News
Catapults and New Recruitment Program
The new membership recruitment program for Fall 2017 is already starting to roll out from Council’s office.
Simply put the theme is going to be “Catapult into Scouting.” Each new recruit will receive a miniature catapult, pre-cut by the Indiana Woodworkers Association.
The IWA through its representative and Pathfinder District’s new District Commissioner Stan Jewula will provide the Council with 10,000 catapults. These will be hand cut in Central Indiana.
Each boy will receive a bag with all the necessary parts. The new Cub Scout will then assemble his own catapult. He may decorate it as he sees fit.
Then there will be an activity for each pack or district to have an event using the catapults.
The Council is also rolling out plans to try to have scouting units re-introduced to public school districts. Much more information about these plans will be rolled out at the semi-annual operations meeting in April 2017.
Notes from new OA Advisor Mark Pishon
Here are Mark Pishon’s remarks from his introductory email (I apologize for the delay in posting this email):
Dear Troop Leadership:
Allow me to introduce myself, Mark Pishon, as your new Order of the Arrow Lowaneu Allanque (LOA) Chapter Adviser.
I’m writing to you today to ask your continued support for Order of the Arrow. Most of the troops have OA Elections coming up and we need to recharge the program. It provides the boys with great character building activities as well as leadership opportunities while having fun in diverse environments.
Over the last few years the chapter has seen North Star participation decline. I ask that you put your best foot forward and begin to talk about it at your regular scout meetings.
I also ask that you identify OA members in your troop and ask them to make sure to pay their 2017 dues and start attending monthly meetings. The chapter meets the first Sunday of every month except January. The next meeting is January 8, 2017. We meet at the Broad Ripple American Legion Post # 3, 6379 N College Ave, Indianapolis, Indiana. We normally meet from 2 to 3 PM.
Here are some of the mechanics:
1. Make sure your troop has a youth LOA Representative at the OA monthly meetings. Give that representative boy a few minutes at your upcoming Scout Meetings to speak about elections and promote the program.
2. Once you have the election results please email them to me at loaadviser@jaccostownelodge.org.
3. Encourage the candidates to attend the OA Call Out Event at the Spring Camporee. This years Spring Camporee is at Camp Ransburg and the theme is Evasion Weekend. The district has the dinning hall and all the rifle and pistol ranges so it will be fun for sure.
4. We also have a new Chapter Chief, Lucas Pishon. Yes he is my son. His email address is LPishon@Live.com and his Cell is 317.600.4182.
This month’s meeting is a joint meeting with the North Star District FireCrafters to provide service hours to the Broad Ripple American Legion Post # 3 for Christmas. We will start the meeting this month at 1 PM. We will enjoy Pizza and drinks until 3 PM. Since Broad Ripple’s American Legion host the LOA Chapter, it is my expectation that we will show up and provide outstanding community service to our veterans.
Here is the link to the most recent lodge newsletters:
http://jaccostownelodge.org/index_htm_files/JTL-Kinohsamia-2017-1.pdfhttp://jaccostownelodge.org/index_htm_files/JTL-Kinohsamia-2016-4.pdf
Upcoming Events:
January 8, 2017 is our monthly meeting from 1 to 3 PM at the Broadripple American Legion.
January 20 to 22, 2017 is the Winter Gathering. It will be held at Camp Kikthawenund. Yes I know that it is the same weekend as the Winter Camporee this year.
March 19 to 21, 2017 is the Lodge Spring Fellowship at Camp Krietenstein.Dues:
The National Order of the Arrow has increased annual dues in 2017 to $15. The Otter Pass is available attached or can be found at this link: http://jaccostownelodge.org/index_htm_files/JTL-Otter_Pass_2017_Flyer-fillable.pdf .Merry Christmas to your families,
Mark Pishon
LOA Chapter Adviser
317.374.2262Be Prepared for Unit Election & Camp Promotion
As Scouting’s National Honor Society, our purpose is to:
• Recognize those who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law in their daily lives and through that recognition cause others to conduct themselves in a way that warrants similar recognition.
• Promote camping, responsible outdoor adventure, and environmental stewardship as essential components of every Scout’s experience, in the unit, year-round, and in summer camp.
• Develop leaders with the willingness, character, spirit and ability to advance the activities of their units, our Brotherhood, Scouting, and ultimately our nation.
• Crystallize the Scout habit of helpfulness into a life purpose of leadership in cheerful service to others.Through Unit Elections, worthy Scouts are recognized and elected as Ordeal candidates. Arrowmen are needed to serve on Unit Election teams in their Chapter. Contact your Chapter Chief and volunteer! Most units do their elections in the first months of the year, so contact your Chapter Chief as soon as possible. Forms are available on the Lodge’s website under Resources. Please make sure copies of Unit Elections and Adult Nominations are turned into the Lodge.
It is an Arrowman’s responsibility to help promote camping through his unit, district, and council. This may be done through camp promotions to Cub Scout and Boy Scout units. Information and resources are available from the Council to help you make presentations on camping opportunities in the Crossroads of America Council. Doing a unit election and camp promotion at the same time for Boy Scout units is an efficient way of offering cheerful service and helping both the BSA and the OA!
Notes on Camporee
Here are the minutes of last Sunday’s Winter Camporee Meeting from Chair Curtis Shrote:
Note: would troops 586 and 514 please contact me offline.Attendance:Mark Pishon, 358John Wiebke, 358Brian Crow, 343David Salima, 269Carter Keith, DIstrictRick Aker, DIstrictCon Sullivan, DistrictChad Galer, 69Pete Holtz, 56Toby Hlade, 358Mike Faulk, 56Curtis Shrote, 804
My apologies if I did not collect someones attendance.There was a discussion concerning the packet sent Saturday:Notes:Clarification – Friday night cracker barrel is for scoutmaster and SPLs this will be corrected in the final packet.
I will review with Todd, the remaining cooking arrangements to determine if they will be providing coffee during the day on Saturday. Regardless, there will be coffee.
Chad (T69) corrected me – I do now recall him telling me their event which was “Help Me I’m freezing” – I will correct this and send out an update early next week. My apologies on my forgetfulness.Mark will look into an inflatable screen. (Thanks Mark). It was mentioned that a painters drop cloth also might work. I happen to have one so will bring it as backup.The course for the sled race will begin at the dining hall and proceed into the activity field. This will be a timed course with each sled being released at at a timed offset much like Olympic X-country skiing events.
Regards,Curtis Shrote
Website Writer Recruitment
District Commissioner is seeking help with the District Website. He plans to continue indefinitely as editor and lead writer.
He is seeking for writers with special areas of interest. Ideally he is seeking a different writer for each program: Cubs, Scouts, and Venturing.
One article per week would be ideal. One per quarter is helpful.
Contact Jeff for more information.
University of Scouting: 3 days and counting
The University of Scouting is this Saturday!
Make sure that you are fully enrolled
and ready to go.
Cub Scout Commissioner Recruitment
Council’s Commissioner Rick Tardy and Director of Field Services Nathan Young has asked the districts’ commissioners to put a special emphasis on recruiting and placing Unit Commissioner with Cub Scout Packs.
District Commissioner Jeff Heck is actively seeking Unit Commissioner recruits to help in this mission.
Perfect candidates to consider are any past Scout whom you would turn to as a reliable source of wisdom about scouting. Scouters with special skills in recruitment, fund raising, programming, teaching camp skills, or similar experiences are all perfect for serving as Unit Commissioners.
We need to place Unit Commissioners with seven (7) Cub Scout Packs to fully complete our goal of fully staffing Packs.
Some scouters are more comfortable serving Boy Scout Troops or Venturing Crews. That is welcome, too.
Please let Jeff know as soon as possible.
Patrol Log Books vs Oral Reports at PLC
Have you as a Scoutmaster ever asked your PLC for reports from the patrol leaders only to be met with silence or hesitant thoughts? If the patrol leaders had effective meetings with their patrols, why do they have nothing to share?
I would suggest part of the problem is that scouts believe that ideas at PLC’s need to be delivered in a manner similar to school. They might believe that they should remain silent unless they have a perfect answer. If they are asked to brainstorm, they may believe that they need to start from scratch. They may not have had the concept of serving as a representative from the patrol to the PLC clearly enough or frequently enough repeated to have it fresh in mind at key times.
All of these problems are a philosophical problem. These all need teaching to overcome. An active Scoutmaster sitting in a PLC should encourage his Senior Patrol Leader to use this silence as an opportunity to educate on the philosophy of the PLC. Something like a 30-second reminder would be ideal.
But these patrol leaders often don’t have a philosophical misunderstanding. They just took terrible notes or more typically no notes on the topic at hand. The topic may have been thoroughly debated by the patrol. The patrol leader may struggle to put the range of debate succinctly before the PLC.
Clarke Green of ScoutmasterCG.com has a solution to this problem. He recommends that a Patrol Log Book be maintained. The log book is more than the Patrol Scribe’s Minutes Book. It is a chance for scouts to write their own “roses, thorns, or bud.” The Log Book is passed around the patrol meeting. Each scout is encouraged to offer his own rose, thorn, or bud. He then writes it down in his own words in a short sentence or phrase. Now the Patrol Leader has a series of notes from his patrol to carry into the PLC.
Look at Clarke’s website for a sample PDF to download.
Personally, I prefer the new Scout Leader Guidebook’s vocabulary of “Stop, Start, Continue.” Both methods encourage scouts to look at good, bad, and new ideas. Stop, Start, Continue puts an emphasis on actions and moves away from debates about current status of persons, places, or events.
Whatever your preferred vocabulary, encouraging each scout to speak his voice in the patrol meeting and having a sense that his voice is being accurately represented to the PLC is a powerful method of teaching citizenship and active participation.
Wifi at Camp and Unit Tech Policies
As I have noted in the past, technology is changing the experience of scouting.
A constant debate among scouters is how to manage this change. This is decided at the unit level.
Some of troops forbid technology on outings. Some allow technology.
Which is the correct answer?
Only your PLC and troop committee can answer that question.
My recommendation is that this question should be reviewed annually by the PLC.
More and more troops are looking at technology as a good way to teach the Scout Law in practice.
One unit only allows technology to be used at camp for scouting related purposes.
Another allows it if it obeys the Scout Law: helpful, kind, etc.
Other units outright prohibit it. What do you think? Come comment on Facebook @CACNorthStarCommissioner.
Merit Badge Counselors Terms Expire
Remember that your Merit Badge Counselors are District Staff, not Troop Staff. That means their positions expire every year when the District’s Recharter Application (yes, District has a recharter application, too) expires on December 31, 2016.
We still have several troops and crews that have not confirmed the renewal of their Merit Badge Counselors. We need those immediately to prevent any loss of authority to sign Blue Cards.
Next week I will report on troops and crews that have completed the MBC rechartering process.
For more information, see prior postings.
Summer Camp Promotion Season
We are entering summer camp promotion season. If your pack or troop is looking for creative ways to drum up excitement, please let District Commissioner Jeff Heck or District Executive Con Sullivan know.
District’s Order of the Arrow Chapter and Firecrafter Ember have scouts who can visit your scouting unit to help tell the story.
District wants to work with your unit to have your unit’s participation be as high as possible.
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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