Troop 494
Committee Minutes
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
The
meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.
1. Welcome
The minutes from the last meeting were approved.
2. Jordan B. Eagle Project Review / Nick S. Eagle Project Review
Jordan presented to the Committee his project, which involves building a gazebo
for the Hazel Ridge Senior Living Community in Maplewood. The area currently does not have a gazebo or
other structure in place, and this would benefit the immediate area by allowing
seniors to enjoy scenery and other nearby areas in their neighborhood. The cost for the project is approximately
$1,500, which will be completely funded by the home. After review, the Committee decided that Jordan would need to
contact the city of Maplewood for some building code review, as well as some
additional corrections to drawings and diagrams. The Committee agreed to approve the project with these changes.
In addition, prior to the meeting, a portion of the Committee also reviewed the
project for Nick S. His project
involves building a new carpet ball table as well as cabinetry for game storage
to benefit the youth program at First Lutheran Church in White Bear Lake. Nick noted that the equipment they currently
have is in disrepair and presents a safety risk for anyone who utilizes
it. The total cost for his project is
estimated at $400; however, this may be defrayed by donations of supplies and
money from the church. He has many
ideas on who to recruit for help, including the Scout troop, students from
school, and the church's youth program staff.
The Committee approved the project, with some additions in diagrams and
dimensions.
3. Report from PLC
Jordan reported that the PLC is discussing the Namekagon trip planned for
September. The Court of Honor is
planned for September 21.
4. Scoutmaster Report
Jim Letourneau updated the Committee on the Centennial Quality Unit award and
is working on a new record-keeping poster for these sign-offs.
Jim reported that Pack 437 is looking for three or four Scouts to attend the
Meet the Teacher night at Otter Lake on September 2 to hand out flyers to
potential new Cub Scouts. Their first
pack meeting is set for September 20.
Jim also noted that they will have 14-20 Webelos this year, and Troop
494 is now officially their feeder troop.
Jim stressed that we would like to make a presence at as many pack
meetings as possible to help with recruitment for this spring.
Jim also mentioned that Jeanenne Rausch and Pat Mahoney are our newest Eagle
coaches. They will be attending a
training session in the near future.
The Committee thanked Jeanenne and Pat for stepping forward.
Jim also reported that we will be holding training sessions for the Tech Chip,
possibly at Merit Badge Weekend.
5. Camping Subcommittee
Mary Sue Abel gave a recap on Tomahawk and Sea Base. She noted that both outings went well. Our food budget for
Tomahawk came in about $400 under budget.
Mary Sue sent a request to change the 10-day itinerary to a regular 7-day
itinerary for Northern Tier, and was able to do this at no charge. We now have three 7-day crews that will be
attending Northern Tier next August.
Signups for this trip are currently about 25. We have also received interest from another troop for some of
their Scouts to join one of our crews. At
this point, we will form our crews and then let them decide whether to add
additional Scouts to their crews, with the possibility that these Scouts may
also need to bring an adult from their troop if we need more drivers.
Tim Willard noted that he would work with the
Scouts who do not have the Canoeing merit badge, as Canoeing merit badge is
strongly suggested for those attending Northern Tier.
Roger will talk with Christy about planning for Merit Badge Weekend. There is interest in offering Environmental
Science and the four historic merit badges.
We did not work out an official policy that
relates to gas reimbursement. The
Committee agreed to leave the policy as stated, which is that the decision for
reimbursement is at the discretion of the Camping Chair on each campout.
The upcoming camping schedule is as follows: the Namekagon canoe trip is
September 10-12, Jay Cooke backpacking is October 8-10, Merit Badge Weekend is
November 12-14, and the lock-in is December 11. Looking ahead to the beginning of 2011, Spearhead/Snow Huskies
has been tentatively scheduled for January 21-23 at Tomahawk, Planning Weekend
is March 25-27, and Basic Skills is April 29-May 1. The outing for February
2011 has not been decided yet.
Mary Sue discussed the option of Scouts using kayaks at the Namekagon
trip. The Committee decided to stick to
using canoes for the safety and budget reasons.
Rick Rausch reported that the ground tarps used at Tomahawk have been cleaned
and repaired as necessary. The trailers
will be inspected soon to refill propane tanks and gather equipment for the
Namekagon trip.
Jeff Abel discussed paying a membership at the surplus store. There is a national organization of surplus
stores asking us to pay a $39 annual fee to support their efforts to bring
these surplus goods to these stores.
The Committee agreed that this fee is nominal, and Roger will get this
paid.
Mark Beckers has not received new information
regarding first responder training.
6. Advancement Subcommittee
Jeff Abel noted that Road to First Class is beginning to slow down in
intensity. Jeff is currently working at
recruiting potential den chiefs to encourage the younger Cub Scouts to transfer
to our troop in the spring and run activities during the Webelos den meetings.
Jim Letourneau noted that the district is planning a Merit Badge Day to offer
the four historic merit badges as part of the 100th anniversary of
Scouting.
As mentioned, the September Court of Honor is planned for September 21.
7. Fundraising Subcommittee
We have no scheduled bagging fundraisers coming up. Joe Mikkelson will call Cub Foods to schedule a date for January.
Jim Golding discussed wreath sales, which will be starting on September
21. Profit margins with our new vendor
will be the same as the prior year for most of the products, while by-mail
items will have a lower margin. Orders
will be due on November 2, with pickup being the weekend of November 19.
Joe Hetzer will be doing popcorn sales again this year.
8. Community Service Subcommittee
Deb Clarke noted that the Scouts did not have as much to do at Relay for Life
this year, but if we had shown up earlier we may have been able to help with
more setup activities. Deb also
reported that we may be able to do a better flag ceremony next year. We had approximately 12 Scouts attend the
event.
Jim Hering reported that Feed My Starving Children is scheduled for October
12. We have 30 spots for Scouts and 10
spots for adults. We will be meeting at
the White Bear Cub Foods at 5:00 as we did last year, with food packaging going
from 6:00 to 7:30.
9. Treasurer’s Report
No report.
10. Old Business
Roger Scherping reported that the Rotary was apparently not interested in
having us do our annual presentation this year.
Roger also noted that he will be encouraging the adult leaders who do not have
Youth Protection training to renew it because this training is now a
requirement for adults to remain active as registered leaders. We may do a group training session at an
upcoming Scout meeting.
11. New Business
Roger Scherping reminded the Committee that we agreed to hold an adult leader
special needs awareness training session this fall. Deb Clarke will do the training along with a representative from
the District. We will hold the training
session at the beginning of the October Committee meeting on October 26.
Roger also reported that several people in the troop received multiple copies
of the troop email update from the prior week, despite the fact that it was
sent only once. There is no apparent explanation
for why this occurred because the duplicates were received by only some people
and were on many different email services.
It did not happen the following week, so we will just wait to see if
this happens again.
Deb Clarke suggested that before Scouts begin any Eagle project that involves
digging, we should insist that they call Gopher State One Call to locate
utility lines.
Tim Willard suggested that we change one aspect of bringing down the flags at
the end of meetings. Instead of saying
“retire the colors,” it should be stated as “retrieve the colors.”
12. Comments/Closing
The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm.
