Pack 105 Celebrates 5 Years of Service to Zionsville
Team Tecumseh
Who’s ready for a big party? It is hard to believe, but it is Pack 105’s 5th birthday. We are going to celebrate with the biggest pack meeting yet!!! Come a get a 5 year Pack 105 patch.<image.png>
Can you please send out an invitation to your former dens for this historic event?
We are going to celebrate with the following activities from our 5 year program:
Year of Tecumseh with a Popcorn Skit featuring our name sake Tecumseh
Year of Stem with the physics of football – punt, pass, and kick
Year of Transportation with a demo by one of our local heroes (police, sheriff or fire department)
Year of Culture with Songkran- a water fight amongst Pack 105, Troop 358,and Troop 804
Year of Sports with Human FoosballDate – Monday Sept 12
Location – Dad’s Club Shelter
Time – 6:00-8:00PM
Attire – Class BAgenda
6:00- 6:05 Introduction
6:05 -6:10 Opening Ceremony – Flag and prayer
6:10- 6:20 Water Fight – Songkran – Cultures of the World
6:20-7:20 Stations
Station #1 – Human Foosball
Station #2 – Kick, Pass and Throw
Station #3 – Local Heroes Demo
7:20-7:45 Tecumseh Popcorn Skit
7:45-8:00 Group Celebration with photoWAHOO
Jeremy
100 Years of Eagles with Troop 18
In a previous post last month, we announced that Troop 18 is celebrating 100 years of Eagle Scouts in the Crossroads of America Council. In 1916, Troop 18 had the first three Eagle Scouts in the Indianapolis Council (the predecessor to the Crossroads of America Council).
This week we will add more to the story of Troop 18.
REMINDER: District Committee & Commissioner’s Staff tomorrow
Just a quick reminder that District Committee is tomorrow Thursday, August 4, 2016 at 7:00 pm at Second Presbyterian Church, 7700 N Meridian St, Rm 405 (Furtherest from elevator), Indianapolis, IN 46260.
Also, District Commissioner’s Staff meeting will be at 6:00 pm in Room 401. We will be planning the District Kickoff meeting for next week’s roundtable. If you have an organization or activity like Firecrafter, Order of the Arrow, Voyageur, Marlinspike, or training (e.g., Wood Badge or position-specific training) that you would like to promote, please email Jeff Heck to be placed on the schedule. Plan on bringing flyers for handouts.
All presenters are welcome, priority will be given to those that email Jeff in advance in order to better allow time budgeting.
Support veterans with donations
American Legion Post 3 in Broad Ripple is assisting Crossroads Veterans Services with their drive to collect bicycles for veterans during the month of August.
Bikes to Vets is a program by Crossroads Veteran Services. The program will accept bicycles in good working order and distribute them to Veterans who need transportation assistance to get to a bus stop or their place of employment. Donated bicycles may be tagged with the name of the organization making the donation and will be given to Veterans who lack dependable transportation.
If you will donate a bicycle in good working order, bring it to the American Legion Post #3, 6379 N. College Ave. (Broad Ripple) not later than August 31st or contact Dan Cunningham at 317-697-7994 for pick up.
Thank you for helping a veteran!
29 Days and Counting: Cub Scout recruiting report
Hey North Star Packs!
Online Registration Roll Out Continues
Previously, we posted about a training video for online registration.
Now BSA National has rolled out a dedicated webpage for training on the new online registration system. Take a look. Make sure your unit’s ready for the new system.
This will be extremely handy in preparing for rechartering.
Remember all new application that have completed processing prior to October 1, 2016 will be automatically entered into the Internet Rechartering system. That cuts down on a lot of risks of error in the rechartering process. The electronic registration means that the October 1, 2016 deadline is easier to meet with less paper-flow management.
July Eagle Report
The following Scouts successfully completed their Eagle Boards of Review in July:
- William Keedy, Troop 174
- Grant Lisby, Troop 191.
Congratulations to our newest Eagle Scouts!
Youth Protection Training
We are are just 70 days from the opening of Rechartering. Now is the time to begin reminding your scout leaders who need to renew their Youth Protection Training recertification in even-numbered years.
Failure to have scouters properly certified in a timely manner is one of the biggest problems in rechartering. Last year we posted an article explaining that the ideal time of year to renew YPT is between March 1st and October 1st of each year.
As of this morning, across the entire district our scouters’ YPT status looks like this:
- 28 have expired (mostly in the past 30 days)
- 27 will expire in the next 30 days (end of August)
- 46 will expire in the following 30-day period (end of September)
- 38 will expire before the end of October.
Encourage your leaders to renew early (before October 1st) to bring them inside this window. Review your unit’s training status on my.scouting.org to identify whom you need to contact. Make a plan to bring YPT up-to-date now while scouting obligations are quieter (camp is over, high adventure crews are returning home, and annual planning is over the horizon).
You can offer YPT classes at your regular meeting. You, your training coordinator, or your unit commissioner can run a video for several volunteers at one your regular meetings or annual planning conference.
REMINDER: District Committee August 4th
A quick reminder that the District Committee will be meeting August 4th at 7:00 pm at Second Presbyterian Church, 7700 N Meridian St, Rm 407, Indianapolis, IN 46260.
Fall Camporee planning is full swing. Please work on your troop’s event. Some ideas are available on a previous post.
We are also working on finalizing basic information about the Winter and Spring Camporees, so come with your thoughts.
Membership subcommittee is in full swing preparing for Back to School Recruitment. Your packs and troops plans to participate (yes, troops helping packs recruit) is crucial for our success. We already know that some packs are spread thin on manpower. They are small and cover many schools on August 25th. Your help is needed for their success.
Fall also has many special events like a Rocket Launch in support of membership recruitment, Cub Scout leader training, Battle of Belzer, Cub Family Camp and many others. We need your help in planning for their success.
Adapting to Scouts’ Needs
Many of our units have now completed summer camp. The leaders have learned more about their scouts in that short week than they will the rest of the year. Some scouts are easy to manage and guide. Others require more skill to manage and guide.
Now is a great time to discuss with the other leaders of your unit the lessons learned about each of your scouts and to strategize on how to better serve them in their individual needs.
I grew up in scouts with some physical impairments. We never discussed these impairments with my scoutmaster. My family took the attitude that these were my hurdles to overcome. In retrospect, my scoutmaster had to learn my needs independently without much guidance. It gave him a tougher task. In the ’70’s and ’80’s, those things weren’t discussed as freely as today.
Over the past couple of years I have learned about the BSA’s standard practices for learning about and implementing individualized plans for scouts. This effort started from the efforts of Rebecca Zirnheld and Jody Winter to teach our troop about these standard practices. Over the intervening months I have come to see the value of these standard practices.
I highly recommend that all scout leaders read the the 8-page Guide to Working with Scouts with Special Needs and DisAbilities, No. 510-071 from the scouting.org website on special needs. If you have specific issues to address, more detail is available in the Scouting for Youth with Disabilities, No. 34059 (2007).
The key take away for me from these pieces of literature:
- Students with special needs have a Individual Education Plan (“IEP”) designed at school.
- 18% or so of students have an IEP.
- An IEP can be a useful tool to help a scouter better understand his scout, if the parents wish to share the highly confidential IEP.
- If the parents do not wish to share the IEP, a scouter who knows an IEP basic outline can ask more informed questions.
- The scouting literature is very helpful to guide a scouter deal with known problems and foster open communication with the parents.
Sometimes we can best avoid future confusion and conflict by learning more about what resources are available to us before they are needed.
I could imagine a situation where a scouter finds his newest scout has ADHD, which is a new to the scouter. The scouter could ask the parents to meet with him for 20 minutes and have the guides at the meeting. The scouter could say to the parents, “I don’t know ADHD except what I read here. Let me show you what it says. What else do I need to know about your son that this guide does not tell me?”
Invariably, the parents will tell a great deal that the guide does not. But that is the point. The parents know their son the best, so asking is key.
Other useful websites:
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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