News
District’s Friends of Scouting Report
North Star District is ahead of last year’s donations to the Annual Friends of Scouting Campaign! In 2016, District fell just short of meeting its goal. With the District ahead of last year, we have a great chance of meeting the goal.
Through much work, we have made sure that the District was set the same as last year to avoid an arbitrary target. As a result of this, your District Key 3 are hopeful that the District will beat this year’s target.
We still have many units that have not held their Friends of Scouting presentation. All but three units have scheduled their presentations with District Executive Con Sullivan.
So if you are the unit chair and you do not know when your presentation is scheudled, contact Con to make sure all is in order.
The sooner we meet this goal, the sooner Con’s time will be able to focus on other tasks in supporting your unit.
Remember this program is designed for the District to pay for its own costs of operations at Council, so your gifts help support our units.
District Presents Unit-Key 3 Conference February 22nd
On February 22, 2017 at 6:00 pm, North Star District will hold a Unit Key 3 Conference. The Unit Key 3 are the unit’s chair, unit leader, and Chartered Organization Representative. The unit leader is the cubmaster, scoutmaster, or venturing advisor.
The agenda will be posted closer to the meeting time.
Dinner will be served. So reservations will be highly encouraged.
As a bit of preview, we will be discussing
- Council’s and District’s Fall 2017 cub recruiting plans and boy scout troops’ ability to support this project;
- Programming plans and opportunities to make planning easier for packs, troops, and crews;
- Encouraging joint camping opportunities between packs and troops;
- Availability of Venturing Crews and its support of scout troops;
- Order of the Arrow and Firecrafter plans for 2017;
- Input for district’s training plan for 2017 to better support units;
- Summer camp planning and promotion;
- Discussion of event planning for Memorial Day grave dressing, 500 program sales, Scouting for Food, etc.;
- Advancement status and discussion of ways to improve.
We will be issuing formal invitations to District Vice-Chairs and Subcommittee Chairs to give short presentations on their areas. If you hold one of those positions, please expect the invitation to speak.
We are still working on confirming the Keynote Speaker from Council. We are hoping to confirm the new Director of Field Services Nathan Young. He is Con’s boss’s boss. Nate is pushing many of the new changes in membership recruitment, so he is a wonderful resource for unit leaders.
Nominations for District Awards
On March 9, 2017, we hold our annual District Awards Banquet at the Palomino Club in Zionsville, IN. 
We still have some time for nominations for the District Award of Merit (2 available), the highest district award possible in the BSA. Award recipients do not need to be active in the District Committee, but do need to be exemplary scouters in their unit.
In addition, we are looking for
- scouters to recognize in the first year of scouting but made a significant contribution;
- Scouters to recognize for their long term contribution to their unit;
- Scouters who have earned their Scouter’s Key;
- Scouters who have been awarded their Unit Award of Merit; and
- Scouters who deserve recognition for any particular efforts.
Here is the district nomination form.
You will be able to make reservations for you and your spouse by Friday this week. This is a non-uniform event.
2016 JTE Patch order forms
For all of our JTE units, the form to order your patches is available here. Download then use it at the Scout Shop.
Adult Recognition Time
Now is the time to start thinking about recognition for adults in your unit or in the district. From District Executive Con Sullivan:
There are nomination forms for you to complete if you feel someone in your unit or district is deserving of recognition at the North Star District Dinner on March 9th. Please complete the relevant nomination form(s) and return to Mark Pishon, North Star Advancement Chair, at mpishon@gmail.com by February 12th.
The flyer is worth distributing to your unit.
Unit Leader Award of Merit Nomination Form
North Star District Awards Dinner Information and Nomination Form for Calendar Year Ending 2016
District Award of Merit Nomination Form
Eagle Report January 2017
Congratulations to new Eagle Scouts from the January 2017 Boards of Review:
- Christopher Rodriguez from Troop 514, and
- Kevin Braxton from Troop 269.
Information on the District Pinewood Derby
District Pinewood Derby Chair Bill Buchalter provides this flyer
for the winners of the packs’ Derbies. Remember this is free for the top 4 and best of show of each pack. All others have an entry fee of $2.00.
Resources from January 2017 Roundtable
Tonight we discussed Webelos-to-Scout Transition from the Cub Scout and Boy Scout perspectives.
Some of the resources that we referenced or planned on discussing are as follows:
Year Round Recruiting Guide for Troops
January 2016 Cubcast (podcast from BSA focused on Cub Scout topics) and January 2009 Cubcast (an evergreen topic in January)
How to host a Troop Open House
Since it is true that, “History has shown that more Webelos Scouts join Boy Scouting when an entire den joins the troop together,”we need to find ways to make this happen. BSA has material on making stronger patrols. Part of this is den recruitment.
Troop 358 has 3 new Palms
I attended last Monday’s Court of Honor for Troop 358 in Zionsville. The troop award an Eagle Scout medal, various rank advancements, merit badges, and Wood Badge beading for OA Advisor Mark Pishon, ASM Chuck Bricker, and ASM David Guzman.
The most unique part of the ceremony to my eyes was the award of three Eagle Palms. The first was for a bronze palm (the first palm awarded for 5 merit badge and 3 months leadership service after receiving Eagle). The second was for a scout’s silver palm (the third palm awarded for 15 merit badges and 9 months service after Eagle). The last was a second Silver Palm! 
Think about that. A second Silver Palm for one scout. That means that he has served in his troop for 18 months as a leader after his Eagle Board of Review and earned an additional 30 merit badges in addition to the required 21 merit badge for Eagle Scout. Only 1/10th of 1% of Eagles earn a Silver Palm. To earn two Silver Palms is extraordinarily rare. (I cannot find the stats.)
Shown above from left: Matthew Heath, second Silver Palm; Josh Sheppard, first Silver Palm; John Heath, first Bronze Palm. All are White Stag/NYLT trained and have served on staff, too.
Congratulations to each of these three worthy scouts and to Scoutmaster Jim Beck and Troop 358 for providing such a rewarding environment that Eagle Scouts stay actively involved in the troop.
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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