Weekly Post, Week of December 2, 2012
Post date: Dec 2, 2012 11:44:45 PM
Greetings Troop 737! Next weekend we have the Golden Rec. Center Lock in event. This is an extremely popular event with scouts and the adults that volunteer to spend the night with them. We have a very full roster again this year, but I have a big concern; we do not have enough parent volunteers. At last count, we only had six adults to the forty or so scouts. This is the bare minimum that I am willing to go with. If even one parent that has signed up drops, I will be forced to cancel this event. In short, we need two more parents to volunteer to go and stay at the rec. center with the scouts. If you have not previously volunteered to spend a night with the scouts, either on a campout or summer camp, this is your chance. I would like to remind parents that have not volunteered to help us in any manner, troop 737 runs on volunteers, and we have had a big problem with volunteers this year. Please consider spending the night with your scout and helping with the many HALO jobs that we have open.
We have quite a few activities coming up, and we also need to start getting an understanding of interest levels for the various summer camps, high adventures and our spring break trip. We will try to get the signup sheets available for the next meeting of two for the following activities, please make sure that you sign up for all activities that you are interested in and plan on going to.
Activity Level of Interest (please signup now if you think you are going to any of these):
· Okpik: 01/04/2013, 6:30 PM to 01/06/2012, 12:00 PM. Location is the Tahosa High Adventure base in Ward CO.
· Spring Break Trip: Family Backpacking to Havasu Falls in the Grand Canyon. Five to seven days during Spring Break. Final dates will be agreed on with families that plan to go. We need to understand the level of interest before purchasing our back country permit.
· Boundary Waters High Adventure trip: As shown by Mr. Ballantyne, this is an adventure of a lifetime similar to Philmont. This is a high adventure trip for scouts that will be 13 years old and first class scout by the date of the trip. We are tentatively scheduling this for early to mid June 2013. We need to know soon if we have enough interest for several crews before we pay our deposit.
· Summer Camp, in State: Camp Ben Delatour in the Red Feather Lakes region west of Fort Collins. July 7 – 13. This camp is for first and second year scouts and any other older scouts that will be working on Trail to First Class and/or Merit Badges.
· Summer Camp, out of State: This is an out of state adventure for mostly older scouts, year three and up. This camp is outside the west entrance of Yellowstone and is a two day trip to and from camp. The troop leaves on Saturday, July 13, and arrives back on Sunday, July 21. It is a full 12 hour drive so we need parents to drive and stay for the week.
Upcoming Signup Deadlines (see below for details):
· December 3rd; last day to sign up for Okpik, however, if you wait this long, you might not be able to go because we have to sign up for additional slots soon. We have already registered ten scout spots and two adults. If you are interested, and we need more reservations, we will have to know before Dec 3rd. Cost is $90.
Service Patrol:
The service patrol for December is the Stags Patrol!! All members of the Stags Patrol should be inside our meeting room no later than 6:15 to help set up for the meeting.
Please read below for details on upcoming events, and always stay current with our Troop Calendar on the web site. This is the best way to have the most current information.
Upcoming Activities:
Troop Meeting: Outdoor Activity and Campout Prep for Golden Rec. Lock-in – Monday, December 3 @ 6:30PM at ELC:
· This is a PLC lead meeting that we are taking outside. All scouts need to bring a flashlight or headlamp and outdoor clothing appropriate for the weather.
· We will also do our campout prep for the Lock-in for all scouts and parents that plan to go. If you are signed up to go to the rec. center, please plan on attending so we can get a good count of drivers and over nighters.
Golden Recreation Center Lock-in – Saturday at about 6:00 PM to Sunday morning at 6:00 AM, December 8 to 9:
· HALO: Mr. Landon and Mr. Pond
· Cost is $30 and includes a Pizza Dinner, rec. center access with climbing wall, swimming and all the dodge ball you can handle.
· We need a good ratio of parents to scouts to make this work. If you don’t go camping with the scouts, this is your opportunity to volunteer for an overnight. We usually have about forty scouts from Troop 737 and some WEBELOS with their parents. We will need about eight adults to sleep over at the rec. center.
· We probably need some drivers also, from the church to the rec. center on Friday evening, and then back the next morning.
· Winter Camp Training is not required for this activity.
PLC Meeting – Plan December & January Meetings and Activities – Monday, December 10th @ 6:30 to 7:30 PM at ELC:
· Plan the several months of scout meetings and activities.
· All PLC members are expected to be present, or send their assistants.
· We will need several ASMs to cover this meeting because I am going to try to get a contingent to go to a FEMA Training Session at the scout headquarters. This training is to give us the information we need to participate in the FEMA Service project that Mr. Gutz told us about several weeks ago.
SM & ASM & HALOs for Upcoming Events Meeting/Committee Meeting – December 13, @ 6:30 PM at ELC:
· The ASM meeting starts at 6:30 PM and the committee meeting starts at 7:15 PM.
· This is going to be a very important meeting to discuss several items:
o Issue: Lack of participation at activities – what to do about it?
o Policy on missed winter camp training
o Calendar review
o Ski Trips: Winter Break Ski Day and Feb Loveland Day Trip.
o Okpik
o Mystery Campout
o Summer Camps and High Adventure
o Spring Break Trip
o HALO’s – need to pick some HALOs for upcoming events so that we have coverage.
Ian Roche's and Parker Trower's Eagle Scout Court of Honor – Sunday December 16th from 4:00 PM to about 6:00 PM at ELC:
· Ian and Parker would like to invite Troop 737 to our Eagle Court of Honor Sunday December 16th, 4pm at the ELC. If you are able to come that would be great. We will be sending out a flier soon.
Troop Meeting: Last Advancement Night of 2012 – Monday, December 17 @ 6:30PM at ELC:
· HALO: Mrs. Osborn
· Work on Merit Badges and other advancement opportunities.
Okpik – Friday, January 4th to Sunday, January 6th at Tahosa High Adventure Base:
· HALO: Mr. Trower and Mr. Riley
· Cost is $90 and includes food, gear and training for the weekend.
· Extreme winter camp training for scouts and scouters.
· This is a high adventure activity for scouts 14 and older.
· No equipment except for personal clothing and gear is required. They supply gear necessary for the weekend.
As always, please read the troop web site, especially the calendar, for the most current information on all upcoming and scheduled events.
Mr. Hoffman
Scoutmaster
Troop 737