Meeting started at 8:15 pm

Treasurer’s Report: Craig Louthain presented. Boundary Waters and Sea Base money is being collected and deposits being made. Some concerns (from Mary Ann) about how much boundary water money has been collected. Craig and Eric will work on it

First Aid/CPR Certifications: Need to get names and dates for next sessions before boundary waters.

Nominating Forms (March 11, 2005): All nominations are due March 11. We have nominations for Unit Spirit, Outstanding Scouter, and District Award of Merit.

Northlander Gym (March 11-12, 2005): The event is set for March 11-12, from 8:00 pm until 8:00 am, Friday night to Saturday morning. (It is followed by the First Aid Meet at 9:30 am.) The cost is $35 for climbers taking the merit badge; climbing with out the merit badge is $25, non-climbing chaperones are free. The troop will split the above fees with the participant. If we want food, we have to order it ourselves and pay for it separately; or bring it.

Patrick, Sandy and Phil will be attending with 19 scouts.

First Aid Meet (March 12, 2005): Climbing people will be brought back to fire station for first aid meet.

Show and Do (March 19, 2005): Mary Ann is looking at it. Date is March 19^th during Learn and Earn. No information has been released.

Merit Badge Learn and Earn (March 19 and April 2, 2005): The event is March 19, and April 2; both at 3^rd Presbyterian Church, 1221 Custer Avenue. Phil is working on posting the information. The scouts who were going to sign-up have signed-up! Connie Snyder is the District coordinator.

Phil needs to get health forms into council prior to the event.

District Dinner (April 3, 2005): There will be a subcommittee meeting shortly. Flyers will be passed-out at the next Roundtables. Also, nomination forms will be passed out and collected all in one night. Gretchen has gotten a flyer ready for Roundtable. Station #3 is reserved for April 3^rd. The theme is "Celebration" – a party theme, because it is Cub Scouting’s 75th Anniversary. The food is decided. (Gretchen Horan, Eric Schmidt, Mary Ann Bushaw, and Phil Reece).

Program has been approved by District. We need to find someone for invocation, Phil to ask Pastor Kim. Decorations are being worked on. Committee decided troop will pay for everything in advance and get one check from District, about $1800. Motioned and passed for Gretchen to spend it.

Eagle Cave (April 22-24, 2005): A payment is due in March. Need exact count of people by March 22. (Eagle Cave will not refund fees for people who do not go.) The troop will be charging more for this campout for both Scouts and Scouters. Eagle Cave charges $42 each. Motion was made and passed to charge $21 for each participant. A deposit check was sent.

Need announcement for family night. The cave does not give refunds, estimate low. Will put down payment on the check card.

Midwest Regional Extrication Competition (May 21-22, 2005): The Midwest Regional Extrication Competition needs a group to serve food to participants. It would be 7am to 4pm on Saturday and Sunday in May of 2005. It means manning the kitchen at Station #3 and buying and serving the food for a couple hundred people. It would support the fire station, which is our charter. Bill LeFevre said our troop would be asked to do this. A motion was made and passed to offer our services for this. (Brats and hamburgers last year.) The committee agreed to explore this further – as a service project.

Being held at fire station three. Need 2 adults and 4 scouts. Eric will coordinate with Bill.

BMX Food tent (June 16-19, 2005): It is the weekend we leave for the Boundary Waters.

Need to have schedule ready for family night on March 22^nd.

BMX Clean Up (June 19, 2005): Need to make an announcement.

Boundary Waters (June 19 - 26): Eric Schmidt bought 3-permits for Troop 181 and 2-permits for Crew181. (Nine people per permit.) Approximate cost per participant will be $500. There was discussion about the availability of advisors for each permit.

Al Fredrickson will put on some classes for canoeing. There are about 9 canoes in the troop that could be used for practice. All scouts need to be First Class. Looking at requiring canoeing, first aid, and swimming merit badges prior to leaving. We may want to change it to "be actively working towards them" in order to deal with exceptions. Eric, Ed and Al need to offer ideas on what to do. Print up this section notes to be discussed at next weeks troop meeting.

Summer Camp (July 10 - 16, 2005): Ken Hoxie, and maybe Ed will be attending. Camp Lowden has been chosen for July 10-16, 2005. Need adult volunteers. $100 deposit has been paid from the troop account at the Council office. Costs are $160 per Scout by May 1^st and $180 after that date. The cost for adults is $107. March 15^th will be the parent information meeting, and the deposit is due March 22^nd ($25). Besides the $25 payable by each scout, a scout may earn up to 135 dollars in points. Ed will lead two sessions about the ways to earn points. One session will be for parents of new scouts; the other session will be a refresher for all scouts and their parents.

Deb Lindstrom and Dannett Holifield will be attending. Need announcement to hand out at Family Night.

Florida Sea Base (Aug. 7-14, 2005): Still looking for people. Have 2 confirmed boys and 2 adults. We need at least 6 people, so it will be opened to the District after 12/31/04. It was brought up at Roundtable and there is 1 possible recruit.

Need to look at what troop pays for adults.

Mystery Campout (August): The Mystery Campout date needs to be changed to August, due to conflicts (Boundary Waters) in July. It will be a "family event" with permission slips required for all non-family participants.

Equipment: Steve Horan has the axe and John Vermi has the hatchets. Motion to purchase a couple of fiberglass handles and sledge hammers. Motion passed.

New Meeting Location: Everything has been cleaned out from station but the wood cabinet and fridge. Nobody wants the cabinet, so it’s firewood. May want to donate fridge to a soup kitchen or the church.

Storage facilities: Jon Paul provided storage space. A "Thank-you" letter, for tax purposes, should be composed and sent to him; one similar to the letter we sent to the farm that stores our trailers. We are still lacking storage for the long-term stuff. It can remain in the firehouse for the time being.

Phil will ask Dan Murphy to write a "thank-you"/tax letter.

Discipline agreements: Derek Dwyer took care of them. Of course, we hope to receive new scouts soon, and there will be a new batch of agreements that will need to be signed. Recommendation was made that these should be gone over annually with all Scouts as a refresher.

Derek needs to get new patrol (Stallions) to sign at parent information night.

Wood Badge: Next course C-24-05 is August 26-28 and Sept 30 – Oct 2. Paul McCaffrey wants to attend. He needs the prerequisites (New Leader Essentials and Boy Scout Leader Specific [5-sessions] training). Ken Hoxie & Steve Horan want to take the local training. Who else wants Woodbadge?

Leader Specific: Next session starts April 20^th. Ken, Paul and Steve need to go through Leader Specific Training to set up for Woodbadge. Dannette needs to do the overnight to finish her training. Phil will contact Tom Seifkin for applications.

Fast Start: Jessica Fuller and Vicki Lambert need Fast Start. Need to inform new parents about training.

Troop Advisors: Ed is collecting adult volunteers for Patrol Coaches, and coaches for the all leadership positions.

Swim Nights: Need to find new place to meet after swimming that is cheaper. Discuss next time.

Uniform Inspection: Ryan Lambert picked-up 60 uniform inspection sheets. They will be distributed at a future troop meeting. Then, a date will be set for the actual "inspection" at a subsequent meeting. Mary Ann indicated that District is suggesting inviting special Scouter guests or military recruiters to help with the inspections about twice per year. Hopefully, we will have a guest, in uniform, initiate our troop inspection.

Ryan to discuss at next weeks PLC.

Need to follow up on Sutherland letter.

Council activities: The council would like the troops to balance troop activities with Council/District activities. A large Council Cam-p-oree is planned for 2005 at Camp Grant and the airport.

Need dates.

Popcorn: The Spring Popcorn Kickoff will be April 1, 2005. Will Jamie Beck do it again?

Ken will run it, with help from Jamie. May want to look at "consignment." Wal*Mart may match funds. Can be set up to use leftover to fill orders. Look at doing this for Fall. Paul will work with Ken to set-up a few pre-sales.

New Scouts will be joining soon. Our Troop Guide needs to be ready for them.

We welcomed 8 new scouts. (Seven graduated from Pack 429; plus one walk-in.)

Fire Safety Merit Badge: Ryan is getting this arranged for troop meeting nights of 2/15 and 3/15.

Ryan will set-up with Brian Rehnberg for final card approval.

Tours: A tour of a potato chip factory is not available. All food processing companies are denying tours. We need new ideas for a March 29^th tour.

Cannot come up with food tour. Looking at a skating outing in place of tour if Mary Ann can not find something else. Ryan will talk with PLC. Rockford spring break happens that week; so turn out may be limited.

Troopmaster – We can spend the $130 to get new Troopmaster and dot com.

Venture Crew has asked for a link on the troop website for their activities; the Committee approved it.

Secretary: Judi Nichols has resigned as the troop secretary. Phil will ask for help at the Family Night.

Adjourned 9:30 PM