Weekly Post, Week of December 9, 2012

Post date: Dec 10, 2012 2:19:13 AM

Greetings Troop 737! From the pickup at the rec. center this morning, there were a lot of tired but happy scouts. I know that my ride home was very quiet! I want to say thanks to all the adults that went to the lock in, this is tough duty.

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):

· 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 14 – 20. 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 6, and arrives back on Sunday, July 14. 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):

· None this week.

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:

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.

· Several ASMs are going to cover this meeting while I take a small contingent of scouts to the FEMA training at the scout headquarters at 6th and Sims. We will be meeting at the church and leaving for the training by about 6:15 PM for the 7 PM training session. We will call when departing for home to coordinate the pickup at the chur. Class A uniforms are a must.

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