults who are founding members of a new unit.
National Den Award: Recognizes Cub Scout dens for having a quality, year-round program.
National Medal for Outdoor Achievement: Earned by members of Scouts BSA, Sea Scouting, and Venturing who excel in high-level outdoor activities. There are six areas of emphasis: camping, aquatics, hiking, riding, adventure, and conservation.
Spirit of the Eagle: An honorary posthumous award to recognize the contributions of a youth Scout who lost his or her life.

There was a recent purge of merit badge counselors from Scoutbook because many had not renewed their registration last year. With virtual merit badge events happening in the Mayflower Council, we are looking for volunteers who would be interested in renewing their counselor registration or becoming a new merit badge counselor. We do have plans to hold more virtual merit badge classes this year and need resources for class leads and assistants.

GETTING STARTED

First step for those who believe they are registered merit badge counselors, log into my.scouting or Scoutbook to confirm you are still registered for the badges you are willing to teach. If you were able to confirm, you do not need to continue with this application.

BECOME A NEW MERIT BADGE COUNSELOR

If you are a first-time counselor, or a former counselor no longer registered as a counselor, visit this site www.mayflowerbsa.org/merit-badge-counselors. You will need an adult application (yes, even if you are registered as a leader with a unit), CORI form, (you do not need a CORI form is you are currently registered in another Scouting position) and complete the online Merit Badge Counselor Information Form to apply for the badges you wish to teach. It will ask you for your qualifications for the badges and those are reviewed by the advancement committee for approval.

ADDING BADGES TO YOUR APPROVED LIST

If you confirmed that you are registered as a counselor but want to add more badges to your approved list, you can do so by completing the online Merit Badge Counselor Information Form.

If you no longer wish to be a merit badge counselor, you can use the online form and request to be removed.

WHILE YOU ARE WAITING FOR APPROVAL

We utilize Google Classroom for virtual merit badge sessions. We will set up the mayflowerbsa.org emails and classrooms as well as provide an orientation on the tools. If you don’t have experience using Google Classroom, we do recommend that you create your own account and practice using it to add students, assignments, document uploads, etc. Then you will be ready when we launch the next event.

Be sure to subscribe to Mayflower Today, our Mayflower Council Facebook page and visit our website for details as they become available.

Headwaters District has some INCREDIBLE volunteers!

We recognize these volunteers at our Annual District Dinner.  Our district leadership relies on the generosity of our unit leaders, parents, and friends to nominate the great volunteers we have each year for these awards.  To help remind everyone of who has received these awards in the past few years, this post includes our complete list of District Award recipients.

You can find nomination forms at this webpage here: LINK

Spark Plug Award

2019 Recipients

2020 Recipients

District Award of Merit Recipients in Headwaters District

This year, 2021, the council advancement committee has committed to offering five Life-to-Eagle seminars.

These seminars are for educating our prospective Eagle Scouts to learn what needs to happen to advance to Eagle Scout.  These seminars can also be incredibly helpful for Scoutmasters, Eagle coaches, advancement chairs, and committee chairs; and all districts are welcome to attend any of the presentations, the necessary information is the same for all districts, and we will touch on any small differences.

For those who attend, the slide show is available below for you to review at any time.

Click on the photo to download the presentation.

Headwaters District Roundtable was held on Thursday March 4th:

Helpful Links:

1. Link to our reminder email with the powerpoints, links to topics and forms – HERE
2. Links to our Powerpoint:
   •  Slide presentation
   • Activity flyers:
     • Virtual Freeze Out
     • District Nomination Forms
     • Philmont Information Session
   • Safety Moment:
     • Guide to Safe Scouting
     • Incident reporting
   • Advancement
     • BSA Advancement COVID-19 FAQ webpage
     • BSA Guide to Advancement
     • Scoutbook!
     • 2021 February Cub Scouts Roundtable – Advancements

The BSA also has Advancement Educational Presentations PowerPoint Presentations—for group instruction or individual review. This is great to let parents or advancement coordinators of any unit or any Scout learn about the complex advancement procedures and practices!
LINK HERE

We hope you join us for roundtables, connect with our district and other unit leaders and volunteers, and represent your unit!

Mayflower Council is proud to honor and recognize our 2020 Silver Beaver Award recipients and North Star Award recipient. They are shining examples of Scouting service in our council!