District Committee
Congratulations to District Award Winners
On Thursday, April 28, 2016, the District held its Annual Appreciation Dinner at St Alphonsius Church in Zionsville.
Thank you to Tucker Herbold for chairing the event and Con Sullivan for the detailed logistics work.
In addition to our regular District participants, we were honored by the presence of Scout Executive Patrick Sterrett and Assistant Director of Field Services for the Western Section Marilyn Lopez.
Our award winners were as follows:
|
Name |
Award |
|
John Ruggles |
Arrowman of the Year |
| Stephen Heath | Boy Scout Committee Chair of the Year |
| Beth Montano | Commissioner of the Year |
| Jennifer Davis | Cub Scout Committee Chair of the Year |
| Sharla Merrick | Cubmaster of the Year |
| Jeffrey Heck | District Award of Merit |
| Mark Pishon | District Award of Merit |
| Greg Hoyes | Firecrafter of the Year |
| Andrea Klemm | Hooked on Scouting |
| Carolyn Goebel | Hooked on Scouting |
| Emily Blue | Hooked on Scouting |
| Kelly Kappes | Hooked on Scouting |
| Lisa J. Bostock | Hooked on Scouting |
| Sam Dennemann Sr. | Hooked on Scouting |
| Scott Kuntz | Hooked on Scouting |
| Timothy Kappes | Hooked on Scouting |
| Greg R. Hoyes | Scoutmaster of the Year |
| Amy Kiefer | Spark Plug Award |
| Andrea Klemm | Spark Plug Award |
| Carolyn Goebel | Spark Plug Award |
| Christopher Bottorff | Spark Plug Award |
| Chuck Bricker | Spark Plug Award |
| Cynthia Carr | Spark Plug Award |
| Daniel Bradley | Spark Plug Award |
| David Agarwal | Spark Plug Award |
| David DeMars | Spark Plug Award |
| David Gusman | Spark Plug Award |
| Emily Blue | Spark Plug Award |
| Greg R. Hoyes | Spark Plug Award |
| Jacob Massie | Spark Plug Award |
| Jaime Shields | Spark Plug Award |
| James Shields | Spark Plug Award |
| Kelly Kappes | Spark Plug Award |
| Mark Maucere | Spark Plug Award |
| Mark Pishon | Spark Plug Award |
| Michael “Mick” Witte | Spark Plug Award |
| Ronald Penczek | Spark Plug Award |
| Sam Dennemann Sr. | Spark Plug Award |
| Thomas Petersen | Spark Plug Award |
| Timothy Kappes | Spark Plug Award |
| Warner “Turk” White | Spark Plug Award |
| David Bruce | Venture Advisor of the Year |
The Spark Plug Award goes to a person who has shown an energetic dedication to scouting that he or she spreads to other members of their unit or committee.
The Hooked on Scouting Award goes to a person who has been involved with a unit for less than a year (in this case extended back to 2014 because of skipping awards for two years) and has immediately become an invaluable scouter in their unit.
The District Award of Merit is the highest National Council authorized award that a district can give to a scouter.
Scouters of the Year Award (Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, Advisor, Committee Chair, Commissioner, Firecrafter, and Arrowman) represent scouters who have represented the best ideals of their registered position within the district.
Congratulations to all of our award winners!
Reservations for Unit Key 3 Conference
We are 17 days away from the Unit Key 3 Conference at the Spring Camporee. Click the link to make your reservation.
This is for all Cub Pack, Scout Troop, and Venturing Crews. The key 3 are the Chartered Organization Representative, the Committee Chair, and the Unit Leader (i.e., Cubmaster, Scoutmaster, Venturing Advisor).
If one of your leaders cannot make it, please send a stand-in.
Registration will begin at 8:30 am.
REMINDER: District Committee Thursday
Our April committee is tomorrow — Thursday, April 7, 2016, 7:00 pm, Second Presbyterian Church, 4th floor.
Here is the working draft of the agenda.
REMINDER: April Committee Meeting
Just a quick reminder that the April committee meeting is coming up on Thursday, April 7th at 7:00 pm.
Related to that Camporee Chair Stu Bowes will hold a Spring Camporee Organizing Meeting at 6:30 pm at the same location. All troops are invited to send a representative to that meeting.
REMINDER: Monthly District Committee and Commissioners’ Meeting Thursday
Just a quick reminder that Thursday, March 3, 2016 is the night for the District Committee Meeting at 7:00 pm and District Commissioner’s Staff Meeting at 6:00 pm.
Both will take place at Second Presbyterian Church, 7700 N Meridian St, Fourth Floor, Indianapolis, IN 46260.
Mark your schedules.
District Committee Agenda
At this Thursday’s Committee meeting, according to the 2016 District Chair John Wiebke the following topics will be on the agenda:
- Communicating around the District Planning and out intent to meet individually with people
- Winter Camporee- Stu Bowes, Camporee Chair will be seeking your input
- Finance- review schedule of FOS presentations
- Recruitment- Sharla’s ideas for the Spring
- Nominating committee update.
REMINDER: Change to District Committee Meetings
Just a quick reminder that the District Committee Meeting for January will take place THIS THURSDAY at 7:00 pm, as part of our new schedule of meetings. The meeting will take over our Roundtable time and location at Second Presbyterian.
The District Commissioner’s Staff will meet at 6 pm before the District Committee meeting. Same location.
The roundtable will be next week.
Changes to District Calendar for 2016
Over the past calendar year, North Star District has experimented with changing the District Committee and Roundtables’ times to increase attendance. It is now time to declare the experiment closed.
The new schedule will have District Committee meetings the first week of the month at 7:00 pm at Second Presbyterian Church (room was already scheduled for roundtables). The July meeting will be determined at a later date. The April meeting will be held regardless of Spring Break conflicts.
The District Commissioner’s Staff will meet at Second Presbyterian at 6:00 pm immediately before the Committee Meeting. It will be limited to one hour. This will cut down on the number meeting nights for several people.
The District Roundtable will be the second week of the month at 7:00 pm at St Luke’s United Methodist Church (change of location, too; scheduling confirmation pending).
The District Eagle Boards of Review will continue to be on the second Wednesday of each month.
Why the change?
In recent Council meetings, the basic monthly scheduling scheme was explained. Our 2015 district meetings conflict with that scheme.
Specifically, Council reserves the first two weeks of the month for district operations meetings. They do this by minimizing the number of council meetings in this time period. The last two weeks of the month are reserved for council meetings, with the implicit understanding that the number of district meeting should be kept to a minimum.
This reduces the risk of conflicts and allows a more predictable flow of information.
Council then uses the last two weeks of each month to prepare the necessary information and material for the coming district functions.
The expectation is that the district committees will meet the first week of the month, so committee information is given to the District Executives and Directors to be prepared for that week. The expectation is that Roundtables will be held the following week, because any district committee and council plans will be ready to go.
Failing to follow this schedule has caused information and material dissemination to be difficult for our District Executive Con Sullivan. As an example, he did not have access to supplies of rockets for membership drives at the right time, which required more effort from him and the receiving units.
Thank you to 2015 Chair
With the excitement of a new election and new officers comes a moment to pause and thank our immediate past Chair for 2015, Steve James.
Steve James played an instrumental part in reorganizing the North Star District. When the District was being threatened with drastic reforms from Council, Steve stepped up to serve as the District Chair. He made himself available as long as the District needed him.
Steve was persuasive in recruiting new participants to the District Committee. He was reliable in carrying out each promise that he made. He helped finish the year with Friends of Scouting so that the District was making its fair-share contribution to the costs of administering the District and Council.
As a long-time volunteer at the District, Steve had already served as District Commissioner and various other positions. Even so, he took it as a personal responsibility to make sure that District was served when crisis loomed.
Steve may be stepping down as District Chair, but he is not leaving District leadership. Steve was an important part of the Nominating Committee for the District. Steve has also agreed to serve as a Vice-Chair in the District for 2016.
Thank you to Steve James for his willingness to lead when times were difficult, and his continued participation in the District leadership team in the 2016 calendar year.
Congratulations to our New District Chair
Image Posted on Updated on
On Thursday, December 17, 2015, North Star District Nominating Committee, chaired by Scott Claybaugh, presented its slate of proposed district officers for the 2016 calendar year. The slate was passed unanimously. The slate was ratified by the Council’s Executive Board, too, at its December meeting.
Topping that list was John Wiebke (web’-key), as District Chair.
Congratulations to John on his elections. Thank you to him and his family for his service in 2016.
John is a life-long scouter with many unique positions on his scouting resume.
For this biography I am relying on my own memory, so please forgive any errors.
John was an Eagle Scout, whose troop regularly did summer camp at Scouts Canada’s Halliburton Scout Reserve in Ontario Province, part of the Greater Toronto Council. This led him to serving on staff at Philmont for two seasons. He followed this with two seasons on staff at the International Scout Centre in Kandersteg, Switzerland.
As John tells the story, he went to Switzerland with a back pack and a uniform. He returned home 13 years later with a wife, two kids, and a dog.
John met his future wife on his trip to Switzerland. She is Swedish by birth. Consequently, when they married, John moved to Sweden.
John remained active in scouting in Sweden. In fact, John earned his Wood Badge from the Swedish Scouting Association, where he was in the Tern Patrol. John explains that the patrols were all named for Swedish sea birds.
After returning to the states with his family, John went on to serve in various scouting positions,
including a three-year stint as scoutmaster of Troop 358 at Zionsville’s St. Alphonsius Roman Catholic Church. (He introduced Troop 358 to Halliburton Scout Reserve, which has become a biannual tradition for the troop.) He has served the past year or so as the Scout Roundtable Commissioner. For Wood Badge Course #C6-160-15-2, he served admirably on staff. As a result the Wood Badge song had an added verse for his Tern Patrol.
Most importantly, John has passed his passion on to his sons. His son Jesper passed his Eagle Board of Review on December 9, 2015! Congratulations to Jesper, his family, and his proud papa, our new District Chair John Wiebke.
In his professional life, John is the Controller at Baker Hill, formerly of Experian.
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