Director's Journal

Greetings NESA members,

Welcome to my first journal post. I’d like to start by telling you a little bit about myself and then about some of the projects the National Eagle Scout Association has going and has planned for the near future.

I’ve been NESA director for 16 months. I’ve been a professional Scouter for 28 years, 21 of those years filling many different roles in local councils: associate district executive, district executive, senior district executive, field director, development director, finance director, director of support services, and Scout executive. I’m an Eagle Scout, an OA Vigil Honor member, and a NESA Life Member, and I am Wood Badge trained. I love my work with the Boy Scouts of America and feel blessed to have been led down this path.

NESA has some great projects going. The first-ever nationwide Eagle Scout search was conducted this year in conjunction with the publishing of a national Eagle Scout directory. The numbers are not complete yet, but it appears that we have located nearly half of the living Eagle Scouts in the United States. Next, local councils will contact those Eagles and invite them to get them reacquainted with Scouting. There are many positions that adult Eagle Scouts can fill, including serving as a merit badge counselor or on an Eagle board of review, becoming an assistant Scoutmaster or Scoutmaster, serving on a troop committee, and serving as a unit commissioner. Every local council in the land can find a place for an Eagle Scout to give back to the organization.

Our Web site, http://www.nesa.org, has seen some changes recently, and much more is planned through the rest of this year. The site is one of our best member benefits. And it will only get better.

Lastly, I would like to mention our NESA Eagle Scout Scholarship program. Each year, roughly 10 percent of the 50,000 Eagle Scout Award recipients apply for one of our scholarships. Unfortunately, we have only enough earnings from investments (the source of scholarship funding) to award 85 scholarships. That’s only 1.7 percent of applicants. We can do better, and we will. Over the next couple of years, we will launch a fund-raising campaign aimed solely at funding scholarships for more deserving Eagle Scouts.

I’m glad that I’m your director, and I will do everything in my power to make the National Eagle Scout Association an organization you are pleased to call your own.

- Bill Steele