Pedernales Backpacking Campout

Good afternoon T1631!

 

Here are a few updates for our upcoming Pedernales  Falls State Park backpacking trip Friday May 21 to Sunday May 23rd:

 

One of the classic Hill Country Hikes!

The Wolf Mountain Trail is considered one of the premier Hill Country hikes, one that is relatively easy and should be enjoyed by more T1631 scouts and parents. Remember to bring your digital camera.Hit this link to learn about the area:

http://www.texashiking.com/Locations/ShowLocation.aspx?LocationID=1481

 

Backpacking equipment sharing needed-

If you do not plan  to join us but have backpacks, sleeping pads, sleeping bags and other gear you would be willing to lend to other scouts, please bring that gear to tomorrows meeting. Many of our younger scouts wish to participate but do not have needed stuff...... Your fellow scouters appreciate your generosity!

 

Activities on our campout:

- Hiking in the beautiful Perdernales Falls wilderness... reason alone to go with us!

- Fishing: Our campsite is on bluffs over a bend in the river only assessable by hikers, hence not a lot of other people in the area. Since this is a Texas State Park, no fishing license is needed, however state size and bag limits apply. The ranger told me that catfish, small mouth bass and other pan fish are in the river and to bring live worms and stink bait for bait. Lets do our best to catch one of our meals  and we can knock out a few requirements toward the Fishing merit badge! Bring your fishing  gear!

- Swimming: The section of river near our camp site is very clear and calm. Perfect to cool off after a hike! Scouts should remember sun screen, a very small towel (remember we are backpacking!) and some sort of water shoes to protect your feet in the river.

- Ranger lead interpretive hike- One of the Rangers, Mr. Lynn Kuenstler has agreed to host an interpretive nature hike after lunch on Saturday afternoon. During this hike Mr. Kuenstler will  talk about native Americans and foods they ate in this area and the resources that helped them survive.

 

Staggered Departures:

Since Fort Settlement Middle School is hosting it's 8th grade graduation party Friday night May 21st we will have two groups departing for this campout.

- Friday May 21st departure will meet at 5:00 PM and leave at 5:30 PM from Colony Bend Elementary. PLEASE NOTE THE FRIDAY DEPARTURE IME HAS BEEN MOVED UP BY 30 MINUTES! This is to ensure we arrive before the park closes for the day at 10:00 PM.

- Saturday May 22nd departure will meet at 6:30 AM and leave at 7:00 AM from Colony Bend Elementary.

 

Permission Slip Attached

For your convenience I have attached a copy of the permission slip for this campout. I will have them available as well at tomorrow evenings T1631 meeting.

 

MOST IMPORTANTLY FOR ALL YOU SCOUTS AND SCOUTERS, DON'T FORGET THIS IS MOTHERS DAY, SO GO TELL HER ONCE AGAIN HOW MUCH YOU LOVE HER!

 

YIS,

Matt Kabot

 

Scoutmaste's Minute - April 2010

Here is entry number two in my attempt to periodically update and inform regarding the happenings of Troop 1631.

April Campout Cancelled

First, with some regret I must announce that we are cancelling the April campout, which was scheduled for April 16-18. That weekend seems to be a nexus of conflicts, both for adults (including myself) and scout leaders. We discussed it at the PLC and decided that it was not in the cards to make it happen. We have Scout Fair the following weekend (April 24) so we'll still have an opportunity for scouting fun.

March Merit

Our theme for March was sports. Our scouts worked on the first three requirements for the Sports merit badge at the March 8 meeting. Thanks to Thu Ngo and Sam Wang for helping out with this. There are only two additional requirements: participation in one season of each of 2 team sports, and an organized training program for 4 months (see http://www.usscouts.org/mb/mb013.asp). I know that we have several scouts that regularly compete in 2 or more sports, and the training program can be tied into the Personal Fitness class that Tom Poole is leading. If you are one of those scouts, and you would like to get signed off on the Sports merit badge, please let me know.

Speaking of merit badges, the committee has been working on documenting the merit badge process for our troop. In a nutshell, for a scout wanting to earn a badge, the process is:

1. Get scoutmaster approval. The reason for this is to make sure that you do not already have the badge, or to see if you already have it partially completed.
2. Find a counselor. We are working on putting together a list of counselors for each badge. Ask me or Mrs. Herzog to help you identify a counselor.
3. Meet with the counselor and work on the requirements.

We keep track of requirements in two ways: electronically via Troopmaster, and as hardcopies on the "blue cards". As requirements are completed, the counselor (not the scouts) communicates them to the committee, who keeps the record.

Hopefully you have seen the announcements for the Merit Badge day at Schlumberger next weekend (April 10). This will be a great chance for sour scouts to get some important and interesting badges. Thanks to Tom Saunders for coordinating this.

Anyone seen my Lost Pines?

The March campout was perfectly timed to take advantage of the great weather we've been having. The site was the Lost Pines Scout Reservation in Bastrop. It would be hard to imagine a more perfect campsite: flat and spacious, with tall pine trees providing a shady canopy as well as a soft carpet of pine needles and abundant firewood, and framing a lovely view of Lake Bastrop. The scouts spent the morning playing capture the flag and the afternoon playing football, even recruiting a few scouts from the troop in the adjacent campsite. At the same time the scoutmasters worked with a few of the younger scouts to catch them up on their scoutcraft skills. At one point one of the patrols had a need for a left handed smoke shifter. They sent a few of the new scouts on a quest to find one, but it seems that none of the other troops had one either. Hmmm.

I have been encouraging the scouts to plan more ambitious meals (our cooking theme this month was "no Ramen Noodles"), so I was glad to see the scouts rise to the occasion: one patrol grilled steak, one made chicken and rice, and one cooked fajitas. Eating well is one of the joys of camping. 

Last month I mentioned how well the scouts did on breaking camp Sunday morning. Apparently it's becoming a trend because this time they did even better. The time from wake-up formation to closing formation, including breakfast, packing of personal gear, campsite tear-down, and final sweep, was a world-record 77 minutes. Kyle Tollestrup and Ryan Davis provided great leadership, and everyone pitched in with a true spirit of teamwork to make it happen.

Order of the Arrow Update

Last fall Hank and Phiet Pham worked to reactivate our Order of the Arrow participation. (OA is a service-oriented subgroup within scouting whose members are selected by peer election.) We formed an Arrow of Light ceremony team, which handled three Webelos graduation ceremonies. The pack leaders and parents expressed their sincere appreciation and compliments to our scouts.  Special thanks to Abhishek Balakrishnan, Keith Wedelich, Kevin Pham, Ryan Bullard, and Chris Herzog as principals performing in Indian clothes in the ceremony.  Also thanks to Nicholas Lam, Warren Chan and Joshua Mathew for helping with the ceremony.

Scout Fair

Coming up, we have Scout Fair at Reliant Center on April 24. Most of the troops in the council (Houston Area) set up booths and do various demonstrations, often involving cooking. It's fun to walk around and see what other troops are doing, and especially to talk to them and do a little scouting (in the "spying" sense) to get ideas for our program. We plan to do our traditional activity consisting of rope-making and cobbler cooking. 

First Aid

Our April theme is First Aid. At the April 12 meeting we will be staging mock "disaster" scenarios and have the patrols doing first aid on the "victims". First Aid is an important way for scouts and adults alike to "be prepared" for any situation.

That's it for now. As always, please feel free to contact me anytime with questions, concerns, or ideas.

Regards,

Alan Davis

 

Scoutmaster's Minute - March 2010

This is the first installment in what I hope to be a periodic series of reports on some of the various happenings in our troop. I realize not everyone can make all the multitude of activities, so perhaps it will be helpful to get these little updates. As always, any feedback is greatly appreciated.

February Campout, Camp Mauritz

We had a great time last weekend at Camp Mauritz. This is one of our troop’s favorite campsites. It’s close, it’s pretty, and it’s uncrowded. This was the first campout for our new scouts in the Viking patrol, and they responded like seasoned veterans. Even when the coyotes started howling at night from what seemed like 100 yards away, I heard no hint of scared whimpering (from the scouts, that is -- I can’t speak for the adults!).

With the help of the troop guides and the helpful dads, we knocked off 15 requirements towards tenderfoot, second class, and first class. These included map and compass use, flag etiquette, knife and axe safety, fire building, and knots. They also learned a bit about how to make, or not to make, pancakes. Suffice it to say that they were all hungry for lunch! Our Vikings are now well on their way. For the Vikings who missed, fear not: we’ll be covering all this stuff again in the coming months.

Meanwhile, Matt Kabot entertained the older scouts by setting up a mini geocaching course, which consists of finding hidden objects using GPS coordinates. Matt had a timed competition to see who could find the 5 objects in the fastest time. The contest was won by Alexander and Hunter Kornegay, who finished in 33 minutes, edging out second and third place by less than 2 minutes.

The adults continued our tradition of good eating on campouts, with Jon Winfiele cooking up some delicious Kung Pao chicken, topped off by apple turnovers and vanilla custard. When one of the dads called his wife and told her what we were eating, she thought we had gone out to a restaurant! The Black Cobras also deserve mention for planning and cooking a worthy meal of steak and potatoes au gratin. I would like to encourage our scouts to plan more ambitious meals -- that’s part of the fun of camping.

That night the scouts built a campfire and entertained themselves with a hilarious game of Mafia, and the traditional dutch oven cobbler. I always enjoy seeing how much fun the boys can have entertaining themselves with nothing more than a fire and each other’s company.

Sunday morning I challenged the scouts to break camp in 90 minutes. To provide some motivation, I offered a bribe of ice cream at Dairy Queen if they could do it. Lo and behold, working together under some fine leadership from acting SPL Zach Saunders, they pulled it off -- with 40 seconds to spare. Unfortunately DQ was closed Sunday morning so we settled for Buc-ees in Wharton.

Thanks to all the help from our ASMs and scout leaders, we had ANOTHER GREAT CAMPOUT!

Training, Anyone?

I’m embarrassed to admit that I have never been through the training offered by the district for Scoutmaster and Assistant SM. Finally, the schedules align and I’ll be attending the class this coming Saturday. I’d love to have some company in the form of some of our ASMs that have not yet taken it. If you signed up for Philmont one of the agreed-on expectations is that you’ll take this at some point. I usually get some good insights out of the district’s classes, so it can be valuable.

March Madness

The theme for March, as planned by the scout leaders at JLT, is Sports. We’ll be working on the Sports merit badge at the next two troop meetings, and planning some sports related activities at the campout. If you make the meetings, play organized sports, and can demonstrate a month or so of a fitness regimen, you should be able to complete the badge.

Looking forward, in April the theme is Camporee Skills in conjunction with the district camporee at Bovay. In May we will be heading to Pedernales State Park for a short backpacking trek.

Spring Break - Your Own Personal Merit Badge Camp

Spring break can be a good time to earn merit badges as well. Many of the recreation-oriented badges are easy to earn on a vacation oriented around an activity, such as snow skiing or diving. Also if you are traveling you should review the requirements for the various citizenship badges as some of them require visiting historic places and so on. If you want to work on a badge, contact me to get a blue card *before* starting work on it.

Parents, please keep in mind that the scouts are responsible for their advancement. There is no reason parents should make the phone calls, emails, and inquiries on the scouts’ behalf. Instead, coach your scout to take the initiative, and follow-up with him. I would much rather get a phone call from a reluctant scout than a coddling parent. This is an important part of the many learning opportunities provided by scouting.

The Door’s Always Open

As you know, I am new at this and in many ways I am still feeling my way along. I appreciate any and all feedback, on any topic. Especially welcome are ideas for program planning, and thoughts on how we could be doing things better to make our troop a better experience for our scouts. Please do not hesitate to contact me.

Regards,

Alan Davis

Monday Feb 8th, Court of Honor

Sunday Feb. 07. Personal Fitness MB Scouts - meeting at 1:30 PM at Clements HS track.
               Bring your folder with your up to date fitness log. (see requirements 7 and 8.)

Monday  Feb. 08, 2010     7:00 PM Court of Honor  Colony Bend Elementary
               Court of Honor is at Colony Bend Elementary and will begin promptly at 7:00 pm. 
               Scouts should wear their Class A uniform including merit badge sash.  All family members and guests are invited.
               Don't forget to bring your cameras.  We will begin set-up at 6:30 pm if you can help. 
               Due to time constraints, we will not serve snacks following the ceremony.
Friday-Sat    Feb. 12,13, 2010 Junior Leadership Training  .Assistant Patrol Leaders and non-leadership Scouts do not need to come.
               If you cannot come, contact Ryan Davis. (281-980-2099)

Monday, Feb  15th - Presidents' Day, No meeting.
                But Viking Patrol members need to go to a meeting at First Colony Christian Church (7PM)
                to prepare for the Mauritz campout. (demonstrations on how to pack and set up tents on a campout).
Monday,  Feb  22nd -  Troop meeting. Cobbler Cooking Demonstration
Friday-Sun, Feb 26th-28th  Weekenk Campout Mauritz            

Monday, Jan 24 Troop meeting activities

Sunday ,   Jan  24   2:00 PM   Keith Wedelich Eagle Scout Court of Honor
Sunday,    Jan  24,  4:30 PM   Personal Fitness Merit Badge Meeting  at Clements HS track (for scouts who is working on the merit badge)
Monday,   Jan  25   7:00 PM    Troop Meeting  Colony Bend Elementary
          - Parents Presentation
          - OA Members: Monday is the last meeting before the AOL ceremony for Troop 1800 on 1/30, so I would like for the scouts who will perform to get together for
             a rehershal. There will be 13 boys to receive the award so we need a few more who can be Grabers. For now I have the following Grabers:
             Daniel, Nick. (Many thanks to these scouts who helped in the last ceremony: Keith,Abhishek,Kevin,Ryan (Bullard),Nick,Warren)

Coming Up

Friday,    Jan  29, 2010      Weekend    Campout    Hamman    Backpacking
Sat.        Jan  30, 2010       Evening    Arrow of Light Ceremony for Troop 1800
Sat.        Jan 30, 2010       District Dinner
Monday  Feb.  01, 2010    7:00 PM   PLC
Sat.        Feb. 06, 2010      Scouting For Food - Food Collection
Monday  Feb. 08, 2010     7:00 PM Court of Honor  Colony Bend Elementary
               Court of Honor is now Feb 8 at Colony Bend Elementary and will begin promptly at 7:00 pm.  All scouting families are encouraged to attend.
               Set-up will begin at 6:30, please come early to help if you can. 
Sun.       Feb. 14, 2010       Junior Leadership Training          

Eager BOR of Warren Chan

Troop 1631 convened a Board of Review on Thursday, January 14, 2010 to consider advancing Warren Chan to the rank of Eagle Scout. The Board determined that Warren met all the requirements and that he had Scout Spirit. Warren Chan was advanced to the rank of Eagle Scout.

Congratulations Warren and Welcome to the Eagle's Nest. Your achievements along the trail to Eagle have brought pride and honor to Troop 1631.

Ed Gifford

Advancement Chair

Monday, Nov 30, 2009 Troop Meeting

Monday, Nov  30, 2009  7:00 PM    Troop Meeting - Colony Bend Elementary
    - OA new members election
    - We will also have representatives from 3 animal organizations: Pet Patrol, Dachsund Rescue and Texas Wildlife Center come and talk
          about Responsible Pet Ownership and they will be bringing animals with them. Parents, please encourage your scout to come. We need a
          large turn out to show our appreciation

   - OA members need to be present to continue rehearsing the AOL ceremony. The date of our Arrow of Light ceremony performance  is Wed Dec. 9th.
 
Sunday   Dec   6, 2009  2:00 PM Eagle Scout Court of Honor of Conner Clark and  Will McKeever - Sweetwater Country Club - Loft (Upstairs)
Sunday.  Dec   6, 2009  6:30 PM Troop 1631 Court of Honor - First Colony Conference Center

              Wear your Class A uniform including merit badge sash.Please also bring a snack to share.  The Troop will provide drinks and paper goods.
              We will begin set-up at 5:45 pm if you can help.

Coming up

Monday, Dec    7, 2009    7:00 PM  Troop Meeting    Colony Bend Elementary    Fitness/Nutrition
          Representatives from the Greyhound Pets of America, Houston organization will come to talk about Responsible Pet Ownership.
          We also need a large turn out to show our appreciation
Friday,    Dec 11, 2009  Weekend    OA Ordeal
Monday, Dec 14, 2009  No meeting
Monday, Dec 21, 2009 Holiday - No meeting
Winter Camp - Sat, Dec 26th - Thu. Dec 31st  - Camp Karankawa, Sweeny,TX
Monday, Dec 28,2009 Holiday   No meeting