Minutes

Troop 10 Committee Meeting

August 6, 2006

Blue Hills Country Club

 

 

Members Present

 

John Ahart, Doug Ball, Gary Bernhardt, Chip Buckner, Rich Caffrey, Mike Coffey, Patty Cokington, Dave Contag, Debbie Dellinger, William Easley, Roger Eaton, Terry Ellis, (Michael Flannegan, District Unit Commander) Ted Fuehr, Chuck Gibson, Bill Haner, Scott Haner, Holy Haydon, Rick Korvick, Clarence Krantz, Bob Leihleitner, Chuck Luchen, John Martin, Alan Myers, John McCabe, Mike McMillian, Jeff Muchow, Rhonda Newstrom, Kevin O’Farrell, Mark Parkins, Brent Reynolds, Ken Roberson, Dan Schorgl, Jim Shetler, Keith Shuttleworth, Greg Spies, Bob Tenney, Judge Jim Vano, Jim Wasko, Col. Scott Weaver, Blake Williams, Donna Wilson

                                    Jeff Muchow called the meeting to order at 5:00pm

 

Comments               Jeff Muchow

Wecome back from a long summer

 

Scoutmaster            Scott Weaver

Overview of Troop Programs.  Scott Haner lead the scouts at Bartle in defining troop program for the year.   Scott will present the troop committee for review and approval. 

 

SPL                             Scott Haner

Scott Haner – The SPL and ASPLs worked with patrol leaders, and they brainstormed on campout ideas.  Sept. – Shooter’s safety if it works, bicycling as backup.  Oct. Camporee.  Meetings focused on orienteering; Nov. Feast and troop meetings focused on cooking skills.  Dec. Omaha Zoo – meetings merit badge focus.  Jan. Skiing.  Meeting focused on problem solving activities.  Feb – military base visit.  Meetings would be military lead activities.  March – Cave Camping.  Hiking as backup.  Meetings – hiking skills.  April – Treasure Hunt.  Meetings – dodge ball tourney.  May – Silver Dollar City.   Canoe as backup.  Meetings – roller coaster design and physics.  

 

Committee Discussion     All

Committee debate – overall, the program is doable.  Should we perhaps think about the order?  Shooter’s Safety – Scott Weaver’s view is that if we do what the BSA wants us to do, he’d suggest that we move it out a year.  One option is the half-court rule where on a BSA sponsored outing, we could go off a half day and go somewhere to leave the property and put a physical and time distance between events and a group of adults and sons wanted to fire other weapons.  It would be a non-scout sponsored event.  Jeff and John McCabe spoke to Cliff Illig and he is ok with the troop having a return to Shooter’s Safety.   Bill Haner suggested having the NRA run an event down there.   There is the issue of insurance.   The BSA will allow only 22 long rifle and 20 gage shotguns.  It doesn’t matter where the event is held, if we are going to shoot anything higher than this level, we cannot do it as a troop activity.  The suggestion is to take the discussion outside of the committee, and if anyone wants to sponsor outside of troop 10, that’d be their choice.  Doing a campout with BSA guidelines might be the best approach for this year.   Make it into a series of contests for the boys.  With the number of new boys, that should be an acceptable solution.  We could do rifle shooting and archery merit badges also, which would give us more than just shooting for fun.  Dan Schorgl will assist Scott in setting up the campout. 

 

The other campout to discuss is the October Camporee with a medieval theme with a catapult contest.  Donna Wilson is the contact person for Cub Scout Webelos responding the invitation letter sent out by Troop 10 Committee Chair, Jeff Muchow.  A Camporee committee will be formed to organize games and events.  The catapult basics can be set it up ahead of time, but it will need to be able to be put it together in a short period of time.  Boys have to assemble in 30 minutes with all natural materials.  Scott would like us to think about each color team having their respective catapults. 

 

Also, Scott has met with all color team AMS’s, presenting a troop vision and objectives.  The idea is to leverage the fact that we have three ASMs per color team, using the senior boys to lead their ASPLs, the ASPLs leading their patrol leaders, and so on.  The scouts would experience more activities within color team.  This would lead to more opportunities for scouts and parents to link up with other scouts and parents without being overwhelmed.  We are trying to create an environment where the color teams leverage the knowledge, enthusiasm and participation of all parents.

 

18 Sep – Junior Leadership training – Allowing color team ASMs to work with their team on what will be expected of their boy leaders within their color team.  At the same time, the troop level positions like instructors, den chiefs, troop guides will be trained as a group.   The key is that the color team ASMs will be leadership coaches for their group.  The leadership training will also give the boys an opportunity to identify how their roles can be fulfilled.   We’ll have specific adults assigned to each position.  Patti Cokington will have position roles and requirements together before the training.  Brent will work with Patti on any changes on the leadership position on the web.  Patty is going to take these roles deeper on the specific details and also how to accomplish the intent of the position. 

 

One of the challenges with the Scoutmaster and Committee Chair responsibilities is addressing difficult behavioral incidents.  In the spring campouts we had some incidents that had to be dealt with.   Some of the incidents are hearsay, but we have to deal with the impact.  Other situations where scouts don’t follow scout law and oath, and the behavior must be dealt with.   The boys will make errors in judgment.  Our role as leaders is to steer them back on the right path.  Scott will recommend procedures to handle extraordinary incidents of unacceptable behavior.  Behavior problems need to be handled on the spot. 

 

Scott Weaver outlined some possible means of handling behavior problems.  Should an act result in physical harm to another person or property, the adults will create a board of review, which has the capability to suspend a scout from the next campout.  They could, if the act were considered malicious, suspend a scout for a month.  For a pattern of behavior, (3 incidents) the committee can recommend that the scout be suspended from the troop for a period of up to 6 months and reinstate at the discretion of the committee.  We have had nothing approaching this level to date, but this is to lay out the rules so everyone is aware of what the potential would be rather than having vagueness around troop policies.

 

We could have a middle level situation that doesn’t meet the extraordinarily level.  If so, the ASM could refer to the PLC or an adult BOR.  For example, lying, cheating, bullying, spiteful teasing, stealing, disrespect would be examples.  If the PLC determines that a scout is failing to live up to Scout Law, they can determine that the scout can lose a month of credit, or credit for that event.  They can also escalate to Adult BOR, and they can determine that the scout may lose their credit for leadership, impact to OA or Mic-O-Say elevations, or any honor event participation.  This would be something to put in place as formal expectations.  The decision on what level would be between the ASM, Committee Chair and Scoutmaster.  

 

One critical thought from Brent Reynolds is that any activity or censure taken by an adult BOR must be absolutely confidential.  Jim Wasko wanted to verify that the situation can be dealt with immediately where boys may be sent home immediately.  Greg Spies also recommended that we make it clear that there can be situations where we ensure that there is no question on results.  

 

The second point is that we need to be cautious on what we expect the boys to do as a PLC for example, and keep that to honor infractions.  Greg’s concern was whether we should write these levels down, since it becomes difficult to be level in enforcement.  How do we take this to an implementation level or should it stay at the committee level. 

 

Holly was concerned from the parent side on the boys who may be on the receiving end of misbehavior and having the confidence that any problems will be dealt with effectively and with consequences.   One key is correct in private and praise in public.  There comes a time when we may need to bring in a BOR level option rather than just have the ASMs deal with all situations.  A suggestion is to have the BOR with at least one of the scout’s parents in attendance as a requirement if the event is serious enough.   This brings in the parent’s perspective and the ability to reach agreement with both the scout and the parents so we don’t have a disconnect.  Three goals to strive for would be; Consistency, Fairness, and Boy lead consequences.  Perhaps at the SPL, ASPL level only, but only at the lower levels of honor/scout law level.  Mike McMullen, Chip Buckner, Holly Hayden and Donna Wilson along with Scott Wearver will form an ad hoc committee to make recommendations at the next committee meeting. 

SPL Candidates    

Jacob Maase, Joe Wheeler and Briton Heck.  These gentlemen have good leadership skills, but usually fly below the radar.   The SPL election will be next Sunday at the picnic. 

 

Bartle Update          William Easley

Outstanding camp.  For the number of boys we had, there were very few problems, and great results.   Thanks to the adults who handled the full time roles.  Let’s give John McCabe as much help as we gave William, and he’ll be in great shape. 

 

Mic-O-Say Jim Wasko recognized with white paint.  Well deserved, and the committee commends Jim on this elevation. 

 

Commissioner        Michael Flannegan

Michael Flannegan – District/Unit Commissioner. – clarify his role as being a resource for us.   He was asked by the district to talk for a few minutes on a situation down at Spies’ farm where one boy ended up going to the hospital based on another boy’s actions.  The district has asked him to share with us that there was a concern.  The concern has been brought to the troop’s attention and both boys have been worked with.  Both boys are still welcome in scouts, and hopefully will continue on with scouting. 

 

Michael will be around more and more visible.   He also works with troop 683, and they are afraid they may lose their troop since they only have 11 boys.  He is open to suggestions on how to help them grow and flourish rather than fading away.

 

Philmont                   Terry Ellis

Not sure if the boys had more fun on the train ride or on the hiking.  Had a derailment block the track on the way back, so they had to take a bus for a ways.  We ended up with 90 folks going.  30 adults, 59 boys and 1 young lady attended.   Everyone made the hike safely, and got home safely.  We took 8 crews total, 2 crews went to other troops in KC.  The adults spent the first 4 or 5 days catching up, but by the time they got off the mountain they were in shape!   They had 4 days of rain.  Boys had a great experience.  One injury, but his dad was there (boy from Cincinnati).   He ended up ok.  Brice Wells caught a ton of fish by the way.   Terry mentioned crew leaders individually and thanked them for a great job.   The troop received a $2k voucher from Amtrak for the bus rides.  Also, the troop will break even on the Philmont activities.  Several of the boys wanted to work at Philmont later in their scouting days.  Philmont guides did a great job of keeping everything safe.  Job well done by Terry Ellis, the committee recognized his efforts with a round of applause. 

 

There was a suggestion to set up laptop and screen at Stu Sharp’s for the picnic to have a slide show on both Bartle and Philmont.   Chuck Luchen will try to set it up.  Bartle photos are already on the web. 

 

Bryce Wells wasn’t able to be at the committee meeting, but we do have 7 crews for next year, or 84 positions open.  We’ll need to start recruiting scouts for Philmont 2007. be Bryce will be at picnic on Sunday with more details. 

 

Brent Reynolds      Advancement

As we move into the fall, for those ASMs who are giving scoutmaster conferences, please be sure the scouts have a scout spirit card before doing the conference.  Make them come through Brent.   No shortcutting the process.  Also, the pool merit badge binder is still missing.  If anyone knows where it is, please get it to Brent.   Brent has already recorded over 500 merit badges that were completed at Bartle.   It means a long court of honor.  Court is 9/11.  The TroopMaster software has been upgraded.   We will need more adults to handle more of the recording into TroopMaster.   One to handle attendance records, it is too big for Brent to do on top of advancement.  

 

Eagle                         Clanence Krantz

                                    Eagle progress – Clarence isn’t here tonight, but we do have a board this Thursday.  Scott will be the advocate.  Joey Parrish and Kyle Landau will be doing their boards.   Volunteers are Ken Roberson and Mark Parkins, along with Jeff and Scott (7pm and 8pm.).

 

Eagle Court              Chuck Luchen

Set for BV Northwest whenever we get it put together.   Not sure how many eagles we’ll have but could be quite a few. 

 

Also, Chuck is working now on photo archives.   We were limited in access to pictures, so he is putting into place a process to gather photos and get them into an archive.  He is requesting any photos taken be put on a CD and marked with the event and turn them in to Chuck.  We can’t put them all on the website, it’s just too much to put out there.  He’d like to find someone to take the position on later this year.   Can be used for any presentations for any troop event.  Mike McMullen thinks this is a great idea too, given the fact that he travels a lot and can’t make every event, nor can Chuck, so we need a volunteer to organize this work.  Another idea would be to set up Shutterfly as an option versus making a CD.  Bill Haner will work with Chuck on Shutterfly. 

 

Treasurer Report    Kevin O’Farrell

Treasurer report – Kevin O’Farrell – collection at the bus for Bartle was very lucrative.  We are in good shape now, but have a lot of merit badges to buy.  They have put together a budget that was passed out at the meeting.   If you need more details, contact Kevin.  Goal is to pass the budget in Sept. committee meeting.   So far we’ve not had a budget, but we’d like to move toward a bit more structure.  The troop rolls through $100-$125k per year, so we needed to put some structure around it.  John Martin works with tax accounting, and is working with Kevin on a good structure and organization.  

 

Suggestions were around tracking, procedures and processes in collections and purchasing.  The books are now on Quicken, which will put more visibility to the budget process and access for the parents if questions come up.  To get into a more formal approach, we are starting off with a formal budget process.  Each year we will tweak for more accountability.  Governance will be covered by approval process for expenditures over a certain level dollar amount by leaders.  Equipment purchases etc.  Also had two checking accounts that will be consolidated under treasurer’s control.  John will assist on a monthly basis to put together financials to deliver at all committee meetings. 

 

One item that the troop did purchase was a telescope that was used at Bartle.  Herb Strain bought the telescope and it was fantastic at Bartle.    We’ll be able to use it at a number of campouts and work on Astronomy merit badge.   It was about an $800 investment.    Motion to approve purchase was put forth by Mark Parkins, second John Martin.  Motion approved by voice vote.

 

Outdoor Activities  John McCabe

The troop will be looking for a campmaster to fill John’s position starting first of year as he begins working toward Bartle campmaster role. 

 

Open positions – Jeff Muchow will have at next meeting.  Picnic will be next Sunday at Stu Sharp’s farm.  Looking for volunteers to help on Thursday night and Friday night.  Friday night – 7pm to pull pork.    We’ll need someone to help set up tables on Saturday also?   Need to coordinate with Rotarians.   Rick K. will check with Stu and then get back to Jeff to get the word out on needs.   Jeff will put out e-mail this week.  Question – will we put the tent up?  Depends on whether the weather dictates a need.   Jeff will visit with Stu more on details early this week.  Stu has asked if he could borrow the troop tent for his daughter’s wedding.  Committee agreed to loan the troop.   Last year we also gave some money to the Mark Elkin’s scholarship fund.  Will we do that this year?    Motion for same amount as last year.  Approved by committee voice vote. 

 

Donna Wilson will be contact person for all packs for Camporee.   She will need volunteers to assist with defining activities as well.   Bob Tenny has agreed to help in some activities.  We need a big team that will manage the event.   Gary Bernhardt is in charge of Webelos program.  He asked if Troop 10 could assist in the cooking side.  Great opportunity for boys to interact with Webelos and help with recruiting and helping boys keep involved in Webelos.  He’ll have more details on the web shortly.  The committee should vote to support the request – need 3 groups, more senior boys.  This year the Camporee is back at Louisburg, and will have a Webelo activity program. 

We are looking for much more interactive times with boys and Webelos.    All Webelos are eligible for staying overnight on wither Friday or Sat. night.   Campfire will be limited to 45 minutes!  We will have a troop cracker-barrel.  We feed Webelos lunch, dinner and breakfast.   Health forms will be retained at the troop level, won’t be required to turn into district.   Need to start getting formal team together.  Greg Spies volunteered to assist, Chip Buckner also.

 

Grabmaster              Rick Korvik

Meeting with new parents to get them engaged in the grub committee.  Kitchen is a great place to get the new parents engaged.   Joe Alonso was going to step into Grubmaster role, but his job change will probably not allow that, so we’ll be looking for someone else. 

                                   

Adult Training         Blake Williams

Adult training – anyone that needs training go to Trailhead, or HOAC to identify training opportunities.  We’ll be trying to coordinate some adult training within the troop. 

 

Round Table           

Trailhead district roundtable – safety and camporee were main topics.

 

Equipment               Chuck Gibson

Equipment – only received 47 tents out of the 88 that we are supposed to have turned in.  Chuck will put out a call for tents to come in at picnic and first meeting.   There has been a recommendation that we purchase new tents also.   Some of the tents are almost 10 years old.    Also on stoves, most are in poor condition.  We need to order at least 12 regulators to bring the stoves back up to usable.  4 more propane trees for tanks, existing large stove won’t fit in new truck, do we want to continue to use it, or buy several Pratt-Whitney stoves?   Do we just want to purchase new stoves?  Patrol Boxes are ok overall, there may be a few items missing, but overall not too bad.  Chuck could use some help with locker cleanout and equipment evaluation.  Locker cleanout is scheduled for Sep 9th. 

1.      in depth review of stoves

2.      Organize camp boxes

3.      Review tent inventory 

Have an email sent out asking people to remind scouts to bring in tents.  There is an issue with keeping inventory in better shape.  Color team leaders work through our patrols and patrol leaders direct contact to find tents within their patrol.   Question from Brent on how much better of a job we can do on quartermaster role and linking back with color team leaders.  That’s already in progress with ASMs responsibilities.    Links with Patrol Leaders and ASPLs also.    How can we incent the boys to have clean camp boxes?  

 

Jeff talked to Brian Schwermann.  He owns a storage locker area on 151st and Metcalf.   He has offered some assistance on storage.  


Truck – Michael Kahn (first year dad) has volunteered to work with us on acquiring a newer truck.  He has stepped forward and brought his truck expert to review our truck.  Michael wants to give us a 2003 D466 cab.   Would give money to Rotary and the Rotary would spend money on the truck.  Refurbished 10 bay beverage body installed and painted with emblems with adjustable/removable shelves.   More space than what we have today.  Cab about the same size as today.  Air conditioned, diesel engine with 60k miles.  About a $40k donation total.   Would be rated at 25.5k lbs.  Has air-brakes.  Would not require CDL. 

 

Michael would like consensus of group.  American Truck Refurbishing would be doing work.  Only conceivable downsides are diesel engine, so that would require a little more effort in maintenance.  Other than that, nothing really wrong with the truck.  New tires, new batteries, etc.  Troop outlay would be 0 dollars.  We would trade in our old truck.  We may have higher insurance on this truck than our current one.  (This is slightly bigger than the yellow truck we saw at camp with another troop. – This solves Bob Key’s concern!)  Truck could have capacity for water tank also.  Move to accept the offer by Greg, seconded by John McCabe.  Will have to be coordinated with Rotary, Ken Roberson will work with the project.  It would take about 4 weeks to do refurbishing once we got the specifications on shelf spacing, etc.  Might be available by Camporee.  Will be an overlap of a couple of weeks.  Jeff gave Mike Ken’s phone number to coordinate.  Voice approval by committee.   Chuck will put together a sub-committee to work on details.   

 

Honor Programs         David Contag

OA–– Fall Fellowship at Camp Naish – Sep 16-17th.   He will get e-mail out to OA folks to see how many can go.  Would like to see a larger number go this year than last year.  Good time to go hang out with OA folks.  Secondly, David would like to have an assistant.  Terry Rogers has an interest in assisting.    We do have 2 people who have not gone through ordeal.   Aug. 25-26-27 for ordeal camp.    Will be putting together C teams also soon.   Ken – question on coup for OA.  Should have been done ahead of time to be done properly.   Terry Ellis was coordinating this.  Alex Borchardt and Briton Heck helped out at Naish this year. 

 

Mic-O-Say – Mic-O-Say – good summer, no surprises this year.    May have had some surprises on the good side since there were some boys who may have been thinking they weren’t eligible, but due to record questions we probably erred on the part of making sure they were eligible. 

 

Keep in mind that the number one priority for district and national is membership.   This makes Camporee even more important.  Focus is at Cub Scout level.  We need to get invitations out for Camporee with our feeder packs.   If new parents have contacts in old packs, we’d welcome them to work with their previous packs to invite them to the troop activities.

 

Community Service    Deb Dellinger

Looks like we’ll be doing a community service at Ernie Miller Nature Park.  Boys would be trail grooming, prairie restoration and shoreline restoration.   They have a naturalist who will work with our boys on environmental merit badge, canoeing, etc.    Deb will get some dates and get them out in e-mail.  This is in addition to highway cleanup.  One additional thought is to post on the web page on options for eagle projects as far as places to contact that may need help. 

 

New Business         Open Discussion - All

Alan Myers will help do greenery project.   He would like to propose same way as previous years.   Either sell, make contribution, or combination.  Anything over $80, scout keeps 75% of profit.   Should we raise minimum level?   Greenery costs are going up, is this something we should consider?   Greg Spies comment – we used to have higher level, but the funds weren’t needed.  We’ll table until we know more about equipment needs.  Alan needs assistant. 

 

Troop did send memorial gifts for Greg Spies and Rob Wheeler’s mother’s passing away.  Did receive thank you’s from both.    Keith Shuttleworth. – 30 scouts attended aviation merit badge on Saturday, August 12.  Sep. 23 Truman Merit badge clinic.  Need checks by tomorrow.  

                                          

                                    Jeff Muchow adjourned the meeting at 5:45 p.m.

 

                                    Respectfully submitted

                                    Bob Key, Secretary

                                    (Notes provided by Under Secretary, Doug Ball)

 

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