If you’ve ever wanted to meet BSA’s national commissioner, today is your chance: Charles W. Dahlquist II will hold a meet-and-greet at 1 p.m. today in the Commissioner’s Corner, and he will deliver a talk at 2 p.m. today at the National Eagle Scout Association (NESA) exhibit, focusing on using Scouting skills to achieve goals and reach summits.
Dahlquist began his adult Scouting role In 1975 as a unit commissioner in the National Capital Area Council. Since then, he has served as a Scoutmaster and many other many roles in the Boy Scouts of America in both Boy Scouting and Venturing.
“When I was young my parents taught me to serve because something needs to be done,” he said in an interview. One recent example: Dahlquist helped bus tables for staff members in Base Camp Echo during dinner on Monday.
Dahlquist is very busy. Professionally he is a lawyer, but he spends much of his weekends traveling to Scouting events. As BSA’s 10th national commissioner, his day-to-day activities vary. “It’s a lot of phone calls, emails, policies, and travel,” he comments, but most rewarding is the time he gets to spend interacting with Scouts and volunteers across the organization.
Dahlquist’s 1 p.m. meet-and-greet will be held at the Commissioner’s Corner, a new area in the Summit Center this year, located between the NESA tent and the Norman R. Augustine Twelve Points Plaza of the Summit Center. At the Commissioner’s Corner, participants can learn about being a unit commissioner — and can get one step closer to earning the Daniel Carter Beard Award, which has simple and interactive requirements designed to tell the history, and importance, of the commissioner role.
The recognition for the completion of the award requirements is a medallion with Daniel Carter Beard on it, and will be awarded to anyone who completes the youth or adult requirements.
Dahlquist believes that the 2017 Jamboree will have a great impact on participants. “We attend a lot of events, and when we do we tend to pass right through them,” Dahlquist said. “Happy or sad, exciting or boring, they just happen, and we pass right through. We should instead allow the event to pass through us. Whatever we do, we ought to allow these things to pass through us. They should stick with us, change us. We should enjoy these experiences, and they will be a part of us.”