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As the new Scouting year and school year quickly approach, we wanted to provide you an update on the council and districts’ plans for roundtable in the upcoming months. So that unit leaders and district and council volunteers can provide the best roundtable experience possible, it has been decided that the September and October Roundtables will continue to be held virtually at the council-level. There will be no district-level roundtable for these months. The Commissioner Cabinet will revisit the possibility of a return to in-person meetings for the November and December Roundtables as we get closer to those events.
When will roundtables be held?
- September 10 – 7:00PM – Register
- October 1 – 7:00PM – Register
- November and December – Announcements about these roundtables will be made this fall
Why was the decision made to move away from in-person roundtables?
We don’t intend for this decision to be permanent. We understand the value of in-person roundtables for all of those that participate and we know that the virtual experience cannot completely replicate what we are able to do in-person. The Council Commissioner Cabinet wanted to make a decision that would help unit leaders and district volunteers to best prepare for upcoming roundtables. It was decided that moving away from a month-to-month decision would make it easier for unit leaders to plan to attend and to help direct the content of the roundtable meetings.
The decision to remain virtual was made based off the current Department of Health guidelines for gatherings and meetings. Not all of our current roundtable venues have the ability to host roundtable outside. This restricts us to only being able to have 25 people at an indoor roundtable location. All of our roundtables typically have greater participation than 25. Several of our roundtable locations have also prohibited use from outside groups in accordance with their own COVID-19 policies. Providing a virtual program allows us to work around all of these restrictions and get important information to our unit leaders.
Who can attend the Virtual Roundtable?
Any unit leader, committee member, or parent from the unit can attend roundtable. We can currently host up to 500 people and we have the ability to expand that capacity as needed.
Do I need to register to participate? If so, how?
Yes, you do need to register to participate in Virtual Roundtable. In following best practices for online meetings you must register for the meeting to receive the credentials to attend. This helps to prevent individuals that would seek to disrupt our program from having easy access to our meeting. Roundtable is also hosted as a “webinar” and not a standard meeting. Participants can engage with our panelists and presenters through our chat and Question and Answer feature but participant screens and audio are not shared with the rest of the roundtable.
Invites to register for roundtable are distributed through the New Birth of Freedom Council email channels. To make sure that you receive an invite to register, please register to receive the council and/or district newsletter. You can choose to subscribe to the council newsletter or any of our other newsletters by going here.
To participate, you will have to have a Zoom account or sign up for a FREE one. It is easy to sign up for and again this process follows best practices.
Will the Virtual Roundtable be recorded?
Yes, the meeting will be recorded. The information shared will be emailed out to participants after the meeting and all of the Questions and Answers asked will be posted online in The Hub. Information from all of our previous roundtables are posted there.
