Parent FAQ Fall 2011

There are many roles and activities in the troop which means that it's sometimes hard to remember who is responsible for what. Below are some of the different roles for the fall of 2011 and who is responsible for that role. Some additional information about your role in the troop and how the troop is organized are at Letter to New Families from a couple of years ago.

Please see the troop roster for email addresses and phone numbers to contact people below.

• Jeff Harmon, Scoutmaster Troop 57

• Senior patrol – Troop 57 is a scout led troop. That means that the boys who are in the senior patrol provide important leadership for all the meetings and outings. 

o   SPL- Thomas Rasmussen

o   ASPLs- Alex Lu, Gary Hohbach, Paul Mewes, Scott Andrews

o   Troop Guides-Ryan Dempsey, Henry Tucher

o   Troop Scribe- Alex Markosian

o   QuarterMasters-Matt Urrela Stauss, Eddward Chen

o   Troop Instructor Leave No Trace, Spirit- Jeff Ho

o   Jr. ASM-Andreas Vought

• Patrol Leadership - Patrols are the backbone of the troop. If you have any questions these are the people you go to for answers. Below is the scout leadership and ASM for each of the patrols
• Patrol 1
• Patrol Leader – Ryan Huang
• Lead ASM - John Crouch
• Patrol 2
• Patrol Leader – Brennan Mast
• Lead ASM – Eric Ledgerwood
• Patrol 3
• Patrol Leader – Bo Rasmussen
• Lead ASM – Ramesh Narayanaswamy
• Patrol 4
• Patrol Leader – Conner Donnelly
• Lead ASM – David Gee
• Patrol 5
• Patrol Leader – John Carter
• Lead ASM – Chip Wytmar
• Patrol 6
• Patrol Leader – Jaisel Sandhu
• Lead ASM – Jon Mewes

• ASMs - Assistant Scoutmasters. These are adults that take program role in the troop. They have direct contact with scouts on a regular basis.  They help out the patrols, provide the adult leadership for outings, help with community service  events such as Scouting for Food, Park Clean-Up, and Grave Decoration. To become an ASM, you need to participate in the troop and do the online training, Pacific Skyline council training and attend the monthly ASM / parent meetings (1^st Wed of each month). See www.pacsky.org for more information on scouts, training etc.

• First Year Scout program – John Wookey (Gordon Craig is backup). The first year scout program focuses on all new scouts to the Troop. This position works with each Patrol's first year scout ASM to ensure that the older scouts are getting the assistance they need to educate, demonstrate, guide and enable new scouts to learn skills. The goal of the 1st year program is that all the boys should be given the opportunity to achieve 1st class during their first year in the troop. It is very important that the first year scout parent reinforce the values, skills and

• Scoutmaster – Jeff Harmon. This position works with the senior patrol, the patrol leaders, and the adult leadership to make sure that we have the best Boy Scout troop possible with many opportunities for camping, outdoor activities and leadership.

• Committee Chair - Catherine Magill. The scoutmaster runs the program side of the troop. The committee chair runs everything else. That includes working with other adults on finances, lining up volunteers, and running the committee meetings every month.

• Advancement – Rebecca Fox and Barbara Schroder are the Advancement Co-Chairs. Troop 57 is an advancement oriented troop. First year scouts should be able to achieve 1^st Class by the end of their first scout year (June) if they participate. The Troop provides lots of opportunities for scouts to advance and the Advancement Chairs track all advancement of the scouts as they advance through the troop. Here is a link that has more detail about who does what.

• Merit Badges - Scouts can earn merit badges at summer camps (Camp Oljato, Camp Emerald Bay) and Merit Badge Midway (in February). Merit badges give the scouts a chance to learn more in depth about a topic and develop additional skills above the first class skills.  Merit Badge counselors can be Adults and/or ASMs. Every merit badge counselor has to be registered and trained by the council.  Each Patrol is to have an ASM merit badges counselor for Family Life. Sometimes Communications is offered as well.  Occasionally, merit badges are offered to the Troop by various Troop counselors.

• Outings – David Markowitz.  We are an outings oriented troop. Outings Chair is responsible for helping organize the troops outings. Contact David if you want to lead one of the scheduled outings OR sign up using the online outings calendar. Each trip has two adult leaders and a scout leader.  David assigns the adult leaders. The Senior Patrol Leader and Scout Troop Leadership assign the scout leaders.
  

• Trip Coordinators – Silvia Griswold. Every trip has a scout leader, an adult leader and a trip coordinator. The adult leader plans and leads the trip. The scout leader is in charge of the boys on the trip. The trip coordinator is in charge of the finances, organizing car pools, and health forms. Sally organizes all of the trip coordinators so if you are a trip leader, you need to contact Silvia to get a trip coordinator for your trip.

• Summer Camps - We spend two weeks each summer at Camp Oljato, the scout camp that is sponsored by the council. And in 2011, a small contingent of scouts attended Camp Emerald Bay on Catalina Island the week after Palo Alto School let out. We hope to offer this again in 2012.  Camping in the mountains and camp near the ocean, you cannot beat this combination of outings.  Various ASMs spend the week with the scouts at the camps providing support.

• Den Chiefs – Bob Wilson. Being a Den Chief for a Den in a Pack is an important leadership role for 2nd year scouts as they work towards the Star rank. Bob is a Troop ASM and manages the Troop scout leadership and the Den Chiefs to ensure they have found a Cub Scout Pack, that they know what to do and that they are doing it.

• Wreath Sale – Walter Barry is this yearÕs Wreath Sale Chair. He needs some able bodied assistants. The troop sells wreaths to the community the first weekend of December. ItÕs the sole fundraiser for the troop each year. It involves arranging for the purchasing of wreaths to sell, creating the notification emails, organize the distribution of wreaths to scouts for their delivery to clients and to the local corners where wreaths are also sold.

• Scoutmaster Conferences (SMC) - When a scout has completed all of the requirements for tenderfoot, 2^nd or 1^st Class rank, they request a SMC with their Patrol ASM.  SMCs for the Star and Life are coordinated by Garry Lim and Jim Ballard, both ASMs.

• Boards of Review (BoR) – Hugo Lu and Kurt Finley.  Boards of Review are staffed by non ASMs (parents) and are the last step of review before a scout achieves a new rank. After completing a BoR for rank advancement, the scout is at the new rank.  This happens after a Scoutmaster Conference (SMC).  The rank is publicly presented to the scouts at the following Court of Honor.

• Courts of Honor (CoH) – Troop Leadership with the assistance of the Co-Advancement Chairs (Rebecca Fox and Barbara Schroder), CoH Awards Coordinator (_________), Program and Script writer (Barb Clark) and various others plan the CoH. The Scouts run the CoH.  CoHs are three times a year (fall, winter and spring) where we recognize the achievements of the scouts in front of scouts and parents.

• Trip Reports – Scribes as part of their position responsibilities write up each outings, event or function.  These are then posted to the website and later collected for the semi-annual T57 Times published by the Troop Scribe.  ASMs contribute photos as well and support the scribes as they write up trips.

• Webmaster – Vivek Sharma is the webmaster. Scouts can serve as Troop Webmasters assisting in maintaining and updating the site.

• Life to Eagle ASMs- Bruce Schroder and Jon Mewes. These ASMs assist and keep track of Life scouts working toward their Eagle rank.

• Medical Forms – Anne Ritchie. The troop requires medical forms for all scouts and adults participating on trips. There are various rules for this. Anne Ritchie takes care of managing this information and working with trip coordinators to make sure that this information is available if necessary.

• Secretary - Pam Rasmussen is the secretary of the Troop Committee. She takes the minutes of the Committee meetings. These are posted to the website.

• Recruitment - Jaspi Sandhu is in charge of working with the local packs on recruitment. He is the primary contact point for all recruitment efforts.

• Registration - Jean Young and Melissa Anderson are in charge of registration of new members and re registration of returning members

• Finances – Steve Turnbull is treasurer. Steve handles reimbursement for trips, accounts for the early December Holiday Wreath sale, reports periodically to the committee on the finances.  If you have a request to buy something, improve something that costs money, the committee will review, discuss and if appropriate, approve the expenditure, Steve will then handle the details of the reimbursement.