Troop 494 Committee Minutes
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
The
meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm.
1. Welcome
The minutes from the last meeting were approved. Roger welcomed all of the new parents who joined us for their
first Committee meeting.
The Committee
discussed the Otter Lake Elementary Carnival on April 15. Ann Cerney said they are looking for
approximately 20 Scout volunteers to help over several available shifts,
ranging from late afternoon to early evening. The Committee was concerned that
participation might affect turnout the next morning at Scouting for Food, which
is our biggest and longest-running community service project. The PLC will discuss the event next week
before we commit.
The
Committee also discussed our experience with Adopt A Family in December. Jim Letourneau and Brian B. will bring it up
with the PLC to find out whether they want to do this again this year.
2. Report from PLC
Brian B. reported that the Planning Weekend was successful. He presented to the Committee some new
ideas, including implementing a signup board for troop-wide announcements (to
reduce the time it takes to get to the main portion of weekly meetings),
including more fun nights in the troop calendar (approximately 8 are planned
for this year), and holding PLC meetings on a monthly basis instead of
weekly. Brian noted that he is also
considering how to make skit planning easier.
3. Scoutmaster Report
Jim Letourneau continued Brian’s discussion of Planning Weekend and mentioned
troop guide training. There are
currently six Scouts who are confirmed to be troop guides, with two more who
Jim will follow up with. He is also
looking to appoint a Scout Quartermaster and possibly a Webmaster.
Jim noted that with the large number of new Scouts we obtained this year we
might form an additional two or three patrols to make a total of six or seven.
Cub Scout crossover ceremonies have been completed for this year, with the
latest one having taken place this past Friday for one Scout who joined us from
Pack 89 of Mahtomedi.
The PLC decided we would not be attending the Minnesota Twins Scout Day or the
OA weekend service project to open Kiwanis for the season, as this conflicts
with our Basic Skills campout.
The Committee asked the Advancement Subcommittee to determine whether we should
hold our own Eagle Expo for those Scouts who are currently at Star and Life
ranks. The Eagle Expo is a seminar that
provides prospective Eagle candidates and parents with tools and resources to
compile ideas for completing Eagle service projects and remaining requirements
for the Eagle rank.
4. Camping Subcommittee
Mary Sue Abel noted that Basic Skills is scheduled for April 29-May 1 at Fred
C. Anderson. Depending on how many
Scouts and parents attend the event, we might need to reserve additional
space. In the cabins we currently have
reserved there is room for 48 Scouts and adults; we may have people sleeping
outside. We are inviting Webelos Scouts
from Packs 402 and 437 to attend for the day on Saturday, April 30.
The White Water Rafting and Kayaking campout is scheduled for May 20-22 near
Duluth. We will have group activities during the day on Saturday, with the
rafting and kayaking on Sunday as before.
Mary Sue wants to hold a planning meeting for those attending Northern Tier
this summer before the troop meeting next Tuesday.
Crews are now being finalized for Philmont 2012, which is scheduled for August
6-18, 2012.
Mary Sue noted that one Scout is signed up for the T2 program at Tomahawk this
year. Terry Hietpas will be our Medical
Officer at Tomahawk. Jim also noted
that Jay R. and Brian B. will be on staff at Tomahawk this summer.
Roger will follow up with Rick Rausch about troop trailer inventory.
5. Advancement Subcommittee
Joe Mikkelson reported that many of our new Scouts are approaching completion
of the Scout badge requirements. Joe
noted that he will be helping the older Scouts get to First Class rank, and Ken
Rowe, Curt Monson, Jeff Abel and the new adults will be working primarily with
the new Scouts.
Jim will forward attendance information from this past weekend’s Planning
Campout to the Advancement Committee for entry into troop records.
Paperwork for Ben H. has been submitted for his Eagle rank application. Ben would be Troop 494’s 47th
Eagle Scout.
Roger approached Allen Clark about the troop hosting an Eagle Court of Honor
for him. None of the dates he proposed
worked, so Roger will follow up with Allen.
6. Fundraising Subcommittee
Pam Blank is our new Bagging Fundraising Coordinator. We have a bagging session
coming up this Sunday from 11:00 am to 5:00 pm at the White Bear Cub. We have
11 Scouts signed up to work the first shift, and 8 signed up to work the
second. Pam will even out each shift at 12 total.
Michele Willard noted that flower sales have ended, and that pickup and
delivery is scheduled for May 7 at Vadnais Heights Community Park. She is looking for volunteers to help unload
flowers that day.
Michele is also getting more information on Dining and Discounts. We are looking to implement this fundraiser
sometime in June.
Bridget Newman reported on the Manitou 15K race. She noted that online registration is continuing at this
point. She is also continuing to seek
race sponsors. We will start the
t-shirt design process in the next several weeks.
7. Community Service Subcommittee
Jim Hering reported on the recent cleanup effort on White Bear Lake. There were about 110 Scouts and adults from
several different organizations that took part in the cleanup, and it went
well. We have been invited by Troop 89
to do this event again next year.
Deb Clarke noted that Scouting for Food is scheduled for April 16, which is
different from the national collection date of April 30 (this would conflict
with Basic Skills). The event will take
place from 9:00 am to noon, and we will meet at Polar Lakes Park in White Bear
Township. We will cover the same
general territory as we have done in the past.
Brian will talk with the PLC about distributing thank-you cards or
flyers to those who donate.
Heritage Park cleanup is scheduled for Tuesday, May 3. We will meet at the Bartlett’s for dinner
before beginning cleanup of the park.
We will be attending Relay for Life again this year. It is scheduled for July
29 at South Campus.
We are also going back to Feed My Starving Children in Coon Rapids this
year. Jim has reserved 50 spots for
October 18.
8. Treasurer’s Report
Ken Rowe corrected the troop’s annual budget figure he gave at New Scout and
Parents Night. Our annual budget is
actually about $70,000.
Ken
presented the Committee with a final review of the 2011 fiscal year
results. The amount of the deficit came
to less than planned.
Ken noted that the amount of money owed on overdraft Scout Bucks accounts is
now considerably less than it had been previously. The Committee thanked Ken for his efforts to get everyone caught
up. There will be an email update of
Scout Bucks reports next week.
Troop credit cards have now been distributed to those that require them.
9. Old Business
Roger Scherping reviewed with the Committee the open adult leadership
positions. We are currently looking for
a new Popcorn Sales Coordinator, Committee Secretary, Training Coordinator, and
Fun Night Coordinator, as well as additional help within the Road to First Class
program. Mike Cerney volunteered to fill the Trop Logo Wear Buyer position.
Roger also noted that we are currently at 77% of our Friends of Scouting base
goal. The cutoff date for accepting
contributions is May 1.
10. New Business
Roger mentioned that University of Scouting is April 9. It’s a great chance for our adult leaders to
get trained for their leadership positions.
Roger also
discussed Cub Scout recruiting. No
adult leader or parent at any Boy Scout troop is allowed to approach any of the
boys at a Cub Scout pack that has a Boy Scout troop affiliated with it. We need to respect that feeder pack
relationship and cannot try to convince those boys to go to a different troop
instead. That is what Troop 212 did to
us this year. Our district executive is
going to talk with the leaders of Troop 212 on this topic. Likewise, none of our adult leaders or
parents may approach Pack 402 and try to recruit their boys. We are allowed, however, to talk with anyone
who approaches us for information about our troop.
11. Comments/Closing
The meeting was adjourned at 9:10.
