We wanted to take a quick moment and wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving from Troop 767!
Holiday Tip: Remember, if a cretin someone says to leave it on “just a little longer”, remove the bird from the oven and place directly into the nearest bio-hazard bin capable of handling nuclear material.
On a serious note, thank you all so much for helping make the troop what it is! We love the opportunity we have to work with all of you on a common goal. We look forward to next year and what it offers!
A long time YouTube hammock camper (practically wrote the book on the subject) just uploaded a great video that I think you all with hammocks might enjoy. He talks about how to use sleeping pads to stay warm during cold camping trips instead of under quilts. While under quilts is the best bet in the long run, pads can be a decent stop gap until you can get one.
How about on the not so cheap? Christmas is coming up. Here are a few of the best under quilt companies out there right now. Have questions, please ask!
Here are the details about the upcoming camping trip. I also wanted to take a moment and invite all the 11 year old scouts, as well as cub scouts (especially those that need a scout event for advancement – remember cubs, you need a parent if you plan on camping). 11 year old scouts are highly encouraged to attend this one as we will be working on advancement for scouts that need it.
Date: November 13th and 14th Location: Lake Anna Meet Location: Church Meet Time: 5pm Friday Pickup Location: Church Pickup Time: 5pm Saturday Fee: $10 Please pay in advance. RSVP: Please let me know if you plan on attending.
If you don’t already have medical forms turned in, please give them to me before the trip. Remember that all BSA events require us to have medical forms for all participants, no matter the type of activity.
For scouts not yet First Class, please bring your books! If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.
We are always looking to expand on and improve our scouting program and to make it more fun and enjoyable for our youth. Because of this, we have put together a survey to help gauge interest in the different aspects of the program and information that may be helpful to support it (access to camping, equipment, etc).
When you have a moment, please take the survey and also have your youth (if you have any) take the survey so we can figure out how best to plan for upcoming events and next year.
The Troop Committee is your scout troop’s partner. The Troop committee is responsible for securing trained individuals for scout leadership. While our troop adult leadership positions are called of God, they still need to be trained in the scouting program. The area council makes training courses available to all leaders, and the committee notifies each leader of the training that they need, to be able to fulfill their callings.
The Troop committee is responsible for seeing that all scout leaders are registered with the area council. This includes completing applications and seeing that each leader completes the required “youth protection training,” then getting that information to the area council.
Your scouts have several responsibilities and opportunities during their participation in scouting. In order to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout, each scout must complete several merit badge requirements. The scout must meet with a merit badge counselor in order to complete each merit badge. The Troop committee is responsible for maintaining a merit badge counselor list.
The scout must complete rank requirements while climbing the ladder to Eagle Scout. Your troop committee must meet with each scout, after he has accomplished all of the rank requirements, in a meeting called a “Board of Review”. A board of review cannot be held with less than 3 board members.
Each troop must complete what is called a “Recharter” annually. It is the Troop committee chairman’s responsibility to complete this. It includes updating the troop roster of leaders and boys. If any new leaders or boys are not listed on the roster, the chairman must get the required applications and other paperwork to the council with the recharter. The chairman must attend Council meetings to pick up and turn in this recharter once it is completed. If our troop does not complete this recharter, then our troop is no longer able to operate as a troop. The boys will not be able to receive awards, merit badges, or rank patches and pins. Essentially, we cease to exist.
The Troop committee normally meets once a month on a Wednesday night. All scout parents and leaders are invited and highly encouraged to attend in order to find out what their scout is doing. These are great planning meetings. If you want to know what’s happening in the troop and voice your input, please make a point to attend these meeting.
If you are interested in joining the committee, or helping with other adult leadership positions, please feel free to contact us.
As of writing this article, our next committee meeting is set to be on November 11th, 2015. Please check the calendar often for other upcoming meetings.
I wanted to take a quick moment to thank all of those who attended the OA Fall Fellowship this month! Fun was had by all and a lot of patches were acquired. The theme was “James Bond” and a lot of people took the theme to heart and showed up in some awesome costumes.
We also had the pleasure of having Alex Call (the OA National Chief) at the event. He had a great AMA on Saturday and was very open and had a lot of great information to share. Just wanted to take a quick moment and thank him for attending our lodge event!
Lot’s of awards were given out to lodge members and many people were awarded with the Vigil honor including several from our own chapter (Pamunkey Chapter 7).
The next OA event is not until December, however we do have chapter meetings every month (1st Tuesday) so if you are able to attend, please try.
This past month we went on a campout, and we were all looking forward to it. That is until we saw the weather forecast. Rain all weekend long. As scouts we are told that it wouldn’t be that bad. We were gullible enough to believe our parents and scout leaders. I was very optimistic when I arrived at the campsite. It was fairly dry, overcast, and about 65 degrees. It was really good camping weather. That night for dinner we had spaghetti and meatballs, it was a perfectly cooked and warm meal that we all needed after setting up our tents in the rain.
The next day we started our cooking competition. For breakfast all teams had to include some kind of french toast. Then there were the sabotages, one team ended up having to use donuts instead of bread for their french toast, and the other was a trade of heat source to cook their food. During this round a costly mistake was made. Cumin was accidentally mixed up with the cinnamon.
In between breakfast and lunch we played about 3 hours of capture the flag. That were really fun, exhausting, and challenging. With one team eliminated, the show down between the last two teams started. In our lunch meal we had to include a veggie, potatoes, and chicken. It was a lot of fun and we were all really tired afterwards, but the winning team consisted of Neil, Dallin, Charlie, and Sonjo. And like I said before it rained, and rained, and rained the entire campout, but we all had a fun time and there was minimal injuries.
Here are the details for our upcoming camping trip.
Since it is on Halloween, we will be doing, well, Halloween stuff! In fact we will be staying at Chris Walsh’s property and helping them Friday night with their yearly Halloween get-together. We will stay overnight on their property and we have lots of random fun things planned for Friday and Saturday.
Date: October 30th & 31st Location: Chris Walsh’s Property (If you need a ride/directions, please let me know) Drop Off Time: 5pm on Friday Pick Up Time: 3pm on Saturday Fee: $10.00 RSVP: Please let me know if you will be attending.
If you don’t already have medical forms turned in, I will be contacting you. Remember that all BSA events require us to have medical forms for all participants, no matter the type of activity.
For scouts not yet First Class, please bring your books! If you have any questions, please feel free to let me know.
While putting this site together, I came across this great video that truly points out what the scouting program is and why our Church has made it the official program for not only young men, but for our primary boys as well.
I encourage you to watch the following video and discuss what the true meaning of the scouting program is with your sons. Help them understand that the program is not just about showing up Wednesday nights. It’s about making God, the Scout Law and Oath truly mean something more than just words on paper. It is about making the fundamentals of scouting part of our lives, and helping everyone we encounter aware of what scouting really means.
Here are the details for the camping trip this weekend. We will be camping at the Lake Land ‘Or campground. We have stayed here before a few times and it is the perfect location for our plans this weekend.
We will be cooking. In fact, we will be taking two of the major TV cooking shows (chopped and cutthroat kitchen) and combining them and doing our own competition. This should be a fun activity with (we hope) good food and comradery.
For people in Hanover, if we could meet at the church at 6:00pm, I can pick most people up depending on the number of people (please let me know if you plan on meeting at church). For people in Caroline county, please meet at the campground at 7pm. Just let security know at the gate that you are with Troop 767 and that you are staying at the campground. If anyone in Caroline needs a ride, please contact Gain.
We plan on being done mid-afternoon, so pickup in Caroline should be around 3:30pm. For people that need rides to Hanover, we should be back at the church around 4 or 4:15pm. As always, we will call people if anything changes.
