This is the most visible of all volunteer roles in Scouts Canada as you have the privilege of working directly with our youth members.  

Your role as a Section Scouter is one of assisting, supporting, facilitating and motivating to help fulfill our mission to help develop well rounded youth, better prepared for success in the world.  You certainly DON'T need to be the next incarnation of "Survivorman" Les Stroud (Chief Scout of Scouts Canada) or Bear Grylls (Chief Scout of the UK Scout Association).  However, if you enjoy working with young people (whether they are your children or not) and other like-minded adult volunteers, becoming a Section Scouter may be for you!  Scouting is more than just outdoor activities, so if you're artistic, civic-minded or have a passion for STEM, your skills and experience are equally welcome in all Sections.

Volunteer opportunities are available with our Beaver Colonies (5-7 years), Cub Packs (8-10 years), Scout Troop (11-14 years) or Venturer Company (15-17 years).  And at 3rd Kanata, we offer Scouting in English, French or in a bilingual (EN/FR) setting.

In Scouting circles, we sometimes ask adults if they remember their Grade 2 teacher's name.  Some do, many don't, but if you ask them who their Scout leader was during their youth, they remember immediately!  Why not become someone that today's youth will remember throughout their lifetime? 

Do you love outdoor equipment like tents, lanterns and stoves?  So do our youth members and Sections Scouters, but they need to help to access and manage our inventory of gear.

The Quartermaster ("QM") team isn't only one person, but it works best with a small team that works together using their individual skills.  Some of the responsibilities of the QM team includes:

• Managing the physical inventory of Scout equipment in 3rd Kanata's external storage facility ("QM Stores").  This includes having a process for reserving it, checking-out, checking-in and identifying damage that requires repair or replacement.

• Are you a tech-minded person rather than a hands-on person?  Using technology to manage 3rd Kanata's inventory would be a fabulous help!  Imagine having a system for our Section Scouters to select and reserve the equipment they need for an outdoor activity, check it out of the QM Stores, check it back in and report damage.  What if our Scouters had a way to find it on the shelves (think like an IKEA warehouse)?  Wouldn't it be great to measure how often equipment is being used so that we know whether or not to (1) buy more if it's in high demand or (2) retire it if no one ever uses it?

• Are you a handy person who likes tinkering and repairing?  Our youth members are learning how to use outdoor equipment and accidents can happen.  Sometimes the globe on a Coleman lantern needs to be replaced or a hole in a tent needs to be patched.  Maybe the materials in our First Aid kit need to be refreshed.  Getting hands on with the equipment is very important to maintain their useful life.

During most of the COVID-19 global pandemic, our Scouting activities were held outdoors or even virtually.  However, our weekly meetings are typically held in community use facilities and are rented from the local school boards or the City of Ottawa.

Managing our facility reservations on an ongoing and ad hoc basis is an important task to ensure that our Sections have a place to meet.  After renewing our permits and making the initial reservations for the year, our Section Scouters will work with the Facilities volunteer(s) to cancel when necessary, reserve alternative locations or even request a outdoor fire permit from the City of Ottawa if an activity requires it.

This role is ideal for those looking to help on a flexible schedule.

Throughout the COVID-19 global pandemic, 3rd Kanata organized almost no fundraising activities.  Because we couldn't organize camps or have indoor meetings in rented facilities, our costs were dramatically reduced.

However, we've restarted our activities and welcomed many new youth members.  Because Scouts Canada retains nearly all of the registration fees, locally we live up to the Scout Law which says that "A Scout is ... wise in the use of all resources." 

We're looking for help to organize our infrequent, but critically important fundraising activities.  We have some existing programs (see below), but we need help to develop new ones.

In addition to our largest, nationwide Scout Popcorn campaign, there are year-round campaigns like Scout Seeds, Scout Coffee and Scout Trees.

There are also passive fundraising activities through partnerships with local retailers (Home Hardware, Bushtukah) and FlipGive, but with ideas from additional fundraising volunteers, there may be some other interesting opportunities available.

Contact Phil Bennett, 3rd Kanata's Fundraising Coordinator, to learn more  philippe.bennett@3rdkanata.ca

In Scouts Canada, the Group Commissioner is a key volunteer leader who is responsible for overseeing the overall well-being and success of a Scout Group, including its programs, finances, and safety. They are accountable to a Group Support Scouter or Relationship Manager and are the face of Scouting in their community. 

In essence, the Group Commissioner is the leader of the Scout Group, responsible for ensuring that it operates effectively, safely, and in accordance with Scouts Canada's principles and policies. 

Our current GC is stepping down at the end of 2025, so a transition period is available now.

3rd Kanata hosts an annual community Pumpkin Walk on November 1st at Deevy Pines park. This event needs support in organizing and running safely each year. 

If you love the fall season, pumpkins and/or helping organize a great free community event, please join our organizing team.

Using Marketing content provided by Scouts Canada HQ and local content from our Section Scouters, you can help us share the story of 3rd Kanata with our local community and beyond!

Social Media is the most effective tool we have to reach our current 3rd Kanata families, prospective members and volunteers, plus the greater community about the important work we're doing to help develop well-rounded youth, better prepared for success in the world.

Today, we have an externally facing Facebook page, a closed Facebook Group for current members plus the Group website.  However, other platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and others could be useful to reach our youth and adult audiences.  

Partnering with our IT volunteers is important too in order to ensure that fresh content is available on our website and that SEO (search engine optimization) is working properly.  You will also follow Brand Guidelines from Scouts Canada in order have consistent messaging and effectively use the content they make available.

3rd Kanata implemented Google Workspace for Nonprofits in 2021 in order to increase collaboration and improve communication among Scouter volunteers, parents and the community.  There are many interesting tools available on this platform and we use them on regular basis.

Are you interested in helping manage our IT resources?  This is a very flexible volunteer role for anyone who can help by creating new users and user groups, maintain our 3rdkanata.ca domain, publish content to our website, investigate additional technologies available to us as a registered non-profit through Tech Soup Canada, and many more possibilities.

Google Workspace for Nonprofits even includes Google Ad Grants $10,000 USD of in-kind advertising every month for text ads that can be used to drive recruitment, fundraising or other online activities.  Collaboration with the Social Media & Marketing volunteer (see above) and others would help put this $10K of free advertising to amazing use!

The Group Committee Treasurer is responsible for keeping track of the group's finances. The GCT is a registered Scouter. A Police Record Check and interview are needed when first registered (1 hr).

Attend Group Committee meetings (2 hr six times a year).

Maintain up-to-date records of the group's money.

Review and keep on file the financial records provided by each section.

Write and co-sign cheques with the Chair (usually at Group Committee meetings).

With a growing Scout Group, administration of our data is an important responsibility.  Before the start of the registration period in September, it's important to setup our Beaver, Cub, Scout and Venturer sections to ensure that new members can find us and register for a new Scouting year.  Our volunteer data needs to be updated with the latest training or security details to ensure compliance with Scouts Canada.

The Registrar works together with the volunteers, parents and Scouts Canada HQ to ensure that everything is up to date on the MyScouts platform.

This is a flexible role and it can be done when it's convenient for the volunteer, day or night, weekday or weekday.  

Contact registrar@3rdkanata.ca if you're interested in joining the team.

We're very happy to see our youth people proudly wearing their Scouting crests and the badges they earn through their hard work.  However, it takes work to maintain our stock so that our Section Scouters can award them in a timely manner.  

This volunteer role is ideal for someone who wants to help on a flexible basis without having to attend weekly meetings.

This role would conglomerate purchases from ScoutShop.ca and other badge sites like e-Patches and Balloo's Badge Bin. 

Do you want to help, but don't know how?  Talk to us!  Maybe we haven't thought of how you can help or haven't listed a role here.

Or maybe you want to help one of our existing Group Committee roles in order to learn new skills (ex. Treasurer, Secretary, Registrar, IT, etc.).  "Many hands make light work"