Cub Scouts
District Pack Overnight at Track: 4 days and counting . . .
Friday at the Track begins the District Pack Overnight.
Taking your Cubs and Webelos camping is a very important part of retaining Cubs and growing your Pack. If you don’t camp often, your Pack will lose members.
The District Pack Overnight is a great way for new parents or reluctant camping parents to learn outdoor skills.
if your Pack camps on its own, one person must be BALOO-trained. For this Councilsponsored event, this requirement is not necessary, since we will have trained people present.
If you or your Pack cannot camp out, they can still participate in the Saturday Fun Day at the track.
We hope to see you there.
Webelos Naturalist Pin Class
Saturday, November 21
Cub Scout Saturday: Naturalist
Webelos, investigate the fall forest as you work at completing the requirements for your Naturalist. Younger scouts can enjoy a nature hike.
Register at naturecenter@zionsville-in.gov
1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Zionsville Nature Center, 690 Beech Street
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.
Another Rocket Launch . . . in Zionsville
Did you miss Saturday, September 12th’s Rocket Launch? Don’t worry, we have you covered.
There will be another Rocket Launch this Saturday, September 19th from 1:00 to 3:00 pm at Zionsville United Methodist Church, 9644 Whitestown Road, Zionsville, IN 46077. (Rain date September 26th.)
Please RSVP here so that we can plan accordingly.
This will be hosted by Packs 358 and 105.
Make sure your Cubs get to launch their rockets!!
District Rocket Launch this Saturday, September 12th
Sharla Merrick, our Cub Roundtable Commissioner, led a discussion last Thursday about this Saturday’s District Rocket Launch. Here is what she reports from that conversation:
- Firecrafter: fire demo,
- Troops: cooking,
- Provided: Archery and BB gun shooting.
Onslaught of Autumn Training
As we head into a hectic autumn of scouting, it is easy to forget to get trained. We shouldn’t, since it is often required to be Rechartered.
Several districts and council have scheduled training in many locations at many times. This is especially true of Pathfinder’s Mini University of Scouting on Saturday, August 29th on the southside and Council’s position-specific blitz in August, September, and October at the Scout Service Center. A new list of courses is now available on a new website at http://www.crossroadstraininghub.com/events/events.htm. Units and districts can now post their own additions to training for the benefit of all in the Council.
Some of these trainings are available online, too, at my.scouting.org.
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.
More Recruiting Ideas
Frank Maynard runs a well-read blog called Bobwhite Blather. He is a long-standing Troop Committee Chair. He has a wonderful article about recruiting ideas that you have not tried. Give it a read.
Back to School Night: 17 days and Counting
We are approaching the two week mark from Back to School Night for scouting. At this point, your pack’s to-do list should already have some items marked as “Done.”
First, you should have an annual calendar planned and printed for distribution. The calendar should be sure to include your schedule for adult training, the September 12th Rocket Launch and Pack Family Overnight Campout in October. The calendar does not have to be in depth. It just needs to include the date, time, and one-sentence description of the activity. The goal is all families will be able to block time on their calendar to avoid later scheduling conflicts. The calendar should cover through August 2016. Details such as location, leader-in-charge, rendez-vous times and delegation of responsibilities is immaterial right now.
Second, you have an annual budget for the pack and dens that is broken down to an individual scout. This should include basic information about the initiation fee, the role of popcorn sales or other fund-raisers in deferring the costs, methods for obtaining uniforms cost effectively, and campership opportunities for big-ticket items like Summer Camp. The new family needs to know what this is going to do to their family checkbook. Ultimately, they need to know there is room for all scouts, regardless of family finances. Contact your Unit Commissioner or District Commissioner Jeff Heck for help in designing your budget or sales pitch.
Third, you should now have possession of the model rockets that you are expected to distribute to your new recruits. These were available for distribution at the August 6, 2015 Roundtable. Only a handful of Packs attended to receive their rockets. Contact your Unit Commissioner or District Commissioner Jeff Heck for information on how to arrange pick up of your rockets.
Fourth, you should now know where you are manning tables for August 27th sign up night. Contact District Executive Con Sullivan if you are not sure or have not informed him of your plans for that night.
Fifth, you should now know who, where, and when your Pack is providing speakers for Boy Talk recruiting speeches in advance of August 27th. If you do not, again, contact District Executive Con Sullivan.
Sixth, you should know who your Pack Back to School Night coordinator is.
Seventh, you should have reviewed your website, Facebook page, and other online resources to make sure that they are up to date and accurate. Make sure that the Pack officers names and contact information is correct. Make sure meeting time and place information is included. Make sure that your basic calendar information for special events. If you do not have a Pack Facebook page or webpage, I recommend using wordpress.com. It has free website that a non-techie can learn quickly. Updates can be done as simple posts (like on this website). Old information remains available to review in the archive.
If your Pack has each of these done and you have read this article in full, please have your Pack Committee Chair email District Commissioner Jeff Heck that these are done.
Thank you for your continued support of scouting and Back to School Night.
Back to School: 19 Days and Counting
Part of this year’s Back to School recruitment campaign is to have activities for the Cub Packs to participate in during the first 60 days of the school year. Essentially, these are “just add water” activities.
Pack Overnight Campout
One of these activities is the Fall Pack Overnight. Council has preplanned three different Pack Overnight weekends. All your Pack needs to do is sign up according to the information in the Council’s flyer then show up.
North Star District is encouraging all of its Packs to participate in the Pack Overnight at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from Friday, October 17, 2015 at 6 p.m. to Saturday, October 18, 2015 at 4:00 p.m.
There are many exciting activities already planned.
If your school, athletic team, or Pack has a conflicting event, there are alternative dates and locations.
While participation in these Pack Overnights, Cubs who camp out on a regular basis are more likely to remain active in scouting. This is what they think scouting is all about. (And they are not far off the mark.)
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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