Pack 3025 Parents Meeting
Monday, November 18, 2019
1) Meeting called to order by
Matt Hennig at 7:34 pm.
2) Attending:
Matt Hennig; Chris Klaren; Chris Mayer;
Michael Smith; Mike Treinen; Ron Wing
3) Review
of previous meeting minutes
– October meeting minutes approved.
4) Reports:
·
Cubmaster – Mike’s complete
report follows these meeting minutes, and covers many of the agenda items.
·
Leadership
– Thank you to Seth Seliger for stepping up as our
Lions leader.
·
Secretary
·
Review
pack schedule for next 3 months.
Schedule reviewed, will resolve whether to separate Blue/Gold and
Pinewood Derby at the Dec parents mtg.
Will rename den meetings as pack meetings, as there is no significant
difference.
·
Health
forms, update: 54 complete (2 of those need
insurance cards), need 8 (7 scouts, 1 leader)
·
Treasurer
–
·
Pack
financial report: The pack’s accounts
total $9512.88, with sub accounts as follows:
$4730.81
general fund
$10.00
savings
$2334.54
scout accounts
$265.24
campership fund
$1929.00 recharter escrow
$101.28 scout office unit account
$0.00 cash
·
Since
the Oct 18 parents meeting, significant income was two pop can checks, and
transfers from scout accounts for the campout.
Significant expenses were reimbursements for campout expenses. Scout account
balances can be found at http://pack3025waterloo.org/ScoutAccounts.pdf. Contact Chris Klaren for other details.
·
Recharter cost:
The pack will not go back to parents and scout accounts to cover the
increased rechartering cost of approximately $1000 for the pack. The increase will come from the general fund
which is in good shape from the pop can collections.
·
Outdoor/activities
·
Oct 20 –
Pack Halloween party, report. Great
turnout, lots of fun, lots of treats!
·
Oct
26-27 – Spooktacular, report. 5 scouts and an additional 9 family members
registered.
·
Nov 8-10 – Pack Campout and Ingawanis Adventure
Base, report. 55 scouts, parents and
siblings attended part or all of the weekend.
Great food and weather made a good time for everyone.
·
Dec 15 – Pack Christmas party, update. Planning underway.
·
Do we want to start planning May and summer
campouts now to reserve campsites? We
decided to go to Maquoketa Caves May 15-17, and Mike will reserve a campsite
when reservations open in February.
·
Advancement
– no
discussion
·
Service Projects
·
Update
on food bank and other potential projects – no discussion
·
Chaplain
– Religious awards, update:
dens are making arrangements to offer this to scouts that have not earned them
·
Training
– Position-specific
training (Cubmaster, Den Leader, Committee Chair,
etc.) 5 leaders in the pack have complete the training specified for their
positions, and will receive a “Trained” patch for their uniform.
·
Equipment
–
some kitchen equipment (dish towels, utensils, etc.) will be purchased before
the next campout. We are looking at
additional cooking equipment to facilitate meals at camp.
·
Fundraising
– Pop can drives, report
o September 7 update: received $292.30 check on Oct 16. 10 participating scouts each received $19.49
for their scout accounts.
o October 5 update: received $479.70 on Nov 13, with $414.10
attributed to the can drive and the balance to other can pickups. 8 participating scouts each received $34.50
for their scout accounts.
o November 2 report: 10 scouts participated, estimated check $707,
with each scout to receive an estimated $47.13.
Waiting for check to arrive.
o Next can drive December 7
·
Cans and
bottles from the Isle, Damons, and other businesses –
The Isle has requested that proceeds from their monthly donation be used in the
general fund to benefit the entire pack and not be used for scout accounts,
which we will honor. Damons
and other businesses will continue to be credited to the general fund until we
determine the level of scout account involvement, if any, that will be
employed. Discussion was limited this
month due to the extensive agenda, but will resume on this item next month. Initial thoughts are that some of these funds
could be used to offset the increased rechartering cost (increase of $25 per scout)
for our Dec recharter.
o
Pop can
fundraiser analysis
·
Membership
·
Current roster is 44 youth (3 inactive), and 13
adults (1 inactive)
·
Round
Table Update – from Nov 14 roundtable
·
Recharters due
now!
·
Discussion
on unit fundraising do’s and don’ts, and the requirement for submitting
fundraising applications to the council.
·
Grout
Museum – scheduling a series of Cub Scout Badge Days from January through
April. Chris will send info to leaders.
·
Boy Scout
Nights at the Waterloo Black Hawks – Dec 7, $8 tickets in advance, order
online. Chris will send info to pack.
5) Old
Business
·
Separating the Pinewood Derby and Blue/Gold banquet
– the group discussed on whether to split, with pros and cons considered. While a final decision was not reached, the
group seemed to favor holding Pinewood Derby on its own, and combining
Blue/Gold with Crossover of Webelos 2’s into Boy Scouts.
·
Class B shirts – the group reviewed the designs that
Matt presented from a proposed supplier, and selected one for the Pack. Matt will get cost and delivery information
for the pack to consider.
·
Recharter – Matt is working to complete in December.
6) New
Business
·
Due to the impending loss of the council-provided
web space, a new pack website has been established at http://pack3025waterloo.org as of Nov 3.
7)
Announcements
·
Next
parents meeting Monday, December 16, 2019 at The O.P. (on Ridgeway Ave across
from West High), meeting starts at 7:30 PM.
8) Adjournment - Upon having
completed the evening’s business, the meeting was adjourned at approximately
9:25 pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Chris Klaren
November 19, 2019
Tabled items for future consideration:
·
Class B shirts (Mike to bring back when information
is available)
Cubmaster Report 11/18/2019
I. LEADERSHIP – Update on Lions – I’m excited to report that Seth Seliger has stepped up to be our Lions leader.
II. HALLOWEEN PARTY – 10/20/19 – Thank you to the leaders who helped set up and clean up! Also, thanks to all of our parents for bringing treats. I had to miss last year’s due to illness, but I was really impressed at the turnout, thought it was a great party. I also met a few parents new to our pack. For me, it was our best Halloween party yet (certainly seemed like the biggest).
III. CABIN CAMPING – 11/8/19 – 11/10/19 – recap
A. Thank you to the leaders for stepping up BIGTIME on this trip. I believe, attendance-wise, this was our biggest trip yet. While not all on both nights, by my count, it appears 55 people attended. The feedback I received, both from kids and from parents, was generally positive. And we really threaded the needle when it came to great weather!
B. Thank you to Matt Hennig for lining up some Boy Scout involvement. I really liked this addition, and I hope they had a good time, as well. I thought it was mature of Liam when he apologized for the hike (the part where we got lost), and he and Alex seemed to really take ownership and pride in their roles.
C. Suggested changes for next year (in large part because of the numbers):
1. Assign cabins to each participant. This should eliminate confusion as to who goes where – and whether we have enough space.
2. Designate a cabin master for each cabin.
3. Make a general rule that scouts stay out of cabins that aren’t theirs (i.e. cabins aren’t the play areas unless, say, we later determine that we gather in a cabin, say, due to inclement weather).
4. Assign scouts/parents to meals and for clean-up. This should guard against the situation where a few people are left “holding the bag,” which is how it felt on Friday night (and I believe other meals) when I was fortunate to have a group of willing Webelo 2s to do dishes.
5. Consider making Elliott (bottom-most cabin) the “hub” in future cabin trips at Ingawanis. It has a large permanent shelter that could really come in handy in the event of rain, and frankly might make a better spot for the items we leave out.
D. Etiquette / portions / Meal Prayer – Suggestions for Improvement. I discussed this with Matt and communicated with Chris Klaren about it somewhat, as well. I would suggest:
a. The Den assigned to the meal assigns a prayer leader.
b. Adults always distribute food.
c. We always start with modest portions and don’t let the kids dictate that.
E. Equipment Needs – We are stocked with plenty of dish soap (I think 3 people got it!), napkins, paper towels, and disposable plates and bowls, and I believe still enough plastic silverware (the disposables are for overflow).With approval, I will plan to get more foam cups (we went through nearly all of them), dish towels (I was thinking a bulk package of flour sack towels), and sponges/rags (cheap ones). That way we don’t have to dry them out between meals in order to dry the next load.
IV. CLASS B SHIRTS – Matt Hennig has taken this up with a local screenprinter. Since this is a separate agenda item, I’ll let him take it up then.
V. CHRISTMAS PARTY – Treats and hot chocolate have been the norm, as has a BMAP band concert that always seems to keep me from attending. Some game ideas I liked in the past are:
A. Pin the nose on Rudolph (large paper reindeer on the wall, paper red noses with tape or putty on the back, blindfold participants, turn them around a couple of times, and let them attempt to pin the nose in the right place. Closest one wins!
B. Team one-handed gift wrap. I have been saving some unusually large boxes, so that we actually have a variety of sizes, and I propose a twist where teams get to pick a number, and from closest to farthest off from the actual number, they get to pick their box. Some boxes will be easier to wrap than others, but in order to qualify it must be fully wrapped with a ribbon tied into some semblance of a bow.
C. DUTY TO GOD. We have talked about raising awareness of Duty to God. I think this party can start out with some remembrance, or even brief telling of, the Christmas story.
VI. PINEWOOD DERBY
A. Date?
B. Could we ask John Henry to do 2 things?
1. Quick presentation, show-and-tell about PWD, perhaps at the outset of the pack meeting where we hand out kits. I was thinking this would take 5-10 min.
a. Brief overview of the main rules (size, weight, dry lubricants, use the wheels provided, maybe talk about parent/sibling entries).
b. Show some examples.
2. Cut-out night at garage, like we have done in the past. I realize not a lot of people have taken advantage of this, but it really helps to “even the playing field” without having to do a full-on, haul big tools into the school day.
C. I contacted Dave Arntz concerning operation of the track/finish line system. He said he should be available on Sundays in March and would be willing to help. I also figure we should have him try to teach us how it works for future years.
VII. SPRING CAMPING
A. What would people think of a return trip to Maquoketa Caves? If so, I wonder if we shouldn’t get going early on that, given prior difficulty to get a reservation there? Only downside that I saw at Maquoketa Caves is that you need to carry gear a little farther than other group sites we’ve used.
B. I’ve also heard good things about the boy scouts’ recent trip to Fontana Park near Hazleton, and I think that would be a good spot either in the spring or the summer. There is one youth group area there, it appears, and there is a lot of fishing in the impoundment and below the dam (if well-supervised), as well as an animal exhibit somewhat like what we have at Hickory Hills.
C. BALOO is currently scheduled for May 1-2 (Fri-Sat.), Mother’s Day is the following weekend on May 10. May 15-17 is IOLS, but I doubt any of our leaders are planning on doing that (are you?). May 22-25 is Memorial Day Weekend.
D. I would propose scheduling Spring camping for either:
1. May 15-17; or
2. May 29-31.
Thoughts (as to date or place)?
VIII. Ceremonials at Pack meetings, attire of scouts when wearing class A uniforms
1. Chris, Matt, and I discussed how we give out awards. We are proposing to make it more formalized, more of an honor, by having the leaders hand me the cards and the award, and having the boys go through and receive the award from me, incorporate the scout handshake, and possibly have pictures afterward. What do you guys think of this?
2. Along that same line, we are having difficulty keeping track of all awards at the pack level. What do people think of having an awards/advancement coordinator to help keep an eye on this?
3. As to attire for meetings, when Class As are worn, Matt and I discussed, and I would like to know thoughts on finding a way to very seriously *encourage* (I’ll stop just short of saying *require*) scouts to wear jeans, scout pants, khakis, dress pants, dress shorts …something that has belt loops (and can therefore be worn with a scout belt). The reason? The Class A is a dress shirt, and we believe (just like the theory behind school uniforms) that it promotes respect for the uniform, respect for scouting values, respect for the leadership, and respect for our ceremonies. What would people think about this? Good/bad idea?