Scoutmaster's Blog

Tonight (3/12) - Online Training: "Push To Survive" CPR training

• Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, access to the Fire Station and personnel has been restricted (I just found out a few minutes ago). I agree that the last thing we need is to have our first responders unable to function because they are sick. Keep them in your prayers.

• We will not meet tonight. Please take time tonight to watch the two videos on https://pushtosurvive.org : How to do CPR and How to use an AED. Before we sign off the requirement(s), we'll quiz them regarding what they learned.

Campout (3/13-3/14) Meet at my house @ 4:00 PM

• Prepare for rain and cold

• Bring permission slip (and, if not already turned in, a medical form)

• Bring you food assignment and hand-sanitizer (and treats)

• Due to impending rain and approval of the PLC, we *might* bike Friday evening instead of Saturday morning

• Return time - unknown due to inclement weather. I'll let you all know via email when we leave Antelope Island which should give you an hour's notice.

Food Drive - 3/21 @ 9:30 to 11:30 AM @ 4080 West 12600 South

• I need lots of volunteers (even if you can stay the entire time). We will be the ONLY troop / group manning this drop off location.

• Please let me know if you can help

• MUST wear uniform

Regular Troop meeting - 3/19 @ my house - more info to follow.

Service Night - 3/26 @ 5:30 PM - Meet at Utah Food Bank

• Please wear your uniform

• Please let me know if you can go, I need to give the Food Bank a head-count.

House keeping items:

One of the side effects of being disconnected from the Church is that we have to pay our own way. There are fundraisers that you can do on your own (like popcorn or jerky) and we will be doing one as a troop (more details to come). Regardless of how the money is earned, each scout must pay their own way. Our major expenses are: awards, camp-outs, and a place to meet. We have a large enough group that $15 a month should cover those things. But we need everyone to do their part.

Upcoming Court of Honor - 4/30 @ 7:00 PM. We will only purchase awards earned in our troop AFTER 1/1/2020. If it was earned before then, you will need to either have your old unit purchase it, or purchase it yourself. We can/will award them with the rest. Also, if a scout is not current on their dues, we will not purchase the awards. Our Advancement Chairman is Ken Wheeler: ken@wheeler.com - 385-203-8370. Please note, a Court of Honor is much more than recognition for advancement. it gives the boys a chance to reflect and celebrate together and it give us (the adult troop leadership) a chance to address all of the parents.

Campouts - starting in April, we will require those attending the campouts to be current with their dues.

Registering with the Troop - Thanks for everyone's cooperation. We are making good progress in registering those attending. We are still several short and we'd like to get them added as soon as possible. I can't track advancement without them registered.

Summer Camp @ Teton Council's Island Park. - 7/20-7/25. $265 - due 6/4. $50 deposit due by 4/28 (Court of Honor). We are also looking to purchase t-shirts and they usually run $10 each. For the older boys, they will be hiking around in Yellowstone - we still have to work out the details but they will be with the troop Monday and Tuesday morning, then again Thursday night through Saturday morning and we'll have to work that out with the camp director, but plan on the $265. Part of that will pay for the time at camp, the rest should cover the costs while in Yellowstone.

For upcoming events, please refer to the calendar.

Since my last post on 1/9:

• We've gone ice skating at the Olympic Oval (on 1/16)

• We had a shake-down camp at Willow Park in Lehi on 1/17-1/18. We had quite the group come. We had 30 boys and several leaders show up. It definitely was cold enough to count as a winter camp, but we didn't have to fight with the snow to setup our sprawling tent community. Our youth leaders were great. They got camp setup, the fire started, and dinner cooked. Most turned in pretty early and I don't blame them, it did get cold, and unless you were right next to fire, it was pretty cold. In the morning we made enough pancakes to feed a small army (or a large troop) and we made donuts (all of which were eaten). The morning activities consisted of a 5 mile trail hike on which they were able to identify 10 animals and 10 plants. Others used GPS to mark red solo cups and swap coordinates with another team and then went and found them. A few helped me with an orienteering game. And the rest remained in camp.

• We've worked on Citizenship in the community - starting on 1/9 and a follow-up on 1/23. The merit badge counselor has asked for one more night, so we'll need to squeeze that in somewhere.

• On 1/21, several attended a city council meeting for the City of South Jordan. It was very interesting this time and I really appreciate how thoughtful our city leaders are - proud to be live in South Jordan. Did you know, that the art-work on the electrical power boxes was done under the direction of the City's Art Council? Pretty cool! And they've got more coming that will add wonderful character to our community.

Wow! What a great evening. The crew at the station was great and gave the boys a tour. When they got back and settled in, they filled EVERY seat in the room. We had 34 scouts in attendance! It's going to take a few meetings to get settled into a routine and get positions of responsibilities assigned. We did make a new patrol. At this point we have the following patrols (all of which have 6-8) boys:

• Dank Doggies

• Legit Llamas

• Blue Phoenix

• Fire Wolves

• Snapping Turtles

I've asked each patrol to have a quatermaster and scribe. They will report to the head quartermaster and head scribe. The head quatermaster (a position yet to be assigned), will work with and coordinate efforts with the quatermaster corps. The same for the scribes. These groups will need to meet monthly (the quartermasters will need to make sure each patrol has what the need for each camp).

I've also asked that there be a corp of historians. One will act as the head historian, another will be the webmaster. The remaining will take turns with photography and blogging about events that have occurred.

From the older patrols, we need to assign:

• Troop Guide(s) (1 per new scout patrol)

• OA Rep

• Librarian (not only keeps track of our library, but the merit badge counselor list as well)

• Bugler (someone to keep us on schedule)

• Instructor(s) (older scouts who teach the skill)

• Chaplain's Aid

• Junior Assistant Scoutmaster(s)

I've ordered troop number patches and they should be coming soon. I'll check with the patrols leaders and order the patrol patches.

Charter Renewal

We are still getting things together for submitting the charter. Once it has been processed, we can accept new applications. I'll let the group know as when we submit it, and when it has been processed.

This was our first meeting at Fire Station #62 in South Jordan. What a great facility! We were able to get more registrations turned in and made great progress on our 2020 calendar.

Considering the conflicting events I was pleased with the attendance. Elk Ridge Middle school’s bands played (and I had to duck out and dash over to listen to my son play). From what I remember, there were other schools performing that night as well.

On December 19th, we will have a Patrol Leaders’ Council meeting. This is all elected patrol leaders or their appointees, the Senior Patrol Leader (SPL), the Assistant Senior Patrol Leader (ASPL), the head Scribe, and the head Quartermaster (yet to be appointed). We will meet at my house. Our goal will be to lay out 2020.

Our FIRST troop meeting in 2020 will be on January 9th. We will meet at the fire station and present the calendar for the year (among other things).

See you then!

A big shout-out and thanks to our hosts (docents) at the Gale Center in South Jordan! That’s the first time I’ve been there and it’s a great asset to our community. I’m partial to the Bingham Copper mine display (and the model trains on it) and the Model-T on display.

With our numbers growing we split the troop into 4 patrols: 1 venture patrol (16+ year old), 2 regular patrols, and 1 new scout patrol (but I think that one will split soon). The scouts elected patrol leadership and started planning out next year. Some made more headway than others. The venture patrol has selected the Blue Phoenix for their patrol and the new scout patrol picked the Legit Llama. I think the other two patrols selected something but I didn’t get that info (If someone let’s me know, I’ll update this). For the curious, we’ll be getting these from TradingPost.classb.com.

Our next meeting is scheduled for 12/12 at Fire Station 62 at 10400 S and 4000 W in South Jordan. I would ask that the scouts from the older venture patrol come and help the other patrols get caught up. I would also hope that we’d have enough of the new scouts to split that patrol. I know that there will be several Christmas season programs going on (and I may have to quickly duck out to make my son’s performance at Elk Ridge).

I was able to accept several more on-line applications for scout today and we’re making headway on our re-charter efforts. Hopefully we can turn it into the council offices soon.

We’ve put our courts of honor dates on the 2020 calendar. Please check back on that page often so you know when and where we meet and what we’re doing.

I’m am VERY excited to share some great news. Our troop has been adopted (charted) by the South Jordan Firefighters’ Union – Local 3851! It will be great to be attached to such a distinguished group of people – our community’s first-responders. Our Charter Rep is Christopher “Swiz” Wright and we thank him for his willingness to help us. In their honor, we will be changing our troop number to 3851!

For the most part, we will meet at the firehouse #62 on 4000 West and 10400 South. I’d like to make sure that, weather permitting, we’re spending time outside and we’ll use this firehouse’s parking lot as a gathering place.

There will be times when that room isn’t available. As an alternative, we have someone on our committee that will cover the fees at the Gale Center – 10300 South Beckstead Lane (this is tucked east of the Smith’s on 10400 South and Redwood Road).

With both facilities, I would hope that we’d remember that we are guests in someone else’s house.

Please bookmark http://about.sojoscouts.info (I’ll keep it up-to-date)

Upcoming meetings:

• December 5th – This will be a busy night (Meet at the Gale Center) Don’t miss this one!

  • Registration – we’ll need a parent to register their scout for 2020 (if not already done).

  • Uniform inspections (currently, we only ask they have a scout shirt).

  • Patrol splits – yes! We’ve grown to the point where we need to split both patrols, so this means patrol elections.

  • Patrol meetings – each patrol, after selecting their patrol leader needs to work with their patrol and pick monthly themes and select places to go camping

• December 12th – Meet at firehouse #62 (4000 W 104000 S) Don’t miss this one.

  • Assignments of positions of responsibilities

  • Patrol meetings:

    • Finish patrol calendars

    • Pick a patrol name, work on patrol flags and yell.

    • The Patrol Leaders will take their calendars to the PLC on December 19th where the final calendar will be formed.

• December 19th – Patrol Leaders’ Council Only (my house: 10351 S 3970 W)

  • Senior Patrol Leader (SPL) / Assistant SPL (ASPL)

  • Scribe(s) (this role might split out membership and advancement duties)

  • Patrol Leaders (and Assistants at the Patrol Leaders’ request)

  • Head Quartermaster

  • Troop Guides (These mentor the Patrol Leaders of the New Scout Patrols)

  • Order of the Arrow rep

• December 26 – Holiday Break

• January 2 – Holiday Break

• January 9 – Troop Meeting / Parents Meeting – share the 2020 Calendar

Items of interest:

To keep the fun of District Campouts alive, I’ll be in close contact with our neighboring troops: Troop 7 @ Sagewood in Daybreak, Troop 111 @ the American Heritage School in South Jordan, and Troop 8220 in Herriman (those troop numbers might be off). I hope that we can get together on a spring campout and fall campout and enjoy the camaraderie of scouting!

Camping Gear:

We have a trailer and have started gathering gear. Any camping / cooking gear would be greatly appreciated.

What a great evening! Things started off slow, but as they got to know each other, it was fun to see them work through the games as teams. I’m not sure, but I think someone does a great imitation of Shaggy (Scooby-Doo)

In a troop, the scouts are divided into three types of patrols:

1. New Scout Patrols – these are for those who are striving for the First Class rank

2. Regular Patrols – these are for those between First Class and Eagle

3. Venture Patrols – these are for those who have earned or close to earning their Eagle who want to plan and go on more high-adventure activities.

The scouts were divided into one new scout patrol and one regular patrol (these are those who are either registered with the troop or who showed up):

1. New Scout Patrol (we might have to split this one soon)

   • Jared W. – Patrol Leader

   • Isaac L. – Assistant Patrol Leader ****

   • Caleb B.

   • Chase J. **

   • Grayson O.

   • Samual F. **

   • Brock G.

   • Issac Y. **

2. Regular Scout Patrol (we have to split this one – perhaps spin up a venture patrol)

   • Tyler B. – Patrol Leader

   • Joshua L. – Assistant Patrol Leader ****

   • Easton S. ****

   • Brigham J. ****

   • Landon I. **

   • Isaac E. **

   • Jeff B. **

   • Levi H. **

   • Jesse B.

   • Matt Y. **

3. The elected Senior Patrol Leader and Assistant:

   • Matt B. – SPL **

   • Greg T. – ASPL

Here’s what we need to accomplish over our next few meetings:

1. We need to assess where everyone stands in their advancement. This is critical for activity planning.

   • I’ve sent requests to connect via Scoutbook to several of your scouts. (this with **)

   • I’ll need the follow (****) to register:

   • Isaac L, Joshua L, Easton S, and Brigham J.

   • http://register.sojoscouts.info

   • ******* PLEASE remember to un-check the Boy’s Life subscription *******

2. Complete the Intro to Troop Leadership Training. Scouting is a boy lead program, but they need to be trained. They need to catch the vision of why. Then they need to know how: How to take on the responsibility and do it well, how to delegate responsibilities, and how to rely on each other.

3. They need to plan next year’s calendar:

   • For the regular patrols – a monthly theme tied to a merit badge

   • For the new patrols – a monthly focus to help them reach first class

   • A monthly camp-out

4. Patrol names / flags / yells

Troop meeting dates (proposed calendar – subject to change):

• See Troop Calendar Page

A few little house-keeping items:

• Our provisional charter expires on 12/31 – the renewal fee is $33 per person. We’ll start the recharter process in October and finish by mid November

• We (the committee) is contemplating aligning with other Scout BSA troops and asking for a monthly $10 due ($120 annually). This will cover the next year’s membership fee and should cover most of advancement. Annually, the income/expenses will be fully disclosed to all parents.

Thanks to all who contributed and showed up for the event. Considering the conflicts that existed, we had a great showing.

Items that were discussed:

1. A charter partner: Since the PTA opted out, we will seek to take up the offer from Firefighter’s union associated with Unified Fire. They have offered to let us meet at the fire station in Copperton which is roughly 7 miles west of Elk Ridge Middle school. The general consensus reached was that the distance wouldn’t be a problem. I’m sure we could setup carpools to aid in the transportation.

2. Uniforms: Ideally, we’d love to have everyone in full uniform. However, since this adds to the financial burden, the group agreed that we’d require the scouts have a field uniform shirt, but not require official scout pants nor socks. As the fundraising progresses, we’d re-visit this issue. I’d also encourage activity uniforms (t-shirts) for most activities / troop meetings.

3. Expenses / Financing / Fund Raising:

   1. Expenses

      1. Annually, each person (adult and scout) will need to pay about $33

      2. The unit pays $40 per year for the charter

      3. Each scout will be required to cover their own expenses for things like awards

      4. Summer camp will probably run about $400

   2. Fund Raising Options

      1. Pop-corn sales

      2. Council’s Camp Card

      3. Troop fundraiser – like flags

4. Schedule:

   1. Next meeting will be on 9/26 at my house. Just scouts this time. They will form patrols and elect troop leadership

   2. October 24, the troop will plan out next year.

      1. Monthly themes

      2. Monthly camp-outs

   3. 2020 – we will plan on meeting on Thursday nights so at to not conflict with youth nights. We will start meeting weekly on January 2nd, 2020.

5. Camp-outs:

   1. We are no longer restricted by distance, but I’m sure the scouts would prefer to be out of the vehicle. So, unless there’s a compelling reason, I’d still prefer to remain close.

   2. We are not required to come home on Sundays, but I prefer to attend my church meetings, so we’ll return Saturday.

   3. Initially, we’ll do food assignments to spread the cost around

   4. Week-long summer camp – we can go where-ever we want … so, I’m looking for ideas