Good afternoon Troop,
I would like to share a few updates and changes that are in the works for the Troop. Some of these require action by you, the parents.
Meetings: CRUMC has hinted that we may be able to start meeting again at the church in October. They have not given us any specific dates though. For the next few meetings we will target meeting outdoors at 17 acres by the gaga ball pit. That includes this Monday at 7:00pm as we prepare for the upcoming Dade Ranch campout.
Charter Organization: A few months ago, the board of directors of CRUMC decided they were not comfortable re-signing the recharter agreement with Circle 10 Council for their 3 Troops and 1 Cub Pack. This put us all in a quandary as to what would happen to us.
Never fear, the Lion’s Club came to the rescue and agreed to charter the Troops and Pack to provide organizational cover for us. As part of this agreement we will still be meeting at CRUMC and have access to the same facilities as we did previously. From a parent or Scout perspective, you shouldn’t notice any changes. This is a very good thing. Eric Badowski will elaborate further if you have questions. A representative from the Lions Club will meet with us at the next parent/committee meeting to introduce us to the Lions Club so keep an eye out for that.
Bill Chew, a longtime member of CRUMC and a member of the Lions Club, is our new Charter Organization Representative (COR). He is also going to take over as our Training Coordinator for the next few months, which leads me to my next item.
Training: Oh boy, this is a big one. A couple of weeks ago I sent out an email for Dale Fortner about the newly required Committee Member Training. We need everyone to take this training.
We also have a new training requirement from the church called Ministry Safe. This is in addition to our BSA YPT (if your YPT is out of date please take care of that too.) We are all required to take this training in order to go to the basement at CRUMC when children are present (such as any time the troop meets down there.) I will send out an email directly after this one with instructions on how to take this training. Bill Chew will have some additional information and question/answer for you at the upcoming parent meeting.
Criminal Background checks: As part of Ministry Safe training there is a criminal background check requirement. Bill Chew will be giving us the details on this too.
Driving to campouts: New Requirements from BSA, Lions Club, and CRUMC. Every driver that is driving unrelated scouts or adults on a scouting function (e.g. campout) must have at least the state mandated Liability insurance and is recommended to have at least $100,000 combined single limit.
Texas law requires you to have at least $30,000 of coverage for injuries per person, up to a total of $60,000 per accident, and $25,000 of coverage for property damage. This is called 30/60/25 coverage.
From BSA Rules: AUTOMOBILE LIABILITY INSURANCE All vehicles MUST be covered by a liability insurance policy. The amount of this coverage must meet or exceed the insurance requirement of the state in which the vehicle is licensed. (It is recommended, however, that coverage limits are at least $100,000 combined single limit.) Any vehicle carrying 10 or more passengers is required to have limits of $500,000 single limit.
Be aware that we will now be verifying your insurance card (the card guarantees you have the state minimum), and your driver’s license before leaving on a campout. This will be a new Scout leadership role so please cooperate when you are asked to show your DL and Insurance. 🙂
Yours in Scouting,
Frank Buercklin
Scoutmaster | Troop 221 | Plano, Texas