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In order to ensue that local council endowment funds will have sufficient assets to work in the years ahead, a special recognition program has been created to encourage gifts to these funds.  It is called The 1910 Society.

Background and Significance

The 1910 Society was named in recognition of the year in which the visionary early leaders founded the Boy Scouts of America, which was patterned after the fledgling-but popular-Scouting program developed in England by Sir Baden-Powell.

Those who make a gift now, during the last years of the decade, to further endow Scouting are themselves modern-day visionaries.  It is appropriate, therefore, that these visionaries be recognized as they help ensure the Scouting legacy for future generations of young Americans by undergirding the financial stability of the BSA programs in the local council into the twenty-first century.

Qualifications

To qualify, an individual donor, a company, or an organization must donate $25,000 or more to the local council endowment fund. Pledges are acceptable, but must be honored by December 31, 1999. Gifts made prior to January 1, 1995 do not qualify. Recognition will be given for gifts of cash, stocks, bonds, lead trusts, or other assets that can be easily converted to cash. Deferred gifts and gifts of life insurance with a cash surrender value of less than $25,000 do not qualify.

Recognition

Members will receive a leather-bound edition of the Boy Scout Handbook with their name embossed in gold on the cover. In addition, they will receive a distinctive lapel pin and parchment certificate. the level of giving would be distinguished by a device on the lapel pin.  The names selected for the recognition levels of The 1910 Society were drawn from those early founders.

Levels of Recognition

$25,000 - Ernest Thompson Seton Member

$100,000 - Daniel Carter Beard Member

$500,000 - Theodore Roosevelt Member

$1,000,000 - Waite Phillips Member

Visionary Founders

	ERNEST THOMPSON SETON - First Chief Scout of the BSA and founder of the Woodcraft Indians. He wrote the first official American Scout Handbook-Boy Scouts of America: A Handbook of Woodcraft, Scouting, and Life-craft. Seton was a nationally recognized wildlife artist, naturalist, author, and lecturer.
	DANIEL CARTER BEARD - National Scout Commissioner and founder of the Society of the Sons of Daniel Boone. He also served as the first chairman of the National Court of Honor. Beard wrote and illustrated stories for youth in numerous magazines.
	THEODORE ROOSEVELT - Chief Scout Citizen and president of the United States of America. Colonel Roosevelt was named honorary vice president of the BSA in 1910, having already achieved a distinguished military career as commander of the famous "Rough Riders" cavalry regiment in the battle of San Juan Hill.
	WAITE PHILLIPS - One of the Boy Scouts of America's first benefactors. In 1938, Phillips donated to the BSA a large portion of his ranch in northeastern New Mexico. The ranch was originally named Philturn Rockymountain Scoutcamp but is now called Philmont Scout Ranch. Phillips was an entrepreneur, oilman, outdoorsman, a banker, and rancher.