The Troop Committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday, February 1, has been postponed to Tuesday, February 22. On the 22nd, we will have a combined Troop Committee/Pancake Breakfast meeting at 7:00 p.m. in the Westminster Room at RPC. Because it will be a combined agenda, we’ll start promptly at 7:00.
Present: N. Hopkins, F. Mitchell, M. Payne, R. Rogers, J. Ringbloom, R. Salij, G. Olszewski, R. Olszewski, P. Rohm, B. Robertson, G. Potamianos, D. Gmitro, S. Jones, C. Anderson, and D. Cox.
1. Minutes from Nov. were not sent out – a copy passed around.
2. Ski Trip – B. Robertson in charge of trip. Deposit will hold YMCA Camp Matawa cabin, which accommodates up to 29 people. Ski at Sunburst near Milwaukee, go to camp Saturday PM, breakfast served to us. More winter activities Sunday at Sunburst or YMCA camp. Weekend of Feb. 26 (certificate of insurance expires 2/28/11!) Leaving Saturday AM, 2 hour drive, coming back Sunday. We need numbers to get group rates for equipment rental and lift tickets. After trip, B. Robertson will do training to be troop’s merit badge counselor for Snow Sports. He is also signed up as an Assistant Scoutmaster now.
3. Eagle Committee – G. Potamianos reported on our very active group of Eagle Candidates. Cody V. will have a project this month at Ronald McDonald House. Ben C. and Nick R. will be the only ones left from that group. The Potamianos family went to the Eagle Recognition Dinner, which was a nice event. We need to plan a Court of Honor, since we now have 4 new Eagle Scouts who have not had theirs yet.
4. Treasurer’s Report – F. Mitchell says it has been a busy month. We might decide on alternate uses for popcorn money, such as purchasing equipment. D. Gmitro asked about a credit card for troop, doesn’t sound like it would work for us, but F. Mitchell will ask the bank. Account balance is now around $3,800.
5. Scoutmaster’s Report – R. Rogers reported on Waterfall Glen. A similar outing could be done right in Riverside for those who did not make it to the Waterfall Glen outing. Scouts need Orienteering for rank advancement. M. Payne said the Starved Rock camping trip went well. For Holiday Stroll next year, maybe just do cider or s’mores. We made a little money and showed our presence in the community.
6. Venture Crew – P. Rohm reported that there will be a Crew camping trip this coming weekend in Kankakee, at C. Gustafson’s farm. Conflicts with Cody V.’s Eagle Project, but December always a challenge. Some new Crew members coming. Peter F. coming back this summer, and some new parents might take over leadership.
7. Advancement – no report
8. Popcorn – no report
9. High Adventure – Philmont 2011 – J. Ringbloom reported that we were selected for Philmont for this summer. We could send either one or two crews of 7 to 12 members each. Philmont will ”fill” your crew with other people, if you have space, so it makes more sense to send full crews. Our slot is Thursday, July 14 to Wednesday, July 26. If a scouter is over 18 but under 21, he can be an adult leader OR a youth. Scouts must be at least 14, OR 13 by 7/14/11 and also have graduated from 8th grade. $750 fee per person, lots of advance preparation and training required. Several merit badges required too. Adults need a letter from a doctor saying it is OK for them to go. A crew cannot have more than half its members adults. We can’t do both kayaking and Philmont in the same summer. M. Payne thinks we should cancel plans to go kayaking, since we have the spot at Philmont and someone willing to organize it. We may not be so lucky in 2012. Down payment required by Jan. 1. We need to do a presentation about Philmont, so scouts and their parents can decide. N. Hopkins will try to get the social hall for Dec. 16, when we do not have a troop meeting planned.
10. Outdoor Activities – Luge outing will be Jan. 8 and 9. We have 25 spots, which can cover 5 leaders and 20 scouts. Leave early Saturday morning, losing an hour because of time zone , luge at 3:30 to 6 PM, then dinner and swimming at hotel. Each room will have 4 boys, no leaders in rooms with boys. Hotel serves breakfast, then come home by 1 PM Sunday. Scouts will need a signed waiver and money for lunch. Eagle Cave trip the following weekend will leave Fri 5-6 PM, be back on Sunday by 1 PM. Limit of 16 scouts and 4 adults.
11. Service Projects – D. Gmitro is arranging the troop meeting on January 13 to be for preparing food to be served at the Night Ministry. Meeting should be in the Social Hall, because of the kitchen. Someone else can use gym.
12. Pancake Breakfast – M. Payne thinks we should raise ticket price to $5.00 in advance, $6.00 at the door. Each scout will sell 15 tickets, and higher price will help our treasury. R. Rogers volunteered to take care of placemat ad sales.
13. Boards of Review – Get scouts to sign up, once a month. Try to get back to a schedule.
14. Website – We need to figure out how to get info to the scouts. Parents don’t always tell scouts what is going on.
15. Meeting adjourned. Next meeting January 11.
Just a reminder: The Troop Committee meets tonight, December 7, at 7:00 p.m. in the Westminster Room at RPC. All scout parents are welcome.
For the Fall Court of Honor on Thursday, October 21, we need a group of parents to volunteer to bring cookies or brownies for our refreshment table. Please email Sue Jones at sue_jones@designpac.com if you are able to bring something. You will need to bring your contribution to the Social Hall kitchen by 6:50 p.m. Beverages will be provided. Thank you!
The following are DRAFT minutes from the 10-5-10 Troop Committee meeting. The minutes will be approved at the November meeting.
Present: N. Hopkins, M. Payne, F. Mitchell, B. Robertson, P. Rohm, S. Lanken, D. Cox, D. Gmitro, S. Jones
1. Minutes from last meeting were approved.
2. Budget – F. Mitchell reported that the new auto pay system is working well. There has been a lot of activity in the account lately. Reports were sent to all Sea Base participants, with refund checks for overages, and showing amounts due to troop account for others. He will follow up and get the payments into the account. A check written to McAdam was to pay for materials used in Ben M’s eagle project, and was covered by donations. N. Hopkins reported that there are several scouts who have not returned their forms and registration fees for this year. We still have an outstanding uncashed check for last winter’s luge trip. Balance is $4,372.05.
3. Scoutmaster’s Report – M. Payne reported on ScoutFest. Event had a good concert, but hike lasted longer than expected and there was not such a big turnout. Weather was not great. S. Lanken went on the shooting outing, which was the same day as ScoutFest. The turnout was small, probably because we did not get info out early enough. There was no time to get a tour permit, so we couldn’t promote it as a troop outing. The EAA outing was good – 13 members of our troop and 4 from another troop. We should go there every other year from now on. Kennedy-Nixon debate event went well. Meetings are going well so far, but some scouts are not getting feedblitzes. We will hold boards of review this Thursday at the meeting.
4. Venture Crew – nothing to report.
5. Eagle Committee – N. Hopkins reporting for G. Potamianos. Brian R. is still working on his plan, but couldn’t go before Village Board because someone didn’t get him on the meeting agenda. Cody V.’s project needs to be done soon. M. Payne met with him and his father. Ben M. needs to send his list of scout service hours from his project to R. Olszewski, so the scouts get credit for service hours for rank advancement.
6. Advancement – R. Olszewski not here, but wanted a cut-off of Oct. 7th for any advancements to be given at the next Court of Honor.
7. Popcorn – No report.
8. Outdoor Activities – Council Camporee Centennial Oct. 22-24 is the next event. M. Payne and S. Lanken will go. Same weekend as RBHS Telethon, so some people will be unable to go. D. Gmitro tried to get us camping at Waterfall Glen in November, but they are full, so we will do it as a day trip. M. Payne said that it will be OK for the required Webelos outing with the troop. We need to get some older scouts who have done orienteering to lead. Thanksgiving weekend camping at Starved Rock coming up. Boyce Building outing is cancelled. D. Gmitro will look into Little Red Schoolhouse and Nuclear Science at FermiLab for possible bad weather outings. M. Payne will address the cave outing location choice at the meeting for scoutmasters. We don’t have dates or commitments for Eagle Cave or the Indiana cave yet.
9. Ski Outing – B. Robertson will coordinate this event. It can be a family outing. Webelos will cross over Feb. 13, and they will be ready to go on a scout trip. Instead of long weekend at President’s Day, when a lot of people go skiing, the following weekend will work for us.
10. High Adventure – Luge in the first week of January, when RBHS students are still on their Winter Break. Can’t book with the Luge place until the first week of November. D. Gmitro will check on availability – Camp McLean Jan 15-16? Lincoln Pilgrimage April 29-30 – we need to decide where to camp. New Salem is great, but 30 miles from Springfield. Fairgrounds are not that great, but close to events. We will try for New Salem.
11. New Business – Holiday Stroll at Riverside Garage – selling hot chocolate – OK with Rick. We need a coordinator for this event. Training – R. Rogers has records for our troop which are more complete than Council’s. D. Gmitro will find out when troop can help the Night Ministry make food for later distribution to homeless people. Last year we tried to do certain things on certain nights of the month, but because of holidays, it is not happening this year, so far. F. Mitchell thinks the scouts need to be better prepared for their boards of review, so they will do a better job. B. Robertson mentioned a Cook County Sheriff Dept. medal of honor for kids who have done at least 100 service hours in their community.
12. Meeting adjourned.
The following are DRAFT minutes from the 9-14-10 Troop Committee meeting. The minutes will be approved at the October 5 meeting.
Present: M. Payne, N. Hopkins, F. Mitchell, G. Potamianos, B. Robertson, R. Rogers, D. Gmitro, P. Rohm, C. Anderson, R. Olszewski, R. Buffo, and D. Cox.
1. Minutes of previous meeting were approved.
2. Treasurer – F. Mitchell wants us to call Muskegon Luge, who never cashed our $1,000 check. No need right now to buy any more tents. (Prices are $119 w/o vestibule, $199 with vestibule.) We have about $8,325 in the account now.
3. Scoutmaster – M. Payne had leader meeting 9/13, to finalize plans for the next few months. Several events coming up: ScoutFest, EAA outing, Kennedy-Nixon Debate 50th anniversary outing. C. Anderson might go as a leader on EAA trip. D. Gmitro will put out forms for that outing 9/15. Troop 459 might fill in spaces, if our troop has space for that outing. Council Centennial theme Camporee sounds interesting. Our station will be Wood Fire Cooking. Camporee is at Camp Lakota in Woodstock. Meet at 6:00, leave at 6:15 Friday 10/22. J. Ringbloom working on details for Shooting outing for older scouts. More info later.
4. Wreath-laying (new business, out of agenda order) R. Buffo described the work of a wreath company in Maine, which sends “leftover” wreaths to military cemeteries for volunteers to lay on the graves. Event is scheduled for Dec. 11 at Abraham Lincoln National Cemetery in Elwood, IL – about an hour away. Exact details about number of wreaths and number of volunteers needed can’t be determined until about 4 days before the event, which is not subject to change. Dec. 11 is also the planned time for our Eagle Cave and possibly Blue Lake Cave outings. If parents take their sons, the troop does not need tour permits or assigned trained leaders. R. Buffo was thinking of this outing as one for the 2nd year Webelos to do with the troop, but Waterfall Glen in November would work better. M. Payne asked R. Buffo to prepare a short presentation for the upcoming Court of Honor, since parents will be there. F. Mitchell expressed interest in the event for the RPC Youth Groups to participate in too.
5. Venture Crew – P. Rohm reported on the 4th of July drink sales, the Hunt Club outing, and the service project in Appalachia. The Crew has not met yet this school year.
6. Eagle Committee – G. Potamianos reported that Christian F. had his Eagle Board of Review at Council, and it went well. M. Payne asked about what the troop needs to do next, and G. Potamianos mentioned the packet prepared by S. Jones for parents of Eagle Scouts. He thinks the packet should be handed to the parents at the end of their son’s Eagle Board of Review. Christian F. will be attending college locally, plans to stay involved as a leader in the troop. Sam C. will turn in his write-up tomorrow to Council. Bruce R’s idea for an Eagle project was approved by our Eagle Committee and by Council, but he has hit a snag with the Village Preservation Commission. They will not allow pavers for any public walkway, and are suggesting poured cement instead. This change takes some of the scout work out of the idea, and also increases his project budget. Mike Kilgore at Council wants a revised plan submitted to Council for approval. No word from Cody V. on his project. Karl J. has a project idea for the British Home, to be done in the spring. M. Payne will check on getting a Life to Eagle presentation scheduled for our troop.
7. Advancement – R. Olszewski reported that 70 merit badges were earned at Camp Owasippee, 42 partials. There were 25 badges earned elsewhere by scouts. Scouts who partially completed badges at camp will get their blue cards, so they can complete the badges with other counselors. We will have 2 rank advancements at the Court of Honor too. A Board of Review will be held this Thursday for at least one scout, and we may need to have several, up to Oct. 7, to get more advancements ready for the Court of Honor. We are asking scouts to arrive early, with their books, to the Thursday night meeting. This will allow leaders to sign off items in the books. There will be a cut-off of October 7 for any badges and rank advancements to be awarded at the next Court of Honor (Oct. 21).
8. Popcorn – R. Ricchio will attend the meeting this Thursday to talk to the scouts about the popcorn campaign.
9. High Adventure – J. Ringbloom has booked two groups of 12 at Apostle Islands for July 10-16 and July 17-23. Scouts will need to be at least 14 years old to be able to go. He and F. Mitchell will finalize the Sea Base money. Some people owe, some will get money back.
10. Online payment for troop outings – N. Hopkins tried online registration for our first meeting, which was the overnight at Scout Cabin last Friday, and it went smoothly. Pack 24 will use WePay.com for members to also pay for outings online. We would only be charged 3.5% of amounts charged – no big monthly fees. Records are transparent, so members can look and see who is signed up, who has paid. R. Rogers moved to start using it for our troop, the motion passed.
11. Volunteer needs – Parent meeting was good, all registration forms were taken by parents, a good sign. R. Olszewski suggests calling Chris Isit any time we need help navigating through Council for information.
12. Roundtable – Oct. 13, M. Payne might go. The subject is the Council Camporee.
13. Upcoming Training – Winter Training doesn’t seem like something we need. It is 12-hour drive each way, not like what most scouts think of when they imagine winter camping. M. Payne explained how the assistant scoutmasters are being given different jobs in the troop. By having a distinct area for each AS, we have a description to give any parent who wants to volunteer to help. T. Hartwig will get training and become a contact leader, after he is done with his Master’s degree.
14. Meeting adjourned. Next meeting Oct. 5.
The Troop Committee will meet on Tuesday, September 14, at 7:00 p.m. in the Westminster Room at RPC (downstairs across from the Social Hall). The Pack will be having its first meeting of the year at the same time, so parking will be tight. You can download a copy of the agenda to print here.
AGENDA Troop Committee Meeting,
Tuesday, September 14, 2010 7:00 p.m.
Riverside Presbyterian Church
Westminster Room
Minutes
Approve minutes from the June meeting
Budget
Review finance reports
Reports
Old Business
Report on Seabase – Jim Ringbloom
New Business
Dates
October Roundtable – October 13 – Ideal School, Countryside
Next Committee Meeting – October 5 – RPC Westminster Room
Upcoming Training Opportunities
Due to a conflict with RB Open House, the Troop Committee meeting for September will be held on September 14 rather than September 7.
Dates for Troop Committee Meetings for this school year are:
September 14 (This is the SECOND Tuesday)
October 5
November 2
December 7
January 11 (This is the SECOND Tuesday)
February 1
March 1
April 5
May 3
All meetings are held in the upstairs Parlor at the Riverside Presbyterian Church from 7:00 to approximately 8:30 p.m. All scout parents are welcome to attend.
For more information about what the Troop Committee does, you may wish to read an excerpt from the BSA Troop Committee Guidebook .
One of the duties of the Troop Committee is to conduct Boards of Review for scouts who are advancing in rank. We currently have 70 active scouts, including twenty-three 5th Grade scouts. Consequently, the number of boards needed will be increasing. BSA has an excellent on-line training resource for conducting a Board of Review–not the interactive training, but a document you can print or read online.
All current Committee members, and anyone who might be interested in being active in the Troop Committee, is encouraged to read this:
http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/BoyScouts/TrainingModules/BoardofReviewTraining.aspx
Just a reminder that the Troop Committee meeting is Tuesday, January 5, at 7:00 p.m. in the RPC parlor (preschool door & upstairs). All parents are welcome to attend.
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