Hello Scouters and families,

Welcome to a new Scouting year at the 3rd Ottawa, it is a year of change and growth for the 3rd.  Our Group Committee and some of our leadership teams are seeing some changes, however with lots of continuity to maintain our excellent programs.

Our registration night will be Sept.5, 2012 from 7:00pm – 8:00pm at Westminster Presbyterian, and everyone should note that our Beaver and Cub sections are once again quite full; this is a testament to our excellent program.  Our Scouts have room only because so many of them are now of Venturer age; and there is a plan to have a Venturer Company once again at the 3rd this year – this is great news!

I have accepted the role of Group Commissioner, taking over from Stephen McFaul who has ably and professionally provided support to the 3rd for several years.  Stephen’s unwavering support and quiet work in the background has made our group run like clockwork during his tenure, and our relationship with headquarters consistent and clear; his calm approach to everything is one I would like to emulate – I would like to thank, and I know all of the leaders join me in thanking Stephen for his excellent service to the 3rd Ottawa.

At the same time, I will be stepping down from a decade at the helm of the Cub section.  I could not be more pleased to have David Fortier stepping into the Akela position, and look forward to his leadership and fun style at Cubs.  David has served the 3rd in both Cubs and Scouts, and brings lots of experience and energy to the role, along with a patience I admire – he’ll be a great Akela.

Wes Rodney and Mike Seufert will continue their outstanding programs in Beavers and Scouts, respectively, and will be aided by new leaders as well as existing ones.  Mike will also be helping out in Cubs.  Our leadership teams in all Sections remain strong and everyone brings new experiences and expertise to the group.  It looks like a great year ahead!

Yours in Scouting,

Tim Welch

The old fountain at Westminster

The new fountain

Parents of 3rd Ottawa youth know that in our primary meeting area, the Westminster gym, there existed an old water fountain that, unfortunately, did not function.  Our last meeting place at Westboro had a functioning fountain that was used at every meeting, sometimes more than once, by the youth. It seems the fountain at Westminster had drainage issues, leaked, and was an older porcelain model that harboured germs and bacteria, and was not up to current code.

As the 3rd Ottawa had a very real and present need for a new fountain, and other groups that use the church would certainly make use of one as well, the 3rd Ottawa group committee decided to donate a fountain to the church.  It is a common practice for Scouting groups to make donations of items, time, and effort to their sponsors – recently the 97th Ottawa donated a new kitchen sink to Woodroffe United.

This past Thursday, the new water fountain was installed and ready to use.  As a result, your youth – and all the users of the church – will now have easy access to fresh, cool tap water at our meetings (the fountain is not refrigerated or powered, the water is at pipe temperature).

Enjoy!  The fountain is located in the hallway from the gym to the lower hall, next to the washroom.

On Thursday March 8, some of the leaders of the 3rd Ottawa gathered and learned how to manage and edit the new 3rd Ottawa WordPress site.  The session featured not only learning how to edit the site, but an immediate start to collaboration on the features on the site, functionality, uses, and even naming conventions.

The 3rd Ottawa website just became a community effort!  It was a fun and interactive session with sweet homemade treats from Connie, chocolates as a reward for good questions and comments from Nancy G., donations of beverages and chocolates from Nancy P. and Steven M., and great ideas and participation from all who attended – thank you all.

Parents, youth and leaders can look forward to new content and new capabilities out of the 3rd Ottawa site, and through our Leader resources page we are going to share what we build with the larger worldwide Scouting movement (and in fact have already started!)

We will be holding another training session in April for any leaders who would like a refresher or who could not attend.

Way back in 2004, the 3rd Ottawa made the bold move to join the Internet era and launch our own website with it’s own domain name (thirdottawa.com).  Since that first site, we have not updated our style, design or the technology we use to manage the website.  This means we were still using arcane HTML software, FTP software, and other acronyms many never knew or knew how to use.

This new site is built using a content management system called WordPress. It will enable us to have many of the leaders and volunteers who run the 3rd Ottawa add content, update calendars, and generally provide you, the parents and youth who are so much a part of the 3rd Ottawa programs, with all the information you need!

Enjoy the site – click on the Section you are interested in (Beavers, Cubs, Scouts or Venturers) and you will be on your way!