Boy Scout
New Eagles from September 9th District Boards of Review
Jerry Simon, chair of the Eagle Boards of Review, has reported to the District that the following scouts have passed their Eagle Boards of Review on September 9, 2015:
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Calvin Bruce T-343
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Daniel Salima T- 269
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Eric Hofer T- 514
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Nicholas Leverenz T- 514
Congratulations to North Star District’s newest Eagles!
Roundtable Plans Fall Camporee
Stu Bowes, Camporee Chair and Assistant District Commissioner, led a conversation at the September Roundtable to plan the Fall Camporee. He reports that the Fall Camporee will take place Friday, October 9, 2015 through Sunday morning, September 11, 2015 at the Indiana School for the Blind and Visually Impaired at 7725 N. College Ave, Indianapolis, IN 46240.
The theme will be “Zombie Apocalypse.” The topic will be Emergency Preparedness. This will give us a wonderful chance to be able to mix the Halloween season’s goofiness with serious skills training and practice.
The cost will be $5 per person.
Security gates will be open most of the weekend. Using the 75th Street entrance is usually the easiest and least confusing approach.
Camp sites are available on a first-come, first-served basis.
Needs
After the Roundtable meeting the following items still need to be completed. Troops are asked to contribute information about the following items to Stu:
- competition station plans (please ask your PLC to contribute ideas; senior scouts running stations is a wonderful way to intrigue senior scouts about camporees);
- Number of scouts and adults attending;
- Every troop to plan a campfire skit;
- You will be required to use a fire pan because only above-ground fires are allowed.
We also need volunteers to do the following:
- Troops or honorary society (i.e., Firecrafter Ember or OA Chapter) for flag raising and lowering;
- Troop or honorary society to lead campfire;
- Troop or honorary society to lead “Scouts Own”;
- Troop to perform bathroom cleanup on Sunday.
Also needed police officer or fireman with vehicle for Zombie Apocalypse skit at flag raising ceremony. Please contact Stu Bowes if you can help. Some of our IMPD officer-scouters will be otherwise occupied with professional or troop duties.
White Stag 2016
Have you ever wished that you could send your patrol leaders to a leadership training course?
Well, you can!
White Stag is the National Youth Leadership Training Course. Crossroads of America will be offering the training in 2016 twice.
The first session will be June 15-29, 2016. The second session will be July 10-16, 2016.
If you are serious about getting your troop’s leadership improved, you need to be talking to your scouts about it now. Schools are beginning to recruit for their summer activities already. If NYLT is part of your vision, you need to be having your scouts thinking about it now.
If you are a NYLT graduate, you can also look at serving on staff. June staff sign up is here.
Looking for Position of Responsibility? How about OA Rep?
One of the most common concerns that I hear is that a troop needs more positions of responsibility. What do those include?
The Boy Scout Eagle Requirements state,
4. While a Life Scout, serve actively in your unit for a period of six months in one or more of the following positions of responsibility. List only those positions served after your Life board of review date.
Boy Scout troop. Patrol leader, assistant senior patrol leader, senior patrol leader, Venture patrol leader, troop guide, Order of the Arrow troop representative, den chief, scribe, librarian, historian, quartermaster, junior assistant Scoutmaster, chaplain aide, instructor, webmaster, or Leave No Trace trainer.
Varsity Scout team. Captain, cocaptain, program manager, squad leader, team secretary, Order of the Arrow team representative, librarian, historian, quartermaster, chaplain aide, instructor, den chief, webmaster, or Leave No Trace trainer.
Venturing crew/ship. President, vice president, secretary, treasurer, quartermaster, historian, den chief, guide, boatswain, boatswain’s mate, yeoman, purser, storekeeper, webmaster, or Leave No Trace trainer.
Lone Scout. Leadership responsibility in his school, religious organization, club, or elsewhere in his community.
(Underlining added for emphasis.) So it would be reasonable to expect that each troop in North Star District should have an OA Representative attend our Chapter meetings on the first Sunday of each month. (See the District website for upcoming meeting times and locations.)
Small unit, small committee
As we go into the fall and prepare for rechartering, the district is putting a greater emphasis on making sure we have properly aligned and functioning pack and troop committees. This does not mean that all unit committees need to be of equal size.
Smaller units have fewer parents to recruit from. This means inherently smaller committees. While the Boy Scouts of America system is extremely top-heavy and presumes each individual committee member has limited responsibilities, that is not always the case. In smaller units, sometimes one committee member will be the point of contact for district or council for several different subjects.
The unit committee structure only presumes a small handful of people. Units may choose to have larger committees with greater specialization. A smaller committee means that one person may handle all membership issues. Over the course of the year, this one unit committee member may be contacted by several specialized scouters from District or Council, including Webelos-to-scout transition, spring recruitment, fall recruitment, and retention. That does not mean that the unit needs to subdivide those membership issues the same way the District does.
Sad News about “Uncle Mikey” Stalcup
Update 8/11/2015: a few pictures from yesterday’s funeral for !ike Stalcup.
Update 8/6/2015, 11:00 am: Mike’s funeral visitation is confirmed for Monday, August 10th from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Flanner & Buchanan Broad Ripple, 1305 Broad Ripple Avenue, Indianapolis 46220. Services at the same location at 3 p.m. A celebration of life at Camp Belzer at 4 p.m. (Indy Star obituary scheduled for Sunday.)
Scouts and Scouters attending should consider wearing Class “A” uniforms. Members of camp staff may choose to wear their camp uniforms.
To understand the magnitude of the loss to North Star District and the Crossroads of America Council, just review Uncle Mikey’s own autobiographical scouting resume. Just a few highlights, among many:
- Eagle Scout with Bronze Palms, Eagle Board of Review October 23, 1954 with Troop 82 in Indianapolis according to the National Eagle Scout Association database.
- Assistant Scoutmaster beginning in 1961 with Troop 82 of North Star District and many other adult leadership positions through 1978
- Silver Beaver Award (highest award for service to Council)
- Continuous tenure as member at large of the Crossroads of America Council since 1982 until his death
- Western Section of National Council Training staff for 32 courses
- Firecrafter Minisino and member of the Order of High Bark
- Order of the Arrow Brotherhood member
- Doctor of Scouting Science
- Master of Commissioner Science
- Wood Badge Staff
- Unofficial Council Historian since 2000
- North Star District Commissioner or Staff for 18 years
- North Star District Committee for approximately 25 years
Update 8/3/2015, 11:00 am: Mike Stalcup passed away Monday night at 8 p.m. May he rest in peace.
4:14 pm: Sandi Hobbs at Council office has spoken to Nancy Stalcup. Plans are not finalized yet, but Nancy hopes visitation and viewing will be Monday, August 10, 2015 at 1 pm at Flanner & Buchanan Broad Ripple with the service immediately thereafter. The wake will be at Camp Belzer.
Original post: Mike Stalcup, known to many of us as “Uncle Mikey”, blacked out and fell on Saturday, August 1st. He is in a coma at St. Vincent’s Hospital 86th Street. An aneurism is suspected. The family has been called to the hospital.
Mike, most recently of Troop 56 and Pack 830, has been a long time volunteer for North Star District and Crossroads of America Council volunteer.
District Publishes Eagle Board Guidebook; Eagle Project Coordinator News
Long-time and recurring Eagle Board of Review Coordinator Jerry Simon has summarized his years of experience in one guidebook. Jerry has written some of the material. He has also used some of the material written by his immediate predecessor as the then-titled Eagle Coordinator Charlie Meyer, a life-long North Star Scout and Scouter.
Jerry’s experience has taught him that new scoutmasters and all Eagle candidates are slightly bewildered about the Eagle application process. He has reduced the process down to a how-to guide for our district.
New Pack Start Ups Need Troop Help Now
Currently the District is looking at starting or rebooting 3 to 4 packs in the next 30 days. These packs will need help from veteran scouters to make them work.
Each troop should always have an eye on one or two packs that feed Webelos into the troop. These prospective scouts are the lifeblood of our troops.
All too often, the scoutmaster corps and troop committee members are exhausted of their time and energy after giving to their home unit. They don’t have anymore to give.
One of the best ways for a troop to support a Cub scout pack is identify a past den mother who is not currently active with the troop. Through cooperation with District Commissioner Jeff Heck, she can find a role to assist a pack. She would not be asked to join the pack committee, be a cubmistress, or be a den leader. She would simply be an advisor.
We need four past den mothers who can serve in this role. Please contact Commissioner Jeff Heck at jheck@cacnorthstar.org to find out how this can work.
Whoever places the former den mother in a pack has the best chance of recruiting scouts in the future.
District Training for August
As part of our effort to streamline and improve North Star District, the Commissioners Service and the District Training Committee are offering three trainings in August 2015:
1. Unit Commissioners Training on Monday, August 3rd at St Luke’s UMC.
2. Merit Badge Counselor Training at Roundtable on Thursday, August 6th at Second Presbyterian, 4th Floor.
3. Chartered Organization Representative Training on Monday, August 10th at St. Luke’s UMC.
For more details about times, locations, RSVPs, go to www.cacnorthstar.org/calendar.
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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