On February 8, 2022, Mike Overman, (Orion District Chairman for the Sam Houston Area Council of Scouts BSA) and Dylan Kellner (District Executive for the Sam Houston Area Council of Scouts BSA) spoke to the Magnolia Rotary Club membership about Scouting in our area. Pictured above from left to right are: Mike Overman, Kelly McDonald (Magnolia Rotary Club President) and Dylan Kellner.
Jessica Brooks introduced Mike Overman and Dylan Kellner with a brief overview of their backgrounds.
Dylan spoke first and told everyone that their district has around 400 adult volunteers who cover about 30 units in the Orion District. Dylan then told everyone that although COVID-19 has been a problem since it started in 2020, they were still able to recruit and add 175 scouts during 2021. For quite a long time during COVID-19, they had to hold all meetings online which was better than nothing but not quite the same thing as getting into the great outdoors. MISD was commended recently for allowing scouts to meet on their campuses.
Mike Overman told everyone that they will have over 500 scouts attend "Merit Badge University" at a LSC Campus this coming Saturday. Each scout has the potential to earn up to 4 merit badges during this gathering. Mike pointed out that over 20 years ago, the Boy Scouts of America had around 2.3 million members. However, because of the lawsuit to allow girls into scouting (which has already happened) and the fact that the LDS Church removed all of its members from scouting, in 2020 that number was around 700,000 and by the end of 2021 it had reached 1 million. Mike pointed out that the lawsuit is only at the national level (from a financial standpoint) and has not affected finances at the local levels which are considered to be similar to an individual business entity. Mike also pointed out that 90% of the lawsuit had to do with problems that occurred 30 years ago and at that time, BSA introduced a program called "Youth Protection Training" that has reduced the problem significantly over the years.
Mike, who is responsible for membership, finance and programs, told everyone that in 2021 the scouts in his district sold around $200,000 of popcorn during August to December. Mike also spoke about the old Camp Strake site off of I-45 and said that initially everyone thought it was a mistake, but that it turned out there were good reasons for selling it. The city of Conroe kept encroaching on the site by taking small pieces of land for various reasons. There was also a large sewage pipe that broke on the property that created quite a problem for awhile. Anyway, the new 28 acre site next to Lake Livingston is surrounded by state forests which will prevent encroachment on the site. It also is a beautiful area with a river flowing through it and it has as a fairly large lake on it. The name (Camp Strake) was also kept. Everyone involved now thinks the new site is much better than the old site.
Dylan then spoke about how scouting also wants to give back to the local communities and the Orion District is currently out canvasing neighborhoods asking residences to place food bags on their porch or doorstep for the scouts to pick up and give to the area food banks. This was a very successful campaign. In 2021, the Orion District had records of 15,000 community service hours logged by scouts.
Mike then told a story about his sister's family (father, mother, son and daughter) whose son was in scouting. In the past whenever the family participated in a scouting weekend, both the son and daughter participated in games and competitions. However, if any awards were given out, only the son was able to receive them. Mike pointed out that this was unfair to the daughter and is glad that this is no longer the case.
Both Mike and Dylan than pointed out that they are willing to be a partner in any Rotary project that makes sense and everyone thought this was a great idea.
