From the District Key 3: State of the District

The State of Our District is: IMPROVING.

1. We were in the top 10 districts in the nation for membership growth in 2023 and we are continuing to expand our Scouting programs in North Shore District. We are working on adding new units this year across all of our Scouting programs. Yet, we are currently serving only 5% of eligible youth in the Cedar Park, Leander, Lago Vista, and Jonestown communities.

2. Recharter is completed, however one of our packs did not recharter. This is especially concerning since we already have fewer packs than troops in our district.

3. The Commissioner Corps is growing. We have added a new Assistant District Commissioner and three new Unit Commissioners in 2024. We still have less than half of the commissioners we need to provide the service and support needed by our existing units, and less than a third of the commissioners we need to support the expected unit growth.

4. We continue to develop our community ties. We are back into the public schools in both Lago Vista ISD and Leander ISD. Mayors from our communities are participating in our District nominating committee. We have community liaisons on our district committee to coordinate Scouting involvement in civic events. Our cities are excited to engage with Scouting and Scouts have participated in a few events like the Leander Christmas parade but their are many more that we have not been represented in. The cities would love to have Scouts open their council meetings. There are many oportunities for Eagle projects and unit service projects. We need to continue to work on our community ties.

5. For the first time ever, North Shore District hit our Friends of Scouting goal in 2023 and we are making good progress towards this year’s goal. We are also launching our community campaign with a Friends of Scouting Community Breakfast scheduled for May 8th, 2024. However, these gains were more than offset by a significant drop in unit and Scout participation in our annual popcorn fundraiser where we hit just 25% of our goal. A Scout is thrifty and this is how we can pay our own way in the council.

6. Our outdoor program for 2023 was crowned by a very successful Webeloree hosted by 2023 “Troop of the Year”, Troop 161, held in conjunction with the fall camporee. This was only one of many outdoor events in our district and council that augmented your unit programs.

Some great strides were made in 2023 and we continue to make gains in 2024 but we are still at the beginning of our recovery from the losses suffered during the peak of the pandemic. We ask each of you to “do your best” to add to our momentum in 2024. We have several vacancies on the district committee and in the Commissioner Corps. All of our units need more volunteers on their committees as well. Help where you can, whether big, small, or somewhere in between… but please, help.