Upcoming Troop Meetings
Troop meeting plans are posted on the website.

12/5/2013          Hobby Night
12/12/2013        Merit Badges
12/12/2013        Yankee Swap at United Methodist
1/2/2014            Model Building and dioramas
1/9/2014            Model Building and dioramas
1/16/2014          Merit Badges

Upcoming Events
12/7-8 Cardinal Spellman Center, Whitman MA
Camp In and Gold Rush Shakedown
Our annual campin starts at 1PM and ends at 8:30 AM Sunday. The scouts may bring electronics and board games. We will have a pizza party for dinner and wrap the night with a late night movie.

Nativity Setup
We are scheduled to set up the Nativity scene this Sunday after the 9:30AM mass. We need a few taller folks to help with the roof sections, they are very heavy. This event usually takes less than an hour depending on how much help we can get. If you can give us the time, the church (our sponsor) would be really appreciative.

January is Model Month
We will be building scale models in January and for those who want a challenge, we will be learning about how to build a diorama. We encourage the scouts to select their own model to build or bring for our January meetings. Christmas break is a great time to do this.

Harry’s Hobbies in Norton is a great shop and has offered scouts a discount, so wear your shirt!
http://mymummy.com/

2/7-9 2014 Camp Sayre, Milton MA
Gold Rush
We are planning our 7th Gold Rush on February 8th, 2014 at Camp Sayre. Invitations will go out this summer. Our Governors this year are AndrewN and Gibs. Our next meeting is during the campin.

Santa Breakfast
The parish has not decided to run the Santa Breakfast this year and with under a week to go it will not be possible to put this event together. Our next sponsor event is Scout Sunday on February 2nd and we will again sponsor the First Communion Breakfast on May 4th.

2/27 Moomba Feast and Court of Honor
Our annual Moomba pot luck dinner and court of honor is coming soon. This is an old Scouting tradition begun by Lord Baden Powell himself. Before the dinner we will have a display of Scouting collections for you to take a look at. Any Scout who wishes to show off their collections should bring them in that night.

4/27 Soapbox Derby
We will be running a full-sized soapbox derby in April at the Spellman Parking lot. Plans are available on the troop website and we estimate it will take most of the winter to build your cars. More info as we approach the race!

Summer Camp 2014
We are booked into Wanalancet site again next year. In January we will begin collecting reservation fees for our week in the woods. Parents who wish to attend for some or all of the week are welcome too!

Potpourri
Parent Meeting
Our monthly parents meeting is 12/12/13 at 8PM in the Spellman center. We are looking for some help in upcoming activities and could also use some longer term assistance with troop records and advancement.

Gillette Fund-raiser
Our year is winding down at Gillette. We have been very fortunate with this and we use the funds with the 80/20 split allowing the individual scout accounts to pay for a lot of program features for those scout families who participate. If you are willing to commit to working the booth these events please contact Mrs. Mills and Mr. Moss who are leading this fund-raiser.
Sun, Dec 8 1:00 PM
Sun, Dec 29 1:00 PM

Troop Elections
Twice each year we have elections for the Senior Patrol Leader and Patrol Leaders. These young men are the directors of the program in the troop, taking their patrol’s requests and making the events happen during their 6 month term.

Requirements for a Patrol Leader include holding the rank of First Class and committing to attend all PLC meeting and at least 75% of all other troop events and meetings. The SPL must be Star rank and should have held another position in the troop.

These scouts will not be perfect in their job, they are learning to lead. But the skills they learn will be with them the rest of their lives.

New Scouts Coming Soon
It always seems so soon but we are only a couple of months from welcoming new scouts to the troop. The transition from Webelos to Scout can be hard. So many things change and the group dynamics, including the shift from adult run to boy run, are difficult.

We will be appointing an experienced scout to be their Troop Guide, But I would also ask if there are some parents who would be willing to help communicate and welcome the new parents to the troop as well. If yo9u are willing to help, please let Mr. Warner know.

Whitewater Trip in May
We are planning another trip to the Deerfield River in western MA to tackle the Whitewater. We are looking for an event coordinator to plan and arrange the trip. If you are interested, please see Mr. Warner.

Eagle Scout Information Night
A special session will be presented at the January 30th meeting starting at 8 PM. We will explain the steps, requirements and paperwork aspects of the Eagle rank. This is a chance for the scout and parents to learn what it takes to attain this rank in Scouting. We will have handouts with tips and internet links and will answer all questions about how to get to Eagle. We recommend that any scout who is Star or higher attend with at least one parent. Younger scouts and parents may also attend if they want as well.

Scoutmaster’s Corner
Back when Scouting was young, one of our national leaders was Ernest Thompson Seton. He was called the Chief Scout and he often visited troops and asked Scouts about the Good Turns they had done. He wrote a story about one of his visits in Boys' Life in 1912. To understand the story you have to know that in those days there were no automatic washing machines. Clothes were scrubbed in washtubs and wrung out by a machine called a mangle which you operated by turning a crank.

Seton asked a Scout about any Good Turns he had done, and the Scout said, "I guess I did a good many Good Turns." He explained, "My mother, she takes in washing, and I turned the mangle, and I guess I gave it a good many good turns."

The other Scouts laughed, of course, but Seton asked him, "Was it your regular job to turn the mangle, and did you get paid for it?" "No," the Scout said.

Seton replied, "Well, then, you did your good turn all right enough, and one of the very best kind."

As you can see from this story, the Good Turn has been around for a long time. And it's the same thing it was then - an act of kindness for which you don't get paid.