This newsletter will address the following topics:

1. An Important Update from Our District Chair
2. Roundtable Information
3. New Unit Breakdown
4. New District Roundtable Information
5. Arrowhead District Dinner 2024
6. Arrowhead District Award of Merit
7. Re-Registration Information
8. Carroll Klondike
9. Annual Appeal
10. Arrowhead Membership Milestones!
11. Merit Badge Counseling Information
12. Friendly Reminders

Dear Arrowhead District leaders and volunteers,

I’m writing to notify you of the decision to retire the Arrowhead District and reassign units in the District into adjoining Districts, effective January 1, 2025. This difficult decision by the Baltimore Area Council has been made after thoughtful consideration of the best way to continue supporting all of you and the scouts, parents, and unit leaders across Arrowhead and adjoining Districts.

In 2022, following a significant reduction in the number of scouts and units across the Council due to the COVID pandemic and other factors, the Baltimore Area Council downsized its professional staff and realigned into fewer Districts. As the number of scouts and units in an area decreases, it can be more challenging to provide help and support in the form of information sharing, training, forums to network and learn from other scouters, and District-wide programming. Fewer districts facilitated being able to deliver robust professional and volunteer support to grow scouting once again, and the efforts have been successful.

Since that time, Arrowhead has remained the smallest District in the Council, with fewer than 25 units and 600 scouts, despite having one of the larger geographic areas. Due to your tremendous efforts, Arrowhead has extremely strong units and a dedicated volunteer base. Despite our efforts, however, it remains a struggle to recruit and sustain the number of volunteers needed to fully serve all of the units across the District and provide the full range of program offerings we provided pre-pandemic.

With this change, your continued volunteer leadership and support for the units in western Baltimore County will be essential. Thank you for your cheerful service! The District Committee and Commissioners along with our counterparts in Carroll, National Pike, and Fort McHenry Districts, and council staff will be facilitating the transition to: 1) ensure continued continuity of support for the scouts and units in Arrowhead District, and 2) ensure a smooth integration of this Arrowhead District leadership team into the leadership teams for Carroll, National Pike, and Fort McHenry Districts. Through this integration, stronger District leadership teams will be able to enhance unit support and programming opportunities for scouts and units across all four Districts.

• Phil Juengst

District Chair

Here is guide to which districts the Arrowhead units will be joining.

Carroll:

Pack 143

Pack 706

Pack 971

Troop 143

Troop 634

Troop 706

Troop 8634

Fort McHenry:

Pack 435

Troop 42

Troop 97

Troop 846

National Pike:

Pack 109

Pack 306

Pack 307

Pack 456

Troop 109 B

Troop 109 G

Troop 306

Troop 307 B

Troop 307 G

Troop 456

Troop 764

Carroll:

District Committee/

Commissioner Meetings:

First Thursday of every Month at 7PM

Roundtable:

Second Tuesday of every month at 7PM

LOCATION:

Westminster United Methodist Church

165 E. Main St,

Westminster, MD 21157

(Same for both)

Fort McHenry:

District Committee/

Commissioner Meetings:

First Tuesday of every Month at 7PM

Commissioners at 8PM

LOCATION:

3028 Greenmount Avenue

Baltimore, MD, 21218

Roundtable:

Second Monday of every month at 7:30

LOCATION:

First English Lutheran Church

3807 N. Charles St.

Baltimore, MD, 21218

National Pike:

District Committee Meeting (VIRTUAL):

First Tuesday of every month on Zoom at 7:30

District Commissioner Meeting (VIRTUAL):

Fourth Tuesday of every month on Zoom at 7:30

(Please ask DE Michael Bell for Zoom links)

Roundtable:

Second Monday of every month at 7:30

LOCATION:

Columbia Academy

10305 Old Columbia Road

Columbia, MD, 21046

In honor of Arrowhead's 2024 and District Retirement, the District is planning to host a final District Dinner in February.

Please be on the lookout for additional information and a finalized date to come in the upcoming weeks.

We are currently accepting District Award of Merit nominations for Arrowhead's final year.

If you are completing a nomination for the District Award of Merit, please be sure to email your nomination to Advancement Chair Charlie Hauss (charles.hauss@gmail.com) no later than January 17th.

As you all know, we are in the midst of Unit Renewal/Recharter season and the process this year looks a bit different than last year. 

As the individual rechartering process has transitioned to individual membership renewal, the only responsibility of the unit is the $100 Charter fee and an updated copy of the signed Chartered Organization Agreement. 

If you are a Key 3 Member, you should have received an email from District Executive Michael Bell concerning regarding unit renewal with an attached copy of the Charter Agreement.

*After* completing the online unit renewal process, please return the signed Charter Agreement to DE Michael Bell. You may give him that form via email, in person at roundtable or arrange a time to meet with him if there is no other option.

This form needs to be given to Michael no later than December 20th, 2024 or your unit could face potential lapsing issues in January.

If you have any questions regarding the renewal process, please click the link below to be directed to the Council's page detailing Unit Renewal or email DE Michael Bell at mike.bell@scouting.org

As you’re aware we are now inside the 60-day membership renewal window and those members with a renewal date of 12/31/2024 are now eligible to renew. National has begun sending those emails out on a rolling basis and they will continue to go out to ALL members.

If your unit plans to pay for membership renewal, please communicate that with your families so that they are aware and don’t act on those emails. The “Unit Pay” checkbox in my.scouting settings has been disabled and is no longer functional regardless of whether it’d been previously selected. There are currently no plans to bring that back, so PLEASE let your families know whether they should act on membership renewal or if the unit plans to.

Please see the following link for detailed resources on the renewal process that can be shared with families: https://www.scouting.org/resources/unit-and-membership-renewal/

Remember, unit renewal (formerly recharter) and membership renewal are now two separate processes, and all units and members will complete this process annually moving forward. If you have further questions, please reach out to myself or your commissioner. If you have questions on costs, or need information on financial aid, please visit: https://baltimorescouting.org/membershipfee/

Arrowhead's scouts and volunteers have been invited to join the Carroll District in their annual Klondike Derby!

When: Friday February 9th - Sunday February 11th

Where: Carroll County Agricultural Center

Please register the entire Pack or Troop. No individual registrations.

Adults must be registered with BSA to stay over night. Adults are free but if they would like to purchase a patch or extra patches please do so when registering.

Make sure the contact person is someone who will be at the event or will be in close contact with those attending so that up-to-date information gets to the correct people. 

Mark your first, second and third choice about your camping/station space. Cub scouts are letters, Scouts BSA are numbers

Cub scouts - no prizes or beads used this year, come out for fun and excitement

Registration closes on: January 26, 2024

Contact Colleen at carrollklondike2023@gmail.com for any questions

Combined Cub Scout and Scout BSA Guide attached, please save this information so you have it. 

Huge shout out to our Arrowhead Cub Scout Packs who have reached our council membership milestones this fall recruiting season!

Congratulations to all of our high performing Cub Scout packs! We hope to see all of our packs recognized for their membership accomplishments soon!

As part of your annual renewal, Merit Badge Counselor status will appear alongside your other positions. When you complete your registration renewal and pay the fee, your Merit Badge Counselor position will be renewed, as long as it remains on your list of positions.

Anyone wanting to become a new Merit Badge Counselor should still email their packet to arrowheaddean@gmail.com.

Please visit the Arrowhead District website for additional information - https://baltimorebsa.org/arrowhead