For those unable to attend our September Chat with the Chief, below are the highlights of what Chief Commissioner Richard Sowdon shared with us all.
New Board Member
In a step towards creating a larger and healthier board to do the work of running OSG, Jillian Tate was added as a new Board Member. Jillian is a long time member of OSG, she has been the New York City Commissioner for several years and also served on a variety of committees during her time with OSG. Jillian is being asked to serve a multi-year term and then her seat will be up for re-election per our new by-laws.
By-Laws
The new bylaws were officially adopted after the revisions discussed at our previous Chat with the Chief were made. You can read those new bylaws here: https://docs.guides4guides.org/policies/OSG+Bylaws+-+signed.pdf
Of note, these new bylaws are specifically related to the board and running the organization. Separately, the board and national staff will be working to publish a comprehensive set of policies which will be announced when they are ready.
Bronze Arrow Training
The East Coast hosted a Bronze Arrow Training this past weekend. It had 11 new participants and 3 BAT graduates who returned to work as trainers. BAT, or Bronze Arrow Training is a program for Pathfinders to learn leadership skills, teamwork and experience the patrol method with pathfinders from other groups. Pathfinders camp together and work through challenges all weekend. Once completed, those pathfinders are awarded badges that they can wear on their shoulder, in the same place where our Rovers wear their BTC badges.
Now that they have completed their BAT training, each pathfinder who attended may work towards earring the Silver Arrow Award, which requires they use their BAT leadership skills in their own pathfinder troop.
The BAT program was developed by Sue Peszerneck and Andy Bicking as a Rover project and is an excellent addition to our programing.
Pathfinder Handbook Update
The Pathfinder Handbook is still in the editing process and currently being reviewed by a professional editor. It will then need to be type set and turned into the PDF format necessary for use as a book. At that stage we will be adding art and working to make a visually interesting book for our pathfinders before it will be ready to share. If you are an artist willing to create art on demand for the book please sign up at https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfWceylzGESxCv4tlYvEw8wqA7OAfGnCCS7NGpDIkAxn71nlA/viewform to volunteer.
Young Rover Committee Update
As our organization has matured we are having more Pathfinders age up to Rovers. Over the summer, we created a short term committee that focused on getting information from some of our youngest rovers ages almost 18 to 20 about what they want from 
scouting with us. This group was composed of younger members from across the country who met and laid out what they wanted. After much discussion, it was decided that what they felt was missing from our program was badges for Rover Squires to earn.
Our young rovers all recognized that while knighting is an option, they did not yet feel ready for that step, and wanted more in our rover program for them to do before knighting. As a result, they worked with Melanie Willett and Laura Sowdon to create a set of badges that ALL rover squires will be able to earn. The majority of these badges are based on the Pathfinder Senior Proficiency badges, with adjustments for adult use. Adults earning these badges will be able to wear them on the sleeves of their uniform, just like pathfinders. These badges have now been approved by the board, and will be turned into a booklet to share with all of our rovers.
This set of badges will be created and shared similarly to how the pathfinder pre-release badges have been shared. This will be the first step towards creating a new rover handbook, which will be overseen by a different committee that is still forming.
Years of Service Awards
The board has approved the Years of Service Awards badges that can be worn by guides of all ages to reflect how many years they have participated in OSG. Badges are color coded to reflect the years participated in at each age level. You can read more about them here.
Upcoming Events
The West Coast is working towards hosting a BAT event for pathfinders in the spring. For more information contact traingingwest@osg-us.org
There will be a West Coast BTC October 1-3, 2022 at Battle Ground Lake State Park, WA. For more information contact trainingwest@osg-us.org
The Fall 2022 Northeast Brownsea Training Camp (BTC) will be at Fahnestock State Park, October 8-10, 2022. For more information contact training@osg-us.org
BTC’s are our leader training events and a wonderful way to learn about leading guides of all ages in our programs. If you enjoy attending BTC, please consider becoming a trainer yourself! If interested, please contact training@osg-us.org to learn more about how to you can teach a session at one of these BTCs. We also offer sparkly BTC patches for those who become trainers who can run a BTC start to finish. We are always looking for those who would like to help train at these events. Many hands make light work!
