Training
Committee Meetings: Useful?
The great Bobwhite Blather has some hints on making sure that Unit Committee meetings are held and effective.
Here are a few key comments:
So how do you slog through the routine of a monthly committee meeting without causing your committee members to “check out” and put you on mute?
With people saying they’d prefer almost anything to sitting through a boring meeting – eight percent reportedly would rather have a root canal than endure a litany of boring status updates – it’s vitally important to engage your participants so they can share the essence of their knowledge. And being a volunteer organization, we can’t compel them to attend, like your employer can, so we need to make them want to attend.
- Most of your meeting should involve tasks in which participants are dependent on each other to advance the outcome. If only one or two people are involved, the rest of the attendees will either be sitting there silently watching the clock or contributing in ways that may not be helpful.
- If your meeting has no purpose or agenda, you’re doomed to waste your participants’ time. They don’t know what to expect…and you don’t know where you are going next – or even why you’re there.
- Expect a solution to arise out of the discussion. Don’t make a habit of putting off topics until the next meeting. Make it a priority to resolve issues and make assignments. The old adage applies: Nothing gets done in meetings – the action takes place when everyone leaves the table.
- Everyone attending should have a stake. Anyone who leaves without something to do probably shouldn’t have attended in the first place.
Frank goes on to explain when emails would be more effective. It is worth a quick read.
White Stag Spring Course
Did you know that National Youth Leadership Training, locally known as “White Stag,” is available three times in 2016?
Here is the information from Council’s website:
NYLT (White Stag)
NYLT is a six-day course patterned after a month in the life of a unit. Content is delivered in a group and team outdoor setting with an emphasis on immediate application of learning in a fun environment.
The NYLT course integrates the best of modern leadership theory with the traditional strengths of the Scouting experience. Through activities, presentations, challenges, discussions, and audio visual support, NYLT participants will be engaged in a unified approach to leadership that will give them the skills and confidence to lead well. Through a wide range of activities, events, games, and adventures, NYLT participants will work and play together as they put into action the best that Scouting has to offer.
Flyer
- Two-Weekend Course — March 18-20 and April 8-10, 2016 (Must attend both weekends)
- June Course — June 12-18, 2016
- July Course — July 10-16, 2016
If you have any scouts who would be interested in the spring session, make sure they are signed up soon!
White Stag Prereq at Spring Camporee
Some of the most successful troops in our district require that their SPLs and ASPLs attend White Stag, the National Youth Leadership Training, each spring or summer.
Some troops are not aware that attendance at White Stag requires a prerequisite class: Introduction to Leadership Skills for Troops (or for Crews).
BSA states on this webpage:
ILST is the first course in the series of leadership training offered to Boy Scouts and is a replacement for Troop Leadership Training. Completion of ILST is a prerequisite for Boy Scouts to participate in the more advanced leadership courses National Youth Leadership Training (NYLT) and the National Advanced Youth Leadership Experience (NAYLE). It is also required to participate in a Kodiak Challenge Trek.
Once a youth attends ILST and has taken the first phase of train-the-trainer, “Fundamentals of Training,” the youth is eligible to offer this same training at his home unit.
North Star District will be offering ILST at the Spring Camporee. The lead instructor will Aryaman Gupta a recent Eagle Scout and SPL, who has just joined the scoutmaster corps at Troop 56. We are seeking another former or current SPL to assist Aryaman in his efforts. Please contact Jeff Heck with any volunteers.
Plan now to recruit your best candidates to attend White Stag so that they can get their prerequisites done.
Participants can (a) pay $5.00 to have their materials provided for them or (b) pay nothing and print out their own materials from the website as posted at a latter.
Reservations can be made at this link.
Basic Commissioner Training at Camporee
Pack 625’s Patriotism
In prior years, New Augusta South asked Pack 625 to present the colors at their Veterans tribute. This year was no different and the school contacted Pati Allison (with some short notice) if our Pack could again participate. We reached out to the Pack to see if anyone was available for the event on November 10. There were 2 boys from the pack that volunteered but we needed more. I reached out to Beth Montano with Troop 343 to see if any of their boys were able to come. Her son volunteered and Beth also reached out to Troop 269
as some of their Scouts had come from Pack 625. In true Scoutsmanlike manner, 2 more Scouts came to our aid. While Sean Montano called out the orders, the 2 boys from Pack 625 and the 2 boy scouts proudly and adeptly presented the colors. The school was very appreciative and said the Tribute to the Veterans would not be complete without it.
Training for New Year
As we bring in a new year, all scout leaders should have a resolution to become trained in their new positions.
University of Scouting is coming up in less than 2 weeks. This is a great opportunity to get Outdoor Leadership Training for Scouts (PB109) or Webelos. It will take the whole session of classes, but it will be done. BALOO for Cub Scouts is PC103.
New District Committee members should plan on taking the District Committee Training at University of Scouting. (PG112) This is only half of the required course. We may elect to offer both parts at Camporee, too, but we would prefer to offer other training if at possible.
Chartered Organization Representative Training is available. (MG121) There are also course for the unique characteristics in different denominations of churches (MG123-126).
Take a look at all the offerings. Look at your unit’s needs and encourage your adults and Den Chiefs to get trained at University of Scouting.
We are also considering what classes to offer at the Winter Camporee. If you have certain preferences, please contact District Commissioner Jeff Heck with your thoughts.
Thanksgiving Lessons for Scouting
As Thanksgiving arrives this year, we begin considering more time with extended family and friends. Scouting tends to be put on the backshelf. Even so, Thanksgiving is a great time to think about the philosophy and lessons of scouting. (While this article is focused on boy scout troops, the same lessons of unit cohesion apply to Cub Scout Dens and Venturing Crews, too.)
The history of Thanksgiving is not often as it is represented in the media. To truly learn the lessons of Thanksgiving, we need to return to the the true story of Thanksgiving.
When the Plymouth colonists arrived and were moored alongside shore, they entered into the famed Mayflower Compact, effectively the first constitution written in North America. The Romans had previously had their Twelve Tables, the Swiss their agreement of confederation, and the Jamestown colony their royal charter. All of these were written agreement of government organization, but were all written in Europe. The Compact did not emphasize powers and duties like the US Constitution. It emphasized that all the colonists agreed to be subject to a common government as it was constituted from “time to time.” (That phrase is lawyer-speak for changes that occur every once in a while.) So they agreed to stick to the colony as the rules changed.
This agreeing to be part of the group and be subject to its changing rules is the first similarity between the Compact and a boy scout troop. While the rules for troop organization and management are far more detailed in the Senior Patrol Leader’s Handbook, the new Troop Leaders’ Guide Book (which replaced the Scoutmaster’s Handbook this year), and the Scout Handbook than the Mayflower Compact, neither these scouting handbooks nor the Compact define the daily rules of performance. Neither tells who cooks food, cleans, or organizes the day’s activities. Those are left for future decisions. Consequently, both systems leave lots of room for future lessons to be built into the future activities and organization of the band of people participating.
University of Scouting catalog available
This we
ek the 2016 University of Scouting Course Catalog was published.
You can pick a paper copy up at the scout center. You can also make reservations here.
Training our Chartered Org Reps
As noted in a recent blog post, North Star District is making a big push as a part of Rechartering season to get our leaders trained for their position or reclassified to avoid the need for new training.
At this point, our Chartered Organization Representatives still are nearly 2/3rds untrained.
This is easy to fix through Council’s online training. Just follow the link, read the PowerPoint slides and report the training through the link in the training. That is it.
It will take Council nearly two weeks to update records, so print out evidence of training for Rechartering.
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.
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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