Weekly Post: Thanksgiving Week, 2011

Post date: Nov 19, 2011 4:09:24 PM

Greetings Troop 737! Greetings Troop 737! We have a lot to talk about this week, so please make sure you read this carefully. This will be the last weekly post that I will put out until after the November 28^th meeting as I will be unavailable during the Thanksgiving week.

First, I would like to let everyone know about a 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 Campouts 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.

Here are some activities going on for our troop during the next month or so:

11/28 and 12/5 Meetings: 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.

Golden Rec. Center Lock in: This is a chance for those parents that don’t like sleeping on the ground in the cold and dirt, to help out at an overnight. If you do not normally participate in our outdoor campouts, I urge you to help with this one. In addition to all the fun we are going to have, we would also like to complete all Trail to First Class swimming requirements. Mr. Catterson is going to work with the adults that will be on this outing to accomplish this. If you don’t have these difficult to get requirements, join the troop for the lock in, you won’t regret it.

Doug Kerber’s Eagle Scout Project: Doug will be announcing his project at our next meeting. While I don’t have the exact Date and time, we will need to get the troop together to help him with his project. He has a good amount of work to accomplish in one weekend and I would like to see us 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.

Troop News:

Eagle scouts everywhere at Troop 400!!! Congratulations to the following scouts for attaining the rank of Eagle Scout:

• Ian Smith
• Jay Henderson
• Andy Wickham

Congratulations to all three of them!

Service Patrol:

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

Sign up & Payment Deadlines:

Golden Rec. Center Lock-in Sign up Deadline; 11/28/2011: the cost is $30; please see Mr. Wickham’s email for details.

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 8^th 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, 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!”

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. We will also complete all Trail to First Class swim requirements.

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