October Forum Review

Rob Lundell presented about their high adventure activity to Southern California, including staying at Camp Pendleton and various other awesome activities: here.

Matt Campbell taught us about Ethical Controversies (link)

September Forum Review

Thanks to Allan Zisner for sharing a discussion about First Aid and Safety.

Here's the link to his presentation: First Aid and Safety

Curtis Krausman shared their experience taking their crew to Philmont.
Here's a link to his slideshow: Philmont Troop 285

Venturing Leader-specific Training in September

There WILL be VLST for new leaders in September. Here's the information:

Saturday, September 12 from 8:00am to about 12:00pm

LDS Stake Center
2740 S Lindsay Rd
Gilbert AZ  85296

Here's the link to the Council site for sign up information: VLST Signup

August Forum Review

Thanks to all the presented and attended this first forum after summer break. Attendance was excellent, as were the presentations.

James Hatch presented about his crew's high adventure into southern Utah - (and I'll update this and the high adventure page when I get his summary.)

David Garner prepared a slideshow about Favorite Arizona Hikes. He probably should be an editor on HikeArizona.com - but this slideshow will narrow down the about jillion different hikes you can take in Arizona. Click the link for the PDF: Favorite Hikes in AZ 2015

Remember the previous post about nominations for district awards for the year end presentation.

Also, an update about the District Fly-in event planned for November: it has been CANCELED. We apologize that it could not get worked out with the Flying Eagles group for this year, but hope that it can happen again in the future.

San Tan District Awards for 2015

It's that time where you get to nominate individuals for district awards - to be presented during the award ceremony in December.

Here's a link to the form that gives you information on the awards: Awards Nomination 2015

Here's a link to the website where you can nominate online: Online Nominations 2015

Welcome back!

We hope you all had a great summer, and had opportunities to do great activities with your crews.

Now we get to get back to monthly forum - and tomorrow we'll start off with a great presentation about BEST HIKES IN ARIZONA by Dave Garner, local hiker extraordinaire.

You can also check out the current forum newsletter on our forum newsletter link.

See you tomorrow night at 7pm.

May Forum

Thanks to those that presented at May's Forum.

Congratulations to Dave Roberts and Alan Zisner - both received the Distinguished Commissioner Service award, recognizing 5 years of service as a Unit Commissioner.

We also had an excellent discussion about Philmont, and the benefits for our scouts with that activity. Thanks to Keith Nelson for sharing that. You can learn more about Philmont at www.philmontscoutranch.org

Our main discussion was led by Spencer Greene from Highland West Stake. He presented information about how to make lake outings worthwhile for our scouts. Locations, activities, where to camp, etc. Many thanks for being our guest speaker and sharing that information.

Here's a link to his slideshow: AZ Boating and Lakes

Remember - NO FORUM FOR JUNE OR JULY. We'll meet up again in August. Have a great summer, practice SAFE SCOUTING, and we'll see you in the fall.

April Cook Off at Forum

Thank you to those that participated in the April Forum Cook off. Participation was possibly an all-time low, but the quality of the food from those that did was stellar. Here are the prize winners from the cook off:

Overall winner: 

Dean Moore – Crew 9630; BBQ Chicken Pizza (Won a 14” Lodge Oven)

Other winners: 

James Hatch – Crew 9821; Monkey Bread

Alan Zisner – Buttermilk Coffee-less Coffee Cake

and Janet Keene – Dutch oven rice crispy treats. 

(All won a Camp Chef Oven gripping handle)

APRIL FORUM: DUTCH OVEN COOK OFF

This is a reminder that this month’s forum is a Dutch Oven Cook off -  from 7:00 pm to 8:00 pm at the usual Kennith Building, but in the North parking lot. Please bring a camp chair if you’d like to sit. Please also feel free to bring your youth crew president, if you wish.

Signups can be found at: http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10c094eabab28a31-dutch

You don’t have to sign up, but if you do – it’ll let you you and us know how many people are bringing different dishes. Please bring copies of your recipe to share – and I’ll also post them on the blog for all to download. We’ll be voting for the best overall dish, as well as best dish in the 3 categories – and each will win a prize – from a 14” Lodge oven to Camp Chef lid holders.

We’ll be there by 6:00 pm to set up, so you can bring your food to start to cook – or cook it before you bring it. Only rule is that it needs to be something you made (and not just warmed up) and cooked in a dutch oven.

We’ll supply the eating utensils, drinks and dutch oven biscuits for all. Stake and crew breakouts can still happen at 8:00 pm, as usual. E-mail me with questions. See you on the 2^nd!

Venturing Leader Training - Second Session

Special thanks to Rob Morrison for spearheading and teaching the Venturing Leader Training sessions in March and April.

More than 60 Venturing leaders became fully trained. So many attended the February meeting that the District wondered what happened (I explained that we'd told you if you came in February, we'd mark you present for the rest of the year's forums. Like I was serious.)

Thank you for attending and making yourselves the best trained leaders for your kids.

Below is the link to Rob's PowerPoint presentation with all the new training information:

New Venturing Leader Training Presentation 2015

Venturing Leader Training Homework

Thank you to those that attended roundtable training tonight. You're 1/2 way to being a fully-trained Venturing leader. Thanks to Rob for preparing and presenting the training.

Rob gave us all some homework about the Guide to Safe Scouting. Here it is, with hyper links, to make you life easy. Because we're all about that.

Here's the direct link to the Guide to Safe Scouting page, where you can also download the PDF.
Below are the links to the specific pages Rob asked us to study up.
(I'll apologize in advance if the links are off.)

Leadership requirements for trips and outings
Safe Swim Defense, only report item #1 - Qualified supervision
Scuba, first 2 paragraphs
Safety Afloat, first paragraph under the Safey Afloat title
Camping, Venturing paragraph
Medical information, brief description of classes 1, 2, 3
Guns and Firearms (I can't find the exact link, but maybe this)
Cave exploring
Climbing and rappelling, 2 paragraphs under Qualified Supervision
Unauthorized and restricted activities
Transportation, all 11 items under the title Automobiles
Tour permits

Thank you - and we'll see you in March to complete our training.

Venturing Leader-specific Training

February and March Venturing Forums will be for VLST.

You must attend BOTH of the forums to become fully "trained."

Forum will run from 7:00 pm until 8:30 pm on BOTH nights - if you miss one, there will not be a make up session.

This is also the ONLY training in our district for Venturing leaders this spring. There will be another Saturday training session in the fall.

There is NO CHARGE for the class this time. Please attend - invite all your co-advisers to become fully trained.

We'll have treats. There will be dancing. And music. And... okay, just the first part.

But you will feel awesome about being trained with the latest information to be the best leader you can for your youth. And you'll get a sweet "trained" patch for your uni.

We hope to see you there.