Our next Troop Committee meeting is set for Wednesday, March 10th, and since it is just prior to our auction it will be an important one. Our chairmen, Dave Matos and Kevin Houston, deserve your help, so we ask you to attend this meeting if at all possible. It will start at 8:00 PM as usual and ends at 9:00 PM.
Parents Night is coming up, on Friday March 5th to be exact. Mike
S. is our chairman, and he is ably assisted by Matt K. and Paul R. The program
is in their hands, and it can be very, very good, or very, very bad. As always
no serious work is done on it until the last moment. The chances are that it
will be very, very good, because we have three pretty good guys in charge. A
lot depends upon our Eagle Patrol. It is the largest patrol in the troop, and
the younger boys look to them for leadership and guidance. This patrol is made
up of splendid young men and we're sure that they will not disappoint us.
At Parents Night we will also be collecting the boy's share of the cost of Summer
Camp. This will amount to $170.00 plus $5.00 ($175.00 total) for one scout,
$280.00 for two boys, or $385.00 for three if in the same family. This amounts
to 1/2 of the fee ($170.00) with each additional brother going for $100.00.
The extra $5.00 for each boy is to cover the cost of the food we will have to
provide, since we will be arriving Saturday night and the camp does not open
until Sunday afternoon, with their first meal on Sunday night.
Now this should be one of our best camping experiences in years, and we want
every boy in the troop to go with us. BUT DO NOT FORGET that they
must make their required advancement by May 28th. If they do not complete this
advancement they do not only NOT go to camp with us, but their parents
lose the money that they have paid towards the camp fee.
If you have any questions on this ask Russ before you pay your money.
None of the advancement is difficult, but it does take some effort on the part
of the boy.
Right now out Troop has 36 registered scouts. Many of these boys are reaching the age of 17 and 18 and will be leaving us. As it appears now, by this time next year our numbers will be about 25 boys. This is not good, because we are not getting many boys now from our Cub Scouts - and our present scouts are not bringing in their friends. Thirty, forty years ago we had no problem - boys were inviting their friends and even in those years when we had no Cub Pack the troop still flourished. But society changes, and generations change, and today the Boy Scouts are taboo among the younger generation, and most boys do not want their friends to know that they are active in a scout troop. This is a shame, because there is nothing we can do about it as adults. The Troop is a great troop; the boys in it have a great time, and the depth and quality of our adult leadership excellent.
So we are going to try to do something about it. The enclosed pamphlet "Who
Am I" is our first try. The idea was given to us by Jim Heinlein, much
of the wording (if not most) came from Tim H. and Matt K. Mike .Bujewski did
all of the art work and preparation. The idea is this: If you know a boy 11,
12 (or even 13 if he is an excellent boy like Eddy K.), send it to him. If you
want to sign it, fine. If not, fine too. Let's see if we can get some boys out
to see our troop on Parents Night.
If we don't start doing something, our days are numbered. If you want more
copies of "Who Am I" we do have them. Ask Russ.