Filling a High Adventure Contingent
High adventure (loosely defined) is one of the most important parts of retaining older scouts along with true youth leadership of the troop through use of the Patrol Method. If the older scout feels he is needed and wanted while having fun and challenging himself, his biggest enemy to continued scouting is his 18th birthday.
Many troops and crews struggle to run effective high adventure programs. There are many impediments: youth participants’ interest, adult participants’ availability, costs, logistics, program availability, etc.
For troops and crews that do make it through the planning stages and schedule a high adventure trip, they sometimes struggle to fill a contingent (that is the group that will do the high adventure activity together, usually 6-12 scouts depending on the activity). Some of our troops field multiple contingents on any one trip. This offers many savings in economies of scale, especially with travel and lodging.
For others, the biggest problem is having enough scouts to fill out a complete contingent.
The District is making an effort to help fill contingents. We already have several troops with plans for 2016. If all goes well, all scheduled scouts will attend. However, life happens and vacancies may occur for a variety of reasons. The trip is most likely to achieve its goals of adventure and citizenship development if the contingents are full. To help overcome obstacles, the District is working as a clearing house at Roundtables to discuss where units have vacancies on existing contingents that already have scheduled departure dates.
If your troop or crew has a known vacancy or is willing to accept names for a waiting list, please contact District Commissioner Jeff Heck or your assigned Unit Commissioner. Similarly if your unit has an eager scout who wants to go but cannot find the right trip for him, contact the Commissioners so that we can help place your scout(s).
In a future article we will look at some opportunities for District to offer high adventure trips, including Order of the Arrow contingents, that might help units who have struggled to make high adventure a part of their program.
Eagle awards
At the district meeting, we discussed council awards for new Eagles. The link is here http://www.crossroadsbsa.org/BSA160page384.php.
Part-time Patrol Method
Bobwhite Blather blog has a great article about scout troops that believe they are running a successful patrol method.
Frank questions whether this is truly an example of running a successful patrol method.
This is especially a waste of great learning opportunities when there are so many resources for improving the patrol method. Clarke Green has an entire section of his website dedicated to this one question and its philosophical reasons. He even has written a book about the process of implementing the patrol system from the scoutmaster’s perspective.
The recent Eagle Scout turned blogger Enoch Heise has a wonderful post on the real basics and purpose of the patrol. Not too many months ago (from an adult’s perspective), Enoch was an SPL. Now as newly minted adult scouter he uses his practical lessons to teach other adults.
There are even books on the subject. Here is one from the British Scout Association in 1943. Here is one of more recent vintage, that I can only find in paperback. I have read it. It has great stuff.
Read more about the patrol method. Become a believer.
Gift Ideas for Scouts and Scouters
Clarke Green posts a regular list of scout wish list for Christmas and the holidays.
Take a look to see if it helps for last minute gifts.
New Duty to God Requirements: Are we a religious organization?
As many scoutmasters have learned, January 1, 2016 brings new boy scout rank advancement requirements. The moving of requirements among the ranks is not getting much attention. Neither is the specificity of the type of service hours now required: specific conservation requirements.
The scout’s demonstration of observing his religious duties is getting attention.
The great Bobwhite Blather blog addresses the question of whether this demonstrates that the BSA is or is not a “religious organization.” His analysis is well worth a considered read.
Scoutmastercg.com’s Clarke Green contributed to this analysis, last June, when he took a look at how Baden Powell thought a Scout’s Own service should be managed. Clarke goes further in critiquing some of the current interpretations and inconsistencies in the current BSA definitions of Duty to God.
Clarke’s analysis clearly in another article demonstrates that encouraging a scout to examine his religious beliefs within the religious emblem program gives a scoutmaster the ability to avoid entering a debate on the subject of “what constitutes an acceptable religion” and still upholds the principles of Duty to God.
No matter how a scout answers the question for himself, the most important part is for his scoutmaster to encourage the scout to enter the realm of seeking answers to questions about his own beliefs. This seeking process can be either through his own self-study or with his own house of worship.
Scouting is an active process of learning. We put scouts in the position of making moral and ethical choices on a campout by deciding how to treat his patrol well, especially when things don’t always go smoothly. The Duty to God is supposed to put these questions into a realm of questions that rise about the current moment. A momentary conflict between patrol members can and should turn into a moment of learning about life outside of the patrol.
Having a working mental vocabulary of his own beliefs creates a tool for self-improvement. His actions and self-reflections within a larger context cause those self-discoveries to come faster and to have a greater impact.
These new requirements encourage religious self-exploration and not any mandatory conclusions, other than the scout is part of a larger world than just himself. He needs to figure out how he is a small part of a larger world.
District Elections Thursday
Reminder that Thursday, December 17, 2016 at 7:00 pm at St Luke’s United Methodist Church, Luke’s Lodge (outbuilding on the northeast corner of campus), 100 W 86th St, first floor, Indianapolis, IN 46260 (please note wrong location posted originally).
For more information see this post.
Remember eligible voters include Chartered Organization Representatives, District Members-at-Large (meaning current committee members), and Council Members-at-Large living in North Star District.
Please make sure that your Chartered Organization Representative plans to attend to speak for your unit.
Congratulations to the newest Eagles!
Here is the latest report from Eagle Boards Coordinator Jerry Simon:
These North Star scouts successfully completed their Eagle BOR last night, December 9th. This will be their date-of-rank but only after the applications are approved by National. Normally it takes two to four weeks for the Eagle Rank packet to get back to CAC but, due to the time of year, it may be closer to the longer period.[]Zachary Badger T- 358Jonathan Martz T- 73James Raines T- 269Luther Rice T- 358Nicholas Rivelli T-35John Sweeny T- 514Jesper Wiebke T- 358Brendan Williams T-174
Pinewood Derby Track
As we enter into a new season of Pinewood Derby racing, we will have some changes to how district supplies tracks.
Fred Steinhoff, our stalwart Pinewood Derby track provider, is preparing to retire out of state. Fred has been working with Pack 830 Bill Buchalter to hand off those responsibilities. 
Recently Pack 830 has built a new and beautiful track. It is a bit longer than the old track. Consequently, the races will have a bit of a different feel.
Bill Buchalter said, “As much as I am available I will help those packs with track setup and with running their derby for them as Fred did in the past.” Bill explained that his job takes him out of state sometimes with less warning than he would wish for pinewood derby planning, but there is a plan in place. “[A]ny commitments that I make to help with another pack’s pinewood derby will have to be with the understanding that [I might be] shipped out for work…. Fortunately, there are lots of other parents in Pack 830 that routinely step up to help out – so if I’m not available we should hopefully be able to find someone else who can.”
If there are emergencies, Fred Steinhoff is still available.
Now is the time to make sure that your pack has reserved the track for your pinewood derby. Please contact Bill via email at wbbuch1@comcast.net.
Fred also reminds us that the District Pinewood Derby will be Saturday, April 16, 2016 at the American Legion Post #3 in Broad Ripple. Click the link to reserve your ticket. The top 3 finishers compete for free. All others, including adults and siblings, are welcome to enter events for a fee. There will be Cub scout official heats that comply with BSA rules, adult heats, sibling heats, and non-compliant heats.Look forward to seeing you there.
Roundtable for December
A quick reminder that Roundtable is Thursday night at Second Presbyterian at 6:30 pm.
Sharla Merrick our Cub Roundtable Chair will have a session on “Making a Holiday Themed Woggle.” (If you don’t know what a “woggle” is British English for “Neckerchief Slide.”)
Commissioner’s Staff will have an open discussion of the new Boy Scout Requirements for 2016. Come prepared with questions!
Rechartering Update Dec 1st
Congratulations to North Star District! We have 100% of our units have turned in their Applications for Rechartering as of this morning!
To make matters even more exciting, according to Council’s report published this morning, we are the district with the most units having completed rechartering, including dues payments, JTE reports, and member applications.
Thank you to the work of our dedicated scouters to make this possible.
At this time, the following units have had their Applications for Recharter approved in their entirety:
Pack 0018,Pack 0171,Pack 0586,Troop 0018,Troop 0056,Troop 0073,Troop 0174,Troop 0343,Troop 0358,Troop 0586,Troop 0804, and Crew 0408.
The following units have completed their paperwork and are simply waiting on the Council Registrar to approve the Application for Recharter:
Pack 0035, Pack 0064, Pack 0084, Pack 0098, Pack 174, Pack 0175, Pack 0830, Pack 3582, Pack 3583, Pack 3584, Troop 0035, Troop 0069, Troop 0269, Crew 0069, and Crew 0358.
The remaining units have been contacted about outstanding issues. We expect quick resolutions on all remaining issues. Thank you for that!
The following units have submitted their Journey to Excellence Reports for 2015:
Pack 0018, Pack 0035, Pack 0084, Pack 0105, Pack 0171, Pack 0174, Pack 0179, Pack 0358, Pack 0514, Pack 0586, Pack 0830, Pack 3582, Pack 3583, Pack 3584, Troop 0018, Troop 0035, Troop 0056, Troop 0069, Troop 0073, Troop 0174,Troop 0269, Troop 0343, Troop 0358, Troop 0514, Troop 0586, Troop 0804, Crew 0358, Crew 0408, and Crew 1121.
Out of this list, we have 21 Golds, 5 Silvers, and 1 Bronze (with one submitted report that has not been included in this list). This adds 150 points to our District’s Journey to Excellence score and is Gold-Level performance.
Thank you again to our units for such dedicated work!
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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