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Troop Parent Committee MeetingThursday, December 27th, 2001 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm The McGrew Home Highlights:Scoutmaster Report - Great trip but low turnout Finance Subcommittee Report - Volunteers Needed Advancement Subcommittee Report Membership/Communications Subcommittee Report - Recharter Complete! Communications problems being addressed Patrol outing procedures discussed Attendance:Peggy and Gwilym McGrew Patrick Druez Kathy Zimmerman Barry Leafman Lisa Solomon Bruce Newborn Rayna Burgess Scoutmaster Report (and corresponding discussion):The December backpacking trip was a lot of fun! The boys who attended had fun. The number of people who participated was a disappointing 15. We miss the older boys on outings for their leadership and skills. We are starting to get Scouts with experience. We are still having problems with menus and getting them approved. The low turnout issue appears to be primarily one of parent involvement and communication. Would one on one communication with each family help? This is being addressed with email, the website, periodic Newsletters and the phone tree. Lack of money or equipment should not be a reason for Scouts to miss an outing. Equipment is available through people in the Troop. All sizes of backpacks are available if people need to borrow them. Lack of equipment or money to rent equipment should not be a problem. Finance Subcommittee Report:BankingWe are not expecting any financial problems. The Finance Subcommittee chair investigated various options for keeping the Troop funds. Recharter FinancialThe final report on rechartering was reviewed by the Finance committee. The funds balanced. Troop InventorySome Committee members noted that the Troop’s tents are getting old and that some of the equipment is wearing out. It would be good to get a complete inventory from the quartermaster as soon as this is convenient. Most of the equipment can be fixed, Patrick says. It would be good to have a running budget figured out for ongoing maintenance of the Troop’s camping equipment. Popcorn FundraiserPopcorn took 40 to 50 hours just to get the finances balanced! This is in addition to the many hours put in by Judy Soyster and the popcorn fundraiser sub-subcommittee! New spreadsheets and guidelines have been written so this task will be much easier in future years. Handling the cash for this fundraiser was a problem. Most of our banking is done using ATMs and this is not appropriate for cash. Stamp RequestedKathy requested the purchase of a stamp to make the endorsing process easier and the committee approved this expenditure. Subcommittee Documentation NotebookIt would be great to have written procedures for all of the Finance Subcommittee kept in a known place such as a notebook belonging to the pack. This notebook could be passed down to future Finance Subcommittee chairs and members and would serve as a Troop repository for Finance information. The procedures would include things such as two signatures required for large checks etc. It would have sections for the various sub-subcommittees such as Banking, FOS, Popcorn, Cookie Dough, Pancake Breakfast, Garage Sale etc. Volunteers NeededThe Finance Subcommittee needs volunteers. There are many positions available and the jobs are fairly easy. Quickbooks PersonWe haven’t yet entered things into Quickbooks. The Troop has purchased Quickbooks and we realize the benefits of keeping such a spending database. We could use a volunteer to simply enter transactions into Quickbooks and print reports upon request. Check Signer/DepositerWe need a check signer/depositer. This person would endorse the many checks we process and would run to the ATM periodically to process the Troop transactions. Finance Subcommittee Database ManagerThe new version of the Troopmaster database has a finance part to it. We need a volunteer to maintain this part of the database. (The entire database is managed by the Communications Subcommittee with appropriate portions managed by the Finance and Advancement Subcommittees). Advancement Subcommittee Report:Missing patchesTwo boys are missing some patches from Camp Whitsett. Patrick will get replacement blue cards from original records from the Camp Outing. Subcommittee Documentation NotebookLisa will write some procedures for Advancement in order to pass this on to the following adult volunteer in this position. We need another volunteer to enter activity information into the database. Membership/Communications Subcommittee Report:RecharterRecharter is complete. We tried to recharter electronically and found several glitches. Peggy finally turned in a disk to the Council office. Peggy talked with Troopmaster on the phone about the exceptions. A New Roster was distributed at the last Troop meeting. Peggy plans to mail out the roster in January. CommunicationsWebsite is up, current and available at www.troop22.com. Subcommittee positions have been documented. § Newsletter: Sally Neely, § Webmaster/email/Minutes: Rayna Burgess, § Phone Tree: Janna Hazard, § Recharter, Database and Subcommittee Chair: Peggy McGrew. New Business/Discussion Items:More Communications ProblemsThere was a communication problem not getting information out for the Assistant Scoutmaster campout. Some Assistant Scoutmasters were not notified. This lack of communication is frustrating. We shouldn’t forget the Assistant Scoutmasters that can’t make the Monday troop meetings. Email, phone tree and the website should solve this annoying problem. Patrol outings.Patrol leaders need to secure commitment from Assistant Scoutmasters well before the outing. Patrol outings procedures are now documented on the website. The Webmaster would like the Scoutmaster to review and redo this page. Patrol outings are mostly intended for older patrols where the boys have done plenty of car camping and backpacking with the troop and need something a little more challenging or interesting for boys their age. Where are the older Scouts?Some older boys have jobs and can’t make troop outings or meetings because they work. Sports take some of the older boys away. Some older boys don’t want to come to meetings if other older boys aren’t there. We need to make sure the older boys know how much they are missed. Volunteer RecognitionAs we look for new volunteers, we need to recognize the people who have done an excellent job serving the troop. Running a Troop as active and successful as Troop 22 takes many volunteer hours and people need to be recognized for their time and dedication to the troop. The Troop Committee really does appreciate all current and past volunteers!! Troopmaster Database ReviewOnce the meeting was adjourned, committee members were invited back to Peggy’s computer to examine the newly updated Troop Database. The Troop currently uses the Troopmaster database. Two parts of the database need volunteers to enter information: activities (from the Advancement Subcommittee) and finance.
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