This is my Sunday night rambling attempt to keep everyone informed 11-30-08.
Church update – As everyone knows the Church is in full-tilt move mode. They will be working upstairs Monday night. The Church may need our help. We will be meeting downstairs near the doors. We will have to get all of our remaining stuff from upstairs on Monday night. We will meet again at the Church on Dec 8th. After that, we have our Court of Honor/ Christmas dinner at Golden Corral. Then two weeks off for the holidays. Starting on January 5th, we will be meeting at Nash Farms Battlefield. The county is giving us the use of the big white building on Monday nights, I guess, because they feel bad about the survey not being done yet. We will probably have to meet there for about four weeks, then we should have the Hut completed enough to meet in. One neat thing, the County is going to have the County Historian come out for a couple of Monday nights and go over the history of the site and the battle.
Campout this weekend – The Campout was to be a backpacking trip on the Benton McCaye. That is being changed to a campout/work weekend at the Scout Hut. The permission slip is attached. We will be cleaning out the building, removing the windows, doors, and possibly the roof. All Scouts should bring work gloves, and old clothes. We will be dropping off and picking up at the hut. Drop off will start at 6:30 Friday night, pick up will be Sunday morning by 10:30am. We may work Sunday afternoon also, but the campout will "end" @ 10:30am. Check your email for updates. I hate making this change, we've only changed our schedule twice in 3 ½ years, but we have to get the Hut done ASAP.
Court of Honor/Christmas dinner – Dec 15th 6:30 @ Golden Corral. In the back corner of the Golden Corral there is a separate meeting room. Since we won't be able to use the church, we will meet there. The Troop rented the room for what it would have cost us to purchase the chicken at the old style Court of Honor. When you show up, go ahead and go through the line, pay for your food, eat and meet in the room. We will have the blessing after everyone eats. The buffet is approx $10.00 per person, but no one has to cook so it should work out about the same.
GREAT IDEA!! When doing your Christmas cards this year, take one card and send it to the address below. If we pass this on and everyone sends one card, think of how many cards these wonderful, special people who have sacrificed so much would get.
When you are making out your Christmas card list this year, please include one to the following:
A Recovering American Soldier
C/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue, NW
Washington, D.C. 20307-5001
Scout Hut – Still waiting on the County to complete their survey. The County has actually turned it over to a private firm. Bo is on top of this. We have to work with, and wait on, them to complete their survey. Once they complete the survey, it will be a matter of weeks before we are meeting there. We can't do much with the surrounding property until the survey is done. Contact Bo about what is donated, versus what we still need. I was going to post a list, but we have so much stuff donated, I can't list it all. We are hoping to get some tables and chairs from the church before they move. Once the survey is done, we may look at having a separate meeting to plan out the restoration of the hut.
Congratulations, again!! Jacob Holly's Eagle Ceremony – Reserve Saturday night January 10th at 7:00 p.m. for Jacob's Eagle Court of Honor. It will be held at the First Baptist Church of McDonough in the fellowship hall. Please plan to attend.
Special Thanks!! – Mr. Klakis for the Aviation Merit Badge last month. He put the event together and I must admit, I think the Scouts enjoyed the flight simulators more than the "secret event" the month before. I think it is one of the coolest things I have seen the guys do. Those guys came out of those simulators as pumped up as I have ever seen them. They are already talking about going back for day trips, and camping again. The soldiers on base were great and the staff at the Museum was top-notch. The Scouts had a blast. Thanks Mr. Klakis!!! That's what Scouting is all about.
Butterfly Seeds – Weird promo, but the people we send the toner cartridges to had a promo last quarter. They gave away packages of butterfly garden seeds based on the number of cartridges sent in. I will bring them Monday night; if you want some let me know. We earned a lot. If no one wants them we might look into planting them somewhere where someone less fortunate can enjoy them, perhaps at a hospital, or a senior center?
Toner Cartridges/Cell Phones – Please bring any old toner cartridge, or old cell phone in. Chunk them into the back of my truck and we will send them in for recycling. We have earned about $500.00 from them. It's not much, but it adds up. Currently we are earmarking that money for the Bus fund.
Bus fund – We are getting closer and closer to the Bus. We now have a total of $2,546.86. That figure should go up next week also. I figure we need at least $3,000 to get the bus, license it, insure it, and service it. This puts us at 84.89% of the way there. That figure will be updated this week, stay tuned. We now have XM Satellite Radio donated. The Scouts want a DVD player and 4 TVs, and one of the Scouts even volunteered to put together a separate fundraiser to earn the money for the TV's and DVD player. We've already had several adults volunteer to go get their CDL to drive. We spent some time at the recent Merit Badge Day talking to other Troop leaders that have buses and we also spoke to the drivers. We gathered a lot of knowledge that we did not have before. That will prevent us from learning it the hard way.
Scoutmaster Conferences – To eliminate the confusion about Scoutmaster Conferences, I have started a new process. If a Scout needs a Scoutmaster Conference, there will be a sign up sheet on the pool table so the Scouts can choose their time for the next week's conferences. Also, I will be scheduling conferences to meet with Scouts as I or any Assistant Scoutmaster may deem necessary. This week's schedule breaks down as:
6:40-6:55 – Ben Yonek
6:55-7:10 - Nolan Warner
7:10-7:25 – Braxton Hardy
Committee Meeting – Monday night December 1st. As most of you know, Chris Smith is our new Committee Chair. The Committee has several open positions. I have attached a separate letter detailing the Committee and the open positions. Normally the Committee would meet upstairs in the room past the Scouts. Look for Chris and he will find a place to meet.
Troop Dues - Everyone hates them. They are due December 1st. $100.00 for the year. (December to December) The dues are used to cover Troop expenses such as Merit badges, camping supplies, gear; etc. Chris Swindell will be set-up somewhere with a receipt book. I know times are tough, let me or Chris Smith know and we will work with you as much as possible if you require some help with dues. Scoutmasters and Committee Chairs have special ways to handle stuff like this. Don't let something as simple as money keep your son from enjoying Scouting.
This Troop is the busiest in the District, probably the Nation. We have so much going on: Hut, Bus, Fundraisers. A year from now we are all going to look back and be amazed at what such a small group accomplished. We will have a Bus to transport the Troop, and we will have the best Scout Hut ever built!! These Scouts will be proud of the being part of the best Troop around.
In closing, I would like to say that I know we've gone through a lot of growing pains lately. That is what they are – growing pains. We are growing towards being one of the best troops in the State, not the district, not the council, but the State. Very few Troops have their own Scout Bus. Less than that has their own Scout Hut. Any Troop that has both, (hut and bus) has been in existence for a long time. We will have both in less than three years. In closing, I would like to say that I would rather have growing pains as opposed to stagnation. We will never stagnate.
Live long and prosper...
Doug Clemens
Scoutmaster Troop 165
404-520-1160
The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.
Thomas Jefferson
