From District Director Brandon Dobbins on October 3: "A district nominating committee is responsible for selecting a slate of competent officers and members at large for the next year. More specifically, the committee (1) reviews the qualifications for district officers and members at large, (2) studies the participation and performance of last year’s officers and members at large, (3) makes suggestions for each officer and member at large, matching skills to needs, and (4) personally contacts each nominee and secures an agreement to serve.  The committee will submit its slate of candidates to the annual business meeting for election on Thursday, November 2nd at Woodward Academy's Middle School at 7:00PM. Eligible voters must be present at the meeting to cast their vote. Proper election procedures follow.   

The Atlanta Area Council sent and posted this message, entitled "Five Things to Know about the Boy Scouts of America’s Program Expansion":  "Scouting has adapted regularly and has many examples of changes in membership, structure, gender inclusion, age ranges and approaches over the last 107 years. These changes have allowed each new generation of parents to utilize Scouting as a tool for raising their children as they see most appropriate.

On October 11, 2017, National BSA announced modifications approved by the National Board of Directors that it will expand its existing programs to offer Cub Scouts to girls in Fall 2018. Also announced was a program with a Boy Scout-like structure for middle/high school age girls. Serving the whole family is not new for the BSA. In fact, we have been providing programs to young girls since 1971 when we extended our Exploring program to young women. Expanding our younger programs to include girls allows us to build on the benefit of a single-gender program while also providing flexibility to our charter partners and more opportunities for youth. Through our interpretation of National BSA materials, we have created a list of five key items that may assist your understanding of modifications.

Troops 3499 and 1906 invite your Boy Scouts to a Merit Badge Clinic Day on November 4.  More information is in the attached flyer.

Here’s six steps to a successful and sustainable plan for recruiting new families into your Cub Scout Pack … because every Pack wants more active leaders, and just about every Pack wants more youth and their families to join.  Key idea:  successful, sustainable recruiting happens by action now by leaders and parents in the Unit.  If your recruiting plan begins and ends on Sign Up Night, your recruiting will likely not be sustainable.

The Big Idea to Recruit new kids and families:  kids and families want to know what you DO -- your activities, campouts, hikes, trips, action, fun, fishing, biking, whatever.  

Much less important is "when you meet", unless you just want to be a babysitting service.  

That's why Recruiting Step One is Make a Calendar of Fun Activities that Families Like 

To help with recruiting by leaders and parents (hey, parents want more leaders too!), Successful and Sustainable Recruiting Needs to be Much More than School Sign Up Nights and Buzz Ups.  Successful and Sustainable Recruiting is a Process ... the Pack Leader's Guide to Recruiting describes these six steps: 

1. Make a Calendar of Fun Activities that families like
2. Recruit More Leaders and Helpers - one by one, find folks who can help your unit out
3. Let People Know! Let Families and Organizations Know your Pack Fun Event Plan. (Families join Packs that do things ... Kids join Troops that Go Places ... let them know what you're doing ... there are many ways)
4. School and Community Events -- Show your School and Community the Fun of Cub Scouting. 
5. Once you've laid that foundation, have Sign Up Events: School Sign Up Night and Fun Events Too!
6. More Fun Events.  Keep expanding and extending your Calendar of Fun Events … that’s what makes families join!

All of this helps your success at Sign Up Nights at Schools -- see Our Ideas here about Signup Nights and Signup Events.  More below:

Highlights of the most recent District News were these (click links for information):  Girls in Cub Scouting: Starting in 2018. And More in 2019 ...  Opt In, Opt Out ... and from the week before:  ... District Elections ... Units Getting the Word Out: See These Facebook Sites of our Packs and Troops ...

See this announcement from the BSA on October 11 that says, among other things, that "Starting in the 2018 program year, families can choose to sign up their sons and daughters for Cub Scouts" and "Using the same curriculum as the Boy Scouts program, the organization will also deliver a program for older girls, which will be announced in 2018 and projected to be available in 2019, that will enable them to earn the Eagle Scout rank."  Exactly what that will look like is unclear -- also unclear is how the program will be delivered in the real world.  More on the nightly news, we are sure ... and more this afternoon on this Official BSA Blog.  And this fact sheet release and this FAQ release and this BSA Family Scouting page.   A "town hall" video from October 12 by the Chief Scout Executive is here.  This follows on this announcement here after the BSA National Annual Meeting in May, and this Announcement in August after a video and survey emerged.   That video later got more freely posted at sites like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7eRsj0jjJ8.