| ScoutReach District | Carnel Towns, District Executive | | Northern District | Larry Danner, Senior District Executive & Owen Myers, District Executive | | Central District | Nathan Rackers, District Director | | Southern District | Mary Kveton, District Executive & Jon Shelenske, District Executive | Cheyann Thunberg has been selected as the new Learning for Life and Exploring Director effective July 15, 2019. The Learning for Life Service Area will remain unchanged with three council staff members serving more than 10,000 Learning for Life participants. All Exploring Posts and Exploring Clubs will be served by the Learning for Life staff team: | Learning for Life & Exploring | Cheyann Thunberg, Learning for Life & Exploring Director | | India McMiller, Learning for Life Executive Brianna Griffin, Learning for Life Executive | |
What is a District? Early in the history of the Boy Scouts of America, local scout councils divided up territory into districts to better deliver the Scouting program to communities. Districts are established by the Council Executive Board to carry out the “Four Functions” of Membership, Finance, Program & Service. A BSA Commissioned Scouting professional is assigned to each district to support the work of the District Committee and Commissioner staff. Districts are not independent organizations; they do not own property. Who sets up the District structure? District boundaries are established by the Executive Board with an understanding of youth populations, civic-community borders and traffic patterns. Three Harbors Council’s current district structure has been in place since 2001 in Milwaukee County and since the 1970s in Racine and Kenosha counties. The legacy district structure did not change when Three Harbors Council was formed in 2011. Timing of District Changes – Why August 1st? Our goal is to have the new districts ready for the start of the new school year. The August 1st date helps us meet that target. Although the new districts will officially start on August 1st, many of the changes will be phased in over the course of the fall. This will allow previously scheduled fall program events in the current districts to continue as planned. District leadership will work over the summer to coordinate and align events, meetings and realign committees to the new four district structure. How does this change impact District Volunteers? Consolidating districts will result in larger District Committees and Commissioner staffs. Our goal is to support stronger district programs with increased Scout and volunteer participation. | How does this change impact our District Executive? The current staff model has eight districts served by seven unit serving executives (District Executives and District Directors). One District Executive is currently responsible for two district territories. The new staff model has four districts with dedicated staff assigned to each district. The two largest districts will have two unit serving executives assigned. The goal of the new staffing model is to increase staff retention, career growth opportunities and to facilitate a team approach which fits better with today’s workforce. How will the changes improve ScoutReach? Our current ScoutReach programs are occurring in six of the eight districts and multiple staff members have responsibility for oversight of outreach programs. The new district structure will strengthen our outreach programs by creating a new ScoutReach District with a full-time professional staff member dedicated to serving all communities in our council. How do we choose a new name for our District? The District Operations Study Group selected working titles for each district (Southern, Central, Northern and ScoutReach). However, each district can select a new name this fall. The process for selecting the new district names will be up to the newly formed districts. The names will be approved by the Executive Board and should be submitted by December 1, 2019. What about our Fall Camporee and our District Klondike? All previously scheduled fall program events in the current districts can continue as planned. District leadership will work over the fall to coordinate and align program events scheduled for the next calendar year. The expectation is that all events starting in January 2020 will be in the new district structure. What about Learning for Life & Exploring? The Learning for Life Service Area will remain unchanged with three professional staff members serving more than 10,000 Learning for Life participants. All Exploring Posts and Exploring Clubs will be served by the Learning for Life staff team. |
