Who We Are
The Golden Gate Area Council is a destination council for Scouting professionals. The Council provides mentoring and training opportunities while working with an energetic, dedicated, and supportive professional staff, executive committee & board, and volunteer pool – all working together with the shared goal of delivering Scouting’s promise to all available youth.
- GGAC covers all or parts of San Francisco, San Mateo, Alameda, Contra Costa, Solano, Napa, Del Norte, Humboldt County and Lake counties. We serve communities from urban to rural areas.
- The Council Service Center (which houses a Trading Post) are located in Pleasanton. We lease a program office in Alameda (which houses a Trading Post). A full Scout Shop is located in Pleasant Hill and a third Trading Post is located in Fairfield.
- The council operates five camping properties: Camp Herms (El Cerrito), Camp Wolfeboro (Arnold, operated under a US Forest Service Lease), Rancho Los Mochos (Livermore), Camp Royaneh (Cazadero), and Wente Scout Reservation (Willits).
- There is a leased Sea Scout Base with a dock, pier, and workshop at Fisherman’s Wharf in San Francisco in use for over 60 years.
- The cities of San Francisco and Oakland house an impressive number of Fortune 500 companies, with many located and headquartered throughout our territory. Companies include: Kaiser Permanente, Wells Fargo Bank, Safeway, Genentech, Pacific Gas & Electric, Chevron, Oracle, John Muir Health, The Gap, Workday, Levi Strauss, and Alta Bates Medical Center.
- Prominent public education and government research facilities include: University of California Berkeley, University of California San Francisco, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories and Sandia National Laboratories.
- The area is rich with ethnic and cultural diversity. Over 100 languages are spoken in our service area. Total Available Youth for the council territory is approximately 325,000 youth. Of these youth, 42% are Caucasian, 24% are Hispanic, 23% are Asian, and 10% are African American.
- Our council territory provides an exceptional quality of life with world class recreation, sports and entertainment, cultural opportunities, fine dining, and outstanding educational institutions.
- Within a few hours of driving, one can enjoy areas including: Napa/Sonoma wine region, Yosemite National Park, Lake Tahoe, Muir Woods, Sierra Nevada Mountains, Monterey/Carmel/Big Sur, Santa Cruz, and the Mendocino Coast
- The area has unparalleled hiking, camping, golf, and sailing.
- World champion professional sports teams include the Golden State Warriors, San Francisco 49’s, Oakland A’s, and San Francisco Giants.
- The average temperature is 70° in the geographic center, with about 25 inches of rain annually. Summer temperatures remain comfortable near the coast due to dry weather and cooler temperatures as a result of the natural ocean fog.