Good evening,
It has been great to be in scouting in T648 this weekend! Yesterday we had 20 youth and adults down at St Vincent de Paul’s early in the morning for orientation and a service project with almost 350 scouts. Most of the 350 were girl and cub scouts, so they assigned our troop in the kitchen to do the real work. We finished our first job – to slice ham loaf and prepare the vegetables for over 2000 dinners so quickly, that they had us start (and finish) another project to make 5000 peanut butter sandwiches. The organization, teamwork and enthusiasm of the scouts in doing more than our assignment in order to help those less fortunate than us was amazing to behold! I know there were some tired scouts later in the day, but hopefully they realize the impact their actions had on our community. I would like to thank the McFetters family for the opportunity to serve in this way.
The same night another 20 of us adults from the troop gathered to plan support for the boys during the upcoming year. I would like to recognize Mr. Benyi, Mr. Bennett, Mr. Runberg, and Dr. Huston for the excellent content, and Mr. and Mrs. Andrews for organizing the dinner. A special thanks to Mr. Norling for having a 50th birthday, so we could have a little fun at his expense. Mr. Cole recognized those more senior adults who continue to provide such wonderful experience and support to the troop, and described the renewed focus on the patrol method for this year. Mr. Benyi described changes in our training requirements for the upcoming years and other re-charter requirements. All adults must have on-line Youth Protection in order to be an Assistant Scoutmaster or on the Committee. Mr. Runberg provided an extensive financial update, highlighting the relative stability of the troop’s finances over the past five years despite no allocations or increases in dues during that timeframe. A motion to allocate a portion of this spring’s fundraiser to the troop for scholarships and equipment was tabled until the next meeting – to be held in 5-6 months. All key committee positions are filled, except for Health & Safety coordinator. Please let us know if you’d be interested in understanding the requirements for that position. Mr. Clapp would also like to begin transitioning the Chaplaincy to another adult, should there be an interested candidate.  Mr. Benyi described our summer camp request for Camp Mataguay in Southern California for the 2nd week of July. After some discussion on the troop website, the meeting was adjourned.
Please remember PLC at 6PM on Tuesday, and we’ll see most of you at the troop meeting following. This will continue to be a busy month, with upcoming leadership training, an Eagle Scout project and mountain biking in Granite Basin – it is a great time to be a scout in T648!
Happy trails!