Troop Meeting this Thursday, March 30th, at Sacred Heart Parish Hall - 7:00pm

Hello Troop 20!  We will have our regular troop meeting this week at 7:00pm - Sacred Heart Parish Hall.

• Mrs. Swindle will be working with the Family Life merit badge participants so please be sure you have your course materials with you.

• We are planning on having a booth at this years Herring Run Festival, for recruiting and fundraising.  The dates are April 8th & 9th.  Setup is from 7am-9am with the event running from 10:00am-4:00pm.  Breakdown will be 4pm-5pm.  Mrs. Swindle is coordinating this and will have more information as it becomes available.  There will be a signup sheet for participation, which ill include setup, event time, & breakdown.  We will be selling our usual meat snacks and candy bars along with having recruiting materials to talk with prospective new scouts who might be interested in joining Troop 20.

• Please remember to have a pocket sized notebook (3x5) and a pen or pencil with you at all times.  This was not a one time event from last week!  Scouts should always be prepared with something to take notes as needed.  We recommend pocket sized so that it can literally, always be in your pocket.....not left on a table somewhere.

• Backpacking:  For those scouts participating in the Backpacking Merit Badge, we are still planning our 5 day trip for the tail end of the April school vacation.  (April 19-23).  Patrols should be working on their planning tasks!

That's all for now.  See everyone on Thursday evening!

Hike this Saturday, March 25th - 12:30pm at Pratt Farm

Weather permitting, we are planning to hit the trail at Pratt Farm this Saturday, March 25th, for a 5-mile hike.  The plan is to step off at 12:30pm.

Scouts must bring:

1. Weather and season appropriate clothing
2. Scout 10 Essentials
3. Appropriate footwear
4. A snack
5. A full quart of water

A reminder announcement will be made at this Thursday's troop meeting.

At this time, the weather looks like it will be in the upper 40's with a shower possible.  If anything changes (weather, etc.) that would prevent us from hiking, we will post a cancellation notice, so keep an eye on the blog.

We hope to see lots of scouts there!

Troop Meetig this Thursday, March 23rd, at Sacred Heart Parish Hall - 7:00pm

Hello Troop 20!  We have a few announcements for this week:



1)  All scouts are requested to bring with them, a small pocket sized notebook and a pen or pencil to write with.

2)  Our newest troop member, Ricky Kent, will be having his pack crossover this Friday, March 24th at Carver High School - 6:30pm.  As with last week, if there are any troop 20 scouts who would like to participate to welcome Ricky to our family, we would ask that you please plan to be at Carver High School, 60 South Meadow Road #2, for 6:15 pm.



3) There will be a mandatory parents information meeting this Thursday night, March 23rd, at 7:00pm at the Parish Hall. The Scouts will be upstairs in the hall for their regular troop meeting while the Troop 20 leadership meets with the parents downstairs.  We need at least one parent or guardian to represent each scout.  While we understand that there may be circumstances where a parent cannot attend, we are asking that, in these situations, you please send an adult in your place to represent your family.
Thank you in advance!


4)  We expect to have an OA representative at the troop meeting to talk about the OA and elections.  More information should be available in the coming days from our Senior Patrol Leader, Eric Grady.


5)  Backpacking:  The scouts have been split into their operational control (Opcon) patrol so they should utilize their patrol time to work on the planning tasks that Mr. Devine pointed out to them.  Mr. Devine will get the planning document out to them via email and/or the blog.


6)  Hike:  Mr. Devine would like to do a hike this Saturday, March 25th.  We can do Betty's Neck, Pratt's, or Mad Mare's Neck.  We will have more details, such as meeting time, for the troop meeting.

Troop Meeting this Thursday, March 16th - Central Congregational Church

Reminder:  Our troop meeting this week will be held at 7:00pm at the Central Congregational Church, Middleboro.

Arrow of Light Crossover Ceremony - Also being held this Thursday, at the same time as our troop meeting, will be the Arrow of Light Crossover Ceremony at Bishop Feehan in Attleboro.  We need a few scouts from the troop to be present at the ceremony to stand at the end of the bridge and welcome our new scout from Carver, Ricky Kent, into the troop.

If any scouts are available to attend, please email Mr. Swindle today at markaswindle@Verizon.net or call him at 508-245-4136.

Canal Hike for Sunday 3/12 Postponed

The canal hike that Mr. Devine discussed at this Thursday's troop meeting has been postponed.  High temperatures for Sunday are not supposed to get out of the 20's and we don't know how clear the paths are along the canal.

We will re-schedule for a later date when the weather is more conducive to hiking the canal.

Committee Meeting, PLC Meeting, & Troop Meeting this Thursday, at Sacred Heart Parish Hall - 6:00pm Committee & PLC / 7:00pm Troop

We will be having a committee meeting this Thursday, 3/9, at 6:00pm in the Sacred Heart Parish Hall.  At this time, Eric will also be having a PLC meeting so we ask that all Patrol Leaders please show up at 6:00pm as well.

Immediately following the committee and PLC meetings, we will have our weekly Troop meeting at 7:00pm.

1)  We are asking ALL parents to please be present in the hall at 8:15pm, this Thursday, for announcements.

2)  The Family Life merit badge will be continuing this week so all scouts participating are reminded to please show up with their workbooks AND project ideas.

3)  Mr.. Devine will have additional information to share with our scouts participating in the Backpacking Merit Badge, during the troop meeting.

 

There is an opportunity, if we have enough interested scouts, for us to hold an amateur radio operators class.  This would consist of a series of classes that would culminate in the participating scouts taking their amateur radio license exam.  If they pass, they would become licensed amateur radio operators.

 

This would require a real commitment on the part of the scouts.  The class would run for about 6-7 weeks (once a week) and would require work and studying outside of the classroom.  In this weeks troop meeting, we would like to get a sense for how many scouts might be interested in this opportunity so that we can see if it's even possible.  I believe we would need a minimum of about 6-7 scouts to participate to make it worth the trainers coming out to give the classroom portion.  Please give this some thought and we will talk more at the troop meeting.

Summer Camp 2017

Hello everyone!  Hard to believe, but it's time for us to start thinking about, and preparing for, this years Summer Camp.  The Troop is registered for camp the first full week of August (Aug 6-12) at Camp Squanto, Plymouth.

IMPORTANT!  We need a minimum of 3 leaders / registered adults to attend the week of summer camp in order for our Scouts to attend.  We do have some flexibility so that coverage can be broken up by nights or a couple of days, but we need a commitment for coverage or we cannot send the Scouts.  If you can help provide leadership coverage, please contact Mr. Swindle so that we can plan who will be available and assess coverage for the week.  We really cannot stress this enough.  No adults means no summer camp.

Mrs. O'Connor & Mrs. Rebell will be organizing the sign-ups, medical forms, and payments.  We are estimating that the total cost for camp this year, including picture, will be between $375 - $425.  We're just waiting on an official amount from Camp Squanto.

For anyone going to camp this year, and this should be ALL of our scouts 😉, we will need a minimum $50 deposit by the March 16th troop meeting.  Full payment will be due no later than May 4th.  Please make all checks payable to 'Troop 20'.

Additional details regarding drop off & pickup will be forthcoming, along with a list of what your scout needs to bring to camp so stay tuned.