Trail Talk – 1/13/25

Here are our Troop announcements for the week:

1. JANUARY CAMPOUT PIONEER SCOUT RESERVATION JANUARY 17 – 19TH. THIS WEEKEND!! We are looking to have a great time at one of our favorite camps, but we need scouts to be there! We need you to sign up for our January campout THIS Tuesday night!! The campout is this weekend! We need to know the numbers of adults and scouts going on the campout as soon as possible! We will be grocery shopping for this campout on Wednesday or Thursday this week, so we need to know how much food to buy. If you. The cost will be $40 per person. You can pay for this campout on Tuesday night or at https://bit.ly/pay244 and you will need to fil out the permission slip(attached to this email) and turn that in on Tuesday night as well. We need to have a hard copy of the permission slip, that cannot be turned in electronically.

4. MACKINAC SCOUT SERVICE CAMP CONTINGENT – August 9 – 16, 2025. The Southwest Michigan contingent is hosted by Troop 623 this year. AT THIS WEEK’S TROOP MEETING, RIGHT AFTER OPENING FLAGS, MR. CARR, WHO IS ONE OF THE LEADERS FOR OUR MACKINAC CONTINGENT WILL BE GIVING A PRESENTATION ABOUT WHAT THIS IS AND WHAT YOU CAN DO IF YOU WANT TO PARTICIPATE IN IT! IT IS A PRETTY COOL EXPERIENCE FROM WHAT I UNDERSTAND!

5. CALENDAR CHANGE!! FEBRUARY CAMPOUT! –Our February Campout will be the weekend of February 14 – 16th! We will be camping at Camp Gerber in Muskegon. I will be sending out permission slips and we will start signing people up for this right after the January campout is over with! Look at your calendars now and see if you can go! This is our annual Thanksgiving Dinner campout so come along and fellowship with your fellow scouts.

6. PHYSICAL FORMS! – Every Scout and Leader that goes to summer camp, boundary waters or the mini-high adventure MUST have an up-to-date BSA PHYSICAL FORM filled out! No, this can’t be your athletic physical from school. It must be the BSA Form and must be all parts of the form, Part A, B1, B2 and C. No, it cannot be the one from last year either! Even if you got one done last year, they are only good for 1 year! You must get it done again this year! We will not be doing physicals this year at the troop. You must get this done on your own. BSA Physical Form is attached to this email. You do need to have a completed Scouts Physical Form, Parts A, B1, B2 and C for Boundary Waters. No Form, No Trip. WE NEED ALL PHYSICAL FORMS TURNED IN BY MAY 1ST.

7. BOUNDARY WATERS –I still have 1 spot open for Boundary Waters and it will go to the first person to contact me about it and put down the deposit fee of $100. For all the rest of you going, payments need to start being made in January of $200/month. Please pay Sherry. PLEASE MAKE SURE TO MAKE PAYMENTS IN A TIMELY MANNER!! This is important folks! I sent out an information packet on Boundary Waters to all the parents going on the trip this weekend. Make sure you look for that email and read that packet over.

8. SUMMER CAMP 2025 – It is time to start signing up for Summer Camp 2025!! We will be attending Pioneer Scout Reservation once again the week of June 15 – 21st! The cost for Summer Camp this year is $430 per scout and $215 per adult. We are often one of the biggest scout units out at summer camp and I want that tradition to continue! I want as many scouts as possible from Troop 244 to come to summer camp! It is such an amazing and great time! You will work on merit badges, rank advancements, plus do so many other amazing activities like WATERBALL, ROOT BEER CANTINA, POOL BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT, OPEN SWIM, OPEN BOAT, OPEN SHOOT and I could go on and on! We do not want to wait until the last minute to sign up for this! We need you to sign up as soon as possible. For us to keep the cost at what it is, we must have all monies paid to the camp by the end of April. If you pay after April, the cost goes up! Please start signing your scout up now and paying for summer camp. We will hold an information meeting on camp in April! You do need to have a completed Scouts Physical Form, Parts A, B1, B2 and C for Summer Camp. No Form, No camp. All Physical Forms are due to the troop by May 1st.

Scoutmaster Minute – OBEDIENT. Wow, do we all hear this word a lot or what?! I think as kids growing up, we are all used to hearing this word. Our parents, teachers, and other adults always want us to be “obedient” to what they say. When we get older, we must be obedient to other things like bosses, business leaders, and our government. When you think about this though, what does “obedient” really encompass. Is it just doing what we are told to do or is there more to it than that. I tend to think there must be more to it than that. For the first time in my life, I am being called to Jury Duty. I must report tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. Because of this, I don’t know if I will be at scouts or not. It is a huge disruption to my regular life and schedule. In all honesty, it is not something that I want to do at all. However, does that mean I am going to ignore it or not do it? Not at all. As scouts, we are obedient to not only authority but to responsibility and obligation as well. As a citizen of the United States, it is my duty to do my job as a citizen and to report for Jury Duty. It is an obligation that I have towards my country and my fellow humans. I have obligations as a citizen to obey the law. As a teacher, I have obligations to be obedient to my Principal and other administrative staff. If I am not, then I get in trouble or even fired. As a youth, you have obligations to obey your parents and your teachers. If you don’t, then you get in trouble someway. You might be denied something at home or receive detention/suspension at school. There are consequences to not being obedient, so then why do often rebel against obedience. It often happens when we don’t agree with someone or something. What is the best way to handle that situation then? Is it to go off on some sort of tirade and throw a hissy fit! Is it to simply not be obedient. As scouts, we learn that those are not the best ways to handle situations. First and foremost, we are called to be Obedient according to the Scout Law. If we disagree with someone or something, then we should handle that situation in a better way. I am going to talk about a little more in conjunction with another of the laws in another scoutmaster minute!

“What Troop Does More!!” – 244