Boy Scout Troop 648 Scottsdale, Arizona

The next meeting for Citizenship in Nation merit badge is Tuesday, April 26, at 6:15 at picnic tables at church.  Each candidate should be prepared to complete the follow requirements. 

# 3. Prepare 2-4 paragraphs about the city or town council meeting, etc you attended and give to Mr. Clapp for revew.

# 5. Prepare 2-4 paragraphs about the movie you selected to watch on government functions and give to Mr. Clapp for review

# 7. Have selected a charitable organization for your 8 hour service project.

# 8. Make an oral presentation about important and unique aspects of your community

If you are successful in completing your oral presentation on Tuesday evening, then this will be the last formal meeting together.  It is then your responsibility to get with Mr. Clapp to complete the rest of the requirements.

Greetings!

Summer Camp (July 9-16; Mataguay Scout Ranch) is fast approaching; please remember that the final payment is due by the end of this month!  Please note that you can pay with cash, check (to Troop 648), or out of your scout account. Please see myself, Mr Cole, or Mr Runberg to turn in payments. Please note that the cost of camp that we owe to Council goes up after 4/30/11; if you are not yet confirmed for camp, please let us know this week!

For all those attending Summer Camp: We will have a parent information meeting on Tuesday, May 3, 2011, beginning around 7:10pm, next door to the regular Troop Meeting. If your son is attending Summer Camp, please plan to attend this meeting. We will cover all of the logistical information that you need to know about camp!

Other Summer Camp Notes:

1) Attached is the Merit Badge & Activity Sign-up sheet. I will review this in detail at the meeting on the 3^rd, but if you already know what you want, please fill this out and email to me as soon as possible. (The form is fillable in the PDF if you want to return it electronically.)

2)  If you have not already, please fill out the attached permission forms and return to Mr. Benyi, Mr. Cole, or Mr. Runberg. (Note: Unless you specifically do not want your son to participate in a particular activity, it is best to fill out all portions of the form to allow for flexibility at camp.)

3)  Prior to Summer Camp, you must also complete the Annual Health and Medical Report, including doctor’s physical. This form can be found on the Troop website under “documents”. (You only need to fill out Parts A-C, pages 1-4.)

Please do not hesitate to email me if you have any questions about Summer Camp 2011. It will be an experience to remember!

Mr. Benyi

ATTENTION: All members of Troop 648

Mr. S. Martin’s Eagle Scout Court of Honor is May 7, 2011 at 1:00pm

Elks Phoenix Lodge #335

14424 N 32nd Street, Phoenix, AZ  85032

All troop friends and family are welcome, and encouraged to attend! 

Scouts please wear your Class A uniform.

The Martin Family

Good morning!

From the mouth of Mr. Benyi – what a glorious weekend for a backpack!  Between the bouldering, the warmth and the reptile and water management, this was a fairly technical backpacking trip.  The troop did an excellent job of managing through any challenge that came along, and were rewarded with some of the most amazing opportunities I have seen.  I have been backpacking in the four corners area for over thirty years, and I had never seen a gila monster in the wild.  We had the privilege of seeing three, one who was our camp ‘pet’ gila monster, as well as five rattlers and a very large bull snake.  The view of Weaver’s Needle from the north was stunning.  The trails for the older and younger boys were challenging enough for each, and some good advancement opportunities were completed.   I was extremely proud of the leadership shown by the older scouts, and the toughness shown by the younger scouts – some on their first outing with T648.  Well done!

This week it is very important that ensure our focus is on the pancake breakfast / basket raffle on the 30th.  There are only 11 sales days left for pancake breakfast ticket selling. – hopefully you all have a good start.  Tonight the patrols should finish up what each boy will be providing for their themed raffle basket.  All contents should be brought tonight or a week from tonight, so the baskets can be assembled on the 26th.  I hope most of you are planning to come and bring your families – it’s a fun opportunity to see your son actually cooking/serving/cleaning for once, as well as a tasty way to start your weekend.  And the more participation we have from everyone, the fatter the scout accounts will be!

Thanks to everyone’s help in supporting the fish fry dinners this year – our coverage was outstanding!  Our new flag pin selling fundraiser is also well launched, as the boys raised almost $400 towards their scout accounts.      Looking ahead, we have Shawn Martin’s Eagle Court of Honor on May 7 and our next base camp outing on May 13-15 up by Flagstaff will include an archery opportunity.  For those of you Arizona Highways photography enthusiasts, Mr. Butler has arranged for a long-time contributor to the magazine, Jerry Jacka, to come to the troop meeting on the 26th and discuss photography as a career while sharing some of his amazing photographs of our magnificent state.  And don’t forget the May 18 service project to support our biking veterans on their cross-country trip to the Vietnam Memorial.

What a great week to be a scout in T648!  Happy Easter to all….

Mr. Cole

Good evening,

As announced Tuesday night, the backpacking outing into the Superstitions will assemble at 5PM Friday night the 15th in the Blessed Sacrament parking lot back by the shed, and will return around noon on Sunday the 17th.  For those less experienced, if you need equipment (packs, especially), ensure you are talking with your patrol leader, or with your Quartermaster – C. Williams.  The troop does have some equipment which it can loan you, but coordinate through your leadership team.  Buddy up with someone else that is going to share a tent – you can split the weight between you.  Ensure you have enough layers of clothes, water bottles, snack food and freeze dried food to hydrate with hot water from JetBoil stoves (the adults and older scouts will share their stoves and water purifying equipment).  Check the backpack checklist on the website – or with your patrol leader.  Remember – be prepared!  It will be high 70’s during the day, but quite chilly at night.

We also need the patrols to be working on a theme for their raffle baskets, and then everyone to pitch in with obtaining donations for their basket.  The auction/raffle committee is looking for all donations to be returned on 4/26, so time’s a burnin’.  Patrol leaders – communicate the themes to your patrols, so you can begin building around your theme.  And don’t forget to sell sell sell those tickets.  At least 1/2 of the proceeds for each $5 ticket will go directly to the individual scout who sells it – it is your best way to ensure that this is an effective fundraiser for you.  The walk-in tickets and raffle sales will be the gravy on top!

For those of you not going backpacking – we need you at the final fish fry at Blessed Sacrament Friday night.  This has been one of the best years for fish fry participation that I can remember – let’s go out with a bang!

See you Friday night!

Mr. Cole

Good morning

Great participation this past weekend in the rain and the cold!  We had 19 scouts at the fish fry, and almost 40 scouts and support crew the next day at a wet and frigid Scout-O-Rama.  Our booth was one of the busiest, and again earned the ‘crowdpleaser’ ribbon (we actually won all 5 possible ribbons) as cubs through adults first watched our scouts start fires with bows and spindles, and then feverishly worked up steam (or at least tried to work up smoke) under direction of our youth.  With a fallback of magnesium and steel, everyone at least got a cotton ball burning, and left with smiles on their faces.  A special thanks to Mr. H. Kramer who stepped in to help his SPL organize this event upon short notice, and spent the entire day helping attendees with their techniques. 

This week we have the next installment at 6:15 Tuesday for those of you taking Citizenship in the Community merit badge, the troop meeting at 7, our final fish fry this coming Friday, as well as our backpack outing this weekend.  With our second conflict between an outing and a fish  fry this year, please plan to attend one or the other to ensure we have enough coverage for Blessed Sacrament on Friday night.  Looking ahead to the Pancake Breakfast on the 30th, remember that patrols should have themes for baskets determined by this Tuesday, and then begin strategizing on what to include, and how to obtain it.  The tickets will be distributed on Tuesday, and there will be prizes for the top seller and for everyone selling more than 25 tickets.  The scouts will have almost 3 weeks to sell to family, friends, neighbors – anyone who looks like they might benefit from a good pancake breakfast (or would like to support scouting!)

Mr. Benyi will have some announcements on summer camp, the merit badge selection process, and other key items to get us looking forward to our trip to Camp Mataguay.  There will be additional details Tuesday night on our upcoming backpacking outing in the Superstitions, and how to prepare for one.  It will be a short 3-4 miler, coupled with a longer 7-8 miler for some of the older boys.  For those of you new to our troop, there is also a backpacker’s checklist under the ‘documents’ section of our website to give you insight into things to think about.  Highs will be in the 80’s and clear, so it will be a perfect weekend for a backpack!

It’s a great time to be a scout in T648!

Mr. Cole

Please see the announcement from Mr. Clapp:

“The third session for the Citizenship in the Community merit badge will be at 6:15-7:00 on Tuesday the 12th at the picnic tables next to the regular meeting place at the church. All participants need to have their 8 hour service project identified and what town council,school board, or municipal, county, or state session they will attend. Mr. McFetters and Mr. Iannone do not have to attend this meeting as they were present for the last session.”

Mr. Clapp

Good evening,

On Friday we had another excellent turnout to staff the Blessed Sacrament fish fry and sell flag-pins – many thanks for the terrific effort to ensure we are giving back to our host organization.  We received many compliments, and even some individual donations to the troop this week from happy customers.  Saturday morning we had a disappointingly sparse turnout for fire-by-friction practice, so with only a week to go until Scout-O-Rama, we are going to modify our approach to include firestarting (using flint & steel and/or magnesium), so that our younger scouts will have some success in training scouts at the event.  We also had a number of boys taking a fishing merit badge this weekend, as well as an adult crew beginning the process of readying the troop shed for painting.  A special thanks to Mr. Norling and Mr. Andrews for being big cats on a hot tin roof.

This week we have PLC on Tuesday night at 6PM, followed by the troop meeting at 7PM.  The key focus for this week will include preparation for Scout-O-Rama.  We will ask that boys take a two hour shift each on Saturday to man the tent at the event down at Kiwanis Park.  We will have stations set up where scouts from other troops can try fire-by-friction and firestarting techniques with coaching by our boys.  Your patrol leaders will be building the lists to staff the event.  We will also begin planning for the pancake breakfast and auction/raffle.  Please plan to sell tickets in advance, work the event on 4/30 from 7-10:30, and contribute to the raffle baskets and auction items.  This is an opportunity to work as individuals and as a patrol, and especially to make $$ for your scout accounts.  Finally, for those hikers in the crowd – start preparing for our April outing on the 15th – a backpacking opportunity in the Superstitions to take advantage of this glorious time of year!

Because of PLC this week, we will take a sabbatical from the Citizenship Merit Badge class with Mr. Clapp.  That class will resume on Tuesday the 12th.  See you Tuesday night!

Mr. Cole

Good afternoon!

Please come and help seat, serve and scrub during the April Fool’s Day fish fry from 4:30-7:30 tomorrow night, at Blessed Sacrament Church.  Class B is the uniform for scouts, and Class A for adult leaders.  Parents are also welcome to stay.  Remember that the scout receives a free dinner, 3 hours of service time, and the knowledge that they’ve helped our charter organization through their good deed!

Please also come practice fire-by-friction on Saturday using a bow, leather twine, a thunderhead, a spindle and a bird’s nest.  This will be our scout skill we will demonstrate/teach at the Scout-O-Rama on 4/9, and is a rare skill that most youth will not have the opportunity to master.  The activity will run from 9-11AM on 4/2/11 in the parking lot west of the Blessed Sacrament church.  Every boy loves starting fires – and here they will be encouraged and enabled to do so!

Mr. Cole

Good afternoon!

Many thanks for your flexibility last week, as we had to move to Cactus Park for our troop meeting.  An excellent breadcrumb trail was left, allowing even a prospective scout to find us by seeing the notes left at church, and meeting up with us at the park.  Friday’s fish fry service project was very well staffed, we had a most inspiring crossover Arrow of Light ceremony for our newest scout, Mr. Chadwick, and a terrific number of scouts participated in the two day Archeological merit badge facilitated by Mr. Traynor.  Things be happenin’ in T648!

Tomorrow night is the troop meeting, with an early opportunity for whipping and fusing training from Mr. Butler at 6PM.  We have another fish fry service project opportunity this Friday, but stay tuned for an update on the shed painting on 4/2, as we may have to reschedule.  Scout-O-Rama is  4/9, and I would highly recommend all scouts attend.  It is a great way to practice fire-by-friction techniques in the T648 booth, and to enjoy a wealth of other scouting skills experiences provided by scores of other troops and packs in adjacent booths.

A major opportunity for fundraising for all boys is the pancake breakfast on 4/30.  From selling tickets, bringing in silent auction items, and working the event itself – the boys can historically earn up to $200 through active participation in selling, contributing items, and working.  We will be successful if everyone pitches in, and it can certainly help defray the cost of summer camp – for which, the second payment is coming due later this week.  

Don’t forget the Ballantine Trail backpack coming up in two and a half weeks.  For many of us, we’re really, truly in scouts for the outings!  Thanks for your support, and we’ll see you tomorrow night.

Mr. Cole