Boy Scout Troop 1001

Update March 11, 2008: No class will be held March 17 due to spring break. Requirements 1 and 2 are due at the March 24 meeting.

This Eagle-required merit badge, suitable for Scouts 13 years and older, is again being offered by Mrs. Lofley in time to complete the badge at the May Court of Honor.  The merit badge class will meet on the following dates from 6:15 p.m. to 6:50 p.m:

• March 3, 2008
• March 17 (cancelled due to spring break)
• March 24 (the Monday after Easter)
• March 31
• April 14
• April 21 (even though there is no troop meeting)
• April 28

Field Trip

We will attend a meeting of the Richardson City Council on a date to be announced. It will be on one of our regular Mondays.

Requirements

There are nine requirements, including some written work. Most will be accomplished on your own time, with some classroom time devoted to presentations. Included is a requirement to deliver a speech, as well as a requirement to plan and act as master of ceremonies for a Court of Honor or Campfire program. So if you would like to receive this badge at the May Court of Honor, you must schedule a campfire program between now and then.

Please bring your blue card, completed and signed by Scoutmaster Coon, to the March 17, 2008 meeting.

Mrs. Lofley can be reached at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or by cell at 214-793-6131

Hello all Scouts and Scouters,

The next meeting is MONEY MONDAY! All scouts and scouters attending the upcoming campout at Myers Park near McKinney, March 7-9, should bring $10 to the meeting. We would also like to ask parents to sign a permission form on Monday night, rather than sending it with your scout on Friday. Too often we have to call to get permission when a scout is dropped off with no signed form.

At Monday's meeting we will continue to hone our scout skills, in particular, fire building. Our patrol advisers will be assisting the patrol leaders as they teach the younger scouts the proper method to build a safe fire. Scouts should read the section entitled "Using Campfires and Lightweight Stoves" starting on page 248 in the Scout Handbook to prepare for the meeting. We will also be preparing menus and duty rosters for the campout next weekend. Patrol corners will begin immediately after the flag ceremony and uniform inspection. It will be a busy meeting so please be on time.

Scouts who would like to begin the communications merit badge must contact Mrs. Lofley at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to secure a spot in her six week class which will start March 3 should enough Scouts sign up for the class.

I look forward to seeing you Monday night.

Yours in Scouting,
Scoutmaster Coon

The meeting plan for next Monday, the third of March, is to work on another Camporee skill that everyone definitely needs to know, which is firebuilding. Patrol leaders will be gathering firewood (small sticks) throughout the week to be prepared for Monday. Also, each patrol will be working on their menus.

The Pre-Camporee campout is March 7-9 at Collin County Community Park Myers Park near McKinney. Basically, the whole campout will be a slightly-altered Camporee. It will be like a big, long, round-robin with adults working with each site and each patrol needing to perform a specific task at each site. Points will be awarded, so it will be a competition between patrols to see who can do the best. Dead time will be spent doing "cope" courses for the patrols and maybe working on completing the Emergency Preparedness Merit Badge for those who started it.

Camporee is just around the corner on April 4-5. All patrols need to be working on sewing on patrol patches and making their yells, songs, and flags so that every patrol can get those few extra points at Camporee just by singing a song or yelling.

This coming Sunday is Scout Sunday at Trinity Bible Church! All scouts and scouters should plan to attend. Here are the particulars:

The 98th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America will be celebrated by Trinity Bible Church and Troop 1001 on the morning of Sunday February 24 this year. All Scouts in the Troop and your families (regardless of faith) are invited to visit this Trinity worship service together as a Troop in full Class A uniform. Trinity will honor Scouting and recognize our Troop. Troop 1001 will present a Flag Ceremony. The Scouts will sit together on the designated pews near the front. Scout families may sit wherever you are comfortable. Patrol Leaders call your patrol for a headcount and to spread the information:

• 8:30 – Meet in the atrium. Class A uniform.
• 8:45 – Form up in two lines (in the atrium. Do not crowd the lobby right in front of the sanctuary.)
• 8:55 – Enter sanctuary in formation and sit in designated pews.
• 9:00 – Service begins with opening music and Pastor’s welcome.
• 9:05 – Enter Color Guard. Flag ceremony. Pledge of Allegiance, Scout Oath and Scout Law.

The service ends at about 10:00 and there is a 45-minute break in the atrium which all are invited to stay for, or you are free to leave. Any Scouts who want to stay and visit the Youth Ministry, it is very good and is from 10:45 to Noon. See Grayson or TJ, Zack, or Alby. If you have any questions, call Mr. Frank, 972-658-0103.

Hello all Scouts and Scouters,

We are in that busy time of year as reflected in this rather long message. Please read this message in its entirety. Breaks are allowed while reading.

Thank you to all that came out in the cold rain to work on behalf of the less fortunate in our community. Troop 1001 collected almost 1000 items out of the total 56,000 food items collected in the North Trail District at last Saturday's Scouting for Food event. Great going!

SCOUT SUNDAY
Trinity Bible Church and Troop 1001 celebrate Scout Sunday on February 24. See the article Scout Sunday at TBC - February 24, 2008 for details.

PHYSICAL FITNESS MERIT BADGE
Monday night the Physical Fitness merit badge class will be held at Richardson North Junior High Track at 6:00PM . Scouts needing to finish up this merit badge should attend. Any scout 12 or older needing this Eagle-required merit badge should plan to attend. Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it to confirm your attendance. We need to make sure we have adequate transportation from the event to TBC for the regular meeting.

COMMUNICATIONS MERIT BADGE
This Eagle-required merit badge class will begin again Feb. 25 or March 3, if there is enough interest. Participants should be at least 13 years old, and willing to devote outside time to complete 9 requirements. This class will meet Mondays, from 6:15 p.m. To 7 p.m. for about six weeks, and will include a field trip on a weeknight to either an RISD school board meeting or Richardson City Council meeting. Please contact Mrs. Lofley at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it if interested.

GOD AND COUNTRY AWARD
The next session to earn the God and Country Award will start September 15, 2008. It is a rewarding but fairly rigorous curriculum comprising 12 sessions over 19 weeks, ending January 19, 2009 and receiving your medal on Scout Sunday 2009. If you plan on doing God and Country then, then spend your time this spring and summer working on other advancement since GAC is time consuming for five months. More on GAC later or call Mr. Frank 972-658-0103.

MEETING PLAN
We will be learning about First Aid at the meeting Monday night. Scouts should review chapter eleven, pages 288-329 in the scout book to get familiar with the material we are going to study on Monday.

I look forward to seeing you all at TBC Monday night.

Yours in Scouting,
Scoutmaster Coon

Hello all Scouts and Scouters,

It is time to re-charter with Circle 10 council. For many of you this means nothing more than acknowledging that the information we have on file for you is correct. For those whose paperwork has lapsed or if you are a scout that has recently reached the age of eighteen, we need to get a new signed application from you. Stop by the scout room or check out the forms section of the website for the form and return to Mrs. Van Hamme, Mr. Coon or Mr. Kannarr as soon as you can.

Saturday, February 16 is Scouting for Food. Mr. Bryan will be coordinating the collection effort at TBC starting at 8:30am Saturday February 16th. All scouts needing service hours, patrol leaders and patrol advisors should plan to participate.

We will continue to study basic scout skills at the next meeting. Pioneering and knot tying will be emphasized. Check out this great website for a head start on knots. As usual this is a full Class A event. Please dress appropriately.

The 'First Aid' merit badge class has completed the scheduled coursework. The 'Citizen in the Nation' merit badge class will continue at 6:00pm for those scouts who need to finish their write-ups to turn in to Mrs. Van Hamme.

The Eagle required 'Communication' merit badge class will begin next Monday at 6:00pm. All scouts with First Class rank and above who are at least thirteen years old are encouraged to attend.

I look forward to seeing you at TBC Monday night.

YiS,
Scoutmaster Coon

The 2008 Friends of Scouting Dinner is March 13 at the Anatole Hotel. Pat Summerall is the Master of Ceremonies and Rayfield Wright is the guest speaker. The dinner is for persons who have given or will pledge to give $250 to the Friends of Scouting in 2008. It is sort of an advanced "Thank You."

So, all you need to do is to secure a reservation through David Wakefield (you can contact me if you don’t know David), show up for the dinner, make a pledge at the dinner to give $250 or more to FOS and that’s it! (Of course you need to make good on your pledge, and you will receive a reminder in the mail later.) A spouse can go on the same donation. Several Troop 1001 families have given this much in the past, and thus they should feel free to make a reservation if they plan to do it again this year.

Let me know if you have interest in attending, donating, sponsoring, etc... Contact Doug Miller or David Wakefield for more information.

Next Monday will be focused on Pioneering and tying knots necessary for Pioneering, which we will use when we need to make shelters for Camporee. Everyone needs to wear their full Class A, including a neckerchief, belt, socks, and patrol patches. Also, every patrol needs to be bringing its flag to each meeting.

The Camporee Prep campout is coming up on March 7-9 and Camporee is on April 4-6. Everybody needs to find out if they can go to both as soon as possible so that they can let their patrol leaders know. If you do happen to have a conflict, try your hardest to go to Camporee because the more people we have, the better.

Scouting for Food is this Saturday the 16th. People that are participating need to be at the church by 8:30 am. This counts as service hours, so it would be a really good idea to go! Everyone needs to plan on going unless they have a conflict. If you do, just drop off a bag of cans at the church at 8:30. 

Camporee is coming up in early April, which means that almost all upcoming meetings and campouts will be devoted to preparation. The next campout is fully Camporee Prep, which will have many stations preparing us for Camporee so that we can take home the trophy again this year.

This coming meeting will have troop inspections, meaning that every scout must wear his full Class A, including a neckerchief, belt, and socks. It's a good idea for everyone to have a full Class A so that we will impress everyone at Camporee. After inspections, there will be a round robin with each station teaching a different Camporee skill that we need to know.

Patrols need to be working on patrol yells, songs, patches, and flags for Camporee. Every patrol's flag should be finished and brought to the next meeting. Having yells and songs could bump up your patrol's score at Camporee.

Because of recent events, the leadership and adults have decided that Troop 1001 needs to clean up it's language. Remember: a Scout is reverent.  

Hello all Scouts and Scouters,

We had a great time in Austin at the Capital last weekend. The trip to Longhorn Cavern was spectacular. Thank you to all the Scouters that worked tirelessly to make this a special trip for the Scouts.

Camporee is just around the corner, so it is time to get prepared!

This week's meeting will be a round-robin demonstrating Scout Skills hosted by the patrol leaders. Scouts will be participating in shelter building, water and food safety, firebuilding, pioneering and first aid.

Merit badge classes will continue at 6:00pm for those in 'First Aid' and 'Citizenship in the Nation'.

Time is planned to work on Trail to First Class (TFC) advancement. All scouts should be sure to bring their scout books. The meeting will begin with a uniform inspection after the flag ceremony, so look your best.

I look forward to seeing you all Monday night at the TBC.

Yours in Scouting,
Scoutmaster Coon