Commissioner Service
Rechartering opens in less than week
The Council Commissioner has received word from the lead executive Nat Baker that online rechartering will be opened sometime in the next 7 days. He plans on it being Monday, but he is not sure will be done by then. His goal is completion and email transmission to Unit Key 3 personnel by next Wednesday.
In the meantime, if your unit has a designated person who will be handling rechartering issues and who is not already a registered member of the Unit Key 3, please email Jeff Heck or Con Sullivan the person’s name, title (if any), phone, and email address. We will make sure that the name is added to your contact information. They, too, will receive the email invitation to internet rechartering.
With the arrival of a new Director of Field Services Nate Young, there will be many changes in the paper flow of recharter applications. Most of those changes should not affect units, but will be felt by the professional staff and commissioner service.
The biggest change for units is that all recharter applications turned into the Registrar will be logged in, payments posted with receipts issued, and the paperwork forwarded to the District Executive. The Registrar will not process the paperwork until the District Executive and District Commissioner have reviewed the paperwork and signed the review form.
This means that units will receive fastest and most efficient processing at District Turn-In events listed on the rechartering email invitation.
Please review the rechartering page for more information on district procedures.
Rechartering Turn-In Dates Announced
District Commissioner has announced the turn-in dates for late October 2016. Watch this page for updates on procedures.
Please make sure that your unit Chair has the correct date on the calendar.
All charters must be turned in to the District Commissioner. The Council Registrar will take all applications turned in to her and return them to the District Executive before processing them, if the District Commissioner is skipped.
This is for the convenience of the units. Last year, we had problems with the Registrar not having had a chance to troubleshoot applications until 7 weeks after they were submitted to the Council office. That meant that diligent units were forced to scramble to fix problems in December when they thought everything was done.
By turning in your recharter application through the Commissioner Service, you will get an immediate troubleshooting review and avoid weeks of delay in finding out about problems.
Please help us expedite this process, so we can be done with turn-ins by Sunday, October 30, 2016. The way to do this is to send a representative to the turn-in date posted.
Thank you for your cooperation in advance.
REMINDER: September Roundtable
Reminder that September Roundtable will be at Luke’s Lodge on the campus of St Lukes United Methodist Church, 100 W 86th St, Indianapolis, IN 46260. The meeting begins at 6:30 pm tomorrow Thursday, September 8, 2016.
The topic will be “Popcorn and Financial Management.”
Every unit should make sure to have a member of the unit committee present.
Unit Planning Done?
At this time of year, it is time to do a status check.
Has your unit completed its calendar planning for the next 18 months? You should have a clear idea of what events and meetings you will participate in for the next 12 months. You should have a loose sketch of what your unit is considering for the Fall of 2017.
Has your unit your completed its formal budget? You should have an idea of what the cost of your program for the next 18 months will be. This is crucial information going into popcorn fundraising season. Your unit’s scouts and parents will be more highly motivated to sell if they have a clear idea of what they are planning to do with the proceeds of popcorn sales.
Both the calendar and the budget should already be approved by your unit committee. If your unit committee has not approved the calendar or the budget, you have no calendar or budget. Make sure these are approved. When those are done, please submit them to your Unit Commissioner so the UC can know when he or she can visit you.
Then make sure that the calendar and budget are reviewed each month at committee meetings to make sure you are on track. If your calendar and budget are well done, this review during the treasurer and secretary reports may only take two minutes out of your agenda. Even so, it will keep your unit focused and ahead of foreseeable problems.
If you do not have these done or are struggling, contact your unit commissioner or District Commissioner Jeff Heck for more help.
REMINDER: District Committee and Commissioners’ Meeting Tomorrow
District Committee Meeting for September is tomorrow Thursday, September 1, 2016 at 7:00 pm at Second Presbyterian Church, 7700 N Meridian St, Room 705, Indianapolis, IN 46260.
All Unit Commissioners and Assistant District Commissioners, as members of the District Commissioner’s Staff, meet tomorrow night at 6:00 pm in the same building but Room 701. (Jeff Heck needs to leave a few minutes early, so we will hopefully “meet fast.”) Rechartering procedures and preparation will be a key topic.
Cub Scout and Boy Scout Roundtables will be NEXT WEEK on Thursday, September 8, 2016 at 6:30 pm at Luke’s Lodge, the outbuilding on the campus of St Luke’s United Methodist Church, 100 W 86th St, Indianapolis, IN 46260.
REMINDER: Roundtable tomorrow night
Thursday, August 11, 2016 at 6:30 pm, we will hold one of the most important roundtables of the year. It is our District Kick-off Roundtable.
We will have rockets to distribute for Cub Scout Pack recruitment. We will have an overview of Back to School Night and Boy Talk efforts. We will discuss the web resources to be used in support of your recruitment effort. We will talk about the new Online Registration and how it works with the BeAScout.org website and why those are critically important to recruitment.
We will also have a session for boy scouts and scouters on upcoming activities in Order of the Arrow, Firecrafter, Voyageur training, Marlinspike and many other events to put on your calendar.
We will have a very busy night, so prepare to listen fast! Come with you own announcements and flyers.
YPT Status: need immediate attention
As October 1st approaches, the District Commissioner’s staff is ever more concerned about training, especially Youth Protection Training.
As previously published, your YPT should be renewed each year between March 1st and October 1st. This eliminates many problems at recharter time. Please help by logging into your my.scouting.org account and double checking your YPT expiration date.
As of this writing, the District has 29 scouters who are now expired on their YPT. A total of 168 scouters are or will be expired before November 10, 2016. There are probably another 50 or s0 (unverified) who expire before March 1, 2017. All of these 218 or so people can cause their units to be unable to renew, if the person expired is a required office to recharter such as committee chair, or maybe dropped from membership in order to allow their units to recharter.
Three units have 3 or more scouters whose YPT is expired at this moment. Several units will have more than 25% of their scouters YPT expire before November 10, 2016.
Please begin an aggressive campaign in your unit to bring these numbers down now.
Back to School: Rocket Distribution
At Thursday, August 11th’s Roundtable, District Executive Con Sullivan will be distributing rockets to all Cub Scout Packs for Back to School Night recruiting.
Remember, like last year, we will be giving each new scout a rocket when he joins scouts.
See you at Roundtable, 6:30 pm at Luke’s Lodge, the outbuilding on the northeast corner of the campus of St Luke’s United Methodist Church, 100 West 86th St, Indianapolis, IN 46260.
Roundtable: District Kick-off
Next Thursday, August 11, 2016 at 6:30 pm, Roundtable will serve as the District Kick-off.
This is an extremely important Roundtable. It is a chance for different committees and groups within the district to discuss their plans for the coming academic year. It is a chance to ask questions and better understand all the resources that Council and District offer to you as a leader and to your unit in particular.
If you are a district committee chair or participant in a council committee that wishes to recruit participants, this is your chance to tell your story. Please contact Jeff Heck to reserve a time in the presentation. If you have A/V needs, these can be accommodated. You should send your A/V material to Jeff in advance to make sure it is preloaded and ready-to-go.
Hope to see you there!
REMINDER: District Committee & Commissioner’s Staff tomorrow
Just a quick reminder that District Committee is tomorrow Thursday, August 4, 2016 at 7:00 pm at Second Presbyterian Church, 7700 N Meridian St, Rm 405 (Furtherest from elevator), Indianapolis, IN 46260.
Also, District Commissioner’s Staff meeting will be at 6:00 pm in Room 401. We will be planning the District Kickoff meeting for next week’s roundtable. If you have an organization or activity like Firecrafter, Order of the Arrow, Voyageur, Marlinspike, or training (e.g., Wood Badge or position-specific training) that you would like to promote, please email Jeff Heck to be placed on the schedule. Plan on bringing flyers for handouts.
All presenters are welcome, priority will be given to those that email Jeff in advance in order to better allow time budgeting.
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