September 2011 Jamboree Committee Meeting Recap

Attendance:
Matt Becker, John Campbell, John Clawson, Dennis Draper, Mike Eisenhauer, Ben Ernst, Larry Grantham

The Pony Express Council’s National Jamboree Committee met for the seventh time on Tuesday, September 6th, 2011 to discuss plans for the upcoming 2013 National Scout Jamboree; scheduled to be held from July 15th-July 24th, 2013 in West Virginia.

For our September meeting we decided to again adjust our agenda slightly to accommodate for the smaller attendance to make the meeting more productive. The subcommittees did not have a break out session, but yet we went around the table to discuss the progress being made on each front.

In regards to promotions, the second promotional video has been posted on the Internet. This video focuses on introducing the troop leadership, explaining what the summit has to offer, and how to sign up to attend. The video is about 5 minutes in length and is available via the council website, YouTube, or the Pony Express Council Jamboree Blog. Many thanks go out to all those that helped put the video together, your time and efforts are greatly appreciated.

Also new web banners and the jamboree logo have been added to the Pony Express Council’s homepage. Thanks go out to Mike Eisenhauer for his help in creating easy access to the jamboree information page!

Other promotional items that were talked about during the meeting were the possibility of creating another video for staff recruitment, and sending out a mass email to the entire council encouraging scouts to get signed up to attend. These items have not been approved yet and were just products of a brain-storming session so only time will tell if they will happen.

Our trip details committee is still working on finalizing the itinerary for the troop’s trip to Washington D.C.; we will be working with World Strides to get times and places set as well as travel arrangements.

During the finance committee portion we talked about the finalized budget for the Jamboree. We discussed costs per boy ($2500), costs for the contingent, payment due dates, and how much money has been collected thus far. The biggest concern at the moment is that the Pony Express Council has to make its first initial payment to the National Council in March of 2012. In order to keep our reservation as 1 Troop and 1 Venturing Patrol a payment of $8,500 needs to be made before the end of the month of March.

In the area of recruitment we are in the process of setting up Roundtable visits to each of the districts to promote the 2013 National Jamboree to the leaders so they can pass along information to their scouts to get sign up to attend.

The first shakedown has been scheduled for October 20-21st, 2012 at Camp Geiger. Plans for the weekend are being put together and new information will be released as it becomes available.

Other items of interest that were discussed at the meeting consisted of new information released by National since the last committee meeting.

Online Registration is now LIVE! –
Participants and Staff can now register through the Summit Bechtel Reserve Website.

Welcome Letter for Received Interest Forms –
A draft of the letter was reviewed by those in attendance; corrections and additions will be made before they are sent out in the next couple of weeks.

www.summitblog.org -
The new national web blog for the Summit Bechtel Reserve and 2013 National Jamboree. If you have a moment go check it out at the above web address.

New Online Application Instructions –
Application instructions now include pictures to make the registration process a little easier. Remember if a scout is under the age of 18 a parent needs to login and create a summit account as well to approve their scout’s application.

Out of Council Scouts may attend with another council –
The application process is the same, but both council’s need to notify the National Council’s Jamboree Department to make the scout’s switch between councils.

Webinar on September 14th, 2011 at 9 AM and 3 PM –
A special webinar session will be provided to the council Jamboree Staff Advisors and Jamboree Committee Chairmen. The Webinar will be used to explain the registration process, outline a timeline for promotional and informational materials to be released, and provide a forum for questions to be answered.

The committee collected leader interest forms for the Venturing Patrol Advisors and have set an interview date for September 18th at 5:30 PM to select the adult leadership for the patrol. As a committee the decision was to go with 2 leaders (1 Male & 1 Female) to have a coed group go from the Pony Express Council. The leadership will be in place for our next committee meeting and we look forward to having them on board.

Staff Applications are still being accepted. If anyone is interest in being on staff please head on over the Jamboree Staff Page to see if you’re qualified. The initial online application does require a $150 Deposit.

The next meeting has been set for Tuesday, October 4th, 2011 at 7 PM. The group will be meeting again in the Herzog Lodge to discuss progress and any new information. The agenda will be emailed out at a later date and posted on the Jamboree Blog.

August 2011 Jamboree Committee Meeting Recap

Attendance:

Matt Becker, John Clawson, Roger Denton, Mike Eisenhauer, Larry Grantham, Rob Walling, David Whitmer

The Pony Express Council’s National Jamboree Committee met for the sixth time on Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011 to discuss plans for the upcoming 2013 National Scout Jamboree; scheduled to be held from July 15th-July 24th, 2013 in West Virginia.

This meeting’s agenda was adjusted slightly due to the smaller attendance than normal. Instead of breaking out into subcommittees the group stayed together and discussed the progress that was made over the committee’s couple month break for the summer. With the scouting summer ending soon this meeting proved to be a great opportunity to get everyone back onto the same page and bring the newest committee member, David Whitmer – Assistant Scoutmaster, up to speed.

The first of many items of discussion came from the promotions subcommittee with their recap of what has been accomplished so far, and what they expect to complete in the coming months. Promotional Banners for the National Jamboree and the Summit Bechtel Reserve were posted; with one on the Trading Post wall at Camp Geiger, and another at the council’s service center. The first promotional video for the 2013 Jamboree has been posted online and can be found through the Pony Express Council Website or Youtube. Updates to the council’s jamboree page seemed to be a welcomed addition that proves to be helpful for interested parties.

Coming down the pipe are several new items that will continue to keep the National Jamboree in front of everyone. A second promotional video is currently in the works, with an outline and script draft currently available. It should only be a matter of time to get the video complied and posted on the Internet much like the first video. This video will feature the selected adult leadership for the troop giving an introduction of who they are and their scouting history. It will also include information on how to sign up to attend. New promotional items that were discussed for the first time at this meeting included creating a new jamboree link on the council’s home webpage. The idea to use the Jamboree’s logo was brought up so that those interested don’t have to wait for the banner to scroll by to access the information. One of the other ideas included a mass mailing for everyone in the council, although this could potentially be a high cost it needs to be looked into what it will cost.

With nobody present from the Trip Details and Finance subcommittees we moved onto Recruitment to discuss their progress. Roger Denton discussed his involvement with the tribal council to get representatives from each of the dance districts to help with recruitment and information distribution. The idea to create a information packet was brought up that could be distributed to leaders, units, crews, dance districts, etc.. With 6 youth that have filled out interest forms and turned them into the scout office the question about out of council scouts arose to see if an answer was available on how to handle their registration. Unfortunately the answer was not known so the question would be passed onto the Jamboree department with the National council.

The first shakedown has been scheduled for October 20-21st, 2012 at Camp Geiger. Plans for the weekend are being put together and new information will be released as it becomes available.

Other items of interest that were discussed at the meeting consisted of new information released by National since the last committee meeting.

Online Registration is now LIVE! –

Participants and Staff can now register through the Summit Bechtel Reserve Website.

Welcome Letter for Received Interest Forms –

A draft of the letter was reviewed by those in attendance; corrections and additions will be made before they are sent out in the next couple of weeks.

www.summitblog.org -

The new national web blog for the Summit Bechtel Reserve and 2013 National Jamboree. If you have a moment go check it out at the above web address.

Venturing Patrol –

Leader and Youth Interest forms are available now! You can find them here:

Venturing Adult Interest Form

Youth Interest Form

Adult Interest forms will need to be returned to the Scout Office by September 5th, 2011 in order to be considered for a leadership position within the patrol. The committee is looking to find one male leader and one female leader for the group of 8 youth.

The next meeting has been set for Tuesday, September 6th, 2011 at 7 PM. The group will be meeting again in the Herzog Lodge to discuss progress and any new information. The agenda will be emailed out at a later date and posted on the Jamboree Blog.

June 2011 Jamboree Committee Meeting Recap

Attendance:
Matt Becker, John Campbell, John Clawson, Roger Denton, Seth Euler, Alan Franks, Larry Grantham, Randy Hager, Spencer Rosenak, Steven Rosenak, Dave Thomas, Andy Trout, Rob Walling

The Pony Express Council’s National Jamboree Committee met for the fifth time on Tuesday, June 7th, 2011 to discuss plans for the upcoming 2013 National Scout Jamboree; scheduled to be held from July 15th-July 24th, 2013 in West Virginia.

The promotions committee approved one of the banner designs during the meeting and the banner will be sent to print soon. Those interested need to look for this banner to show up at Camp Geiger this summer. Another item that this committee is working on is to set up a video loop of the promotional video that was released at the last committee meeting, during Wednesday night at Camp Geiger. Both of these items will be displayed for all to see at the Trading Post area of camp.

More progress was made in the planning of the trip details in regards to World Strides (Jamboree Touring Company). World Strides sent the council an updated itinerary to correspond with the suggestions that were made by the committee to alter dates and travel methods used for the trip. With the changes came a new price point of which the committee motioned to move forward to make the final commitment to using World Strides as the exclusive touring company for the trip. The trip will begin on Sunday July 14, 2013 with a flight into Charleston, West Virginia. After a night at a hotel the group will leave the following morning to the National Jamboree where the will spend 10 days in the mountains of West Virginia near the New River Gorge (July 15 – July 24, 2013). On the morning of July 24th the troop will then depart the Jamboree for a spectacular train ride through the Gorge starting in Princeton, WV and ending in Washington D.C. that early evening. At which from that point on, the troops will be staying in hotels and touring the nation’s capitol until the late afternoon of July 26, 2013. The troop will then fly out from one of the area airports back to Kansas City to be reunited with family and friends back home. The places being visited and toured are still being decided upon, but my guess is that it will be similar to the trip taken in 2010. If you’re interested in learning more about where the 2010 group toured head on over their blog at: jamboreetroop1122.blogspot.com


The finance subcommittee is still working on creating a budget for the event to establish a final trip cost for the participants. With the new cost information from WorldStrides it will only be a matter of time before final costs are established. The number being tossed around at the committee meetings is $2500, although with more time we will have a better idea of what to expect once the final cost is released. Fundraising options are still being tossed around as well; these will be designed to help assist the boys in paying their own way. With the goal of giving every interested boy the opportunity to attend, this will become more of a major focus as time progresses.

Recruitment for Jamboree youth members is well underway now that the youth interest forms are out and being circulated. Forms can be found online or at the scout office and can be turned into the office or emailed to Matt Becker, Jamboree Staff Advisor. The recruiting sub-committee will be getting volunteers to help out from each of the Mic-O-Say dance districts. Their job will be to help assist in spreading the word about the National Jamboree and to get boys signed up to attend.

The first shakedown has been scheduled for October 20-21st, 2012 at Camp Geiger. Plans for the weekend are being put together and new information will be released as it becomes available.

Other items of interest that were discussed at the meeting consisted of lots of new information released by National since the last committee meeting.

Online Registration is now LIVE! –
Participants and Staff can now register through the Summit Bechtel Reserve Website.

Online Application Instructions –
Here are instructions on how to register online through the Summit Website

Be Prepared Document –
This document shows what scouts and scouters need to do in order to be prepared and to be considered for attendance at the Jamboree.

BSA National Meeting Update –
New information about the Jamboree experience at the Summit was released to those in attendance at the National Meeting in San Diego. Notes taken from this meeting were shared with the committee.

2013 Jamboree Brand Identity Guide –
If you’re interested follow the link to look of the new brand standards for the National Jamboree in 2013

Summit Promotional Video –
This video was posted here on the blog earlier but here is the link again.

Patrol Z Members Selected –
Here is the link to all news on Patrol Z

Boy Scout Troop Leadership Selection –
Scoutmaster – Rob Walling
Assistant Scoutmaster – David Whitmer
Assistant Scoutmaster – Randy Hager

This selection was approved by the committee and will be heading up the troop as the process moves forward. Alternates have also been selected in the event that someone would need to step down from the position.

Venturing Patrol –
Leader and Youth Interest forms are available now! You can find them here:
Venturing Adult Interest Form
Youth Interest Form

Adult Interest forms will need to be returned to the Scout Office by September 5th, 2011 in order to be considered for a leadership position within the patrol. The committee is looking to find one male leader and one female leader for the group of 8 youth.

The next meeting has been set for Tuesday, August 2nd, 2011 at 7 PM. The group will be meeting again in the Herzog Lodge to discuss progress and any new information. The agenda will be emailed out at a later date and posted on the Jamboree Blog.

May 2011 Jamboree Committee Meeting Recap

Attendance:

Matt Becker, John Clawson, Roger Denton, Dennis Draper, Mike Eisenhauer, Larry Grantham, Randy Hager, Steven Rosenak

The Pony Express Council’s National Jamboree Committee met for the fourth time on Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 to discuss plans for the upcoming 2013 National Scout Jamboree; scheduled to be held from July 15th-July 24th, 2013 in West Virginia.

Using the new agenda format the group split off into their subcommittees at the beginning of the meeting for roughly 35 minutes to discuss the pertinent items that they plan to focus on throughout this planning process. This gave each group enough time to work in their area of focus to continue to develop and see out their plan of action. Attendance was slightly lighter at this meeting, and even though every subcommittee wasn’t represented, a lot was accomplished during the meeting.

The major focus for the promotions committee was to begin the development of the banners to be used at Camp Geiger this summer, and at other events throughout the coming years. The group came up with 2 ideas for the banners, with the first being a banner advertising just the Summit. The second would promote the various jamboree events that the Summit will have to spark interest in the youth. The plan is to get these finished before the Mic-O-Say Tribal Feast on June 4th, which marks the start to the summer camping season at Camp Geiger. The banners will be placed in high traffic areas at camp such as the Headquarters building, and at the Trading Post. Once a design gets approved the images will show up here on the blog as well. Another item that this committee is working on is to set up a video loop of the promotional video that was released at the last committee meeting, during Wednesday night at Camp Geiger.

The finance subcommittee is still working on creating a budget for the event to establish a final trip cost for the participants. Talks with World Strides, the touring company, to acquire a final cost from that portion of the trip has slowed down the process of finalizing a total cost. Although not present, it is my understanding that Ken Siemens has agreed to sit on this subcommittee to help in this process as well. Fundraising options are still being tossed around to help assist the boys in paying their own way. With the goal of giving every interested boy the opportunity to attend, this will be a major focus as time progresses.

Registration for the Jamboree is not currently open (Late Spring 2011); but the recruiting committee has already developed an excellent plan to get participants to sign up. Talks of Wednesday night flyer distribution at Camp Geiger, as well as Tribal Council assistance should prove to fill up the slots quickly. The subcommittee also moved to develop a youth interest form similar to the adult interest form used for leadership positions. That form will be posted on the council website and right here as well, as soon as it is completed. The youth form will be for both the Boy Scout Troop and Venturing Patrol. While on the subject of interest forms, the adult forms have been collected and reviewed, and interviews will need to take place to make a final decision on the troop leadership. The committee received 10 applications, and will be hosting the interviews at the Tribal Feast on June 4th, 2011. The committee will also be releasing another adult interest form tailored to finding 2 adults for the venturing patrol. Both the adult and youth forms will be available before the Venturing Event at Camp Geiger on May 21st, 2011.

The first shakedown has been scheduled for October 20-21st, 2012 at Camp Geiger. Plans for the weekend are being put together and new information will be released as it becomes available.

Everyone was encouraged to read the recently released Mandatory Terms for Participation, which could cause problems with the amount of gear the boys will be allowed to take.

The next meeting has been set for Tuesday, June 7th, 2011 at 7 PM. The group will be meeting again in the Herzog Lodge to discuss progress and any new information. The agenda will be emailed out at a later date and posted on the Jamboree Blog.

Picture Source: Summit Bechtel Reserve Flickr Collection

Jamboree Committee Meets Again!

Attendance:

Matt Becker, John Clawson, Roger Denton, Ben Ernst, Seth Euler, Larry Grantham, Randy Hager, Steven Rosenak, David Thomas, Andy Trout, Rob Walling

The Pony Express Council’s National Jamboree Committee met for the third time on Tuesday, April 5th, 2011 to discuss plans for the upcoming 2013 National Scout Jamboree; scheduled to be held from July 15th-July 24th, 2013 in West Virginia.

Using a new agenda format the group split off into 5 subcommittees at the beginning of the meeting for roughly 25 minutes to discuss the pertinent items that they plan to focus on throughout this planning process. This gave each group enough time to formulate action plans, ideas, and develop a report to be discussed during their portion of the meeting. Each group jumped right in focusing on the priorities at hand in order to make this the best Jamboree experience the Pony Express Council has ever seen. The excitement from everyone in attendance was apparent from listening to everyone’s ideas for promotion, recruitment, financial planning, trip details, and equipment/shakedown groups. With the committee off to such a tremendous start, I look forward to seeing how everything comes in to play, as we get closer to the actual Jamboree!

To start off the full committee meeting, we previewed the first promotional video for the 2013 Jamboree. Thanks to the hard work put in by a few of our own council’s volunteers and youth the 7:38 clip has been developed to spark interest in the upcoming event. Larry Grantham, Steve Rosenak, and Mike Eisenhauer were the driving force in accomplishing this task and thanks to their dedication to making the next jamboree a success we have a wonderful video that can be used as a recruitment tool. The video will be posted on this blog and a link will be on the council website as well. The plan is to put the video onto a disc that will be distributed to every single scout unit along with a letter explaining why it is important for the leader to show the video to the boys. We are shooting to get these discs out to roundtables this month! Other promotional discussions focused on creating banners for Camp Geiger to be displayed at the trading post and headquarters buildings. While also tossing out the idea it might be good to try and get a video loop going that show cases the previously mentioned video clip to played at the trading post on Wednesday nights during camp.

Recruitment is always a major focus and if this event is going to be a fun experience for the youth it must have a full group signed up to go. Although registration is not currently open for the event (Late Spring 2011) the committee has already begun formulating a plan to get the word out because this trip of a lifetime is coming quick. Their plans are to include: Wednesday Night campfire skits at Camp Geiger, Involving the Mic-O-Say Tribal Council to visit and promote to units, use new wood badge participants to help in the planning process, and developing a solid venturing group to work specifically on getting venturing youth interested. It almost goes without saying but the promotions group and recruitment group will be working hand in hand to spread the excitement of the National Jamboree.

Our trip details group has also been hard at work trying to development new ideas to make the Jamboree experience even better. Everything from the touring options, travel methods, and everything in between will be looked at as the Jamboree moves to its new location in West Virginia.

Also in development is a finance subcommittee that will work on creating a budget for the event, coming up with a final trip cost, and helping assist with fundraisers and troop/youth sponsorship methods. Anyone that has ever been to a National Jamboree before knows that the cost can be somewhat overwhelming, but if you ask them after their trip if the experience was worth the money, I can guarantee that everyone will agree that it was. Once a final cost for the trip is made available it will be posted right here on this blog as well as many other places. (The individual cost for the trip in 2010 was over $2000)

In other Jamboree news the first shakedown has been tentatively scheduled for October 20-21st, 2012 at Camp Geiger. This will be the first time that the boys going to the National Jamboree in 2013 will camp together as a group. Plans for the weekend are being put together and new information will be released as it becomes available. One item of concern for this group has been what to do about equipment for the shakedowns. Because it is our understanding the National Jamboree will be providing all the unit’s equipment needs while at the Jamboree site, the group may need to find camping equipment from participating units to borrow during their shakedown weekends.

As discussion moved from the various subcommittees topics into the general group discussion topics, the committee was reminded that at next month’s meeting the group will be reviewing all of the adult interest applications for potential adult leadership for the contingent. And as the meeting drew to a close the last item of discussion was summer meeting plans. The committee has decided that it will meet in June but not in July, on the first Tuesday of the month.

The next meeting has been set for Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 at 7 PM. The group will be meeting again in the Herzog Lodge to discuss progress and any new information. The agenda will be emailed out at a later date and posted on the Jamboree Blog.

Jamboree Committee Meets For Second Time

Attendance:

Matt Becker, John Clawson, Roger Denton, Mike Eisenhauer, Ben Ernst, Seth Euler, Larry Grantham, Randy Hager, Steven Rosenak, David Thomas, Andy Trout, Rob Walling

The Pony Express Council’s National Jamboree Committee met for the second time on Tuesday, March 1st, 2011 to discuss plans for the upcoming 2013 National Scout Jamboree; scheduled to be held from July 15th-July 24th, 2013 in West Virginia. The topics that were discussed touched on New Jamboree Information such as the website and costs, the possibility of having not only a troop but a venturing patrol as well, Potential Troop Leadership, Event Promotion, and Trip Details mostly in regards to the committee’s commitment to World Strides.

After a quick round of introductions for those that were new to the committee or were unable to attend the last meeting, the discussion turned to the pieces of information that were new since the last meeting. Items such as the launch of the new official website, troop and staff fees, shape the summit survey, and Patrol Z were all new items that were released in the last month. Every one was encouraged to visit the new website, get their youth in their own unit to take the survey and give any potential candidates for Patrol Z to Matt Becker as soon as possible. The deadline to sign up for the opportunity to be in the “Patrol Z” is April 15th, 2011.

Switching gears the committee moved to discuss what the Pony Express Council has been allotted in terms of units for the 2013 National Jamboree. The council has been allotted 1 troop and 1 venturing patrol if the committee chooses to commit to filling all available slots. The committee unanimously chose to accept the bid for the Troop but discussion on the ability to fill both a troop and patrol was a different story. Based off of recent history the Pony Express Council has only been able to fill one troop in the last 4 jamborees. Adding another patrol of 10 participants would increase the council’s financial obligation to 50 participants in total including adults. With only 33 youth and adults in 2010 it could be an expensive gamble to commit to both for 2013. This discussion made this the biggest decision for the committee to decide on and it was not taken lightly by any of those in attendance. To make a long story short the committee’s decision was to accept what the Pony Express Council has been allotted, and to work extra hard to get the right people involved to make sure both are filled. The intention is to create a venturing subcommittee to work in conjunction with the rest of the Jamboree committee to create a plan of action to fill all available openings. After a quick phone call to Dennis Draper, Kanza District Venturing Chairman, the committee hopes to add him to help with this subcommittee.

Troop Leadership was another hot topic of discussion as the committee begun to get a good list of names going for potential leaders. The decision to open it up to application was made to see if there is any further interest from others in the council. An application will be drafted very soon and will be made available to those on the committee, the council website, and at district roundtables. The plan is to gather these interest applications to discuss and decide upon at the May committee meeting.

As mentioned earlier about the Venturing subcommittee, other subcommittees are being formed to help specialize in certain aspects of planning to keep meetings short and beneficial to everyone involved. Commitments were gathered from those in attendance to work together to form a subcommittee report for future meetings.

With the hour getting late the committee touched just briefly on promotions, and decided that the subcommittee needed to meet before any further action was taken. Their plan is to meet in the coming weeks to gather ideas and decide on what is best for getting the word out. Right now the committee recommends that those interested keep watching the website for new information and updates.

To bring the meeting to a close the last topic of discussion pertained to the trip details, with a heavy emphasis on the committee’s commitment to World Strides. World Strides has been the Pony Express Council’s touring agency of choice for the past 4 National Jamboree and has provided excellent service for the council troops each time. With the new location the decision must be made whether or not to continue to tour Washington D.C. as part of the trip or to plan something totally different. The committee decided that the Washington D.C. tour was worth the cost and plans on continuing using World Strides as the troop’s touring agency.

The next meeting has been set for Tuesday, April 5th, 2011 at 7 PM. The group will be meeting again in the Herzog Lodge to discuss progress and any new information. The agenda will be emailed out at a later date and posted on the Jamboree Blog.

First Jamboree Committee Meeting a Success!

Attendance:

Andrew Becker, Matt Becker, John Campbell, John Clawson, Ben Ernst, Alan Franks, Larry Grantham, Steven Rosenak, Andy Trout, Rob Walling

The Pony Express Council’s National Jamboree Committee met for the first time on Tuesday, February 8th, 2011 to begin discussion of plans for the upcoming 2013 National Scout Jamboree. Scheduled to be held from July 15th-July 24th, 2013 in West Virginia, the Boys Scouts of America (BSA) are hard at work preparing the site for not only the National Jamboree but for it to become the BSA’s Fourth High Adventure Base as well. The site is named: The Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve or just “The Summit” for short, and it is located a little over 250 miles west of Fort A.P. Hill (Site of the previous 8 National Jamboree’s).

With less than 2 ½ years away from 2013 National Jamboree, the group is getting a jump on the process of putting together a Jamboree Contingent and planning all the details that are involved in taking a group of young men across the country. Some of the topics that were discussed touched on Recaps of Previous Jamboree’s, Troop Leadership, Event Promotion, and Trip Details.

The committee decided that the next meeting they would begin forming a list of names for possible Adult Leadership to be contacted for the Scoutmaster roles. Based off previous Jamboree’s the Troop has consisted of 4 Adult Leaders, with one of the leaders between the ages of 18 – 21 at the time of the event. Assuming that the troop structure hasn’t changed and the committee has begun the nomination process with the intentions of filling 4 currently open slots. Leader recommendations should be sent to John Clawson or Matt Becker to be added to the current list of names.

Promotion of the event was another big topic of discussion as the group began brainstorming of various tools and resources that the council has to use to promote the new high adventure base. The consensus was that past promotions haven’t been good enough to fill up a full contingent and drastic steps need to be taken to boost awareness of the event. Promotions ideas for Summer Camp at Camp Geiger, Cub Resident Camps/Webelos Weekend, Arrow Path, Website, Blogs, Facebook, Mic-O-Say Events, Troop Meetings, Pack Meeting, Roundtables, and many more were all discussed to spread the word as much as possible. Larry Grantham and Steven Rosenak volunteered to help take charge of leading this sub-committee and plan to use other council committees such as Marketing & Promotions to increase event awareness. Anyone interested in helping in this area should contact John Clawson or Matt Becker to get their contact information.

With the Jamboree being located at a new place the troop has the option of drastically changing their travel plans. In previous years the contingent has gone to Washington D.C. and toured for a few days because it was close and convenient. The new site is no longer as close to the nation’s capitol, so possibilities have become vaster as the group decides on new plans. Ben Ernst and Andy Trout volunteered to provide their guidance and expertise as the troop begins making plans as part of the Trip Details sub-committee. They will be working with Matt Becker and Larry Grantham in decisions on transportation methods and costs. Although trip costs were brought up, no decision or price structure has been determined yet. The committee is currently waiting on Jamboree costs from the National Office to be released before they begin formulating a budget. The National Jamboree event cost should be available at the next committee meeting for further discussion. If you are interested in getting involved with this sub-committee please let John Clawson or Matt Becker know.

The next meeting has been set for Tuesday, March 1st, 2011 at 7 PM. The group will be meeting again in the Herzog Lodge to discuss progress and any new information. The agenda will be emailed out at a later date and posted on the Jamboree Blog. The tentative plan is for the committee to meet the first Tuesday of every month; this date can change, but for now the committee has decided on this meeting schedule.