Scouts begins Monday 9/12/2022

Hello All,

I hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend. We have 1 week until we get back at it, so I wanted to get a reminder out there as well as some dates and info. With a week left it is probably time to make sure the uniforms still fit(that’s not just for the Scouts…) It is also the time to finish up those last requirements for the badge(s) you have been working on all summer and get those completed before you get busy with school.

As always we are in popcorn season and this year will be very important for our popcorn sale. Now that pretty much everything is back to pre-covid activity levels we have many opportunities for the Scouts to take advantage of. National Jamboree, Philmont, NOAC to name a few National programs and of course our annual trip to Sabattis, all which are not cheap trips, but are things all Scouts should be working towards. Selling popcorn can offset a lot of those costs, and the Troop only takes a small portion of those profits for our operations, which we need this year as we are a little lighter than we are comfortable with, so we could use a good year too. On top of that, as you are all aware I m sure, everything is more expensive than is has been, so our weekend costs will have to adjust to account for that.

Speaking of weekends we have a few coming up. For those in the OA there is an induction weekend at Sabattis September 16-18, which I hope you all can make. I will be there, and I have registered and paid.(if you plan to attend you have to register, and the sooner the better for the planning, even if you had previously registered for the August one, they will give you a credit so it is a wash for payment) I would highly suggest that you take advantage of the Council’s transportation offering to get to and from Sabattis(see the OA emails that have come out for that info)

Our 1st campout will be the following weekend, September 23-25. It will be a Build Your Own Shelter(BYOS) weekend with the older Scouts going out Friday night and the rest of the Troop going out Saturday morning and staying until Sunday. As always, whatever you build on Saturday is what you sleep in on Saturday night. Normal BYOS rules apply, only 1 tarp per shelter structure(no tarp hotels) and you can sleep on one as well. No single Scout shelters, everyone has to have a buddy(within 2 years of age for YPT) or a parent. You are responsible for your own meals except for Saturday dinner. We will be having a big kickoff dinner and families are welcome to join us for that dinner and the campfire afterwards. Cost for the weekend is $10 per Scouts/adult attending, and $5 for each dinner attendee. We are working on reserving Spinks Memorial camp in Marcellus(waiting to hear back from them)

Our October campout will be to attend the Longhouse Council’s Brotherhood Camporee at Wellesley Island. This is always a a favorite event and has traditionally had more than 2000 attendees from our Council and the Scouts Canada Council across the border. We will do standard camporee food planning, where we eat as a Troop so the Scouts aren’t stuck in the campsite half the day doing cooking and clean up so they van enjoy the program. If you are into patch trading this will be the campout for that, as patch trading is a huge deal at this weekend. My recommendation for that is to not trade away patches from events that you attended, but only extras and patches you have bought or acquired. (that is just my suggestion, they are your patches to do with what you wish, just don’t trade away memories) We also have invited the Pack 120 Webelos and Arrow of Light dens to join us, as is tradition, so it would be very helpful to have a great turnout. The cost for this weekend will be $35 per attendee(Council takes $20 each for registration, which is why this seems kinda high for a weekend, sorry thats out of my control) We will need to do this registration in September, as Council is closing registration for this event at the end of September, so be ready to do this sign up soon.

The November campout is still a work in progress for the PLC, but they are looking at doing something a little bigger on the Veterans day long weekend (Nov 11-13) so just a heads up for your calendar. Also the Dec overnight in the Church is tentatively Dec 10th, a week earlier than it normally would be to not interfere with the Ranger Rick Day of Service at Woodland on Dec 17th.

Now an important note on adults attending campouts – per National policy all adults that attend a campout overnight MUST be a registered adult with the BSA. That means the days of parents just signing up to attend with their Scout(s) are over. That being said this isn’t a huge deal if you would like to go camping with us, you just need to be registered, and being a Merit Badge Counselor is the easiest(and cost free) way to do that. You will have to fill out the adult application(and go through the BSA background check, which is the real reason behind this) and have YPT protection certificate to become registration. Not a huge deal to do, but it is required, so please do that if you want to attend campouts, we can get in a lot of trouble for not following this rule.

Last, next Monday is our 1st meeting and that is our annual communications meeting, which is required for all Scouts and a parent. We have each of the ASMs and Committee members speaking, so it is much more than me standing there talking, we have a lot of speakers giving out information, so please make the time to attend. If there is anyone you would like to have join us this would be a good one for the friend and a parent to come listen to. We are putting a big emphasis on growing the Troop this year, as we want to get back up to our traditional 50 Scouts(and beyond that hopefully) and we will be offering prizes for any Scout that brings a friend in to join us(pending them making Tenderfoot). You will hear at this meeting some changes in our program, and expansion of of activities outside of meetings and many more things, so I think it will be a worthwhile meeting for all to attend. If you can get there a little before 7PM to help set up that would be helpful. Scouts please sit with your parent(s) at this meeting.

See you all on a week!