Weekly Post; December 4, 2011
Post date: Dec 5, 2011 1:18:44 AM
Greetings Troop 737! Greetings Troop 737! There are only two more meetings until our winter break and this week it's time to start taking care of our first year scouts. I will be out of town on a last minute business trip. I leave tomorrow morning, early, and have asked Mr. Wickham to stand in for me. The second thing that will be a little different about tomorrow's meeting is that we will have our first patrol meetings in a long time. During patrol meetings, each patrol should design their flag and discuss plans for the next meeting; the Christmas Party. Each patrol needs to bring the following materials: paper to draw on and pens/color pencils/markers. You will need to draw up you flag and then list the materials you will need to purchase to make them at a future meeting. Following the patrol meetings, we will conduct a Trail to First Class skills session. At this session we will be trying to reconcile our first year scout books with the computer records. We need some of our older scouts to help with this while the others help get a patrol competition set up. Please remember that this is our last evening to bring in no perishable food items so Mrs. Osborn can drop them off the following day.
I would also like to remind everyone of our policy enforcement change that the committee approved last meeting. We are once again going to be enforcing the policy of closing down business at the sign up table at 8 PM. This will do two things for all of us; first, it will allow our adult volunteers to finish up all the tasks they need to before the meeting ends. Second, it will give all parents time to join us for circle and hear the announcements and awards. Circle time is not just for the scouts, it’s for everyone. Please arrive for meeting pickup at about 8 PM and join us for circle. If you have business to conduct, please arrive well before 8 PM. I am continuing to work with the scouts to start on time and end on time, and ask your help in this by dropping your scouts off a little early, and being at pick up no later than 8:15. We end our meetings at about 8 and try to get done with our circle by 8:15. These are scout run meetings, so we may run a little over, but if you are there for circle, you will not be just waiting in your car.
On a related note, please be on time for pick up at meetings and for activities. While there is no one family that is late every time, other volunteers and I have been left waiting for at least one parent at every activity. For me personally, this has happened at every activity I have participated in since becoming scoutmaster. I ask you all to help our adult volunteers by being on time for pickups. Normal pick up for PLC is 8 PM, for meetings, 8:15 PM and for Camp outs it’s 1 PM. All other activates we announce the correct pickup time well in advance and if we deviate, we have scouts call ahead.
Golden Rec. Center Lock in: I have not yet received a full report on the golden rec center lock in, Mitch is still sleeping! Judging from this and the amount of food that the Dragons brought to the center, I would say it was a success. I will report more when I have the details from Mr. Wickham. I would also like to thank Mr. Wickham and all the other adult volunteers for their contributions to this activity. The logistics of this alone were huge and therefore Mr. Wickham needs to have an extra thank you. Imagine arranging the transportation, food and sign up of over 70 scouts and scouters. I only hope he got hi revenge on the dodge ball court! Mr. Wickham is a HALO!
Reminder: December 5th is our last meeting for the Food Drive for Journey Community Church: Please bring non perishable food items to each of the two meeting listed above. Scouts are encouraged to go to their neighbors and ask for food items to donate to our local food bank. Please see below for details.
Re-charter will be coming soon. Mrs. Mizenko will be contacting the troop with details. She is trying to have all information for re-charter gathered before we break for Christmas. Please stay tuned and support her efforts in this very important matter.
Doug Kerber’s and Andrew Mieloch's Eagle Scout Projects: Doug and Andrew have announced their Eagle Scout Projects for the next several weekends. Please read their separat emails regarding these projects. We will need to get the troop together to help both of them on their projects. They both have a good amount of work to do, so let all pitch in.
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.
Service Patrol:
The PLC did not set a service patrol for December, so we will hold the Thigers over. Please show up in force early and help set up the room for our meeting.
Sign up & Payment Deadlines:
Echo Mountain Ski Day Sign up Deadline: 12/12/2011: Mr Roberts has Set the costs and published the details; see below!
Mystery Campout Sign up Deadline; 12/12/2011: The cost and details are still being worked out, but this one is a whole lot of fun. For scouts, you just show up to be whisked away on a weekend of adventure around the Denver Metro Area. Sign up soon.
Okpik Sign up Deadline is here. The first scouts to sign up and pay are the ones that go. The 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:
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.
Month of November/December, Good Turn Month: We will be collection non perishable food items to give to the Journey Community Church food bank, a local organization that services our community. Here is a message from Mrs. Osborn:
“I'm excited about the food drive! I wanted to send you a little info about the food bank located at the Journey Community Church in Conifer along Hwy 285. The food bank has been in existence for almost one year and serves the Conifer, Bailey, and Evergreen areas. The food bank currently covers the overflow needs of the Mountain Resource Center in Conifer. At this time 41 boxes of food are distributed each week to families in our mountain community. Please let me know if you need additional information, or ways I can help. Thank you!”
Echo Mountain Ski Day, December 28: From Mr. Roberts, one our the HALOs for this event; Echo Mtn ski/board trip is scheduled for Wednesday, Dec 28 and will be open to 25 scouts and parents. The cost will be $20/per lift ticket. The fee for group lessons will be $20/person. Our plans will be to meet at the church at 8AM, depart at 8:30AM - We will leave Echo Mtn at 4PM and arrive back at the church, at 4:45PM. See the rest of the detail on the calendar and in Mr Roberts email.
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.
Mystery Campout January 20-21: Details are being finalized, but for scouts, show up and away we go. More details at the next circle time.
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