Troop Notes from Jan 3, 2008

On the day after Christmas, Billy J. successfully completed his Eagle Board of Review. Congratulations, Billy!!!

Knock - Knock…. This is no knock-knock joke. Opportunity is knocking. Boys who would like to be a candidate for the troop's next senior patrol leader should contact Mr. McGovern ( scoutmaster.troop874@gmail.com). Elections will be held this month, so don't delay! It is a great experience!

Permission slips for the camping trip on 18-20 January must be returned next week. They will soon be available at the troop's web site ( www.troop874.com). The cost for this trip is $20 for boys and adults. Mr. Springer will do all the cooking and he needs the money next week, as he must special order food for this event! Remember, this will be cabin camping at Camp Tomahawk.

February 2008 Ski Trip – Deposits for this trip are due next Thursday! This is a hard and fast deadline. Get your $75 per person to Mr. Dave Eddy. Our annual ski outing will be at Timberline Resort in West Virginia on 8-10 Feb. 2008. The cost is $149 per person and includes ski rental, a lesson, lodging, Fri-Sun lift ticket and all meals. This trip is not just for the boys; parents, brothers and sisters are all welcome to ski with us!

Eagle Project - Kai F. will be on Saturday, January 12th, at Grace Community Church (for the location, see http://gcconline.org/html/map.html). Kai will build a storage area inside an existing barn on the church's property. The exact start time, directions, what to bring, etc. should be available next week.

Another Eagle Project – Matt K. is collecting new or gently worn books of all genres to donate to a small, but growing library in Baltimore. At each of the upcoming troop meetings, he will have a box for your donated books. Please bring them into the meeting. Again, Matt will put more details about his project in a flyer.

Cub Scouts from Pack 495 visited the troop this evening and were impressed! Thanks to our boys for showing them what Boy Scouting is all about.

Mr. Mark Benz handed out awards this evening to several boys who completed the Iron Man competition and the Ten Ton Award at the Supreme Sports Night Lock In last December. Thanks to Mark for organizing this great event and congrats to the boys who received the awards!

Andy, Ben and Jimmy received the official troop neckerchiefs tonight. All have recently transferred into Troop 874. Welcome, guys!

The Quartermaster asked (again) for the scouts to return all troop equipment! Please get this stuff back to our equipment shed.

Lost and found clothing and other equipment is with the Senior Patrol Leader. See him to pick up you stuff.

Keith F., one of our Eagle Scouts, visited the troop meeting and encouraged the boys to work for Eagle and support others who are approaching the Eagle rank. Keith is a graduate student in physical therapy at Wheeling Jesuit University in West Virginia and is back home during their Christmas break. Thanks for stopping in, Keith!

Posting information to the troop's web site – If you have something that should be posted to our web site ( www.troop874.com), please send it to our Webmaster, Brian Meek, at: troop874.cio@gmail.com or give it to him on disc at a meeting.

January's Troop Committee Meeting was held last night. Notes from that meeting are attached . All registered adults are encouraged to attend the Committee Meetings. This is your opportunity to find out more about the troop and to support the Scouting program.

Mike Filipczak, the Troop's Committee Chair, would like to work more closely with the Philmont 2008 crew and, therefore, will step aside as Committee Chair until September. Bob Johnson (yours truly) will assume the duties of Committee Chair until Mike is ready to step back in. Please thank Mike for the great job he has done as the Committee Chair. Going to Philmont with your son is (usually) a once in a lifetime experience and we all agree that Mike should be allowed to enjoy the experience.