District Committee
Filling a High Adventure Contingent
High adventure (loosely defined) is one of the most important parts of retaining older scouts along with true youth leadership of the troop through use of the Patrol Method. If the older scout feels he is needed and wanted while having fun and challenging himself, his biggest enemy to continued scouting is his 18th birthday.
Many troops and crews struggle to run effective high adventure programs. There are many impediments: youth participants’ interest, adult participants’ availability, costs, logistics, program availability, etc.
For troops and crews that do make it through the planning stages and schedule a high adventure trip, they sometimes struggle to fill a contingent (that is the group that will do the high adventure activity together, usually 6-12 scouts depending on the activity). Some of our troops field multiple contingents on any one trip. This offers many savings in economies of scale, especially with travel and lodging.
For others, the biggest problem is having enough scouts to fill out a complete contingent.
The District is making an effort to help fill contingents. We already have several troops with plans for 2016. If all goes well, all scheduled scouts will attend. However, life happens and vacancies may occur for a variety of reasons. The trip is most likely to achieve its goals of adventure and citizenship development if the contingents are full. To help overcome obstacles, the District is working as a clearing house at Roundtables to discuss where units have vacancies on existing contingents that already have scheduled departure dates.
If your troop or crew has a known vacancy or is willing to accept names for a waiting list, please contact District Commissioner Jeff Heck or your assigned Unit Commissioner. Similarly if your unit has an eager scout who wants to go but cannot find the right trip for him, contact the Commissioners so that we can help place your scout(s).
In a future article we will look at some opportunities for District to offer high adventure trips, including Order of the Arrow contingents, that might help units who have struggled to make high adventure a part of their program.
District Elections Thursday
Reminder that Thursday, December 17, 2016 at 7:00 pm at St Luke’s United Methodist Church, Luke’s Lodge (outbuilding on the northeast corner of campus), 100 W 86th St, first floor, Indianapolis, IN 46260 (please note wrong location posted originally).
For more information see this post.
Remember eligible voters include Chartered Organization Representatives, District Members-at-Large (meaning current committee members), and Council Members-at-Large living in North Star District.
Please make sure that your Chartered Organization Representative plans to attend to speak for your unit.
Notes for chartered organization representatives
For our chartered organization representatives, we are entering the busiest season of the year, where your services are most uniquely needed for Boy Scouts.
First, the district elections for 2016 officers will take place at our regular December committee meeting on Thursday, December 17, 2015 at 7 PM in Brandt’s Lounge on the first floor of Luke’s Lodge at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church, 100 W. 86th street, Indianapolis, IN 46260. The Lodge is the outbuilding on the northeast corner of the church’s campus.
Second, the council elections will take place at the annual meeting for Crossroads of America Council at the Belzer Activity Center on Camp Belzer’s campus, 6102 Boy Scout Rd., Indianapolis, IN 46226. The meeting begins at 5:15 PM.
The chartered organization representative is the only person who is entitled to vote on behalf of your chartered organization and the scouting units that your organization has. (Other eligible voters for the 2016 District Committee Elections include the 2015 District Members-at-Large, that is anyone duly registered to serve on the District Committee, and 2015 Council Members-at-Large, residing in the North Star District.)
It is exceedingly important that your chartered organization representative be in attendance at both of these elections.
At the December meeting, you will be voting for the officers of our district for the coming calendar year. The District Chair, elected at the District Election, has the duty to represent our district to council for quarterly executive board meetings in 2016 and will be our official vote there. In addition, we elect the chair’s cabinet for 2016. If anybody has nominations for any of these positions, they need to be directed to our nominating committee chaired by Scott Claybaugh. The nominating committee is on track to announce the slate of District Chair and Vice-Chairs shortly before Thanksgiving. The nominating committee expects additional positions to be slated in early December.
At the January meeting, you will be voting on the council’s officers for the coming year. In addition, any resolutions for bylaw amendments or policies to be addressed pursuant to the bylaws will be voted on, too. Eligible voters should have received a letter inviting them to attend via US Mail this past week. See that written correspondence for further details and deadlines for nominations and resolutions to place on the ballot.
It is too early to provide any guidance regarding what else is going to be on the agenda for either meeting. Monitor this website for information as it becomes available.
In the meantime, cubmasters, scoutmasters, and committee chairs should be contacting their chartered organization representatives to confirm that the chartered organization representatives have these dates on their personal calendars.
November Committee Meeting Agenda
The November Committee Meeting Agenda.
UPDATE: Despite efforts at proofreading, the blast email announces the committee meeting and its location contains an error. The email for both November and December mentions two different rooms. The proper location for each month is in the outbuilding Luke’s Lodge. All references to Room N-101 are incorrect. Sorry for the confusion.
Change of Night for District Committee
Since the regularly scheduled District Committee meetings for November and December conflict with Thanksgiving and Christmas, respectively, we will be meeting one week earlier than usual.
On November 19th, we will be meeting at St Luke’s UMC’s Luke’s Lodge, the outbuilding on the church campus. We will be on the second floor on the westside of the building, in the room called the “Cafe.” (Don’t ask me why. There is a kitchenette but no other evidence of coffee or food.) There is a grief counseling group meeting on the first floor, so please enter quietly and go up the left staircase, entering the first alcove on the left, passing the men’s restroom.
On December 17th, we will also be in Luke’s Lodge, except we will have the main room on the first floor: “Brandt’s Lounge” also known as the “fireplace room.”
NOTE, 11-13-15: In the blast email on the committee meeting locations, there are references to Room N-101 for both November and December. Neither are correct. All such references should be ignored. Sorry for the confusion.
Nominating Committee Update
Our District Chair Steve James announces the appointment of the District’s new Nominating Chair, North Star District resident, and our immediate past Council Scout Executive Scott Claybaugh.
Scott will convene a meeting on October 15, 2015 to begin the process of reviewing our existing committee’s vacancies and recommending the slating of new members for Calendar Year 2016.
If you have nominees, feel free to communicate them to the District Chair or Commissioner to pass on to the Nominating Committee.
Good nominees are retiring from unit leadership but want some remaining connection with scouting or community members who seek to make connections, such as salesmen, bankers, and insurance agents.
REMINDER: District Committee Meeting this Thursday
The District Committee meeting will be held Thursday, September 24, 2015 at 7:00 pm at St Luke’s United Methodist Church, 100 West 86th St, Room W-125, Indianapolis, IN 46260.
August District Committee Preview and Agenda
North Star District Committee Meeting Agenda
8-20-15
Welcome/Introductions – Steve
Recruitment Night Update – Sharla and Con
Rocket Launch Update – Con
Committee Breakouts
Committee Reports
Program – Jane
Communications
Camping- Brian
Advancement – Mark
Training
Activities – Steve
FOS – Con
Nominating – Scott
Commissioner Report – Jeff
If you have an item or two that you would propose for the general session, please contact Steve.
Subcommittee chairs should be prepared with any agenda that they plan on presenting during the break out sessions. Those subcommittee agendas can be posted on this page by email them to Jeff Heck.
All units should turn in their Popcorn Intent to Sell cards.
Committee Schedule Change in August
This year’s recruitment night being consolidated on one date for all units on Thursday, August 27th, which is our regularly scheduled District Committee Meeting night.
We need to change the District Committee meeting date. It has been moved up to August 20th at 7:00 p.m. It will still be at St. Luke’s United Methodist Church. The room has been changed to Room N-101, Entry #7 (northernmost door to the main building).
Preparations for recruitment night will be one of the key points on the agenda. Anyone volunteering to assist with recruitment is asked to attend this meeting.
** Please be advised that the church’s parking lot is currently undergoing major renovations to the traffic flow pattern. We are told that the work will be done before the meeting date. Even so, please drive with care on campus, since the new pattern is startlingly different than the old pattern.
Informal Minutes of June 2015 Committee Meeting
I was not appointed as the Committee’s secretary, so I did not take notes with an eye to that thoroughness. Nor was I a participant in each break-out session. With those warnings, I will highlight some of the discussions from the Committee Meeting.
Steve James, the District Chair, opened the meeting and emphasized that District needs to be focused on membership recruiting for August 27, 2015. He said, “We are in All-Hands-On-Deck mode. We need all Packs, Troops, and Crews to be part of the process.” Steve introduced our new District Executive Cornellius “Con” Sullivan. Con rapidly covered the points about our Council-wide Back to School Night that Darin Stendl, Con’s supervisor, had covered at the May Roundtable. Jump to the link for a detailed report. The most important part of the presentation for this report is that the marketing campaign’s call to action for the general public is “Sign up at your local elementary school.” This means that we need personnel at all of our District’s elementary schools.
During his presentation, Con emphasized that we have nearly 43 elementary schools to cover at sign-up night, while we only have 35 chartered units and 18 Cub Scout Packs. There is no way that the Packs can man all of the elementary schools. Con also underlined that there is a Recruiting Rally at Victory Field in downtown Indianapolis on the evening of July 16, 2015. (Literature about the campaign is available on the Council website, too.)
In Darin’s earlier presentation he had emphasized that the call to action does not emphasize Cub Scouts. It is a general call to join Scouting. This means that Troops and Crews could receive new members, too.
Con reported that North Star District’s Cub Packs are encouraged to participate in a District-wide Pack Overnight Campout on October 17-18, 2015 (I will need to review my notes to double check dates) at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Other weekends and campsites are available if Packs have fewer conflicts, but IMS is being pushed for North Star. IMS is close to home and exciting. Race cars and another race themed aspects will be emphasized through the weekend.
After Con’s presentation, there was a general open discussion of some of the logistics. One issue brought up is that customarily Packs collect the initial dues from new families on sign up night. Council then asks for a check from the Pack to Council to cover the new recruits’ BSA dues. This lead to some surprise and frustration. In addition, there was confusion about how much BSA dues the Pack should collect the first night to be considered a completely “registered scout.” Con did not have the answer at that time. These topics would be addressed in more depth later. For the duration of the meeting, the Committee agreed to take the issue under advisement and focus on the immediate mission of recruiting. At the meeting Con promised to clarify a few of these issues as quickly as possible.
This morning, he emailed me some clarifications. Read the rest of this entry »
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
You must be logged in to post a comment.