I live and lead my life by the principles of the Scout Oath and Law. I create an energetic and positive environment for the betterment of the youth, families and communities we partner to serve. By building a positive culture, it will create a winning environment. Instilling a sense of pride, by channeling a spirit of determination and tenacity that fosters an environment where both volunteers and staff serve with a greater purpose that ultimately delivers success.

Creating an environment, especially in a smaller Council, where everybody’s ideas and contributions are valued and considered, forms an alignment that allows honest dialogue and the ability to recalibrate strategies while keeping our initiatives moving forward. Teamwork and collaboration at both the volunteer and staff levels lead to sustainable membership growth, financial growth, and ultimately growth of our programs and impact.

Consistent and sustainable membership growth is the number one priority for Scouting America. It is imperative to continue recruiting new families into Scouting. In today’s environment, we need to use every resource at our disposal and become more creative when recruiting Scouts and Scouters. Council outreach opportunities should also be addressed whether through Scoutreach or through building and expanding career and workforce readiness programs. 

All Scouting is local. A thoughtful, patient and targeted membership plan that highlights both expanding existing units and new unit campaigns will be required for long term success, especially for a state with distance and geographic challenges like Vermont. 

The majority of my career has been in fund development. Using my relationship-building skills, I have been able to build committees, recruit key volunteers, and cultivate donors to increase all areas of Development. Fundraising is a team effort and leadership begins from the top with the staff and Board. I have increased Friends of Scouting campaigns, rebuilt and increased Special Events, created and expanded Experiential Events, cultivated major gifts, researched and received foundation grants, and managed product sales. At times it was a struggle to keep others involved and that’s when you roll up your sleeves and get it done.

Offering a vibrant and exciting program to our Scouts is a necessity! The past few years have proven that the survival of our movement requires a strong program offering that both excites and challenges our youth. I benefited from an incredible Scouting experience and I believe that every young person should be able to have the same opportunities I did. Building on the great culture of strong program in Green Mountain Council, we will have to continue to keep our youth safe, train our volunteers so they can offer a great program, and continue to have new adventures and themes to keep our Scouts involved. This will require renewed investment to keep our programs and camps a fun learning environment, a place to foster character and leadership development, and allow our Scouts to make memories for a lifetime.