Our Troop Committee meeting is a week earlier this September, on September 4th. Doug wil be out of town on the 11th. We have a lot of business to discuss, including the raising of registration fees, summer camp, the finance report, and the 2003 auction, so your attendance is important.
Our first meeting this fall will be on September 19th, with our Court of Honor on September 26th. Both will start at 7:00 pm. Any new boys wishing to join our troop should be at the meeting on September 19th, as this is when we realign our patrols.
Jim Broccolino and friends will be hiking the Indiana Dunes Trail on October 4-5th. This is part of the Fort Dearborn trails, and is definitely worthwhile. We had 3 scouts and 3 leaders who have hiked all five of the trails and will be receiving the Fort Dearborn Trails medal at the Court of Honor. It's a beauty.
Our first overnight campout will be on October 18-20.
We will not be returning to Loud Thunder next year. We are thinking about returning to Colorado in 2003, or perhaps a scout camp in either northern Minnesota or northern Wisconsin. We will discuss it at the Committee meting, and we certainly will get the boys' take on it
In October we will offer the Leathercraft merit badge (limited to 6 scouts), and in November will be Citizenship in the Community.
Last year we had a half-hearted effort to recruit boys for our Cub Scout pack and it was not very successful. So this year we are making an all out effort to get new members, since we need them badly if our Cub Scout pack is to remain in existence. We will put up signs in the Jefferson Park area, and local schools will be visited. But we really need the help of our scouts and their parents. Check your block and see if you can find any recruits; our goal is 25 new Cub Scouts, and we can do it if we all help out. We are going to have a Cub Scout Open House on Thursday, September 12th, from 7:00 pm to 8:30 pm. We would like each patrol to run an activity like they did last year. Patrol Leaders, check with your patrol and let Russ know what you would like to do to help us out. Remember, it is hard to have a scout troop if you don't have a good Cub Pack!!!
Chit-Chat: We will return to monthly issues of the Courier…we have
had a hefty increase in registration fees and merit badge prices which prompts
the need for an increase in our fees…Ron Prus is now a commercial airline
captain, stationed in Cincinnati, which is why we won't see him so often now…Jim
Broccolino and Greg S. will work with the Cub Scouts a bit this year…Both
Greg S. and Przemek U. have had a nice visit with the Pope…Dolores Spread
really cleaned up the Mothers Club storage problem…Matt M. leaves us now
for college. We wish him well and want him to know that he will be missed. He
is a Sox fan. Ha! GO CUBS!