Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council, Boy Scouts of America

The mission of the Boy Scouts of America is to prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law.

Scout Oath
On my honor I will do my best
To do my duty to God and my country
and to obey the Scout Law;
To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong,
mentally awake, and morally straight.

Scout Law
A Scout is:
Trustworthy
Loyal
Helpful
Friendly
Courteous
Kind
Obedient
Cheerful
Thrifty
Brave
Clean
Reverent

We are a volunteer driven organization from top to bottom. All of our units are led by volunteers, our service area committees that determine how to better serve our youth and expand our engagement with community charter organization partners are led by volunteers, and our executive board is led by volunteers. We have a deep connection to our communities through formal partnership with organizations that host our program meetings. These partner organizations are encouraged to reflect the core values and interests of the community and to help expand our impact.
Our volunteer board leadership has developed, and regularly reviews, a council Game Plan. This Game Plan highlights focal points that are foundational for delivering a relevant, high quality, engaging program for the families we serve.
Goals are built around volunteer adult leadership, financial growth, membership growth, and responsible property management. The strategies include:
Adult Leadership:
• Create and implement a plan for increased diversity;
• engage the alumni committee to connect with community leaders;
• effectively track leader training
• ensure that more volunteer leaders have the training they need.

Financial Growth:
• Launch a major gifts campaign for operating and endowment funds;
• evaluate special events to make sure that they’re increasing revenue and expanding audiences;
• create a gift-in-kind campaign to provide budget relieving consumables for council operations;
• transition kick-off events for 1st quarter fundraiser to prior quarter.

Membership Growth:
• Meet with packs that serve 70 or more youth, to see if they could more effectively serve youth as two packs;
• ensure that individual families have a clear path to continue with the program, even if their troop disbands;
• effectively reach out to community organizations with similar goals, and share opportunities to serve the community together;
• Develop and implement a board-approved plan to increase attendance at Cub Scout summer camps; pilot on-site outreach program code-named “Big Box”

Properties:
• Produce and review a master property plan for each property, including camp properties and council offices;
• Determine timeline and viability of county road access at Camp Pico Blanco;
• Ensure that we know what resources are needed to maintain properties, and efficiently deploy them;
• Establish a Service Center Team to execute on replacement and needs assessment

We have 24 staff members and over 5,000 volunteers who help make Scouting thrive. They meet at monthly volunteer "Service Area" Committee and Roundtable meetings where chairs and subcommittees focus on improving membership, training, fundraising and activities, and advancement/recognition to improve our overall program and assess how to better serve our youth.
Our board is vibrant, and gradually growing more diverse as our leadership intentionally reaches out to under-represented constituencies. It includes community leaders and people with the expertise to lead discussions and actions ranging from delivering great programs to youth, to managing properties.

Through a fiscally conservative strategy and enthusiastic fundraising goals, the Council has been able to grow its assets to ensure long-term financial stability for the program. In order to ensure membership growth over the long term the Council continues to pursue diversity in our Executive Board, our committees, and our membership to accurately reflect and represent our community and region.
In 2019, the Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council had a tremendous local impact:
• 13,472 active youth
• 5,045 adult volunteers
• Scouts provided 153,103 service hours to the larger community, through Eagle Scout projects, Scouting for Food, and more.
• Volunteer leaders gave an estimated 252,259 service hours while leading youth in the program.
• 439 Scouts earned the Eagle rank, an all-time high.
• 23,397 advancements and merit badges earned by Scouts

We continue to grow and modernize our programs, introducing initiatives that focus on STEM and Exploring (workforce development).
We recently completed a capital campaign that resulted in a new, fully weatherized dining hall at Camp Hi-Sierra, and a Phase II campaign that provided the resources to build new staff housing.
As we prepare for our future, the Silicon Valley Monterey Bay Council is committed to providing greater opportunities for youth to participate in Scouting, regardless of their surroundings, economic situation, religion, race or ethnic background as well as cultivating partnerships with communities, organizations, businesses, foundations, and individuals.