Troop 45 Troop Committee Meeting 25 Feb 08 The Hanover Boy Scout Troop 45 monthly troop committee meeting was held Monday, 25 February at the Black Community Center. In attendance were Yorke Brown (chairman), Tim Smith (scoutmaster), Norma Young (treasurer), Frank Roberts (ASM), and Caroline Tischbein. Yorke called the meeting to order at 7:05. The minutes of the meeting of 28 Jan were approved as distributed. STANDING COMMITTEE AND OFFICER REPORTS Treasurer (Norma Young): Current cash on hand $2,623.19 plus approximately $370 on account at the scout shop. Nick is still conducting the cleanup of the popcorn sale, so there have been no new popcorn transactions. Advancement (Roger Thompson): The board of review process has been moving forward smoothly in concert with the revived "advancement night" system. Boards are planned to complete all possible advancements before parents night. Ned Dwyer continues to develop his method of advancement tracking. The problem with Carl Tischbein's Climbing merit badge has been resolved and the badge has been recorded. Yorke picked up a stack of returned blue cards from roundtable. Roger checked and determined that the badges were all complete and had been awarded, but stated that it was not normal procedure for the council panels to be returned to the troop. **Action RBT: Call the council office to determine the official status of the badges and make sure they have been recorded. **Action YJB: Following Roger's report, dispose of the blue cards appropriately. Scoutmaster (Tim Smith): Activities since the last meeting include the Banff Film Festival and Skating at Occum Pond. Planned activities include troop elections, the Patrol Experience (an opportunity for individual patrols to conduct an activity without direct adult supervision), Nunnemacher Cabin and Scout Ski Day at the Skiway, and Troop Leadership Training (aka JLT) (to be conducted at Nunnemacher). The PLC is also gathering information on the possibility of a service project by helping the Hanover Conservation Council with their pancake breakfast. Tim has negotiated with Mike Campbell to set 4 April as the date for crossover. Chairman (Yorke Brown): Yorke has determined that Marisa Kraus does wish to resign as secretary. He is continuing the search. **Action YJB: Find a secretary for the committee. Yorke reported that at roundtable he learned that the Sunapee District Dinner will be held 5 Apr. New Leader Essentials training will be held 8 Mar at the Mormon Church in Sutton. Interested persons may register on line. The Spring Camporee will be held 2-4 May at the new Scout reservation in Unity. This event will include opportunities for adult leader training. OLD BUSINESS o Registration. Nick Collins is still working on procuring the official roster. **Action NHC: Procure the charter roster. o Popcorn. Yorke reported that Nick is still working on selling off the remaining popcorn. **Action NHC: Try to dispose of remaining popcorn. o Summer Camp. Yorke reported that Kevin O'Leary has agreed to serve as Summer Camp Coordinator again this year. Kevin has determined that we are definitely registered for Camp Bell, and that there is little possibility of switching to Hidden Valley. He and Tim are proceeding with preparations. This item is closed. Norma indicated that Byron has some concern that our Scouts might be too young for the program at Camp Bell, but Yorke and Tim offered that the problem giving rise to Byron's concern was less a matter of age and more a matter of the current troop culture. Tim and the ASMs are working on improving the sense of order and discipline in the troop and expect that by summer camp things will be much improved. They are, for example, working on a structured training program for the new Scouts entering the troop at crossover. Everyone agreed that the camp experience will be much better if we can get more depth of adult leadership at camp. Tim and Kevin are working on advance planning to insure adequate leadership coverage. o ECoH for Hidde deMuinck. Yorke reported that preparation for the court of honor is well in hand. No action from the troop committee is needed. o Crossover. Tim has agreed with Mike Campbell to set the date for crossover on Friday, 4 April. Planning is underway. Yorke gave Frank a stack of youth application forms to distribute at the pinewood derby so that the new Scout parents could get them filled out in advance of crossover. This item is closed. **Action FAR: Arrange to have transfer applications completed in advance. o Parents Meeting: Pursuant to their action item, Yorke and Tim reported that they had agreed to conduct the parent meeting during the troop meeting of 9 April--the first troop meeting of the new Scouts. The idea would be that while Tim and the ASMs supervised the troop meeting, Yorke would take the parents to another room to conduct a meeting with the objective of educating all parents on the workings of the program. Yorke and Tim reported that they had been sporadically working on a revision to the Parent Information Sheet and on preparing a letter to parents. **Action TPS, YJB: Complete the parent letter and Parent Info Sheet. **Action YJB: Prepare a Troop Resource Survey. In order to encourage attendance at the parents meeting, Caroline offered to host a "Preopening Social" at parents night. Since there is quite a bit of preparation the Scouts must do to get ready for the meeting, the parents are left with nothing to do during the (often extended) preopening. Caroline suggested that by serving coffee during that period we could create an opportunity for parents to get to know each other and for Yorke to introduce himself as the new troop committee chairman. With a stronger sense of community we might have better luck encouraging parents to parents to attend the parents meeting. The committee agreed. **Action CT: Call parents to encourage participation at parents night, **Action CT: Organize "Preopening Social." NEW BUSINESS At last month's meeting we discussed ways of improving the effectiveness of the committee. The top priority identified was improving communication among ourselves and with parents. At this meeting, the discussion of the parents meeting led naturally to a more expansive discussion of ways of engaging parents and improving our communication. Topics touched on included o Newsletter. We used to have one. Email? Paper? Content? Editor? o Web Site. We have one but it is not being exploited effectively. Do we want to continue? What purposes should we put it to? o Troop Resource Survey. We'll use one at the parents meeting. What type of follow up? A motion was passed to keep this item open and resume discussion at the next meeting. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at approximately 8:30. The next meeting is scheduled for Monday, 24 March at 7:00 pm.