Training
Cub Scout discipline
When my son began working as a 12-year old den chief, a Boy Scout helping a Cub Scout den, I did not know what to expect. When the meeting was over, I asked him what he thought about it. He said very slowly and deliberately with a pause between each word, “It was like herding cats.”
Many first time den leaders have the same feeling after their first den meeting.
One of the first lesson is that any good den leader can have is how to implement a system that encourages good behavior.
At the website scoutermom.com, she has a wonderful and simple article with some great positive reinforcement mechanisms. Take a look.
Some of these ideas apply equally well to older scouts, too.
Shooting Sports in Scouts
Since the Spring Camporee is tentatively scheduled to focus on rifle shooting and archery, we should probably start boning up on the rules of shooting sports in scouts.
First, some basic rules. Cubs can only do BB Guns and archery in very strictly controlled circumstances, such as a Council campsite. No rifles. Ever. Scouts can do much more, but must follow the scouting rules carefully.
So how do we know the scouting rules?
This is scouts. Of course there is a manual for that. You can download the whole thing from the BSA website along with many other new resources.
Second, why are we so picky about the rules? Remember strict adherence to the Guide for Safe Scouting in shooting sports is the only way to guarantee that the BSA insurance will cover you as a unit leader and your chartered organization when you do shooting sports. This is extremely important, especially adhering to the stricter rules for Cub Scouts.
Our first duty is to protect the boys. Our next duty is safety for other participants. Our final duty is to keep the chartered organizations happy and continuing to support scouting.
If you have questions, contact the District Commissioner or the District Executive.
Upcoming events
Commissioners’ meeting: Thursday, October 6, 2016 at 6:00 pm at Second Presbyterian
District Committee: Also Thursday at 7:00 pm, same location
Wood Badge Association dinner: tonight at Belzer
District Camporee: this weekend at the Blind School. Webelos encouraged to visit and see most of our troops in one location.
- Youth Protection Training live: Friday at 8:30 pm at Camporee.
- Introduction to Outdoor Leadership Skills (for Scoutmasters and Asst Scoutmasters and all other volunteers who camp) and Outdoor Webelos Leaders’ Skills (for Cubmasters and Webelos Den Leaders): opening remarks Friday at 9:30 pm and training 8:30 am to 8:00 pm. Attendance at Saturday campfire required.
Roundtable: Thursday, October 13, 2016 at 6:30 pm at Luke’s Lodge at St Luke’s UMC.
YPT report
As rechartering season has now opened, the importance of youth protection training status has risen to priority number one.
Luckily we are beginning to see progress. We now have 127 positions that have expired or Will expire before rechartering season is over. That means we are the sixth of the way to our goal.
The best thing at unit can do right now is to make sure that they have their lead person on rechartering open the rechartering system and review specifically the persons who we need to use protection training to be complete before their unit can recharter. We have recharter turn in his beginning in less than two weeks. This means that any unit that has a leader who needs YPT to recharter can cause problems at the turn in.
Rechartering Emails Expected Today
The bad news is we are in rechartering season. The good news is that we’re about to get it started so we can get it completed sooner.
That last report we expect rechartering emails to go out today, Wednesday.
This means it is crucial to get our 144 people in the district who have expired or expiring (i.e., less than 90 days until expiration) youth protection training up to speed as soon as possible. We have several scoutmasters, committee chairs in chartered organization representatives who have expired or expiring training. This means their unit’s rechartering cannot proceed forward. If their training is currently expired, they are not authorized to participate in scouting activities. This is even worse.
Unit should have a Denna five the key three personnel for the upcoming year, two additional committee members, unit leader training, YPT, and the other prerequisites to rechartering.
In the email containing the rechartering codes, there is a checklist of items to prepare. Please make sure to do those as soon as possible so that when you’re turning date arrives, your unit is ready to complete the rechartering process.
Remember our goal is to complete rechartering in the district before the end of October. If there are units that need additional time to cover the dues from popcorn proceeds, we’re willing to work with you on that.
October Roundtable
October Roundtable on October 13, 2016 will focus on rechartering preparation for the following weeks.
Remember Recharter Applications are due on October 20, 26, 0r 27, 2016, depending on the date assigned to your unit.
Roundtable will address many issues and will offer a Youth Protection Training at the end for those interested.
YPT Status report
I have not been able to pull the YPT reports from my.scouting.org this morning because the website is down for maintenance.
Please make sure that your unit has its YPT up to date in the next 10 days to expedite the rechartering process. If you do not have the report, log in to my.scouting.org. Visit the Training Manager page for your unit. The report is available on the right column.
Contact Jeff Heck or Con Sullivan if you cannot pull the report by this afternoon.
YPT Report: 192 expired/expiring
We are 15 days away from the opening of rechartering season. We have 192 scouters who have had their YPT status lapse or will lapse in the next 90 days. We have a handful more whose memberships will drop because their YPT expires before March 1, 2017.
This is a very bad trend. We are making little to no progress on fixing this problem.
Please talk to your committees about fixing this as soon as possible to make rechartering easier.
September 2016 Roundtable Resources
The following items and webpages are scheduled to be discussed at the September 2016 Roundtable.
- Budget and planning resources (spreadsheets on pages):
- Packs: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/CubScouts/Leaders/PackCommitteeResources.aspx.
- Troops: http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/Planning.aspx
Cub Scout Training Continues
This week North Star is focused on Cub Scout Leader Training.
Last night we held a class for Den Leader Training.
Tonight, Wednesday, we will hold another Den Leader Training at Second Presbyterian Church, 7700 N Meridian St, Room 401, Indianapolis, IN 46260. 7:00 pm. We will also hold a Cubmaster Specific and Pack Traininer/Committee Challenge (Pack Trainers are members of the committee, so their training is now committee training) will be held in an adjacent room.
Tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday, we will hold the same trainings at 7:00 pm but at the Scout Center.
You can RSVP on the District Website for training. If you do not RSVP, show up anyway! (RSVPs just help us have peace of mind that we have the right number of chairs.)
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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