Letter from the New Scout Executive for NCAC

Taken from the NCAC Capital Comments - May 2010 email:

Dear Scouts, Scouting volunteers, families and supporters;

I am thrilled to be here. Not just because this Council is, according to Chief Scout Executive Bob Mazucca, the “flagship council of the nation,” but because I know this is the place that my 29 years as a Scouting professional have prepared me to be.

Many of you may have heard by now that my last position was as Scout Executive of the Orange County Council in California. I was there six years and when I left, that Council had a membership of more than 30,000 youth, 11,000 volunteers and a $9 million budget. By comparison, NCAC has more than twice the youth and volunteers with roughly the same budget. We’re doing a lot more with a lot less and that is, quite frankly, incredibly impressive.

As outlined in the NCAC Long-Range Strategic Plan 2008-2012, the Washington Metropolitan Area (WMA) is expected to grow both in population and wealth. Recent news reports continue to support this expectation as well as the anticipated ethnic shifts in our communities. The Strategic Plan outlines aggressive goals to tap into the potential of this growth and address these demographic changes so that we can stay true to our vision “to be recognized in our communities as providing the foremost youth program of character and values-based leadership development.” That means truly reflecting the communities that we serve and that support us while expanding into communities that need and want us to help them prepare young people for the opportunities and challenges of life.

I’m looking forward to walking shoulder to shoulder with you as we continue to implement the Long-Range Strategic Plan and deliver the great program of Scouting to every interested youth.

Les Baron Scout Executive, National Capital Area Council (NCAC), BSA


Les, a Life Scout, and his wife of 29 years, Kim, have two children, a son Leslie, 24 (an Eagle Scout) and a daughter Sara, 21.