Weekly Post - Week of November 6, 2011

Post date: Nov 7, 2011 12:12:20 AM

Greetings Troop 737! Greetings Troop 737! Awesome job by our Winter Camp Training Instructors this past Saturday! The following scouts deserve our thanks for a job well done.

Alexander W.

Ryan J.

Patrick R.

Mitch H.

Dylan H.

Zach B.

Luke S.

The training was informative and delivered professionally. A special thanks to Mr. Summars for sleeping over on Friday, Mr. Wickham for the Umpa Lumpa clothing demonstration and Mr. McLean for cooking a superb lunch, and the DONUTS!!

We have an ongoing problem that I am seeing at almost every activity, and I really hate to have to bring it up, but... Not everyone is paying for the events in time to go on them and then after the activity, our treasurer and other adult volunteers have to try to track down scouts and parents for payment. It would be better if we all tried to make payment prior to the activity. I will admit that this is a fault of mine and I will double my effort to make payment on time. I plan to start tomorrow evening by bringing my payment for the USAF Game and campout. Please join me in paying on time.

We still don’t have everyone’s health form on file with the troop. Please see Mr. Smith’s many emails and check if you, or your scout, have a form on file or not. Unfortunately, we will need to start asking scouts to not stay and participate in meetings and activities if we do not have the forms on file.

From Mrs. Barber; Popcorn News:

Eighteen scouts in our troop sold $6,024.55 of popcorn and earned $2,209.09 in commissions, including scout donations. Our top 3 sellers were:

Brandon Martin - $863.74 in sales

Cole Wagenhals - $799.00 in sales

Paul Garcia - $650.17 in sales

Congratulations to all three of them!

Service Patrol:

The service patrol for November is the Stags, Please show up in force early and help set up the room for our meeting.

Sign up & Payment Deadlines:

• It is time to sign up for the Golden Rec. Center Locking scheduled for December 3. Mr. Wickham, the HALO, has signed up for the climbing wall too. This is one of the most popular events all year in Troop 737. The signup deadline is November 28th, but that is only two meetings away!
• Sign up for Okpik Campout in January is here. The first ten scouts and adult volunteers to pay will get to go. Cost is $90. See below and the troop calendar for details.
• It is time to start signing up for Peaceful Valley Summer Camp next summer. The date is now fixed for the week of July 8th and is on the calendar. More details will be coming in the weeks and months ahead, but the sign up is open.

Upcoming Activities:

Fall 2011 - Scoutmaster Invitational: I am thinking a ball game or hockey, and will try to arrange something for this winter. I am still working on an idea.

November 11 – 13; first winter campout. Mr. Wulff is the HALO and is putting the final details on the USAF football game campout. Tickets are purchased and campsite reserved! Exact departure and arrival times are being worked out, but due to the Alternative Christmas Gift Fair at ELC, we will be departing from, and arriving back to the Marshdale School Parking lot. We will be departing on Saturday morning in time to tailgate in the parking lot before the game, attend the game, and spend the night with other troops in the stadium lot. We will arrive back at Marshdale at approximately 1 PM on Sunday. The adults going still have a lot of details to work out, including the trailer. We will take care of this at campout prep, so please attend if you can.

Month of November, Good Turn Month: Our troop will participate in some way in the good turn month. The committee has met and we think we are going to hold our own food drive this year to benefit one or more local food banks that have had some troubled times lately. Mr. Johnson is going to work with our Service Project coordinator, Mrs. Thompson to work on the details. Please stay tuned and help us help those in need as we approach the Thanksgiving holiday.

Golden Rec. Center Lock in, December 3, from 6 PM to 6 AM: This is one of our most popular activities each year. Our HALO, Mr. Wickham has reserved the center and the climbing wall. Come enjoy a sleepless night playing dodge ball with sleep deprived adults. This is your chance to get even! We will try to get some WEBELOWS to come also. This is a great way to recruit to our troop. I will be working with the committee to get a mailing list and then I will get hot on the invites.

Okpik January 6 -8, 2012; After we are on our Christmas breaks, this will be the first outing of the year, before any January meeting, so you need to be signed up and paid by the first part of December at the latest. Any scout 13 or older by January 6, or any parent, that has had winter camp training is eligible to attend. The fee is $90. All equipment, food, polls, skis, snow shoes, etc. is included in the fee. If you have not been to Okpik, you should at some time attend during your scouting courier. It is the pinnacle of winter camping. Some scouts have been three times so far. You can view past Okpik pictures on the troop web site. You can also go to the Denver Council site and get info about Okpik.

District and Council News and Upcoming Activities:

2012 Big Horn Information: Summer 2012 dates are posted. If you are interested, more information will posted as it comes out. This training is required for all Scouts desiring to hold the Senior Patrol leader position.

There is much more, but too much for now. I will post these in the coming weeks so we have a full list of District and Council events.

Please make sure that you keep an eye on the calendar and your emails, and I will see you soon.

Mr. Hoffman

Scoutmaster