Troop 132

Outdoor summer game meetings are going well. The Patrol Leaders Council (PLC) meeting was held last Monday, August 24 and the next PLC is scheduled for Monday 9/14 from 6 - 7:30 pm. I also encourage all senior scouts to attend the PLC, even if you don’t have a current position of responsibility. You can learn and participate in the decisions of the troop. The PLC put a lot of work into planning the September 19th Scout Day at Camp Acton. Similar to our Troop Klondike Derby, this one-day (9:00 am to 3:00 pm) outing will set up camp, break into patrols, use the buddy system to go through several “stations” where older scouts can teach younger scouts, and all scouts can test their knowledge and skills. Some stations will include tent/campsite preparation and set up, stove choices, stove operations for propane and liquid fuel, and first aid which will include burns, hypothermia, blisters, heat stroke, altitude sickness for the Philmont crew, and etc. Totn’ Chip will also be started (knife, ax, saws). We will have a noontime meal for those scouts looking for advancement for preparing and cooking a hot lunch meal. Scouts can bring their own lunch and in all cases social distancing and following the guidelines will help to prevent Covid. All are encouraged to attend and especially the younger scouts who did not have the opportunity to do a “trailblazer” summer camp program where they can earn Totn’chip and Firen’Chit. Of course, this will be fun and dynamic scouts in action. We decided to do a program focused on scout skills to kick off the year on learning and practicing good scouting.

Don’t forget, September 8th we will welcome our new scouts with a North Bridge Cross Over Event. 
Good work from Henry and Lucas on conducting trail cleanups. They took a lot of trash out of the Rifle Range and some trash along the Nashoba Brook. This is good scouting and good citizenship.
Good work for Life Scout Kevin O’Neil on completing his library project and Lucas Anthony is building his project this weekend (see signup above). You can learn woodworking and get some tool experience with wrenches, sockets, and drills. To me, these are essential must-have skills all scouts should have including changing a tire. Someday we will do that for the automotive merit badge, but one thing at a time.
Looking ahead, the PLC is looking to host our September meetings outdoors and we will need to make adjustments to our schedule to capture daylight. Stay tuned because we are losing daylight and will need to start the meetings earlier and earlier.  More information in the announcements.

I am going to take some time off from writing the Scoutmaster message. 

Tropical storm warnings canceled our Orienteering meeting at Fairyland and we will move that event to August 11. Sunset will be coming earlier so our meeting is now at 6:30 pm start and end at 7:45 pm. On August 18, we will be back at Emerson Field with a bike trip. The outdoor meetings have worked well and it’s been great to see so many scouts interacting in a safe manner. All of you are doing a good job of keeping this virus contained by your good use of social distancing and masks. Well done scouts.

Kevin O’Neil is finishing up his project and he has acted as the leader while the scouts and he have performed the work. You should all be proud of good workmanship. Very impressive scouts and good teamwork helping each other with the Eagle projects. I encourage all our scouts to help as you can learn how to use tools and build something with pride that will help the community.

Our first meeting in September will be a cross over meeting with the new scouts and the plan is to assemble at North Bridge (permit pending) at 6 pm on 9/8/2020. The time and place will allow parents and friends to socially distance and support their scouts' journey to scouting.

The Troop Committee met this past week and we really are trying to put a program together with the PLC that would enable scouts to do scouting, but we will need parent support to drive and pickup. Since we have had some success with meetings and small hikes, we would like to do a bike trip type meeting and our first outing in September will be a day trip. The details and planning need work from the PLC and we are taking our planning in 2-3 month increments.

We have not formally introduced this but outdoor meetings have gone well and the thought that we may continue with this format until weather forces us inside in the fall. This will need more planning and changes to our schedule.

I’m really happy to say that both the scouts and parents are eagerly coming up with flexible options and to provide some good scouting opportunities. It won’t be quite the same but we have a creative group of scouts that will look to do some “cool” and neat events this fall and all within the guidelines of being safe and meeting every regulation and guideline. Stay tuned but suffice to say we will have a good program for our scouts that will be both challenging and provide some good learning opportunities.