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See the links at the left for various troop reports, and scoutmaster's blog.


All,
28 Oct 2008

I hope we have a big turnout tonight. We will likely have webelos as guests. The scoutmaster has his own bridge ready for the test.

As a reminder regarding November activities:

1) We will have a PLC immediately following the Oct 28 meeting
2) There is no meeting next week, due to election day, please go vote
3) We only have two meetings in November due to #2 and Thanksgiving
4) The Nov 11 meeting requires the attendance of a parent. Please do not drop and go, we need to see you
5) There will be a special High Adventure discussion for the boys on the Nov 11 meeting
6) Both November meetings will include a PLC
7) There is a camping trip to Ft. Frederick on Nov 7-9
8) There is a day trip to Ft. McHenry on Nov 22.

YIS,

Scoutmaster T.


Leader Class B Polos
Some have asked where did I get the embroidered class B polo.

The answer is H and E Embroidery on ebay. This lady will embroider "Troop 424, Savage, MD" on it for an additional $3

http://stores.ebay.com/HorseandElephant-Embroidery_Boy-Scout_Polo_W0QQco...

Looks like you can order directly too:

http://www.horseandelephant.com/original/golfshirts.htm


September Preview

Well gang I hope you all had a nice August break from Scouting. Time's up! Back to school and back to scouts.
I wanted to touch on what's in store for our "return". First off we are back to Class A Uniform! (I can hear the groaning now).

Our focus this Fall is going to be on the "patrol method"

For those of you unsure what that means I encourage you to take a look at this:

http://www.scouting.org/BoyScouts/PatrolLeader.aspx

Among other things this means that we are expecting that the boys will begin to "camp as patrols" starting with our Rocket Weekend campout 9/12-14. We will be spending a fair amount of time in coming meetings explaining what that means to the boys (and leaders too). One of my first expectations as Scoutmaster will be to see patrol flags and hear patrol yells (unprompted!) at Troop meetings. I will expect that our new "tradition" of patrol reports, started at camp, will persist.

We will also start having more formal campfire programs introduced (I seem to have a flag in need of retirement).

One thing it clearly means is we will be fostering competition between the patrols. To that end for our Rocket Weekend each patrol will be constructing a patrol rocket. These rockets will compete for honors at the launch site. Details on Tuesday.

Part of our Rocket Madness will involve using patrol time over the next three meetings to have the patrols work on their rocket kits. That means patrol time will need to be a bit longer. The other part is we will be working on Space Exploration merit badge. So expect presentations on those subjects.

In addition to the patrol rockets scouts can obtain their own rocket kit from me for $6 (I have about 14 kits available). Naturally scouts can obtain their own rockets if they prefer other kits, most hobby stores and Michaels have them, I can suggest any number of internet vendors.

In addition to our rocket and camping preparations we will need to conduct Troop Elections on 9/9 and will have our Spring-Summer 2009 planning conference on that same day starting at 5PM, all PLC members are required to attend, any and all scouts, leaders, and parents may attend.

YIS,

Scoutmaster T.


Savagefest Press
http://www.gazette.net/stories/060908/prinnew161009_32377.shtml

Click the pix that is not the pony...

Way to go Connor!

Who's the guy in the background?


New Feature - Scout Polls
Boy led troop means Scouts decide what we do next. So cast your vote in our polls area. First up, Eagle required merit badges, we started with personal fitness, what is next, vote now!


Upcoming Junior Leader Training

All,

National Pike has announced the dates for the Pathfinder II Junior Leader Training. Naturally, in some divine wisdom that escapes me, the dates are coincident with both Council's Green Blaze JLT and National Pike's own Wagon Wheel training. That said I would still like to see participation from our scouts. Here is what I propose if it is all possible.

Green Blaze
April 4-6 and 11-13
Camp Oest, Broad Creek

I would like to see our new SPL and both ASPLs attend these sessions if at all possible. Mind you this is difficult as we have not yet elected the new ASPL. If your son is a likely candidate for that position I would hope that you can keep those weekends free.

Pathfinder II
April 11-13
Lisbon, MD
Limited to 4 Scouts!

I would like to see four other scouts commit to this training event. In the event that any of the three listed for Green Blaze cannot make it then it is imperative that they go to this training instead.

Naturally registration deadlines for these events are coming rapidly.
With respect to costs the troop will foot the bill.

I have placed detailed information on the troop website on the training page.

http://troop424.com/?q=node/57

Lastly we will have our own leader training following troop elections, which are on 3/11. In examining our calendar in weeks following those elections we have some issues in getting that training done on a weekend. The week following is spring break, and we have cleared both weekends on either end of those dates for family time. Then there are events for either scouts or leaders every weekend until May 10th (sheesh).

I suggest that we will do our internal youth leader training as part of troop meeting over 4-6 meetings. So we will get started with that on our 3/25 meeting. We will take it in 20 minute chunks until we are done.

YIS,

Scoutmaster T.


New Documents On the Website

All,

We have completed the new Troop Handbook. This was one of our goals for the bridging of new scouts and is a component of the New Scout Welcome Package. Please take a look. I expect it will be a work in progress and is intended to be modified and updated regularly. If you have comments, concerns or corrections contact the scoutmaster (scoutmaster@troop424.com). Please also take a look at the items in the New Scout Welcome Package. New scouts will be getting a paper copy of those items but I think there is value in taking a look for all of us.

YIS,

Scoutmaster T.


Patrol Leaders Council Meetings

All,

This Sunday 1/27 is our January PLC. I neglected to punctuate this fact at troop meeting on Tuesday.

I want to take a moment to emphasize with parents and Scouts the importance of the PLC. The PLC is where the business of the troop gets done. The program events that you see at Troop meeting, weekend outings, service projects and summer camp all are planned in detail at the PLC. The PLC should not be considered an "optional" event. If anything, it is the most important activity in the Troop. Without it nothing else happens!

Boys who currently have a leadership position in the troop should make plans for regular attendance. All PLC meetings are on the website calendar and have been planned for the entire scouting year.

At the December meeting there were a total of 4 Scouts present at the PLC. We cannot effectively represent the interests of all of the Scouts in the Troop with only 4 boys. Further, the burden of execution fell to those same 4 boys to make sure the January events were a success.

Lastly, to earn the leadership credit for advancement Scouts must participate in all aspects of the Troop. This includes Troop Meeting, PLC Meeting, and Outings. In some cases this participation is expected to be at 80% of all activities to receive the credit. If you are unsure about what level your participation requires the information can be found here on our website. Find you position and read about it!

http://troop424.com/files/documents/TroopPositions.pdf

YIS,

Scoutmaster T.


Astronomy Program

The "planetarium" program I showed you last night is available for free here:

http://www.stellarium.org/

Make sure you get the right version for your computer type

The program defaults to viewing locations in Europe and if you want to set it to our locality you will need to select a place near here. There is a map in the setting that will get you at least Annapolis.

If you prefer actual local coordinates let me know and I can tell you how to do that too but it requires you to hand edit a configuration file.

YIS,

Scoutmaster T.


New Scout Shop is Open

BWI Commerce Park
7502 Connelly Drive, Suite 120
Hanover, MD 21076
(near Arundel Mills Mall)

The store hours will be Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday – 9 AM – 5:30 PM
Wednesday – 9 AM – 7 PM and Saturday 10 AM – 3 PM.
The phone number is 410-553-6913


Webelos-o-ree and Orienteering Photos Posted

Photo Gallery - http://troop424.com/?q=node/40

If you have more please feel free to add them!

To add them -- Create Content->Image
Make sure you pick the right album to put them in on the pulldown list.


Orienteering Results are in In
All,

The final tally results are in from our Orienteering exercise earlier this month. I have posted the scoring information on our website.

Results

Please take a look as there is also information included about upcoming orienteering events and how to improve your skills.

Here's the real news. As a troop we did 13th out of a field of 35. This is a combined score for both morning and afternoon sessions. This with no older group scouts and in our very first outing (at least in recent memory). We also received a Troop bonus for having more than 10 scouts participate.

Now with some experience under our belts I will be looking to see what we can do next year.

YIS,

Scoutmaster T.


Troop Brochure

Hot off the presses...
Download our Troop Brochure


Patrol Leaders Council
All,

In order to get our "boy run troop" to be a bit more boy run we have decided to place more emphasis on the PLC. This meeting is key to the planning and organization of the troop and in a very real sense it is where the "business" of the troop gets conducted. To that end I am asking for the participation of all office holders in the troop. That means if you have a job in the troop you should plan on being there. To be clear go this webpage on the troop site. If your name is there you should come to this meeting.

http://troop424.com/?q=node/11

As an aid to the SPL and other members of the PLC I have created tools and templates for running the meeting. If you use these tools you can have a energetic, productive, and most of all short, meeting. These templates and general information about the PLC can be found on the website here:

http://troop424.com/?q=node/401

Please download and examine them before coming to the meeting. Patrol leaders you will be expected to give a report to the PLC so be ready for that. Attendance will be taken as participation in the PLC is a component in your office and you need these troop offices to advance in the troop.

Lastly Scouts that participate regularly in the PLC can expect to partake in special "green bar patrol" outings that will only be available to regular PLC members. Details on these outings TBD.

Any questions? Please call or email me.

YIS,

Scoutmaster T.


Orienteering at Camporall Weekend
All,

I am happy to report we had a safe and fun filled weekend at Broad Creek. All attendees went to the Orienteering Day on Saturday. After some initial training on map reading and figuring out how to get around we participated in two competitions. The morning competition was team pairs finding locations on a course and marking the map. The afternoon competition was a troop to troop "race" to see how many points each troop could cover, where each unique point on the map had a specific point value. The results of the afternoon competition will be posted on the BAC website at some future point. However the results of the morning competition were award at the end of the day. I am happy to report that one of our teams (Steven Brackett and Mike Prusz) finished 9th in a field of over 100 teams consisting of Scouts from various troops throughout Maryland. This is even more impressive if you consider that this time last year neither of them were Scouts and that this was their first time to ever engage in an orienteering event. The boys were recognized with ribbons for their efforts. I am very proud of their accomplishments as well as the performance of all of our scouts throughout the day. Job well done and we will see how we did against the other Troops.

YIS,

Scoutmaster T.


Rocket Weekend

All,

We did indeed have a blast! Photos and videos are posted. Enjoy.

I'd like to see a scout come forward on Tuesday to tell the rest of the Troop about the trip.

Thanks to all leaders and parents who supported the outing.

YIS,

Scoutmaster T.

Summer Camp 2008

We are going to Camp Ock. Go here for details


Patrol Reformation

We now have 5 patrols

Panthers
Titians
Dragons
Clams
Team Awesome


Insurance Info Needed From Drivers

In keeping with BSA policy we need to have the following information
for anyone who will be transporting Scouts on all camping trips

Parent/Guardian Consent - Auto/Driver Information Form

What's New - Recent Site Updates