Scoutmaster’s Corner

Our Christmas tree sale was very successful. While the final numbers aren’t in yet, it looks like we will end up netting about $20,000. This is our highest total ever! These proceeds will allow us to cover troop expenses over the next year, buy any needed equipment, fund generous scholarships that scouts can earn, and maybe put some away for a rainy day. Thanks to all the parents and scouts who worked on the lot, and to Jim Griner, who coordinated the effort.

Our next campout, to Stone Mountain, will occur on January 19-21. This is Saturday – Monday (which is a holiday). We will leave at 8AM on Saturday and will get back between 3 and 4 on Monday. During the trip we will climb the mountain as well as hike around it. We will also visit the Malibu Raceway go-cart track. We will camp with another troop that is going to cook our dinner on Saturday! Camping fees will be $16 (includes food), plus spending money for the go-carts. Scouts should bring a bag lunch for Saturday to eat on the road, and patrols will make lunch for the way back on Monday.

You may have noticed that we are now requiring scouts to eat before we leave on a camping trip, and patrols make lunches for the trip back. This saves a lot of time (it takes over an hour to get everyone fed at a “fast food” place) as well as money for parents.

High Adventure

In lieu of the sailing trip that we had talked about, the troop will do a High Adventure trip to the Florida Keys in early June. The dates have not been finalized but will probably

be around June 5-12. We will camp at state parks in the Keys, and will do sailing and snorkeling, and maybe some deep-sea fishing. Scouts MUST be first class rank to attend. The cost will be around $300. More information on this trip will be forthcoming soon.

As a reminder, future planned High Adventure trips will be canoeing the Minnesota boundary waters at the Northern Tier BSA camp in summer of 2003, and hiking at the Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico in 2004. We are also discussing a weeklong backpacking trip on the Appalachian Trail and a trip that would include camping/hiking at Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado as well as at Yellowstone National Park.

Why these trips? Troop 23 has the capacity to provide world-class opportunities to our scouts – we have the resources and parental leadership that most troops can only dream about. I believe strongly that we should meet this call. High Adventure trips give invaluable experiences to scouts, showing them that they have the ability to meet every challenge. Our scouts have the opportunity to earn enough money through scholarship points and popcorn sales to pay most of the cost of these trips to avoid any financial hardships to families.

Summer Camps

As usual, we will attend two summer camps this summer. We will attend Wallwood, the local camp, during the week of June 16-22. We will go to Camp Daniel Boone in North Carolina the week of June 30-July 6. Deposits on these camps will be

due in the next month, and scouts can use scholarship money for this.

Scholarship Points

Our time period for scholarship points runs from March 1 to the end of February. Accordingly, scouts have two more months to earn scholarship points for this year. Scouts should work to finish any merit badges that they are still working on, as well as make rank advancements if possible to maximize their earnings for this year. The Troop Committee will vote next month on the amount of funds to allocate to scholarships.

Merit Badge Library

At the request of the Patrol Leader Council (the elected scout patrol and troop officers), we are buying a copy of ALL merit badge books. This means that our scouts will have the opportunity to pursue any merit badge that interests them. We have (or will find) an adult counselor for every badge. I encourage scouts to look into merit badges by either getting the book that lists requirements of all merit badges (available at the scout office), or by visiting the meritbadge.com website.

Website

Larry Dennis is working with several of our scouts to revamp our website. In the future it will have reports and pictures from every campout (written by our troop historians). We are also adding a “troop store” that will link to many on-line merchants. This will work like the Albertsons’ cards, as we will get a percentage of the proceeds of all sales make through the website (so you won’t pay any more to buy through the website). We will have links to things that scouts can use, such as books, clothing, electronics, etc. You will need to visit the website often to see how this develops and check out the “inside scoop” on campouts!

New Eagle Scout

Raju Vyas has been approved by the Council as our latest Eagle Scout! Raju has been a great scout over his career and served as Senior Patrol Leader from October 2000 to October 2001. Congratulations on a job well done!

Schedule

We cannot finalize our schedule for the year until FSU releases its football schedule. The schedule for the next few months is as follows.

February

4 Meeting

7 Troop Committee Meeting

11 Meeting

15-17 Campout, Olustee Battlefield

18 PLC

25 Meeting – Last day to pay 2002 Troop dues

March

1 Troop Committee Meeting

4 Meeting

11 Meeting

15-17 Campout, Kolomoki Indian Mounds

18 PLC

25 No meeting/Spring Break

April

1 Meeting/Troop Elections

4 Troop committee Meeting

8 Meeting

12-14 Campout, St. George Island Sailing

15 PLC

20 Troop training, KUMC

22 Meeting

29 Meeting

May

2 Troop Committee Meeting

6 Meeting

13 Meeting

17-19 Campout, St. Andrew's State Park

20 PLC

24 LAST DAY OF SCHOOL/Leon Co.

27 No meeting, Memorial Day

The Trooper

January 2002

Scoutmaster’s Corner

February

March