Author: Jeffrey Heck
Camporee 5 Days and Pack Overnight 12 Days: Encouraging unit attendance
Remember that one of the most important parts of any scouting his boys in tents. Boys will not remember much of the meetings that they attend. They will remember many details of campouts.
The lessons we seek to impart are about finding a scout’s part in a community. Campouts are where they have the best chance to look at themselves and how they fit together with their buddies in their unit.
Often it is not the scout that we need to persuade to attend the camp out. It is the reluctant parent who finds excuses why the campout is not a necessary part of their son’s participation in scouting. A confident scout leader will always address concerns with the parent about why a Scout is not attending the camp out.
This is often an opportunity to teach a reluctant parent about why scouting works and what makes it unique as a program. It is often the best chance to explain how campouts teach citizenship and leadership better than almost any other opportunity in the child’s extracurricular activities. Confident scout leader will not look at this discussion as a problem but as a chance to build retention. Educating parents about the program is one of the best ways to make sure the scout stays in the program for an extended period of time.
This means that we, as scout leaders, need to be confident in offering camp out programs in the fall and asking questions of parents when their sons cannot participate. We need to be understanding when there are athletic or family conflicts on the schedule. But we need to help the parent find alternate opportunities to participate.
The district offers Camporees and Pack Overnights in order for units to have an easier time offering campout opportunities. Take advantage of this opportunity not just for your unit but for each of your boys.
If you take the time for sleepy boy’s parents that their attendance is important, your participation rates will increase dramatically. In larger units this can be a time-consuming proposition for a cup master or scoutmaster. It becomes very important to delegate those responsibilities to assistant cubmasters or den leaders or assistant scoutmasters to make the Ask more successful and timely.
How to train youth leaders
Troops and crews often face problems of teaching youth how to become leaders. Some scoutmasters rely on resources like scoutmasterCG.com. Some rely on official BSA training courses.
The unofficial resources do a good job of giving a fresh perspective of the problems that you run into with youth training. They tend to focus on training within the troop. The emphasis is on informality, effectiveness, practicality, and fun.
The official resources allow youth to continue to follow official BSA training continuum. Most important part of the BSA training regimen is the ability for senior youth leaders to have an opportunity to learn with their peers. Senior patrol leaders have an opportunity to go learn with and from other senior patrol leaders. The emphasis is a broader understanding of the BSA program.
The BSA youth leadership training continuum begins with Introduction to Leadership Skills for Troops. This should be taught by council. Once a senior patrol leader has taken the course, he is expected to offer the course at his own troop. The preferred time for the training is immediately before the new youth elections. This allows the new candidates to better understand the positions they are looking to take on. This course is required, in theory, before a scout moves on to National Youth Leadership Training. Locally we refer to this as White Stag. This takes place in two sessions in June and July at Camp Redwing. Graduates can then become camp staffers in following years.
Graduates of White Stag then can pursue training at Philmont, and the other national centers, called National Advanced Youth Leadership Experience. Here they will put NYLT lessons to use.
Are your youth leaders looking to have leadership challenges beyond this? Look into the Kodiak Challenge. It can be offered at the unit, district, or council level, with Council’s Training Department approval.
You want to keep your older scouts engaged? Promote this leadership training continuum and watch how boys refuse to leave scouting.
Recharter dues calculator
One of the questions I ran into last night at Roundtable was “How do I calculate the dues?”
Simply put, use this Excel spreadsheet. It will do the work for you.
Camporee: 9 Days — Fire Truck
Assistant Camporee Chair Rick Aker has arranged with a retired Indianapolis Fire Department officer to have an old fire pumper truck at the Camporee.
Just another item to share with your scouts.
Camporee: 10 days — Eagle Project
Bill Cherry and Rick Aker assumed shared responsibility as District Co-coordinators of Eagle Projects on August 20, 2015.
Both gentlemen will be attending the Fall Camporee.
Throughout the Camporee, these gentlemen will make themselves available to discuss Eagle Scout binder and project training to any adult (including scoutmasters, troop advancement chairs, troop Eagle advisors, and Eagle-candidate parents) who would like to hear more about what it takes to have a successful project and a proper binder.
Rick Aker serves as assistant Camporee Chair and will be around the Scout Cabin most of the weekend.
Bill Cherry will have some Camporee training commitments but will likely be floating around the Camporee more.
Camporee: Is your SPL Prepared?
UPDATE 10/7/15: Retitled.
This Fall Camporee is going to be fun but very busy. It may require a special emphasis on preparing your SPL.
Does your SPL know about these items:
- The Friday night meeting at 9:00 pm.
- The new Commissioner’s Awards for patrols and SPLs.
- Encouraging older scouts such as OA and Firecrafters to be involved in managing troop events.
- The requirements of the Willy Award.
- His adult leaders’ plans to attend District Training at Camporee to better manage contingencies.
- The time and place for the Saturday SPL meeting.
- His troop’s contribution to the Saturday night campfire.
The goal of all of these events is to offer opportunities to lead while having fun. Help your SPL focus on the fun and avoid unnecessary stress. If he is prepared, it will work well.
If problems arise, at least he will have stories to tell.
REMINDER: Roundtable on Rechartering
This Thursday Roundtable at Second Presbyterian will focus on Rechartering.
Meetings to turn in charters begin October 8th, so all units need to be at Roundtable to be able to plan.
Camporee: 11 Days — Emergency Mobilization
District Camporee Chair Stu Bowes announced yesterday, “Con Sullivan, our District Executive, will be conducting a mass casualty and mobilization drill with our Zombie theme at 4:00 for the Scouts. This should help some of the boys (and motivate others) who are working on their E Prep Merit Badge.”
Con is an Emergency Preparedness merit badge counselor. More importantly, he has a Master’s Degree 
from Ball State in Government Affairs, with an emphasis in Homeland Security. He will make himself available to scouts who wish to do some counseling with a counselor having a professional insight into this world. (As always, scouts should bring their blue cards with scoutmaster signatures.) Check in with the scout cabin to keep up to date on Con’s schedule.
Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge Requirement #7 states, “Take part in an emergency service project, either a real one or a practice drill, with a Scouting unit or a community agency.”
Requirement 8 further requires,
Do the following:
A. Prepare a written plan for mobilizing your troop when needed to do emergency service. If there is already a plan, explain it. Tell your part in making it work.
B. Take part in at least one troop mobilization. Before the exercise, describe your part to your counselor. Afterward, conduct an “after-action” lesson, discussing what you learned during the exercise that required changes or adjustments to the plan.
C. Prepare a personal emergency service pack for a mobilization call. Prepare a family emergency kit (suitcase or waterproof box) for use by your family in case an emergency evacuation is needed. Explain the needs and uses of the contents.
What can you imagine for your scouts can be done to prepare for Con’s exercise to complete these requirements!?
Camporee: Final Checklist
UPDATE 10/8/15 at 10:05 AM: Retitled.
As of Monday, September 28, 2015, we had 12 days until the Fall Camporee! [As of October 8th, we are down to one day!]
Make sure that your troop has kept up-to-date on their task list:
- confirmed your reservation with District Camporee Chair Stu Bowes, including a headcount;
- communicated the event that your Troop plans on offering during the Camporee (and considered whether one or two Firecrafter or OA members could run the event rather than an adult, to better serve the Aims of Scouting), including some troop meeting dry runs;
- considered your Troop’s contribution to the Friday night campfire, including some troop meeting rehearsals;
- identified your scouters who are eligible for receiving the North Star Red Cap;
- reviewed the criteria for the coveted Willy Award with your Senior Patrol Leader (or the acting Senior Patrol Leader for the Camporee) and determine what the patrols’ contribution to your campsite theme will be;
- reviewed the criteria for the new Commissioner’s Awards with your Senior Patrol Leader (or acting SPL) and determine how it will affect your patrols’ preparations for the Camporee;
- contacted your scouters who have received their Wood Badge or current candidates to advise them that District Chair Steve James is interested in rebuilding the District’s Wood Badge Association known as the “Willy Gillies,” and there will likely be a discussion at or after Cracker Barrel on Saturday night about the Willy Gillies;
- talked to your newer or untrained scouters (whether they are camping out or not) about the long list of trainings that will be offered at Camporee that will be necessary for Rechartering, including
- Youth Protection Training – Friday night
- District Committee Training – Saturday 9:00 am to 1:00 pm
- Troop Committee Challenge – Saturday 9:00 am to 11:30 am
- Training the Chartered Organization Representative – Saturday 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
- Scoutmaster-Specific Training – Saturday for 4 hours (2 segments: 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm and 6:00 to 8:00 pm).
This will be a busy and wonderful Camporee. With the theme being interesting to the boys and amount of training offered, we will likely need an unusually high number of adults present to be able to run the programs and serve the boys simultaneously.
In any case, we look forward to the camaraderie of scouting in North Star!
Camporee: Scoutmaster Specific Training (for ASM’s, too!)
North Star District Training Subcommittee and the Commissioner’s Service is happy to announce that we have confirmed that we will be offering Scoutmaster Specific Training on Saturday, October 10, 2015 by Troop 73 (St Paul’s Episcopal) Scoutmaster Vince Hernly.
Vince is an experienced scoutmaster, teacher, and outdoorsman. He received his Wood Badge in 2011. He has been on Council’s beloved Voyageur (canoeing training) staff at Camp Belzer for a number of years and is a regular visitor to the Boundary Waters and other interesting outdoor locales. He teaches karate as part of his professional life.
Due to conflicting Camporee events and trainings, Vince will be teaching this 4-hour class in two 2-hour segments. He will offer the first segment from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm. The second segment will be from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (which will conflict with the dinner time, so plan accordingly by eating early or bringing a brown bag). I will join him to team teach the evening segment.
Please bring notebook paper and writing utensil.
Old Scoutmasters Handbook or new Troop Leader Guidebook or both. SMs & ASMs should seriously consider owning their own copy of at least one of these. The new book is in two volumes and only volume 1 is available at this time.
If you have one, a copy of each of the following:
- Boy Scout Manual (Appendix available in PDF)
- Program features (old or new) (Available in PDF)
- Guide to advancement (Available in PDF)
- Troop Committee Guidebook (Available in PDF)
Please let your assistant scoutmasters know that this training is being offered so that they can get it on their schedule.
For assistant scoutmasters who need the Introduction to Outdoor Leadership skills, this will not be offered by North Star that day; however, Del-Mi will be offering OLS the same day at Camp Krichtenstein. OLS will then be offered at University of Scouting in January 2016 and by Del-Mi at each of its next Camporees. (North Star is considering offering it at Winter Camporee, too, if sufficient interest exists.)
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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