5min – Training: Status / New council YP directive / Maine canoe requirements (Barie)

5min – Merit Badge: Councilor list review / fill gaps / summer-fall plans (Gallagher)

5min – Web Site: Need to recruit day/day web maintenance. S.Eddins will still give tech support (Bedard)

5min – Treasurer Report: Recommend a quick status, and defer the more detailed annual budget review to Sep meeting, after 09/10 books close. (Laviolette)

5min – Adult Leadership Status / Needed volunteers (Lanciano/Bedard)
– Need to fill various roles:
Campout Event Planner _______________
Web Site maintenance _______________
Pancake Bfast _______________
Pancake Fundraising roles _______________
Recruiting coordinator _______________
Venture coordinator _______________

5min – Church relations (Kirchner)

5min – Advancement Status (Bedard)

5min – Eagle advising process / call for volunteers (Bedard/Kirchner)

5min – Hi Adventure Status (Hastings, Gallagher, Croteau)

5min – Scout training plans (Bedard)

5min – Resolute status (Sgammato)

5min – other topics

30-60 min – Annual planning – ALL Please bring your calendars so that we can avoid conflicts.

The Troop Four Court of Honor scheduled for Wednesday June 9th will be at the St. Mary’s Parish Center. We expect to award merit badges, many badges of rank, and other awards. The evening will begin with dinner at 630pm, and will conclude around 830pm. Scouts should arrive on time and in full uniform, to include neckerchief and slide. The dinner menu is the popular Troop 4 “pot-luck” dinner. Scouts and committee members will be contacting parents with a request to bring a dinner item or dessert, and a 2 liter bottle of soft drink.

The Memorial Day Parade will be held Monday, May 31. This is the only parade that the troop attends each year. Scouts should meet in the Stop and Shop parking lot near the 99 Restaurant at 9:30 AM in full uniform. Scouts may be picked up at Draper Park at the parade’s conclusion (~1130AM). Please notify Phil Bedard if your scout plans to attend. It’s important for the Troop to have a good showing at this important event.

Please note that the April 1st troop meeting will be held at the Milford high school pool as the troop conducts our spring swim night. Meeting drop-off and pick-up is the same as a normal troop meeting. New scouts will have an opportunity to try their hand at the BSA Swim Test. This is good practice for the test given at summer camp. Scouts can also knock off some 2nd and 1st Class water related requirements. Pool games, belly flops, and pizza/soda will round out the night. There is no cost for this event, but it’s important to arrive on time, as the pool folks will attempt to collect a fee from all those that arrive after we’ve started.

This Court of Honor will feature TWO Eagle Scouts; TJ Fasulo, and Tim Brundrett. Tim is our most recent Eagle Scout, having just passed his Board of Review on January 19th. Congratulations!

Families should arrive at the ceremony at 630pm. Please be on-time, as it’s a busy night, and we will be starting immediately. Scouts will be contacting families to bring a two-liter bottle of soft drink and a small desert. Dinner will be served.

The venture kitchen staff should report for KP no later than 630 AM sharp. Cooks should wear a Troop 4 T-Shirt. The wait staff (all other scouts) should arrive between 700 – 730AM for set-up and waiter training, and must be in regular Class A uniform. Looking forward to seeing you there!

All scouts that are participating in this year’s Christmas Tree Pick-up need to be at the Parish Center no later than 8:30 AM on Sunday January 3rd. The troop trucks leave at 8:30AM sharp, so please be on time. We will have a crew picking up trees in our assigned precinct, and also a crew unloading trees at the Transfer Station. Scouts will rotate so they can try both jobs. At the conclusion, parents can pick up their scouts at the parish center at 11:30AM. Adult truck/trailer drivers: we need a vehicle count so that we can get the proper paperwork for each vehicle. Please email Bob Garber at bobg.home@comcast.net to let him know if you have a truck you can drive. We also need 1 adult to volunteer at the Transfer Station. Email Bob is you can help with either. Also, to raise visibility for this event, we’ve attached a flyer that can be handed out, or posted in your neighborhood (see last page of newsletter). Please remind your neighbors.

The Troop Knife Contest will be at the December 17 troop meeting. Scouts can bring a knife that they can use under the troop/BSA rules and enter it in the competition for sharpest, best looking, and most functional. There will be prizes for the winners.

Troop 2, 4 and 18 have combined forces to bring famous author Michael Tougias to St. Mary’s parish on our regular troop meeting night of Dec 10th. Mr. Tougias has written many books with a survival theme, including Fatal Forecast (see summary below). Please arrive between 630-645pm. The show starts promptly at 7pm. All scouts must bring a two liter bottle of soft drink for the refreshment table. The other troops will provide snacks and paper goods.

An overview of the book/presentation:

Fatal Forecast:
“A Breathtaking book, the story is both marvelous and terrifying.”
– – – LA Times

What happens when a 90-foot wave hits two 50-foot boats 200 miles out to sea in November? Fatal Forecast chronicles one of the most incredible survival stories ever told. Using slides from the actual storm and rescue, award-winning author Michael Tougias tells the story based on his new book, Fatal Forecast: An Incredible True Tale of Disaster and Survival at Sea.

This week’s troop meeting (Dec 3rd) will be a swim night at the Milford High School pool. Bring swim attire and a towel. No uniform required, and there is no fee for this event. Younger scouts will cover important 2nd & 1st class requirements related to swimming and water safety. We’ll also have pool games, diving, and of course, pizza/drinks to end the night. Normal meeting time: 7pm start (sharp) & 830pm pickup.

The troop will demonstrate these new backpacking skills on the weekend of October 23-25. The troop will travel to the Taconic Mountains in the MA/NY/CT tri-state area. This trip will feature a combination of cabin camping at the AMC’s Northwest Camp and tent camping along the Appalachian Trail. Experienced backpacking scouts desiring a faster pace and very challenging route may choose to leave on Friday afternoon directly after school. This group will meet at the St. Mary’s parish center for an immediate departure at 3pm. They will arrive at the trailhead at dusk for a very short ½ mile backpack to the cabin before dark, followed by a challenging hike to a wilderness campsite on Saturday.

First year scouts, and other scouts not able to leave on Friday will meet Saturday at the parish center for an on-time departure at 8AM. This group will travel on a 5-mile route over the Appalachian Trail to the same AMC cabin. This 2nd group may break into ability groups depending on the number of attendees. Both groups will backpack out on Sunday morning, stop for a fast food lunch on the ride home, and arrive home for a parish center pick-up at 4pm.

Our destination is home to many interesting features including the highest peak in Connecticut, and the highest land point in Connecticut. A nickel to the scout who can explain how these can be two separate places. We will also traverse exposed ridges, deep ravines and rocky summits.

The option for a Friday or Saturday departure may change based on the number of attendees and leaders. It is therefore very important that all scouts and leaders planning to attend turn in the permission slip no later than the Oct 1st troop meeting in order to allow for the required logistics planning. Early submittals via email to pbedard1@gmail.com are strongly encouraged.

Due to the challenging nature of this backpacking trip, all attendees must be physically fit. New scouts unaccustomed to strenuous activity should begin a fitness program now in order to be ready for this trip. Consider starting the personal fitness merit badge to get in shape. Same goes for older scouts/adults that want to participate. Please direct any questions on this topic to any of the Troop 4 Personal Fitness Merit Badge Councilors listed on the troop website.

All attendees (scouts/adults) will cook their backpacking meals individually, using only boiled water for meal preparation. Veterans of the Mt. Washington trip will provide detailed instruction on meal preparation and ingredients each person must buy. Ingredients can be easily purchased at a local grocer at low cost. Scouts should also bring some money for a fast food lunch on Sunday’s return. Detailed meal planning and packing instruction will take place at the October 8th troop meeting. All scouts must then bring their fully packed back-pack to the October 15th troop meeting where a “shake-down” will be performed to ensure each scout is well prepared. Scouts must “be prepared” by bringing every item on the checklist provided at the 10/8 meeting – no exceptions. On 10/15, each backpack must brought to the meeting in “ready-to-hit-the-trail” condition. Also, a nominal $5 fee (check payable to Troop 4) is required to defray the cost of the AMC Cabin.

Again, if your son will be attending, please drop off the permission slip no later than the beginning of the October 1st Troop Meeting, or email the form earlier to Phil Bedard.

This is a fun event… with lots of scout led games and contests. No uniform is required for this meeting.

All scouts should could come with a small snack item (dessert, chips, etc…) for the party food table. The Troop will supply the drinks.

There will be a Costume Contest…with prizes, so come with an interesting costume.

Prizes for…scariest, funniest, most medieval (lightning patrol insisted on this one), most realistic, and most original.

A Troop Eagle Court of Honor will be held on Thursday, October 22 for all the awards and badges earned since the June Court of Honor. Dinner will be served. The dinner will start at 6:30 PM and awards will start about 7:15 PM. The evening will conclude around 8:30 PM

Scouts attending the October backpack trip have been instructed to come to the October 15 troop meeting with their packs full packed, and food ready to go. If there is fresh food involved for some parts of their meal, the need not bring that on thursday. The intent of this early shakedown is to make sure scouts are fully prepared for this exciting trip, and also so we can leave the parking lot right on time on Friday afternoon, as we’re racing the sunset.

To make this effort a little more interesting, we are adding a contest with some interesting prizes. The troop has decided that we no longer need our 1 man lightweight backpacking tents. These are nice tents, but turned out to be too small for boy scout trips, where we typically double up scouts in a tent…so they have been going unused. But they are great for 1 person. So we will give away two tents to winners of the following contests. This is open to all scouts, whether they are going on the campout or not. Scouts just need to come packed up as if they were going in order to enter the contest.

(1) Best packed backpack for a 2night trip.

Judging criteria:
* Contains all required checklist items.
* Creativity in reducing weight.
* Little/no unnecessary items.
* Critical pack contents are protected from water.
* Pack contents are efficiently and securely packed
* Fancy/expensive gear is NOT part of the criteria. Do the best with what you have or can easily get.

(2) Best backpacking meals

Judging criteria:
* Packed compactly, without excessive packaging
* Packed in an orderly fashion
* Nutritious/high energy/sufficient calories
* Appears tasty
* Limited unnecessary weight (emphasis on dry or dense foods)
* Total weight is NOT a criteria, as bigger scouts need to eat more to get the required energy on the trail.

Participating scouts should line up their packs along the wall in the main hallway when they arrive on Thursday night. If any questions… scouts can call/email Mr. Bedard at any time.

Milford High School track

This Venture-only meeting will include road-to-eagle planning discussions. Mr. Bedard will have the detailed advancement records for each Life Scout available that night to assist in our planning. Scouts with active Eagle Service Projects should also come prepared to brief the group on the project status and plans for completion.

Agenda

(1) Finance – Roll out of new budget discussed at last meeting (Deb, 5min)
(2) Training Status, incl discussion of ideas for Hi Adv training (1staid/CPR) – (Stacey, 5min)
(3) Advancement Status / Participation Policy / Invite recent Eagles as ASMs? – (Phil, 5min)
(4) Summer Camp debrief, and 2010 camp kickoff – (Tom S, 5min)
(5) High Adventure – debrief of subcommittee meeting (Pat, 5min)
(6) Safe Scouting Incident / Path Forward (Phil/Peter- 10min)
(7) Pancake kickoff (e.g., dates, incentives, establish subcom) – (Peter/Phil, 5 min)
(8) Season Kickoff Plans (venture meeting / new scout leader meeting) – (Phil, 5min)
(9) Committee/ASM volunteers to take logistics lead (CMs), or supervision lead (ASMs) on key Q3/4 activities – (Peter/Phil, 10min)
– Pig pickup/dropoff (for Nov campout)
– Cemetery Cleanup
– Xmas Tree pickup
– COH setup subcommittee (may need fresh blood here)
– Webelo recruiting events
– Treberchet supervisor (fall wood project)
– Venture nights (at least once per month)
– Scouting for Food
(10) Eagle Project Financing proposal (Phil/DaveK, 5min)
(11) Church relations (DaveK, 5min)
(12) Troop Mtg / Campout projects for the season (All, 5min)
– Repair collapsing cabinet
– New ditty bags for chef kits
– Treberchet
– other?
(13) Venture activities/ideas (BobG, 5min)
– shotgun night (LA volunteered again)
– speakers
– other?
(14) Equipment (Phil, 2min)
– vote on gifting of the cheapo bpack tents (texsport 1man)
(15) Other topics (Peter)