ATTENDEES

PRELIMINARIES

1. November campout (Bill Scott)
• 25 Scouts attended the mountain biking campout at Lake Ray Roberts State Park. Campout was successful. PLC recommends that we do another such campout in future.
• Troop has a shortage of adults willing and able to pull trailers. Reimbursement ($0.15/mile) is insufficient to cover costs. Bob Rielly and Bill Scott will prepare options for consideration by the Committee.
2. Winter Camp (Dan Lassiter)
• No adult volunteers have been identified to run Winter Camp. A few dads might be willing to take a day to help set-up or take-down, but without a couple volunteers to cover the rest of the time, Winter Camp for Troop 81 will have to be cancelled. Volunteers should contact Dan.
3. Philmont (Mark Steger)
• Rita Bonds and Ellen Steger called for 2002 reservations and the troop was put on the wait list, probably too far down to clear.
• Tom Schob suggested that the Troop consider planning its own alternative high adventure back packing trek.
4. Seabase (Mark Steger)
• Ellen Steger has three boats reserved for summer 2001.
5. PLC (CJ Carter)
• Changes were instituted in how tents are checked out. Tents will now be assigned to Scouts for the whole year, with the Scouts responsible for maintaining them, and paying for replacements and repairs in cases of negligence.
• Keeping the trailers locked more often during the November campout helped keep gear in order. Plans to assign other gear (like lanterns) to patrols in the same way as tents were discussed.
• Winter Camp info was presented.
• Issues remaining on January campout were not ready to be discussed.
• Patrol assignments for demos during Family Camp were planned.
6. Financial Report (Pat Thompson)
• October financial summary was distributed.
• 3-month income was $12,167. Expenses were $8,663. Variance from budget is a deficit of $81.12.
• Popcorn sales amounted to $1447, resulting in about $400 for individual Scout accounts. Troop has about $230 surplus, which needs to be sold to prevent a loss for the troop.
7. Membership/Position changes
• Mark Steger volunteered to accept the position of Troop Committee Chairman for 2001-2002, succeeding Craig Cox, conditional on acceptance by the Troop Committee and RBFC.
• The Scoutmaster Selection Subcommittee chaired by Craig Cox reports that no volunteers for a new Scoutmaster have emerged. The Subcommittee suggests that Troop 81 puts too much responsibility on one person and expects him to serve for several years. An alternative, recommended by the Committee, is to distribute the responsibilities among a Senior Scoutmaster and four other Scoutmasters (Camping, Meetings, Advancement, and Leadership). Terms of office will be expected to be one year, with encouragement to re-up for multiple terms. The Troop Committee unanimously approved the proposed adult leadership model. The Subcommittee will proceed with filling the revised positions.

NEW BUSINESS

1. Leadership criteria for advancement (Tom Schob)
• Monitoring of troop guides' performance has shown that most troop guides are getting credit for only a fraction of the time served in that position, because of absences from campouts or weekly meetings or failure to be prepared. The troop supported Tom's practice of setting expectations and holding Scouts to those expectations in order to be credited with service. Mentors were reminded to communicate progress to Scouts. Position tracking sheets are a good tool to do this.
2. First Year Program (Tom Schob)
• There is some concern that the first year scouts are not all advancing at a pace to achieve First Class this year.
3. Integrated Patrols
• Larry Herrin moved that the troop move to integrated patrols (that is, inclusion of Scouts of different ages in each patrol) in time for absorbing Webelos in April, 2001. A plan for achieving this should be presented to the Troop Committee at or before the February Committee meeting. The motion passed with no objection, with two abstentions. Mark Steger volunteered to form a subcommittee to form a plan of migration to this concept.

FUTURE AGENDA TOPICS

1. Next Troop Committee meeting will be December 13 in Yale Elementary Library (note: this is one week earlier than usual).