Boy Scout Troop 648 Scottsdale, Arizona

Good evening,

We have a formal announcement on our annual Honor Patrol competition.  This is a team-building exercise through which each patrol encourages one another to show up regularly at meetings and events in complete uniform, building accountability as a unit and fostering patrol spirit.  At the end of the annual competition, the Honor Patrol and the three additional ‘wild cards’ of qualifiers from outside of the patrol are awarded a weekend trip, hosted by the adult leadership.  Preliminary results of the 2012-2013 competition have been reviewed by adult leadership, and the results have now been verified by our accounting firm of Mother Hen and the Admiral.   I stand before you virtually this evening with the official soft copy envelope in my certified, and encrypted laptop…..

And the winners are…

#1 Phoenix – 64.735

#2 Royals – 58.195

#3 Yetis – 57.277

#4 Pirates – 37.531

Phoenix Qualifiers:

• G Jeorling
• D Bowers
• B Cole
• N Murphy
• J Muzich
• W Turner
• B Gallagher

Top 3 Wild Card Qualifiers not from the Phoenix (not surprisingly, two of the top three places were held by Phoenix members):

• C Traynor
• A Demski
• K Weinhold

As advertised, all winners will be invited on a special weekend outing, likely early in November.  Further details will be forthcoming.  We are generally happy with the overall effect this program had on participation in events (meetings, outings, service projects, fundraisers, etc.) and the focus on complete uniforms at every meeting.  There are of course opportunities for improvement in driving additional patrol loyalty and interaction, and in lowering the cost of the award, but in general the boys enjoy the competition and would like to continue the program into the upcoming year.  With that, we will look to kick off our next Honor Patrol challenge beginning with the Court of Honor meeting on October 8th.

In other news, we had a lively troop Fall Kickoff party and sugar festival at the Turners this past Friday night.  Many thanks for sharing your delicious talents in dessert making, but I REALLY shouldn’t have filled that third plate.  This week for our troop meeting meeting we will be undertaking a service project to build ‘cranes’ – an artistic activity that sounds like an outstanding project to benefit a local charity.  This coming weekend is our annual family camp, this time in the pines south of Flagstaff – I hope your family is planning to attend.  See our separate email communication for additional specifics, and reach out to Mr. Traynor or Mr. Cole with questions.  Please plan to help young Mr. Dahlmann with his upcoming Eagle Project on October 5^th, an excellent effort to build an irrigated, producing vegetable garden for St Vincent de Paul.  Also plan ahead to join your troop family on October 8^th at 6:30PM for the fall Court of Honor to be held at Scottsdale Worship Center.  We are going to try something different this year, and have anyone who wishes to eat at the event bring a sack dinner or fast food and visit with other like minded troop members from 6-6:30PM.  If you will be eating at home, we’d ask that you arrive by 6:30PM, as this will be a packed agenda and a school night, so we’ll want to move smartly throughout the evening and ensure that all awards are properly given the attention they deserve.  Our scouts have really outdone themselves in advancements this summer!

See you Tuesday night at the troop meeting!

Mr. Cole

Greetings T648 family,

A reminder that you are all invited (scouts and family) to the Turner home this Friday (the 13th) from 7 pm to 10 pm for a Fall Kickoff party.  It is a BYOD (bring your own desert) party in which everyone is asked to bring a favorite sweet that can be shared .  We will provide the beverages and the pool and a place to hang out  so plan on coming and get to know one another better as we kick off another great season of scouting in T648.  Our address is 16730 N. 108th Street, Scottsdale so pop that into your e-map of choice and see you Friday!

Mr. Turner

Good evening,

We have had a relatively quiet and rainy week on the troop front – perfect preparation for a full slate of football on both the collegiate and professional levels this weekend (in preparation for the weekend is it possible that both Baltimore and Denver still thought it was preseason?   No way did the defending champs just give up 7 touchdown passes to the elder Manning brother, did they?).  In any case, even with football wall to wall, are you still ready for some scouting?????

This week we have the adult leader meeting tomorrow night at 7PM at Scottsdale Worship Center, followed by the troop meeting on Tuesday at Blessed Sacrament.  My understanding is that there has been some preparation for ‘fire by friction’ going on, so if you’d like to take a spin at this very unique scout skill, we’ll see you at 7PM.  Also later this week we have the troop kickoff party at the Turner’s.  Stay tuned for detailed directions to the location, but the time is scheduled to be 7-10PM on Friday night the 13^th.  Please bring your favorite dessert to share.

Later this month is our family camp at Fort Tuthill.  Many of us will be heading up Friday night the 20^th to camp both nights, but if you can only come up for the day on Saturday the 21^st, or plan to stay only Saturday night, please let us know that, as well.  If you have questions on the logistics of a family camp, please let Mr. Turner or Mr. Cole know, and we can fill you in.  However, the basics are – bring your own camping materials and food for breakfasts and lunches, and plan to bring something to community grill (or bring your own entrée), but also a side dish or dessert to share in a pot luck to be held before the campfire on Saturday night.  It’s an awesome way to get back to nature without being too rustic (we’re in a campground with running water, after all), while also getting better acquainted with our scouts and families as a T648 family.

We also have a terrific service project coming up for you to support.  Young Mr. Dahlmann has finalized his Eagle Project, and we will be building an irrigated garden to help feed the homeless and needy supported by St. Vincent de Paul.  Please mark your calendars for the morning of Saturday, October 5th to assist in this fine endeavor.  Additional information on the advancement front includes our next Court of Honor, which will be held at Scottsdale Worship Center (65^th Street and Cactus) on October 8^th.  We will likely need to start a bit before 7PM, as it is our most award-heavy court of the year, due to its proximity to summer camp.  For those of you working on merit badges and rank advancement, you still have four weeks to complete anything remaining that is close.

We’ll see you Tuesday night at the troop meeting!

Mr. Cole

I’m feeling a bit connected to the ancient ones this morning.  Growing up in Rock Point, Arizona on the Navajo reservation, I would spend my weekends and summers exploring nooks and crannies on the mesas.  As we played in and amongst the canyons we would come across remnants of Anasazi ruins, pottery shards and pieces of arrow points, so we were aware of the ancient history of our valley.  As I then went away to southern Colorado to high school near Mesa Verde, my girlfriend (now wife!) Mary McAfee lived on a farm homesteaded by her family in 1916.  Over the years pinto bean & wheat plowing had turned up evidence of a ruin on top a high field with 360 degree views of mountain vistas – Mesa Verde, the LaPlatas, the Blues and Sleeping Ute.  It was initially called the Knobby Knee Complex, due to discoveries of beautiful whole pottery upon which were painted Kokopelli figures with rather pronounced knees.  This was catalogued carefully when we were in high school by research teams from UC Boulder.  Now that Mary’s brother is retired and living on the family land, some additional research has turned up sherds, obsidian points and flakes in a new dig which is now called McAfee House that indicate there exists another timeframe of residence long before the Knobby Knee one that had been had dug in the ‘70’s. The researchers are all stoked as this is a rare indication that people were in the Four Corners area many, many years earlier than the 800-1000 year old Mesa Verde Anasazis, now dating even back to the Archaic period, perhaps 8,000 BC.   It’s pretty cool to be connected by the land through the ages in this way.  But maybe that’s why my own ancient, archaic, knobby looking knees creak the way they do on a humid Labor Day weekend.  Or, it could just be arthritic residual from our backpacking adventure in Sycamore Canyon last week.  The heck with creaky knees – where and when are we going on an outing next?  Fort Tuthill for family camp on the 20^th? – I’m there!  I guess I’m not that ancient – I’m actually still really not too far removed from that kid exploring mesas and canyons way back in the 60’s.

Speaking of Fort Tuthill, I hope that the majority of you are planning your calendars around the 20-22^nd of September.  Annually we have one outing where we invite the entire troop family to attend.  Families are encouraged to bring their tents, campers, motor homes – whatever your type of camping, and come for the entire weekend, the day on Saturday, or whatever your schedule permits.  We will be sleeping Friday night and Saturday night at the Fort Tuthill campground just south of Flagstaff, and will have activities planned throughout the day on Saturday.  We traditionally have a potluck meal on Saturday night, where everyone shares a side dish and you bring your own entrees to grill.  And the other meals are an opportunity for your scouts to demonstrate for you what they have learned – have them help you menu-plan and shop for the two breakfasts and lunch, and have them cook the meals as well!  Stay tuned for the activity agenda, but archery, hiking, a war-time museum, basketball, the troop dinner, a campfire, and other opportunities await!

For those of you calendar watching, here is a quick review of the next couple of weeks.  Tomorrow is PLC at 6PM, our troop meeting and a parent/committee meeting at 7PM at Blessed Sacrament.  We will have an adult leader meeting at 7PM on September 9^th at Scottsdale Worship Center at 65^th Street and Cactus.  Please join the Turners for a fall troop family get-together and kickoff dessert party at their home on September 13^th (7-10PM) – plan on bringing your favorite dessert and spend time getting to further know your extended troop family in advance of the family outing.

Now that we’re all back to school and unofficially out of summer with Labor Day in our rear view mirror, let’s all get back into our regular Tuesday night routine at Blessed Sacrament with our fellow T648 scouts.  See you at the troop meeting!

Mr. Cole

Greetings and happy September!

We will be holding our quarterly Troop Committee and Parent Meeting on this coming Tuesday (9/3/13) at 7pm in the classroom adjacent to our usual meeting room. All interested parents and guardians are invited and welcome to attend. Subjects of discussion for this meeting will include:

1) Review of the 2013-2014 event calendar, developed last month by the Patrol Leader’s Council
2) Review and discussion of troop finances and dues for the upcoming year
3) Discussion of fundraising opportunities for fall and spring
4) Discussion of Leader Training and Safe Environment Training
5) Don’t miss Mr. Cole’s final “official” Scoutmaster address to the committee before the transition in October

We hope everyone will come and participate!

Thanks,

~Mr. Benyi

PS – I have updated all of the rosters, patrol lists, leadership positions, etc. on the troop website to reflect the upcoming year.

Friday evening 18 brave souls headed north on I-17 into a weekend of backpacking, even while knowing there would be an excellent chance of encountering monsoon weather.  In retrospect, it is most beneficial that a scout’s motto is to ‘Be Prepared.’  While the rest of America decided not to spend time in the spectacular wilderness area we explored, the T648 crew had a splendiferous 48 hours of challenge and accomplishment, vistas and water-cooler discussion material.  An hour south of Flagstaff over dirt roads, the Dorsey and Geronimo Springs portions of Sycamore Canyon are visited by traversing miles of somewhat maintained trails, and an overall altitude gain (and loss, and gain again, and loss again) of 1600 feet.  Changing from pine forest to alligator juniper and Manzanita, then back to pines as we descended, the canyon wilderness was often as confused as confusing.  While the weekend was spent primarily in the rain, the scouts did an excellent job of staying on the bright side, finding a cliff-side cave area for the entire troop to gather for meals and a crackling campfire, and discovering that the rain kept the mosquitos somewhat at bay.  Friday night was largely dry, but included the fireworks of a late night of lightning and rolling thunder.  Saturday after an excellent hike in a misty drizzle through the Coconino ‘rainforest’ (sure beats hiking in direct blazing sunlight), the boys debated the benefits and downsides of setting up camp in Skeeterville (the best campsite, which also seemed to have the most of the pesky critters).  Geronimo Springs water was clear and cold, and the air temperature all weekend was perfect for being constantly dampish – not too cold, not too warm.  Climbing out of the canyon was exhausting, but the scouts plugged away, and exited the canyon right on schedule, to a surprise treat of a cooler full of A&W root beers.  While the majority of our trips in Arizona keep our equipment dry, it was terrific to experience something new, and the relatively young group of scouts did a fantastic job of controlling their gear, and remaining safe, in spite of the small rivers of brown water often trickling down the trail ahead of us.  Hopefully all equipment and bodies are now completely hosed and dried off, and ready for the week ahead of us.  Many thanks for attending a memorable trip – I still can say that I’ve never been on a bad outing with T648!

Tomorrow night at 7PM is the troop meeting with the monthly theme still on aquatics.  Keep in mind that our new leadership will have their first formal Patrol Leaders’ Council meeting on September 3^rd at 6PM.  We will also be having a Parent and Committee meeting at 7PM during the troop meeting that night, as well.    Our next adult leader meeting will be September 9^th, and looking ahead – keep getting your advancement completed, as the next Court of Honor is fast approaching on October 8^th.  After spending a weekend in the cool pines, I also would highly recommend that our entire troop family consider attending the Family Camp on September 20^th – 22^nd.  It will be held next to the County Fairgrounds south of Flagstaff at the Ft. Tuthill campground, and parents, grandparents, siblings, or any other family members looking for a fun weekend out of the Valley are welcome to attend.

See you tomorrow at the troop meeting!

Mr. Cole

Good evening straight out of returning from 2013’s T648 PLC Planning Central!

Our youth leadership has completed their annual business trip, and it is looking to be another outstanding year of exploring Arizona.  Every year (for the past 20 or so) the Patrol Leaders Council from our troop goes offsite to a local resort, which donates three casitas to the cause.  In an intense and intensive Friday night, all day Saturday, and Sunday morning planning session, a full calendar for 2013-2014 was constructed.  The boys (and thus, also the adults!) got a full night sleep Friday night in preparation for wild negotiations on their favorite swimming hole or mountain vista.  It’s always amazing to me how time heals all wounds. Everybody had already forgotten how cold they were on the Mayer trip last October, and couldn’t wait to go back to the place with a severed deer head in camp and where the storm front came in leaving the air temperature colder than the ice in our coolers.  We now have another trip scheduled to that same site, as well as our annual ski trip, a San Francisco Peak hike in October, and snowshoeing in December.  I think our boys are tired of 113 degree days, and are looking to cool down!  The boys took to their new leadership positions exceptionally well all weekend long, and we are well positioned for excellence this year.  And boy did they clean up nicely with smart looking slacks and collared shirts for our annual PLC Italian dinner Saturday night.  Wow!

Many thanks to the contingent of adults and youth staffing an information table at Cocopah Middle School open house this week.  We will continue with additional recruiting efforts with local cub scout packs into the fall leading up to our Webelos weekend in January.  We also have a number of planned activities coming up to keep everyone in the scouting spirit as you get back up to speed in school.  This coming weekend is an exciting backpack into Sycamore Canyon outside of Clarkdale, AZ.  In a new twist, there will be both an advanced hike and a moderate hike, ending up at the same central camping location in the canyon – so hikers of all abilities are invited!  On September 3^rd will be the monthly PLC meeting at 6PM, followed by the troop meeting and a parent / committee meeting at 7PM.  And stay tuned for more details on a family get together on September 13th at the Turner household in a troop dessert tasting – fall kickoff event!

Come Tuesday night and learn more about backpacking in Arizona as we prepare for our upcoming outing.  There is no better time than the present to be a scout in T648!

Mr. Cole

Good evening Troop 648!

I finished my Scoutmaster Minute on Tuesday night with a quote from Yogi Berra:  ‘If you don’t know where you ‘re going, you’ll end up someplace else.’  As Yogi has not always been accused of being the brightest brainiac, I’d like to add a couple more quotes from two of my favorite smart people.  Abe Lincoln said the following about preparation – ‘Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I’ll spend the first four sharpening the axe.’  And Warren Buffet has this to say about thinking ahead: “Someone’s sitting in the shade today because somebody planted a tree a long time ago.’  This week our older scouts are sharpening their axes, and planting seeds so that next weekend we will have a very productive Patrol Leaders’ Council session Friday through Sunday at the Scottsdale Conference Resort.  It is always one of the highlights of my year to watch the new troop leadership gel as they bring their carefully thought out ideas for outings, fundraising and service projects, and through animated negotiations, build our activity calendar for the upcoming year.   Please ensure that your outing ideas have been previewed by Mr. Benyi this week, and if you are in the PLC, confirm your attendance by responding to the email invitation you received a couple of weeks ago.  This will be a particularly important weekend in our troop year, and in the words of Ben Franklin: ‘If you fail to plan, you are planning to fail!’

We had some preliminary preview information last week on our August outing, which is a backpack in Sycamore Canyon.  It will be about a 6 miler, but for those boys who would like to turn it into a bit more challenging of a hike, there is an option to come in the other side of the canyon and make it a longer hike, while meeting up at the same campsite.  This canyon is the second longest canyon in Arizona (I’m hoping most of our scouts would be able to name the longest), and is northwest of beautiful Sedona.  Make plans to join us August 23-25, the weekend following our PLC planning session.

A correction from last week’s post is due.  I note that I put an incorrect date down for the September family camp  at Fort Tuthill south of Flagstaff.  The correct weekend is 9/20 through 9/22.  My apologies, and I hope this still allows for the majority of you to plan to attend.  A weekend in the pines is always welcome, but especially since the average high temperature in Phoenix in mid-September is still over 100 degrees (and the record in 2000 was 110 degrees)!

I provide a friendly reminder as well to please get your newsletter items to Mrs. Traynor so she can publish.  Today is the deadline, so get ‘er in!  Also, let us know by Tuesday night if you will be able to help us man the T648 table on 8/15 at Cocopah Middle School’s Open House.  We’ve had four new boys take home applications with plans to join us this month – let’s keep the momentum going with a focus on 6^th-8^th grader recruitment from right in our neighborhood this Thursday night.

See you Tuesday night at the troop meeting!

Mr. Cole

Good morning T648!

Are you as ready for school to begin as I am?  If my kids go on any more school supply runs or clothing buys in the next 24 hours there will be no more money in the checking account!  We’re more than a few years removed from my having a school locker to decorate, but I’m pretty certain that you are off the mandatory supply lists and on to discretionary spending by the time you get to battery operated faux chandelier lights for inside a locker.  Best wishes as you all wind up the process of getting prepared for another year of middle school or secondary education.

Tomorrow night is PLC at 6PM and the troop meeting (rope rescue, life saving, resuscitation skills) at 7PM at Blessed Sacrament.  We will refine the August and September schedule with the existing PLC, but part of the session during the upcoming PLC planning weekend on August 16-18 will be a runthrough of a PLC meeting with everyone in their new roles, so tomorrow’s focus will be primarily on August pending the updates which will come out of the boys’ efforts during their time at Scottsdale Conference Resort.

As far as upcoming outings, we have a couple of very good ones to look forward to.  We will have a backpack led by young Mr. Harper and Mr. Martin in the Sycamore Canyon area up by the town of Williams to cool you off during the muggy days of August the weekend of the 23rd.  And our annual family camp is right around the corner September 27-29.  All family members (Mom, sis, and grandpa, too!) are welcome to join the troop at Fort Tuthill campground south of Flagstaff.  Waking up to a crisp morning in the pines sounds very attractive to me these days.  Any scout who just spent a week at camp in the Rockies can vouch for it!

With back to school happening, we will begin some efforts in recruitment.   We will be looking for an adult or two and some of our scouts to staff a table at Cocopah Middle School for back to school open house the evening of the 15^th.  As we reach out to various cub scout packs in our area, we will have other opportunities to interact with their Webelos dens, and provide some mentoring for them on what it is like to be a boy scout.   We hope that you will be able to participate, and convey some of the fun that the younger boys would be able to look forward to as they continue along the scouting trail.

See you tomorrow at the troop meeting!

Mr. Cole

A tired but happy crew of 22 came down the Beeline this afternoon from a thoroughly satisfying, wonderfully cool, and totally productive week at Camp Alexander, located behind Pikes Peak in the glorious Rocky Mountains of north central Colorado.  It was a week filled with full moons and cool rains, nights sleeping under a shelter during wilderness survival, or days riding the white water rapids of the South Platte.  There were rousing games of cosmic bowling on an Air Force base, fly fishing, shotgun shooting, mountain boarding, and dozens of other activities by day, and the Follow Me Boys scout movie or a camp-wide carnival by night.  Troop highlights included placing third by a whisker in the camp-wide Iron Man competition, and an absolutely hysterical rendition by our scouts of a hilarious Shaving skit during closing campfire, that had the whole camp and staff rolling in the aisles of the Kiva.  The camp was one of the most gorgeous BSA facilities we have attended, and the troop made new friends of the energetic staff, and came together to represent T648 well in advancement and merit badge attainment.   A climactic event on the way home was a quick tour of Philmont Scout Ranch, providing a glimpse of future opportunities for high adventure or leadership training for some of our scouts as they continue along the trail to Eagle.  Top to bottom, this may have been the best summer camp I have attended, and I thank the scouts’ families for sharing their sons with our troop this summer.

This week we finish our month of meetings examining interesting careers and lives by hearing from a combat pilot veteran who flew helicopters in southeast Asia.  Come Tuesday night and hear his insights of being an Air Force pilot.   Upcoming events include our annual Patrol Leaders Council yearly planning session at Scottsdale Conference Resort on August 16-18 where our more senior scouts will schedule our 2013-2014 calendar of events over three busy, but fun-filled days.  We also will have an opportunity to explore Sycamore Canyon in a backpack outing on August 23-25.  And don’t forget that our family camp is coming up in September on the 20-22.  Family members will be coming to the pines at Fort Tuthill in our annual event in which all members of a scout’s family are invited to join us for a weekend of fun and adventure.  Mark your calendars today!

See you Tuesday at the Troop Meeting!

Mr. Cole