The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm.
1. Welcome The minutes from the last meeting were approved. 2. Report from PLC None 3. Scoutmaster Report Jim Letourneau reported on our recruiting efforts for Packs 529 and 437. He is going to send invitations to join our troop to their Webelos II. Jim will find out how many Scouts we will have joining us in March. He will also get contact information on Pack 529. Jeff Abel will prepare the camping gifts for them for their first meeting with our troop. The dates for Pack 437’s Polar Camp and Blue and Gold Banquet have been changed to February 6 and March 21, 2010 respectively.
Jim will determine which boys are eligible for Order of the Arrow election. Troop and OA elections will be held at the February 9, 2010 meeting. Jim is looking for recommendations on who to send to Grey Wolf leadership training this year. The Committee will decide in January whether or not to send Scouts this year. Part of the determination will be whether we can afford it. Dan G. successfully completed his Eagle Scout Board of Review and became our 41st Eagle Scout.
4. Camping Subcommittee Mary Sue Abel reported that Eagle Cave is scheduled for the weekend of January 22. We may be short on drivers. Dog sledding is reserved for February 20 as a day trip to Duluth. Mary Sue will also look into the Council’s skiing and snowboarding event at Buck Hill in Burnsville.
March is our Planning Weekend at Phillippo. April is the Basic Skills campout. We are planning to do white water rafting on May 21-23. Unfortunately, this conflicts with the Council’s 100th Anniversary Camporee, which will be a very unique event that will be attended by many troops. Jim will ask the PLC which event they want to attend. Merit Badge Weekend at Phillippo was a success in November. We had many Scouts who worked on merit badges there, including a high level of participation in the Eagle-required badges, Personal Fitness and Citizenship in the Nation. The December Lock-In at Shoreview Community Center was also good and had an excellent turnout. The final cost for the event may be less than what we originally anticipated. A discussion was held about the appropriateness of siblings attending campouts other than those designated as “family campouts.” Concerns that were raised included insurance, establishing a precedent, and how comfortable the boys feel about it. Roger will look into the insurance aspect of the issue and report back to the Committee. Mary Sue sent an email to those on the SeaBase rosters about airfare. Those on the scuba roster are responsible for finding their own airfare that would fit the arrival time; group rates do not apply to those on the scuba roster. Those on the sailing roster would be able to get group rates, but it would be more costly (about $40 more per ticket). In general, airfare through Southwest runs about $500 per ticket while Northwest/Delta is running about $340. She is looking into booking online to save money. Mary Sue will talk to Ken Rowe about airfare booking. Michelle Willard has agreed to collect health forms for SeaBase. Scuba health forms are due by February 15. Roger will check with Christy Bartlett about whether she is still missing rosters from 2 recent campouts.
Jim requested that the Committee consider some ideas for community service in the March or April timeframe. The Committee discussed high adventure options for 2011, including signing up for Northern Tier in 2011 instead of going back to Philmont. We are ineligible to go back to Philmont in 2010. MarySue will lead the process of evaluating several high adventure options to propose to the boys. 11. New Business Roger reported that he will investigate how we can hold special needs awareness classes for our boys and adult leaders.
Roger reported on the results of our 2010 rechartering. We started 2009 with 43 Scouts and ended with 31. We lost 8 Scouts this year, which is unusual for us, although 3 who left were never active and 1 moved. Three other Scouts became adult leaders. Overall we retained 92% of our boys this year, another outstanding achievement. We also have 41 registered adult leaders now. We achieved the Quality Unit award for 2009.
Roger presented a brief introduction to the 2010 Quality Unit program. Jim will present it to the PLC to get their thoughts. Jim reported that our FOS goals for this year are $4,800 base goal and $5,300 stretch goal. Roger reported that we will need to find a Tomahawk co-coordinator for 2010. MarySue is willing to help with the planning process. |
Committee Minutes > 2009 Committee Minutes >