2024-03-17 This Week: Troop Meeting & Order of the Arrow Elections, Parents Meeting Recap, Merit Badge Counselors, One Month Look-ahead

Troop 131,

Thank you to all the Scouts as well as Mr. Grocki and Mrs. Muldoon who went on the camping trip this weekend!  We had near perfect camping weather and successfully completed an 8 mile/1200 feet of elevation gain hike to Sky Meadows.  I had never been to Sky Meadow before, so it was great to see the park and experience the amazing vistas.  Spring is definitely in the air!

While we needed to endure some steep sections, we all handled the trail well and with grace.  See attached photo that we took at the end of the hike, no one looks too worse for wear!  Dinner (while a little delayed for one patrol) was good and the scouts built a new fire pit and had a great evening fire.  All and all it was a good and relaxing outing!

Scouts, please bring all your gear back and make sure it is clean and dry (we don’t want any fungus among us)!

TROOP MEETING and OA ELECTIONS

We will have a Troop meeting at 7:30PM this Monday at Immanuel Church on the Hill!

We are scheduled to have a Board of Reviews this week, if you have completed your requirements for the next Rank, then please email Mrs. Farmer!

As was mentioned last week, Mr. Irwin has coordinated with the Local OA Lodge, and we have scheduled this year’s OA elections for this Monday! It is imperative that we have at least 50% of the Troop there, so please come and support those that are eligible!

For the troop to hold a valid election we need to meet the following attendance requirements and rules:

• At least ½ the troop must attend – in our case I believe this is 22-23 scouts.
• To be elected to the Order – an eligible scout must receive ½ the votes of those in attendance.
• For example, if 22 scouts attend, then an eligible scout must receive 11 votes.
• Only scouts vote, adults are not eligible to vote even if they are in the OA.
• All scouts can vote, both those that are currently in the OA and those that are not.
• Scouts may vote for as many or as few candidates as they like.
• A scout may vote for themselves.
• The election will be administered by current OA scouts OUTSIDE of our troop.
• Current OA members should wear their OA sashes on election day.
• The order of the arrow is Scouts BSA Honor Society. Scouts should vote for candidates that they feel embody the best spirit of scouting and those scouts who follow the scout oath and law.

For a Scout to be eligible for the order of the arrow they must:

• Embody the spirit of scouting.
• Be the rank of First Class and above on election day.
• Have camping experience (15 nights total with a minimum 5 long-term consecutive nights such as summer camp/high adventure experience within past 24 months).

Based on the above criteria the following scouts are eligible OA candidates this year:

Qualified:

Miles Jackson

Jonathan Nguyen

Noah Urchek

Josiah Baldwin

Luke Irwin

David Stayanoff

Arthur Dalton

Declan Heatherington

Logan Bond

Ethan Lacayo

Note: A scout must be in attendance to be eligible.

Thank you, Mr. Irwin, for coordinating the election again this year!

Finally, there is no troop meeting next week due to spring break!

PARENTS/COMMITTEE MEETING- RECAP

Thank you all to the parents who attended the Committee meeting on Thursday.  It was a long discussion (as evidenced by the multiple zoom meeting invites.  We are still looking for someone to take over as our service coordinator, so if you are interested then please email Mrs. Devlin!

MERIT BADGE COUNSELORS

We are always looking for parents’ involvement in the troop and one great way is to become a merit badge counselor.  If you are interested, then see the process below.  Anyone can become a counselor; however, you must be registered with the troop, be YPT certified and complete the online merit badge course.  Keep in mind that some merit badges, such aquatics or shooting sports, require additional training/certifications.

See link below to the google doc with the current list of counselors.  Register for the ones you are interested in/qualified for and don’t worry if there are already multiple counselors, it is great for the scouts to have options.  Counselors for eagle required merit badges (in yellow) tend to see more action, however, it is great when there are opportunities for electives as well.

(Scouts, keep in mind that you must have a conversation and receive a blue card from the Scoutmaster or one of the other Assistant Scoutmasters BEFORE you reach out to a counselor).

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/19yJTQS1qk7-UBpIjI2fgJBLrB2qMx-48/edit#gid=1739196674

Merit Badge Counselor Registration Process

1. 
   Inform the Scoutmaster and Committee Chair that you intend to register as a merit badge counselor
2. Submit an online application through this link – https://my.scouting.org/VES/OnlineReg/1.0.0/?tu=UF-MB-082c22

 If already on our unit charter, you can register with “Colonial District 22” as a dual registration. If a dual registration, there will be no fee required with the application. 

 If not on the unit charter, you will register with Colonial District and the fee will be $25 

3. Once the application is completed, you can submit directly to Colonial District via e-mail (registrarcolonialmbc@gmail.com) the following:

* The MBC Information sheet (https://filestore.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/34405.pdf)

* Certificate of completion for Youth Protection Training (YPT)

* Certificate of completion for the online MBC training (accessible through My Scouting, same as where they do YPT https://my.scouting.org) 

4. Once complete, the Colonial District Merit Badge Registrar will contact you and verify that you are registered with the District. You should see the merit badges listed in Scoutbook. 

SCHEDULE: One Month(ish) Look Ahead

Monday, March 18^th – Troop Meeting- 7:30 PM (BoR) (OA Elections) – Immanuel Church on the Hill

Monday, March 25^th – No Troop Meeting – Spring Break (ACPS & FCPS) 

Monday, April 1^st – Troop Meeting- 7:30 PM (ACPS- No School) – Immanuel Church on the Hill

Friday April 5^th- 7^{th –} OA Spring Fellowship – Camp Snyder

Monday, April 8^th – Troop Meeting- 7:30 PM – Immanuel Church on the Hill

Monday, April 15^th – Troop Meeting- 7:30 PM (BoR)- Immanuel Church on the Hill

Friday April 19^th – 21^st – Camping- Fishing- Pohick Bay