Good evening,
Windblown, sun-soaked and plum tuckered out, our adventurous canoers headed back this afternoon from the Lake Roosevelt outing, straight for air conditioning and a shower. The sun was warm, the water was cool, and the new EZ-Ups worked well in the wind – the general consensus was that the two dozen of us from T648 had had a great time swamping, paddling and unswamping all over the lake. It was great to have so many of our newest scouts and dads diving in on the outing – many thanks!
This week we have a number of key items of which to take note. Tomorrow night from 7-8:15 at Scottsdale Worship Center, we will have a monthly adult scout leader / father meeting to go over leadership and programming considerations. Tuesday night we ask that you arrive for the scout meeting at Blessed Sacrament as close to 6:30 as possible, as the scheduled CPR training will begin promptly at 6:45. The training takes 90 minutes, and we want to leave time for us to make the $20 payment and receive certification cards before the room closes shortly after 8:30. Any adult needing certification can also participate by paying the fee, for this very key skill to have for any scout in ‘being prepared’. I am very hopeful that a very large percentage of our troop will attend and receive this training. The next week on the 19th will be our early summer Court of Honor, getting as many boys to current on their rank badges for summer camp as possible. If you have achieved a rank advancement since January, your responsibility is to please let Mr. McFetters or Mr. Cole know by midweek, so that our records will properly reflect that advancement, and you will receive your badge on the 19th.
You may have noticed some changes to our calendar in August. Due scheduling concerns, we have had to move our Patrol Leadership Council planning session later in the month than normal. This results in the following revised calendar for August:  August 3 is tentatively the start of a high adventure climbing of Mount Humphries, followed by August 10th beginning our Sink Hole outing, and August 24th kicking off our PLC retreat at the Scottsdale Conference Resort. Please mark your own calendars, and plan accordingly.
A reminder for those of you who signed up, to continue working your Citizenship Merit Badges with Mr. Harness, and your Personal Fitness Merit Badges with Mr. Conrad. These require some amount of dogged plugging away, but are key cornerstones in the Eagle requirements, so it is a worthy goal! If you have not already done so, please obtain merit badge books for the badges you will be taking at summer camp, and do the prerequisites that Mr. Benyi annotated for you in a personal email last month. Check in our library or at either of the scout shops. Outstanding health forms and payments are also due. Most any general question on summer camp can be answered by the email from Mr. Benyi on 6/2, but if anything else is stumping you at the moment – let us know.
See you for CPR training at 6:30 Tuesday night!
Mr. Cole