Our 2nd annual January Merit Badge classes have been started and some are still in progress. Look for some updates through your merit badge councilors in terms of next steps for those who were not able to finish. Thank You to Mr. Larosa for his insightful history of Franklin and Mr. Mietlicki for his scholarly knowledge of both programming and science! Also to Mr. Wrona and Mr. Batten for being part of the day and helping the Scouts and MBCs.
Scout Sunday:
Every year in the beginning of February we celebrate what is known as Scout Sunday. This is to commemorate the founding of the BSA. There will be two local opportunities to participate in Scout Sunday this year.
- February 4th - St. Mary's Catholic Church
- February 11th - St. John's Episcopal Church
*Scouts and Families are invited to and encouraged to attend one or both of these celebrations. Ideally I would like for us to prioritize St. John's as they are our Chartered Org and allow the use of their building for our meetings each week.
Community Service Opportunity:
Scouts need Community Service hours for both rank advancement and for the Citizenship in the Community merit badge. We had discussed potentially helping out with the food pantry during the merit badge class this past Saturday. There is another opportunity that has presented itself for service hours.
Help is needed with an afterschool program that is being run at the local hotel/shelter where refugee families are staying in Franklin. They are looking for help with running simple games that will keep the kids occupied and help to burn off some energy. I think it would be very rewarding for some of our Scouts to be able to help with this program, meeting these children, and get a better understanding of who they are and where they came from.
The program will run on Weds afternoons after school. If anyone is interested they can contact me directly (timothymotoole@gmail.com) or Arielle Shearer (reldawn@aol.com) for more details.
Weekly Meetings:
We will plan to have a meeting this week, Tuesday Jan 30th to make up for the one that we missed two weeks ago. If possible for the PLC to stick around afterwards for 20 minutes or so, we will end the regular meeting right at 8PM.
February 6th - Regular meeting
February 13th - Regular meeting
February 20th - No Meeting, school vacation
February 27th - Regular Meeting
Upcoming Troop Trips:
Our next Troop trip will be a day trip to Camp Squanto on Saturday February 10th for the Klondike Derby. More information and details will be forthcoming, but we will need to leave Franklin by 6:30AM in order to drive to Plymouth, check in, and be ready to roll by 8AM.
As of right now, we are planning our March Trip for the weekend of 3/15 - 17th. The plan is to go to Camp Moses in Western MA and Cabin Camp. This is when we moved the January trip to. This weekend was selected because the Camp has activities planned through their Woronoco Heights program. IF there is snow and we can XC Ski then that will be the priority, but given our mild winter that is doubtful. The Woronco Heights program is something that we did in Fall 2022 and the Scouts really enjoyed it. https://www.wmascouting.org/WHOA
We realize that there is a conflict with a Charter School social that Saturday evening. We will need to discuss with the Scouts and have them decide if they want to keep the trip or move it, however depending on what the non-Charter Scouts decide to do (or those who don't wish to attend the social event) the trip may still move forward as planned.
For April we have entered the "draft" to attend the West Point Camporee in NY at West Point Military Academy. We should know in the next couple of days if we have been selected and the logistics. As we have been able to get a current WP Cadet to sponsor the troop, we SHOULD be able to go. As previously noted, this trip would take place the Friday - Sunday of April School vacation (4/19 - 4/21). We would leave early on Friday morning and return early evening on Sunday. Please mark your calendars to attend if possible as this is supposed to be one of the best annual Scout events in the Northeast, if not the country!
May and June are still TBD, but we hope to have plans come together soon!
Summer Camp:
We need to get commitments and plans put into place for summer camp 2024 and Yawgoog. As discussed we will be there week 5 of the program that runs July 21 - 27th. The program has changed slightly from last year in that we will go to camp earlier on Sunday, Merit Badges will start right after breakfast on Monday, and we will be done by lunchtime on Saturday. https://www.yawgoog.org/troops.html
Similar to last year, we need to get a deposit sent into camp, which is our "Hat Incentive" to get the 2024 Camp Hats with our Troop embroidered. We need to send in a minimum of $500 by February 28th. Please be on the lookout for a Camp Yawgoog sign up genius. After you signup, please send $50 to the Troop as your "commitment" and first payment towards camp.
Note that pricing increased from last year to $590 per Scout for the week. This needs to be paid in full to Camp by June 21at. To help with managing the cost of Camp this year, We can take/hold money in installments by month. It would be $110 per month in March, April, May, and June. We can further discuss after we get our initial signup going if families prefer monthly or lump sum payment.
Advancement:
Congratulations to David Mietlicki who recently passed his Board of Review and was promoted to 2nd Class Scout!
I know there are some other Scouts who are in the process of having Scoutmaster Conferences and Board of Review in the couple of weeks.
ALL Scouts should be spending some time during the week with a focus on rank advancement. Take a look at what needs to be finished in your handbook to get to the next rank. Most of the information that is needed is in your Scout handbook! Come to the meetings prepared to demonstrate or explain the Scout knowledge or Skills required to be checked off and to advance to the next level. This is going to be a HUGE Focus for our Troop this spring. EVERY Scout should advance at least one rank between now and June. For the newer Scouts who do not have Scout rank yet, please work with them and encourage them to learn and practice. These are the basic fundamentals of Scouting that each member should know by now.
Please alert your Scout that he should be working on this and that time will be carved out in every weekly meeting and on trips to focus on advancement for either signoffs or to ask questions and get help from the older Scouts and Scoutmasters.
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