Adult Education
News from Council Operations Meeting
Last night, Tuesday, October 20th, Council held their semi-annual Operations Meeting. North Star was represented by Mark Pishon as District Advancement Chair, Brian Crow as District Camping Chair, District Commissioner Jeff Heck, and District Executive Con Sullivan. We were not able to cover the break out sessions for Programming, Family Friends of Scouting, Activities, or Communications due to lack of representation.
Vice President for District Operations Stroh Brann opened the meeting. As a past Wood Badge Course Director, he recognized our most recent past Wood Badge Director Jason Creighton of currently of Del-Mi District, formerly of our own Pack 358.
Carolyn Small recognized one of our recent White Stag Course Directors (whose name I did not catch).
They then had a short introduction of the STEM Scout program which is currently rolling out in beta testing in the Crossroads 
of America Council. One of its District Executives Zach White announced that the Council took delivery of the new Vortex truck the previous day. I had an opportunity to walk through it. The tools’ delivery is expected in the near future. 
The STEM DE told us a little bit more about the program. The unit in STEM Scouts is a called a “Lab.” The first “Lab Manager” position specific training is November 2nd from 1 pm to 5 pm at the Scout Center. This a great opportunity to learn the program from the inside.
Break-out Session Reports
Membership. The Council Commissioner and the Membership Committee held a joint break out to discuss recruitment and retention. Field Services Director Rob Hemmelgarn provided data on recent trends in the Council for the past 5 years. In that period of time, the retention rate has improved from 66.6% year-over-year in 2010 to 69.2% in 2014. Current projections for 2015 are 70.9%. We are doing an increasingly better job of retaining scouts once we recruit them.
The bad news is that our recruiting and market penetration is down markedly in that same period of time. In 2010, we had 903 traditional scout units. In 2014, we had 757: a loss of 146 units across the council. In 2015, we are projected to loss another 50. This unit loss has had a direct impact on scout recruitment. In 2010, we recruited 9,307 new scouts. In 2014, we recruited 6,779. In 2015, we hope to stay level, but we have only recruited 5,104 as of September 30, 2015.
Many ideas were thrown around about the cause of problems, but the numbers seem to indicate that poor Tiger Cub and other Cub recruiting is hurting all programs. Since 95% of Boy Scouts come from Cub Scouts, this Cub Scout recruiting problem is having a cascading effect on all scouting programs as the years pass.
Rob reported that nearly all youth programs from scouts to athletics are reporting similar declines. Questions were raised about financial explanations. Rob reports that the professional literature is pushing the notion that it is attributable to video games. This writer wonders whether the video game explanation is just a symptom of financial issues. Video games have a larger up-front fixed cost and smaller costs to continually upgrade or add games. It requires no additional time away from home. It allows parents who are busy at work to make sure their kids are occupied with a significant investment of time from the parent. This works well in financially struggling households to allow more work time without additional child care costs or investments in time and effort.
The question in recruitment has a marketing component, a sales component, a training component, and a first-60 days retention component. These components were all alluded to but not answered.
Upcoming Council Events
The next Council meeting is the Cub Scout Promotional Team Kickoff on October 29th at Camp Belzer. November 2, 2015 is the first day of Cub Scout Camp registration for summer 2016.
Council has meetings on November 15th and December 15th for the Activities and Training Committees and the Commissioners at the Scout Center. Start time is 7:00 pm.
The Governor’s Luncheon is December 14th at the JW Marriott hotel.
Report from 2015 Fall Camporee
We survived the Zombie Apocalypse!
Thank you to District Camporee Chair Stu Bowes for a warmly received and joyful Camporee. We heard many rave reviews. The weather was delightful (especially given fresh memories of the Spring Camporee’s deluge).
We were warned about the coming Zombie Apocalypse by the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department.
We even had Troop 358 do a solid rendition of Heywood Bank’s Famous “Toast!”
Our Assistant Camporee Chair Rick Akers broke out his stage make up to dress the victims to make the drill even more realistic.
We 18 adults trained in matters ranging from Youth Protection Training, Chartered Org Rep Training, District Committee Training.
Most importantly for training, the District would like to thank Troop 73’s Scoutmaster Vince Hernly and Troop 56’s Committee Chair Sandy McNutt for serving as lead instructors, respectively, for Scoutmaster Specific Training and Troop Committee Challenge. Thank you, too, to Troop 56’s Assistant Scoutmaster Don Bievenour for assisting Vince with the Scoutmaster Specific Training.
We have heard many thanks from scouters for reviving training at Camporee’s. Look for more in the future, including Introduction to Leadership Skills for Troops (and Crews?) targeted at current and future Senior Patrol Leaders.
Online Training Modules: Tips & Tricks
As part of Rechartering season, North Star District is making a hard push to move the District to 100% Trained.
For online training, this is easy. Login at the newer my.scouting.org (not the older myscouting.scouting.org). If you have never used the website, try to login with your user name and password from the older site. It may ask you to register. That is fine. When registration is done, it may take as long as 30 minutes for the websites to port your information from the older site to the newer site. The best idea is try to login & register then walk away for a meal or other activity. When you come back, try to log in.
Please do not try to register multiple times. Each time it registers a new user, it generates a new BSA Membership ID Number. If you have more than one number associated with your name, it will cause the ScoutNet database to function incorrectly. Just be patient after the first login. This patience pays off.
For Cub Scout leaders, all of their basic training is online, albeit with a new website.
For Scout leaders, many are online. Scoutmasters primarily have required in-person classes. (Chartered Org Rep training is primarily in-person, too, but Crossroads Council does have some online options. See the website’s training page for more information.)
All scouting programs are moving to increased online training, too, over the next year.
I have heard several reports in the past month about problems with the new training system. Many of these problems relate to the system relying on Adobe’s Flash software. If you have not recently updated your Flash software, this will prevent the online training from occurring. Do the update first.
Similarly, I have heard that the scouting training had many problems in the past month. I have just tested several scouting training classes online. I had no problems. However, I know that my Flash software is up-to-date.
Please make sure that your Pack and Troop Committee Members take the Committee Challenge for their program before rechartering.
Camporee: Friday night live YPT
We will be offering a live YPT session Friday night. All scout leaders are welcome to attend, even if their unit is not participating in Camporee (such as Cub Scout Packs).
Check in will be at the Scout Cabin north of the football filed at the Indiana School for the Blind, on northeast corner of 75th and College Ave, a mile north of Broad Ripple.
Please register to make sure we have sufficient space for interested persons.
Encourage all scout leaders attending Camporee and having their YPT expiring before March 1, 2016 to attend.
Camporee: 4 Days – RSVPs
Camporee opens this Friday evening. Please make sure that you get your RSVPs in for attendance at the Camporee generally and the adult education, especially Scoutmaster specific training.
Committee Chairs and Chartered Organization Representatives can help this by taking head counts, especially of adults attending training. Putting it on the district reservation system is helpful.
Some of the classes require handouts and small group work, so we need head counts to assist in planning. Walk-ins will be accepted but we are begging for estimates from troops.
Camporee: Final Checklist
UPDATE 10/8/15 at 10:05 AM: Retitled.
As of Monday, September 28, 2015, we had 12 days until the Fall Camporee! [As of October 8th, we are down to one day!]
Make sure that your troop has kept up-to-date on their task list:
- confirmed your reservation with District Camporee Chair Stu Bowes, including a headcount;
- communicated the event that your Troop plans on offering during the Camporee (and considered whether one or two Firecrafter or OA members could run the event rather than an adult, to better serve the Aims of Scouting), including some troop meeting dry runs;
- considered your Troop’s contribution to the Friday night campfire, including some troop meeting rehearsals;
- identified your scouters who are eligible for receiving the North Star Red Cap;
- reviewed the criteria for the coveted Willy Award with your Senior Patrol Leader (or the acting Senior Patrol Leader for the Camporee) and determine what the patrols’ contribution to your campsite theme will be;
- reviewed the criteria for the new Commissioner’s Awards with your Senior Patrol Leader (or acting SPL) and determine how it will affect your patrols’ preparations for the Camporee;
- contacted your scouters who have received their Wood Badge or current candidates to advise them that District Chair Steve James is interested in rebuilding the District’s Wood Badge Association known as the “Willy Gillies,” and there will likely be a discussion at or after Cracker Barrel on Saturday night about the Willy Gillies;
- talked to your newer or untrained scouters (whether they are camping out or not) about the long list of trainings that will be offered at Camporee that will be necessary for Rechartering, including
- Youth Protection Training – Friday night
- District Committee Training – Saturday 9:00 am to 1:00 pm
- Troop Committee Challenge – Saturday 9:00 am to 11:30 am
- Training the Chartered Organization Representative – Saturday 1:00 pm to 3:00 pm
- Scoutmaster-Specific Training – Saturday for 4 hours (2 segments: 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm and 6:00 to 8:00 pm).
This will be a busy and wonderful Camporee. With the theme being interesting to the boys and amount of training offered, we will likely need an unusually high number of adults present to be able to run the programs and serve the boys simultaneously.
In any case, we look forward to the camaraderie of scouting in North Star!
Camporee: Scoutmaster Specific Training (for ASM’s, too!)
North Star District Training Subcommittee and the Commissioner’s Service is happy to announce that we have confirmed that we will be offering Scoutmaster Specific Training on Saturday, October 10, 2015 by Troop 73 (St Paul’s Episcopal) Scoutmaster Vince Hernly.
Vince is an experienced scoutmaster, teacher, and outdoorsman. He received his Wood Badge in 2011. He has been on Council’s beloved Voyageur (canoeing training) staff at Camp Belzer for a number of years and is a regular visitor to the Boundary Waters and other interesting outdoor locales. He teaches karate as part of his professional life.
Due to conflicting Camporee events and trainings, Vince will be teaching this 4-hour class in two 2-hour segments. He will offer the first segment from 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm. The second segment will be from 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm (which will conflict with the dinner time, so plan accordingly by eating early or bringing a brown bag). I will join him to team teach the evening segment.
Please bring notebook paper and writing utensil.
Old Scoutmasters Handbook or new Troop Leader Guidebook or both. SMs & ASMs should seriously consider owning their own copy of at least one of these. The new book is in two volumes and only volume 1 is available at this time.
If you have one, a copy of each of the following:
- Boy Scout Manual (Appendix available in PDF)
- Program features (old or new) (Available in PDF)
- Guide to advancement (Available in PDF)
- Troop Committee Guidebook (Available in PDF)
Please let your assistant scoutmasters know that this training is being offered so that they can get it on their schedule.
For assistant scoutmasters who need the Introduction to Outdoor Leadership skills, this will not be offered by North Star that day; however, Del-Mi will be offering OLS the same day at Camp Krichtenstein. OLS will then be offered at University of Scouting in January 2016 and by Del-Mi at each of its next Camporees. (North Star is considering offering it at Winter Camporee, too, if sufficient interest exists.)
Training Offered at Camporee
North Star District will be offering several training sessions at the Fall Camporee.
- District Committee Training will be offered Saturday morning. Tentative start time 9:00 am. This class is required to be certified as “Trained” as a District Committee Member. Very few of our District Committee have this training. There will be break out sessions for the various subcommittees. This training is open to all current District Committee members and any persons interested in serving on District Committee in the future.
- Train the Chartered Organization Representative will be offered in Saturday afternoon. Tentative start time is 1:00 pm (subject to change due to conflicts with camporee schedule). This is different than the online Fast Start Chartered Organization Representative Training. This training is available online but only from the Crossroads of America Council’s website. Please encourage your Chartered Organization Representative to take this particular training session since it will be a reason for the Chartered Organization Representative to see your troop in action and participate in the camaraderie at a camporee, just down the street from home — for many of us.
- Live Youth Protection Training will be offered on Friday evening (approximately 8:30 pm) before Scoutmaster and SPL General Meeting and again after dinner on Saturday, if demand warrants.
- Under consideration: Troop Committee Challenge may be offered during Saturday morning if I can recruit an instructor. Volunteers may contact Jeff Heck. This is a required training for troop committee members and will be required to recharter. This training is offered online, too, and would take less time. However, like the Chartered Organization Representative, this is an opportunity for witnessing your troop in action and participating in the camaraderie at a camporee.
Since the Camporee will be at the Blind School, scouters who will not be able to camp out with us should feel free to stop in and participate in the training sessions.
Please make sure to sign up for the sessions so that we can plan for the appropriate number of handouts. Walk-ins will be gladly accepted but may not have handouts.
Several of these trainings are required for rechartering, so encourage your scouters to attend.
Cub Leader Training
Don’t forget to get your new leaders trained online at My.Scouting.org or with in-person classes from Council and its Districts as listed at the new Council Training Hub website.
This training is required for Rechartering.
If you run a training session, please add it to the new Council Training website.
YPT Optimal Expiration Date
As we head into rechartering season, opening October 1st, the Commissioner’s Staff is going to work hard at making this process as quick and painless as possible.
In order to allow this goal to be accomplished, we need the cooperation of our volunteers. One of the logistical nightmares for our unit chairs is to assure that each of the scouters registered is properly trained in Youth Protection Training.
BSA puts the requirements this way:
BSA Policy is:
Youth Protection training is required for all BSA registered volunteers. Youth Protection training must be taken every two years. If a volunteer does not meet the BSA’s Youth Protection training requirement at the time of recharter, the volunteer will not be reregistered.
To find out more about the Youth Protection policies of the Boy Scouts of America and how to help Scouting keep your family safe, see the Parent’s Guide in any of the Cub Scouting or Boy Scouting handbooks, or go to http://www.scouting.org/Training/YouthProtection.aspx.
This begs the question, “When is rechartering done?”
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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