Annual Planning PLC this Saturday

Saturday at 2pm at the Antelope Library is our planning meeting for 2011.  Come with your ideas.

Many updates

Wow. Didn't realize it had been a couple of weeks since my last post. Lots going on. Summer camp has come and gone. A small group attended but much fun was had. There were some issues as well, but when aren't there? It was good that a few of our newest scouts attneded and earned a couple of merit badges. I'm especially pleased with the performance of our older scouts. They stepped up when needed and made sure stuff was taken care of.

The PLC annual planning meeting is this coming Saturday. Be there to give us your ideas of what you want to do next year.

We've had a couple of regular troop meetings since my last post as well. Seems like things are progressing. It's difficult to see sometimes. Growth takes such little steps and it's much easier to see a stumble. We're getting better, I really believe that we are. It's taking a heck of a lot longer than I thought it would.

We have a new committee chairman now. Thanks so much to Dennis Ledbetter for his years of service to the troop. Dennis will remain active in scouting, but with the Eagle board. Much success to you in the future.

Also congratulations to Mike Donlon for being selected as the new committee chairman.

Our next outing is fast approaching. Scotts Flat Reservior and water sports. This is gonna be fun! Deadline to sign up and get your payment in is this coming Monday's meeting. You're not gonna want to miss this one, I promise! We are hoping to hold one of our next couple of meetings at a pool to get the swimming requirements out of the way. Wish us luck!!!

Lastly, we have had three boys advance in the last month. Greg O. is now a Life Scout while Steven W. and Jaughn F. are now Star Scouts. Great work guys (and about time to a couple of you).

Weekly meetings

We have our regularily scheduled meeting this week, which is not normal.  We usually don't because it's summer camp week, but there are plenty of boys that didn't make the trip that we felt having a meeting was worthwhile.  Sadly, only a handful of boys showed up.  We couldn't work as patrols because of it, so we gave them an easy evening and watched a movie.

Summer Campers are there

9 youth and 3 adults ended up making the trip to Camp Fleischmann.  They got camp set up really quickly.  Temperature was nice, not too hot.  I guess it's been a little cooler this year when compared to the recent past.  Hopefully it will stay that way.

We are occupying a new campsite this year.  It's lakeside and looks to be well shaded in the afternoons.  That will be a nice respite from any heat that may come up.

I hope the week goes well for all attending and can't wait to hear the stories.

Weekly Meeting

We didn't have a regular meeting, but those boys attending summer camp had a get together.  Only a few of them showed up, but hopefully therir questions were answered.  They leave Sunday morning at 8:30.  If you would like to come by and wish them well, I know they would be excited to see you!

Summer Camp

Last night during a meeting of the adult leadership, it was decided that we would leave on Sunday rather than Saturday as previously talked about.  This will make it easier for those driving due to conflicts with other things.  Those attending summer camp will meet briefly next Monday, July 5th at the VFW hall to finalize the trip.  Look in your email inbox for more info.

Monthly PLC

After not having one of these for a couple of months we're going to start them up again.  Tomorrow night (June 30th) everything changes (I hope).  If you have a position of leadership in the troop (or if you don't but would like to learn about this process), please be at the Antelope-North Highlands Library (Antelope Rd. & Walerga Rd.) no later than 6:20.  Meeting starts at 6:30 and will be over no later than 8:00 (that's when the library closes).  A map link to the library is in the Useful Links section of this blog at the bottom right of the page.

Weekly meeting & meeting changes

I heard that the meeting went extremely well.  The boys were working together nicely and getting things accomplished.  Nice to hear.

--- ALERT ---

The Troop & Committee meeting scheduled for next Monday (July 5th) have been canceled.  We will meet again on July 12th.

Summer camp fees

If you signed up to attend summer camp, the remainder of fees is due this coming Monday.

Weekly meeting

Very good meeting last night.  All of our newest scouts worked on their Fireman Chit while the older scouts worked on flag ceremonies.  Even though they have done many of these in the past, we want to give them a refresher and come up with a troop standard that they will then teach to our younger boys.

Future meetings will take us back to some basics of not just scouting, but comfort and survival in the outdoors.  We're planning some patrol competitions as well.  I'm hoping to get them to be creative in these competitions and use their imaginations.

I'm really excited about what is happening in the troop right now.  Things feel different.  Things feel good.

Twilight Camp redux

Twilight Camp was a success.  The Friday Webelos overnighter was also a huge success.  Ryan did a fantastic job and received quite a few compliments (we even received our very first comment to the blog concerning his handling of the campfire program).  There were around 40 Webelos scouts and their guardians that camped overnight.  We were able to have the BB gun range open on Saturday morning so these boys were able to have it all to themselves.  If you were there, thanks.

To meet or not to meet???

In the past we have not had a troop meeting the week of summer camp.  Of course we only had 12 boys and 10 of them went to camp, so it was pointless.  Now we have 32, but only 8 are attending camp.  Should we hold the meeting or give everyone a week off?  Hmmm...

District Twilight Camp

I have been working(?) at Twilight Camp all week.  Working is really a stretch.  I've handled the MC chores and smiled alot as I tell various adults you can't park there, or park like that, or you need to wear this to prove you're supposed to be here.  Tonight is the Webelos overnighter and Ryan is in charge of the campfire.  He's been working on skits with the dens and also compiling a list of filler skits/songs so we have a good campfire program.  We'll be retiring a flag at the close of the program, so that will hopefully prove to be a special moment for the Webelos in attendance.

Roundtable cancelled!!

In case you weren't aware, Roundtable has been canceled this month due to Twilight Camp.  It will resume at the same time/location next month.  Don't forget that at the August Roundtable is when the adults Pinewood Derby cars are to be collected.  We'll race them at the September Roundtable.

Court of Honor

What a turnout!!!  The room was filled to (almost) capacity!  We added a fourth row of tables for the anticipated crowd and it's a good thing we did.  For a simple, basic meal of hot dogs and picnic sides, that was a fabulous meal.  Maybe I was just in need of a chili dog.

Lots of rank advancement, a few merit badges and some special awards were handed out.  A couple of nice presentations were shown.  The first one was to help a scout finish up the Citizenship in the Community merit badge and the second was from the troop historian.  It covered our participation in the VFW Memorial Day Parade.  Good job to both of you!

Lots of talk concerning summer camp also.  We're under a month until we leave.  Hopefully you'll be able to attend.  Too much fun to miss.  Trust me on that one!

June 12 Day Hike

Really pretty trail.  The first really hot day of the summer had to hit this day???  We had 13 total attend.  4 adults, 8 boys and 1 sibling.  Didn't make the entire loop.  Took too much out of my respirtory system.  The boys... no big deal.  Even with the elevation gain of around 1500 feet in about 2 miles.  We're going to plan many more hikes in the future but they'll be a little less challenging.  We'll (and by we I really mean me) work our way up to those.

The part that pleased me the most was listening to the boys singing as we were heading back down the trail to our cars.  That and the one scout that had a questionable view of another scout at the beginning of the hike and by the middle had changed his view 180deg.

Summer Camp

For the last 8 years or so we have camped at Camp Fleischmann for our long term summer camping.  Should we be visiting other camps periodically?  I worry that the boys may be missing out on different experiences.  Each camp offers their own brand of lunacy along with different merit badges and opportunities.  I love Camp Fleischmann and would be very happy to go back there each and every year, but I have very fond memories of camping at Camp Winton as a boy.  Your thoughts?

UPDATED 6/10!! Start thinking about next year

August will bring us two additional meetings that are necessary to plan for 2011.  The first one will be August 7th.  This will be the PLC's annual planning meeting.  The PLC will come together to plan their outings and goals for 2011.

The second one will be August 14th.  This one will be to plan the finances for 2011.  We need to know how much we anticipate spending on things like badges, replacement gear, outings and how much fundraising we need to help the boys accomplish their goals and attend all the outings being planned.

Both of these meetings are scheduled to begin at 2pm and take as long as they take to complete.  I will let you know the location when I solidify it.

**UPDATED 6/10**
We are confirmed to meet for the finances meeting (Aug. 14th) at the North Highlands-Antelope Library beginning at 2pm.  This library is located on Antelope Road just west of Walerga Road.

The library was booked for the 7th so I am still looking for a meeting location.  I will try to get Mountain Mikes at Walerga and Elverta.

UPDATED 6/10!! Change to our PLC meetings

We've held our PLC's at a couple of different times, with varying success.  Let's try it again.  PLC's will now be held on the last Wednesday of each month.  I will notify as to location and times when I solidify it.

**UPDATE 6/10**
We are confirmed to meet from 6:30 to 8:00pm at the North Highlands-Antelope Library.  This library is on Antelope Road just west of Walerga Road.

Court of Honor

Our meeting this coming Monday is our Court of Honor.  If you didn't sign up to bring something, expect a phone call from our COH organizer.  Make sure you're in attendance to cheer on our boys (and adults).

Weekly meetings

Good meeting this past Monday.  The boys learned how to make their own Gatorade and held Patrol elections.  Afterward they played some baseball.  Is there a better game to watch boys play?

Memorial Weekend - a look back

Placing crosses went very well.  Troop 22 was well represented.  Other scout units were present, along with various military units and individuals.  A very large crowd (the largest I have seen) showed up.  Thank you to all that showed up and helped to honor the fallen.

Later in the day we worked on our float for the parade that took place on Memorial Day.  Lots of boys showed up to help.  The parade was fun (I think the boys would agree).  They took turns riding in the push car we built last year.  Lots of hoots and hollars for the Boy Scouts from the crowd.  Nice to hear the encouragement.

Memorial Day weekend and other stuff

Relatively busy weekend.  Everyone should know by now what is happening so I'm not going to to rehash it here.  I've heard from a couple of families that will not be able to attend to our events this weekend, but I expect to see everyone else.  So, I'll see you this weekend.

I have only heard from two families about the Scout Night at the River Cats.  Does anyone want to take advantage of this?  Let me know.

Summer Camp paperwork has arrived

The leader guide and all the merit badge paperwork has been posted to the Camp Fleischmann web site.  I have downlaoded it and will be reading it over soon.  We'll put together a session to go over summer camp for everyone to answer any questions you may have.

Weekly meeting

Worked on some more of the Citizenship in the Community merit badge.  A few of the boys won't be getting those items signed off however, unless they were able to hear everything over their talking to each other.

After that we learned how to lash a square lashing.  Overall a good meeting.

Canoe Trek postponed???

It looks like we will need to postpone the canoe outing currently scheduled for June 12-13.  Trouble finding a camp ground among other items.

Our weekend

Two events on Saturday.  The first was a flag ceremony for the Relay for Life.  This is an annual fundraiser the the American Cancer Society.  This took place at San Juan High School on their football field.  Participants were to walk around the track portion for 24 hours to raise money.  This is apparently the largest fundraiser in the world.  Pretty neat to see all the tents set up for participants to use.  The flag ceremony went well.  We had 9 boys show up and that made me very happy.

Second was the day hike.  Seven of the boys at the ceremony joined us for the day hike.  I was a little disappointed that more didn't join us.  The surprising thing to me was that I figured the hike would be made up of mostly our young scouts, but only two of the seven were from the Vikings or Flaming Monkeys.  Those of us that did the hike had a good time.  We hiked from Camp Pollock into Old Sacramento.  This is roughly 4 1/2 miles.  Then we participated in a scavenger hunt that took us to all corners of Old Sac.  This scavenger hunt was designed by one the stores in Old Sac (trailmex.net - yes, that is the name of the store) and after completing it we were able to pick up a small gift item from their treasure chest.

After this the boys enjoyed one of the many candy stores down there and even purchased a couple of pieces.  After hiking back to Camp Pollock we put roughly 10 miles on our shoes.  Not a bad day.

I plan on doing this hike again in the near future so that everyone else can have the same opportunity.  Next up though is another day hike.  This one will be at Lake Berryessa.  Come join me and lets see what we're made of.

Memorial Day weekend

A couple of big items taking place on Memorial Day weekend.  First is the placing of crosses on the veterans gravesites at East Lawn Memorial.  Second is the VFW parade on Memorial Day.  Make sure you have these items on your calendars.

Outings changed and added

Our campout this weekend had to be canceled unfortunately.  In its place we will be taking a day hike and doing a scanvenger hunt.  Should be fun.

It looks like we will add an outing in June.  We already have a canoe trek being planned, but not everyone in the troop will want or be able to attend.  I am planning another day hike in the Lake Berryessa area for the same weekend as the canoe outing.  A challenging hike that will have us on the trail for most of the day.

Weekly meeting notes

The Vikings and Flaming Monkeys worked on some Citizenship items last night.  I have a DVD that was created as an Eagle project a few years back and we watched this last night.  It covers flag etiquette and ceremonies.  Afterward the boys folded some flags that are ready to be retired.  We also started an Honor Guard and will rotate all the boys through it so they can learn proper methods for a flag ceremony.

The older boys held a PLC and made some decisions for the Troop while the younger boys were watching the DVD.  We have a new SPL in Trevor and his ASPL will be Brandon M.  Good luck to both of you.  We will seat these and other boys into their positions at the next Court of Honor in June.

Leadership can and does happen

At the recently completed Scout Expo our SPL was unable to attend due an illness.  Our ASPL was also absent so I appointed Trevor to be our SPL for this event.  Trevor recently earned his Life rank and he did a fantastic job.  He had never even help a Patrol Leader position before.  This is what I was hoping for.

Also, Greg took charge of the kitchen as head cook for the outing.  He divided the kitchen in two since we had basically two patrols going.  Greg was wonderful in his duties as head cook.  We had some excellent food over the weekend.

Both of these young men were singled out for attention at our committee meeting last night, and deservedly so.  Congratulations to both of you for an outstanding job!  Our troop is in good hands as it heads into the future.

Weekly meeting notes

We had our weekly meeting last night and for the third time in the last 4 weeks we are having issues with bullying.  I had a circle up discussion about this very topic three weeks ago and it doesn't seem to have had any impact.  I've let the boys know that if it happens again they will asked to leave the meeting.  Once more after that and they will be asked to leave the Troop.  We have a young man that will be sporting a black eye due to last evenings activities.  I won't tolerate it any more.

Scout Expo has come and gone

6300 scouts and scouters.  28 of them from Troop 22.  No rain this time, that was good.  We did get some wind.  Made for interesting moments.  I believe that everyone had a good time.  There were a few occasions where we were provided with teaching moments.  I hope we made the most of them.

Would we do this event again in the future?  I would say yes, but with some changes to our participation in certain events.  I don't feel that the Arena Show is worth it.  Too far to travel and too late in the day after such a long day of nothing but more walking.  We'll know the answer to this question in another 3 years.

Leave a comment and let us know what you thought of Scout Expo.

One more month of craziness, then we slow down and can breathe.

The month of May is the last of the craziness.  Things will settle down after that.  We do have something planned on all but one weekend for the month of May.  Our outing is a campout to Yuba Gap the weekend of May 21-23 and a decision on your attendance is needed pretty quickly.  The deadline to sign up is May 10th.

We have community service projects on May 13, 14 and 15 (Rio Linda Farm Days), another one on May 14th (help out at an Eagle project to paint crosses) and May 29th (place those crosses).  There is the parade on May 31st.  These will only last a few hours each, but we do need your help to make them successful.

There is actually something planned on that lone weekend, but it isn't a troop activity.  The Pioneer District is having their annual District Awards dinner on May 8th.  I hope that you can be available to attend this.  It will be fun and will allow you to show your thanks for all of those adults that volunteer their time to our kids.

Can you cook eggs?

At last nights meeting we discussed how to set up a kitchen area and what will take place when we go camping.  I put on a little demonstration of how to cook eggs.  It may have gone a little long as I lost the boys toward the end of it.

We also welcomed two new boys to our fold last night.  Please join me in welcoming our latest scouts and helping them on their way to Eagle.

We also passed out the gear list for Scout Expo this weekend.  Make sure to read it as some of the items on it have changed.  Don't let its familiar look fool you.

Another new Life Scout

Ryan has attained this rank.  Congrats!!  We now have two scouts one step away from the rarified air of Eagle.  Could we have both get there this year?

Upcoming events

These are also listed in our calendar to the lower right of these posts, but here they are in another form.  I'm only going to mention those a couple weeks out:

Scout Expo, April 30 to May 2 - lots of talk about this one.  Shouldn't come as a surprise now.
District Dinner, May 8 - Everyone is strongly encouraged to attend and celebrate the adult leadership in our District.  Sign up online by May 1. 
Yuba Gap camping, May 21 to 23 - Outing to the high sierra.  Deadline to sign up is May 10.

Finally, an update

At Monday's meeting the two new patrols took a small hike to a shopping center to work as patrols.  Successful outing I was told.

Our two older patrols had a fun evening after selecting youth leadership for the remaining outings and projects for this year.

Our next meeting is the deadline for turning in summer camp fees to receive the lower price.

The sporadic nature continues

Some updates.  We have a new Life Scout in Trevor.  Congratulations!!  We should have another similar announcement in a couple of weeks.

Our troop expanded greatly over the last month.  We welcomed an entire new patrol of nine boys.  They are the Vikings and we are very glad to have them.  We will be growing further shortly as another den of seven boys will be joining us.  We've gone from 12 to almost 30 in about a month.  Lots to deal with.

We have added two weekend meetings in April.  Check out the dates and put them on your calendar.

Updates and info

I have added a link in the "Useful Scout Links" section to view a promotional video for Camp Fleischmann.  Pretty nice actually.

Remember those historic merit badges I mentioned a month or so ago?  They're on hold for now.  It seems that national couldn't determine the requirements in time.  I mean, it's not like they knew this year was coming, right?

For those that may be wondering, we will be having our normally scheduled troop meetings during the weeks that school districts take off for spring break.  Each school district seems to take off a different week so if you will be traveling and can't make it to a meeting, that happens sometimes.  We understand.

PLC's have been held on the Sunday prior to our monthly committee meeting.  This meeting has been moved and will now be held on the same Monday as the committee meeting (the first Monday of each month) from 5:30 to 6:30.  The troop and committee meetings will then begin at their normal time of 7:00.

There are other changes to the structure to our troop that will be coming and those will be announced when appropriate.

How did/are you celebrating?

February 8th, 2010.  Happy birthday to the Boy Scouts of America.  It was incorporated on this day 100 years ago.  Our Troop, as I am sure is the case with most Troops typically celebrate with Courts of Honor and don't do anything special to commemorate this date.  Cub Scouts have always had their Blue & Gold banquet.  So this year I thought it was appropriate to hold a Tan & Green pot luck.  Our current boys all prepared a main course of either Chili or Spaghetti.  A strange combo yes (at least to me), but that's what was decided on.  We also greeted our newest scouts that crossed over the previous Saturday.  Nine new scouts.  Welcome to all of you.

All of the food was delicious.  Thanks to all of the boys for their efforts in preparing their dishes and to the families for bring side dishes and desserts.  Their was a home/hand made yellow cake with actual butter cream chocolate frosting that one of our families made.  Man those store bought ... things ... just can't compare.

Wanna earn some retired merit badges?

During this year of celebration, the BSA is offering Scouts a chance to earn up to four merit badges that have been "retired".  Some for quite a few years.  Here are the four that have been brought back:

The requirements for earning these badges haven't been posted yet, but I will get them as soon as they become available.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I think that would be pretty cool to have a merit badge on my sash that hasn't been available for years.  Maybe all four?

If you would like to read a little more about them visit this site.  You will probably need to do a copy/paste of the entire link into your web browser address bar :

http://blog.scoutingmagazine.org