Change of Night for District Committee
Since the regularly scheduled District Committee meetings for November and December conflict with Thanksgiving and Christmas, respectively, we will be meeting one week earlier than usual.
On November 19th, we will be meeting at St Luke’s UMC’s Luke’s Lodge, the outbuilding on the church campus. We will be on the second floor on the westside of the building, in the room called the “Cafe.” (Don’t ask me why. There is a kitchenette but no other evidence of coffee or food.) There is a grief counseling group meeting on the first floor, so please enter quietly and go up the left staircase, entering the first alcove on the left, passing the men’s restroom.
On December 17th, we will also be in Luke’s Lodge, except we will have the main room on the first floor: “Brandt’s Lounge” also known as the “fireplace room.”
NOTE, 11-13-15: In the blast email on the committee meeting locations, there are references to Room N-101 for both November and December. Neither are correct. All such references should be ignored. Sorry for the confusion.
Boy Scout Insurance
Since we are finishing rechartering, insurance is often fresh in everyone’s minds. What is boy scout insurance? Who pays? Who manages? How do we make claims?
Each member of the BSA, youth or adult, pays $1.00 per member to the local council. In our case, we pay the Crossroads of America Council.
As we discovered in the last several days of rechartering, this fee is not included in the national internet rechartering system. Those only cover national dues. The local insurance premium is added on, by summing up the Paid Adult, Paid Youth, and Unpaid Tiger Cub Partners (if the partner is not already a BSA member) count. These premiums are due and payable alongside the national dues.
If an accident occurs or a lawsuit is threatened, the unit key 3 need to immediately file a claim with the local council office using the form in the appendix of the Guide to Safe Scouting, which is like the BSA’s insurance policy terms and conditions document.
These claim forms should be used whenever there is a emergency room visit or other involvement of professional or emergency services personnel.
To learn more, read more in the Guide to Safe Scouting.
Troop Gear and Trailer Protection
Recently Troop 161 of Pioneer District had their trailer stolen.
Bryan on Scouting delivers again with a 2011 post about these types of issues.
From the article, a couple points interested me:
- Locks do not prevent theft. They slow thieves down and make their criminal activities more obvious. This means that locks are most effective where witnesses or cameras can observe the trailer.
- Multiple theft deterrence methods or locks is desirable to make the theft more obvious and the time to complete the theft take longer.
- Painting the unit number on the roof is a great way to help recover the trailer if it is lost or attempted to be hidden. Many thieves don’t think to camouflage the roof during or after the theft.
- A logo-painted (not one with pretty graphic wraps) trailer is worth less on the black market than an unpainted trailer. It requires more work to disguise it.
- Using self-storage areas is a great way to deter theft, even if it is more expensive and less convenient to the meeting location.
- Insurance is not a simple solution and may require the cooperation of your chartered organization, including having your equipment “scheduled” on the business-owner’s premises (“BOP”) insurance coverage. (Scheduling is just the process of providing the insurance agent with a list of specific property of value that the insured wishes to include on the insurance policy. This is very sensitive to the type of property being scheduled and the nature of the underlying BOP policy terms.)
Thank you to our Order of the Arrow Advisor John Ruggles for the links to these article.
Rechartering Turn-Ins Report
UPDATE 11/11/15, 12:30 pm: Troop 269 and Crew 358 have scheduled deliveries.
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Thank you to the units that have now turned in their rechartering applications. (Pack 625 is intentionally omitted from this report.)
The following units have turned in their applications:
The following units have scheduled to complete their charter applications:
This means that this is our current statistics:
For the units who have not turned in their application for rechartering, we need to get this wrapped up this week. Please contact District Commissioner Jeff Heck or Lead Unit Commissioner for Rechartering Mat Gerdenich to schedule a time to pick up the Recharter Application and supporting documents this week. Their contact information is on the Rechartering email sent to the unit Key 3 on or about September 29, 2015 from Council.
New Service Hour Requirements
Bryan on Scouting has an article about the service hours requirements effective on January 1, 2016. This is significant because it defines some types of work that must be part of the service hours. It also changes the number of hours.
Friends of Scouting Kickoff
District Kick Off for Friends of Scouting will be held on Thursday, December 10, 2015 at St. Paul’s Episcopal church beginning at 7:00 P.M. The church is located at 6050 North Meridian Street. Any questions, please contact Sandy Walters at sandywalters75@gmail.com.
The kickoff will describe the purpose and system of the Friends of Scouting, describe the unit’s role in the FOS Campaign, instruct FOS presenting volunteers on how to deliver the FOS message to a unit, and describe how a unit’s contribution goal is determined. Finally, the kickoff will schedule presenters to deliver the message to individual units.
If you are interested in serving as an FOS presenter, please contact Sandy Walters and plan to attend the kickoff.
2016 Silver Beavers Announced
From Sandi Hobbs at Council’s office this morning:
I am pleased to announce that the Selection Committee has done an excellent job selecting our 2016 Silver Beavers. We had many to choose from and they did a hard job well.
Please join me in congratulating the following recipients and please let your volunteers know.
Frank G. Blum
Jay A. Copra
Harold “JR” Davis
Donald E. Dickerson
Kevin G. Fife
Timothy D. George
Markus Jones
Bruce D. Metzger
Clark M. Millman
Jerry W. Phillips
David B. Radtke
Michael L. Rhees
Paul E. Rusk
David W. Wagner
Joseph P. Wehrheim
Advancement Resources
Often we have questions about advancement issues. BSA puts out a great deal of information. Often this feels like drinking from a firehose.
One of the ways to avoid this problem is to be sure your unit’s advancement coordinator subscribes to the irregularly published BSA Advancement News. (Irregular because it is sometimes monthly and sometimes bi-monthly.) 
For a new advancement coordinator, catching up on old articles in the archive can be daunting. They may just want to look at specific issues of the moment. One of the best ways to do that is to review the Advancement News index of articles on the BSA Advancement website. The article titles are often catchy and artistic, but misleading about the main idea. Have patience with it. It is not intended to be a advancement manual (the Guide to Advancement serves that purpose). Instead it is intended to focus on hot topics.
If an advancement coordinator wants to study the history of advancement changes, he or she can read back issues of Advancement News. There is a lot to be learned to look at how a once “hot topic” was handled and resolved. It helps guide an advancement coordinator to have a better sense about how to handle future problems. The method of resolution will often be similar: the timeframe required to identify the issue then resolve, the groups giving input who have the most persuasive authority on the final result, and the types of issues that are resolved with finality versus lingering effects.
Always start with the Guide to Advancement, the most recent revision for the current year of Boy Scout Requirements, the most recent issue of Advancement News for answers, and the related Merit Badge Counselor’s Compass newsletter. If those prove unsatisfactory, review the News index. You may surprise yourself with the quality of answers that are already published.
If you still do not find your answers, reliable and regular private bloggers can provide insight, such as Clarke Green at www.scoutmastercg.com with a focus on scoutmastership, Frank Maynard at www.blogwhiteblather.com with a focus on committee issues, and the Ask Andy column at www.netcommissioner.com.
To subscribe to the Advancement News, follow these instructions:
Send an email to advancement.team@scouting.org.
Put ‘Subscribe’ in the Subject line and in the body of the email put only your:
Email Address:
Name:
Council Name:
Rechartering: Final Charter Turn-In Date
The Final Charter Turn-In will be next Tuesday, November 10, 2015 from 6:15 pm to 9:00 pm.
We will meet at Luke’s Lodge. This is an outbuilding on the northeast corner of the St. Luke’s United Methodist Church campus. The church is located at 100 W 86th St, Indianapolis, IN 46260.
Turn-In will be first-come, first-serve.
Your unit will be expected to have a completed package that conforms with the checklist on the September 29th Rechartering Email Checklist. See Rechartering Updates and other Recharter blog posts for further details.
This includes all completed and signed Adult and Youth Applications, Recharter Applications, Journey-to-Excellence scorecards, and dues payment (or authorization form to debit Scout Shop account for dues).
If you have questions, comments, or concerns that need to be addressed prior to this date, please contact District Commissioner Jeff Heck or Lead Unit Commissioner for Rechartering Mat Gerdenich.
Thursday Roundtable
This Thursday we will hold a Boy Scout and Cub Scout roundtable. We will meet on the fourth floor of second Presbyterian church as always. The general session and district news will begin at 6:30 PM with breakout sessions beginning at 7 PM.
Merit Badge Counselor Registration Open Forum
The Boy Scout round table will focus on merit badge counseling registration, education, troop counselor list maintenance, and related troubleshooting. The district merit badge counselor registrar Mike Yates will lead the conversation. We will focus on identifying problems, solutions, and procedures for maintaining a reliable District Roster of Merit Badge Counselors and their Badges going forward.
Cub Scout New Program Review
The Cub Scout roundtable will focus on “the New Advancement Program: How’s It Going So Far?” The discussion will focus on how to improve and clarify understandings.
CAC North Star Unofficial Website 
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