Programming
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.)
Sad News about “Uncle Mikey” Stalcup
Update 8/11/2015: a few pictures from yesterday’s funeral for !ike Stalcup.
Update 8/6/2015, 11:00 am: Mike’s funeral visitation is confirmed for Monday, August 10th from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at Flanner & Buchanan Broad Ripple, 1305 Broad Ripple Avenue, Indianapolis 46220. Services at the same location at 3 p.m. A celebration of life at Camp Belzer at 4 p.m. (Indy Star obituary scheduled for Sunday.)
Scouts and Scouters attending should consider wearing Class “A” uniforms. Members of camp staff may choose to wear their camp uniforms.
To understand the magnitude of the loss to North Star District and the Crossroads of America Council, just review Uncle Mikey’s own autobiographical scouting resume. Just a few highlights, among many:
- Eagle Scout with Bronze Palms, Eagle Board of Review October 23, 1954 with Troop 82 in Indianapolis according to the National Eagle Scout Association database.
- Assistant Scoutmaster beginning in 1961 with Troop 82 of North Star District and many other adult leadership positions through 1978
- Silver Beaver Award (highest award for service to Council)
- Continuous tenure as member at large of the Crossroads of America Council since 1982 until his death
- Western Section of National Council Training staff for 32 courses
- Firecrafter Minisino and member of the Order of High Bark
- Order of the Arrow Brotherhood member
- Doctor of Scouting Science
- Master of Commissioner Science
- Wood Badge Staff
- Unofficial Council Historian since 2000
- North Star District Commissioner or Staff for 18 years
- North Star District Committee for approximately 25 years
Update 8/3/2015, 11:00 am: Mike Stalcup passed away Monday night at 8 p.m. May he rest in peace.
4:14 pm: Sandi Hobbs at Council office has spoken to Nancy Stalcup. Plans are not finalized yet, but Nancy hopes visitation and viewing will be Monday, August 10, 2015 at 1 pm at Flanner & Buchanan Broad Ripple with the service immediately thereafter. The wake will be at Camp Belzer.
Original post: Mike Stalcup, known to many of us as “Uncle Mikey”, blacked out and fell on Saturday, August 1st. He is in a coma at St. Vincent’s Hospital 86th Street. An aneurism is suspected. The family has been called to the hospital.
Mike, most recently of Troop 56 and Pack 830, has been a long time volunteer for North Star District and Crossroads of America Council volunteer.
District Publishes Eagle Board Guidebook; Eagle Project Coordinator News
Long-time and recurring Eagle Board of Review Coordinator Jerry Simon has summarized his years of experience in one guidebook. Jerry has written some of the material. He has also used some of the material written by his immediate predecessor as the then-titled Eagle Coordinator Charlie Meyer, a life-long North Star Scout and Scouter.
Jerry’s experience has taught him that new scoutmasters and all Eagle candidates are slightly bewildered about the Eagle application process. He has reduced the process down to a how-to guide for our district.
District Training for August
As part of our effort to streamline and improve North Star District, the Commissioners Service and the District Training Committee are offering three trainings in August 2015:
1. Unit Commissioners Training on Monday, August 3rd at St Luke’s UMC.
2. Merit Badge Counselor Training at Roundtable on Thursday, August 6th at Second Presbyterian, 4th Floor.
3. Chartered Organization Representative Training on Monday, August 10th at St. Luke’s UMC.
For more details about times, locations, RSVPs, go to www.cacnorthstar.org/calendar.
The Scouting Game
In my work as District Commissioner, I am often in a position to ask volunteer scouters to complete training. It is very easy for me to sound as if training makes scouting. The joy and enthusiasm for our activities make scouting.
Clarke Green has a weekly blog post where he posts Lord Baden Powell’s bi-weekly magazine columns about scouting. It is interesting to see many of the problems we face today were the same problems that Lord Baden Powell advised his scouters about.
This week’s post is “Scouting – Game, Not Science.” B-P emphasizes that scouter training serves a purpose, but it is too easily misinterpreted. Scouters then become depressed, and the boys catch the depression. He says,
Scouting, as I have said above, is not a science to be solemnly studied, nor is it a collection of doctrines and texts. Nor again is it a military code for drilling discipline into boys and repressing their individuality and initiative. No — it is a jolly game in the out of doors, where boy-men and boys can go adventuring together as older and younger brother, picking up health and happiness, handicraft and helpfulness.
B-P recommends how to properly view training:
[The Scoutmaster’s] job is to enthuse the boys and to get experts to teach them. The collection of rules is merely to give guiding lines to help them in a difficulty; the training courses are merely to show them the more readily the best ways of applying our methods and of gaining results.
B-P helps enlighten us about the correct point of view for training. It is to teach us the best way of applying the scouting methods to get results. In today’s business language it is the “best practices” of scouting.
Our emphasis at District on training is not for enforcing discipline. It is for giving each pack, troop, or crew the tools to achieve “best practices” as quickly as possible. Skip some of the pain of the School of Hard Knocks. Focus on what works. Shift responsibility for the program’s planning and action to the boys in an age-appropriate manner. We want to train you so that you are more comfortable with scouting.
How much more enjoyable is a sport or a card game if you understand the rules, goals, boundaries, and methods of play? Learn scouting’s “best practices” so that you can focus on the game – not the rules – of scouting.
How Do I Add or Remove Merit Badges for Counseling
UPDATE: 11/5/15: District is working at updating its list of MBC’s right now. If you see the draft and find that you are not included on it, please read this article about why and how to proceed.
For all of the blog’s information about Merit Badges, click here.
If you want to add or subtract from the Merit Badges that you counsel, please complete this North Star MBC Drop/Add Form. The form must be on file for all counselors. It is required along with the Adult Application.
Please have your troop’s Merit Badge Counselor Registrar contact the District MBC Registrar Mike Yates with any questions about a counselor’s current registration.
The District records are the authority on who is properly a Merit Badge Counselor. Troop registrars are for the convenience of the troop and its members to have a sole point of contact who is familiar with the system.
When a Merit Badge Counselor turns in his or her Drop-Add Form, please encourage them to offer their services to the District or Council, not just your unit, especially if they offer a rare badge. They will not often receive many calls.
For recent history on the MBC registration process and why changes have occurred, please read this blog article. To see options for bringing counseling into the 21st Century, read about the BSA’s acquisition of Scoutbook.com. Regardless whether your unit uses Scoutbook.com or not, it has some invaluable tools for Merit Badge Counseling that are not available elsewhere. Encourage your MBC’s to enroll. Their list of badges offered will then be added to the District list.
If you are retiring from serving as a MBC for the new year, make sure that the District MBC Registrar Mike Yates is aware. Your Troop and Crew leader, committee chair, and chartered organization representative were emailed his email address in October 2015.
If your troop does not have a person listed on your troop’s roster as the MBC registrar, please contact your Troop Committee Chair for more information.
District Training: Merit Badge Counselors
Merit Badge Counselors are a unique animal in scouting. They often focus on working with only one troop or crew, yet they are members of District Staff. District Staff is a group that serves all units in the district. So, Merit Badge Counselors are under the auspices of District and not their home units.
The significance of this is that it is District’s job to maintain an adequate roster of trained and qualified Merit Badge Counselors. To do this, we ask each Scout Troop and Venturing Crew to have an adult leader responsible for maintaining the unit’s roster of Merit Badge Counselors. Then that registrar should be in regular contact with the District Merit Badge Counselor Registrar Mike Yates. Mike maintains the official list.
This week I am sending out a request to all merit badge counselors enrolled but who do not have their Merit Badge Counselor Orientation completed. This email will point out the need for training and offer them various dates and times to complete the training. Council offers the orientation the first Thursday of every month at 7:00 p.m. We will offer the training at Roundtable in August, too. Unfortunately that means that it will be offered at exactly the same time.
We are currently planning the upcoming District training schedule. Merit Badge Counselors will be one of our primary points of emphasis.
If you would prefer to offer a Merit Badge Counselor training within your own unit’s meeting schedule, we will be happy to assist you in setting that up. This is often the best way to recruit new counselors: have a parent-training session covering YPT and MBC training in one sitting.
There is no online training for this training yet.
Please review your unit’s Merit Badge Counselor training status at my.scouting.org. Encourage your counselors to be trained. If you expected someone to be a Counselor but they are no longer registered, refer to this article for more information.
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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