Trail Talk – 12/30/24

Good afternoon Troop 244 Scouts, Scouters and Parents!

Wow!! We are only 2 days aware from a new year! Tomorrow is the last day of 2024 and Wednesday begins 2025! Isn’t that exciting. Personally I am hoping that 2025 will be much better than this last year was! What exciting goals do you have for yourself in the new year? I am not talking about “new year’s resolutions”. I am talking about actual goals that you can set for yourself that are attainable in the new year. We often refer to them as “SMART” goals. (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Timely). Think about that as you head into the new year! I am wishing everyone a Happy New Year!! I hope you have a great start to 2025! We will see you all in a week!

Some announcements, just to keep in mind while we are on break:

  • NO MEETINGS – Just a reminder that there will be NO MEETINGS over Winter Break. We will NOT meet tomorrow, Tuesday, December 31. We will resume meetings NEXT week after Winter Break on January 7th. We will also begin new merit badges at that time.
  • REGISTRATION – If you have not paid your reregistration fee for the next calendar year yet, please make sure you do so. TOMORROW, is the last day for you to pay for your scout or yourself to be registered in scouting! If you don’t renew your membership by tomorrow, you will have to go through all of the paperwork again! Since we don’t have troop meetings right now, you can pay your registration online at https://bit.ly/pay244
  • MACKINAC RENDEZOUVOUS CONTINGENT – August 9 – 16, 2025. The Southwest Michigan contingent is hosted by Troop 623 this year. At our troop meeting on January 14th, Mr. Carr will be giving our troop a 15-minute presentation on this wonderful opportunity, right after opening flags!
  • JANUARY CAMPOUT PIONEER SCOUT RESERVATION JANUARY 17 – 19TH. Our next campout will be in January! Permission slip is attached. The cost will be $40 per person. You can pay for this campout https://bit.ly/pay244 and you will need to fil out the permission slip and turn that in on January 7th.
  • CALENDAR CHANGE!! FEBRUARY CAMPOUT! – Our February campout was originally scheduled for the weekend of February 21st. Due to some issues with booking a place for us to go, I had to move that campout up 1 weekend. Our February Campout will now be the weekend of February 14 – 16th! We will be camping at Camp Gerber in Muskegon.
  • SUMMER CAMP 2025 – We are going to start hitting this hard when we return from break! We will need YOU to signup, pay, get your medical form done and start thinking about merit badges! Be ready to start taking care of this soon!

Scoutmaster Minute – LOYALTY. I have been doing a lot of thinking this break about the Scout Law. I think I am going to take some time over the next weeks to focus on the 12 points of the Law. The first point I want to focus on is that of Loyalty. Webster’s Dictionary defines Loyalty as “the quality of being faithful to a person or cause that deserves allegiance or affection”. Phew, that seems heavy! I started thinking about this law because I was thinking about all the people that have come in and out of my life over the years. There are a lot of people that at one point in time I called “friends” but then these so-called friends’ kind of just up and disappeared. They stopped staying in touch, even when I would reach out. It dawned on me that many of these people had a purpose for me in their lives and when I had served that purpose, they moved on from me. However, there are many people in my life who have remained “loyal” to our friendship. I met with a group of guys last night that are all alumni of 244 and have been friends of mine ranging from 7 years to 35 years. The thing about these guys is that they have never wavered in their friendship and when I have needed them, they have always been there, regardless of the last time we talked. That is true Loyalty. To me, loyalty doesn’t just cover relationships, but it covers “ideas” such as the ideas that are put forth in scouting. Do I follow the Scout Law and Oath every single moment, of every single day in my life? No, that is impossible. But I try to remain loyal to these ideas and try to follow them the best that I am able. Having been a part of 244 for a long time now, I can tell you that our troop is one that fully believes and supports the ideals of the Scout Law and Oath. If you come into our troop and get nothing else out of being in our troop, we hope that you walk away with a genuine belief in and loyalty to the Scout Law and Oath. That brings me to my last part of this and that is the idea of being loyal to an organization or entity that you are a part of. I have always been a very loyal individual to the places where I have worked (different schools over the years) and to organizations that I have been a part of, especially that of Troop 244 and Scouting America. My belief is that Troop 244 has always been headed in a direction that supports SCOUTS. That is what my dad believed in, and it is what I believe in. We believed together, along with your adult leaders, that Troop 244 is a place where you can find loyalty and you can walk away living by the Scout Oath and Law. All I need to do to point out loyalty to Troop 244 is to point to all the Eagle Scouts and former scouts that have been present over these last weeks, whether that be for my dad’s visitation and funeral or for the holiday part we just had a couple of weeks ago. I could point out all the adult leaders who show up week after week after week to help out, even adult leaders who no longer had scouts in the program! Who are you loyal to? Where do your loyalties lie when it comes to family, friends, school, sports, organizations, scouts? How do you demonstrate your loyalty to others? Could you do better in demonstrating the 2nd point of the scout law: Loyalty? These may be questions you want to ask yourself in this new year.

 “What Troop Does More!!” – 244