Troop 24 will hold a Court of Honor at RPC on October 21. Your presence is requested at this semi-annual event. Scouts will be presented with merit badges and recognized for rank advancements. All scouts should attend in full uniform. Paperwork and annual dues ($25) are due at this meeting. If you’re uncertain whether you have submitted all the forms and payment, please contact Nancy Hopkins at nmhopkins1@comcast.net.

The following are DRAFT minutes from the 10-5-10 Troop Committee meeting. The minutes will be approved at the November meeting.

Present: N. Hopkins, M. Payne, F. Mitchell, B. Robertson, P. Rohm, S. Lanken, D. Cox, D. Gmitro, S. Jones

1. Minutes from last meeting were approved.
2. Budget – F. Mitchell reported that the new auto pay system is working well. There has been a lot of activity in the account lately. Reports were sent to all Sea Base participants, with refund checks for overages, and showing amounts due to troop account for others. He will follow up and get the payments into the account. A check written to McAdam was to pay for materials used in Ben M’s eagle project, and was covered by donations. N. Hopkins reported that there are several scouts who have not returned their forms and registration fees for this year. We still have an outstanding uncashed check for last winter’s luge trip. Balance is $4,372.05.
3. Scoutmaster’s Report – M. Payne reported on ScoutFest. Event had a good concert, but hike lasted longer than expected and there was not such a big turnout. Weather was not great. S. Lanken went on the shooting outing, which was the same day as ScoutFest. The turnout was small, probably because we did not get info out early enough. There was no time to get a tour permit, so we couldn’t promote it as a troop outing. The EAA outing was good – 13 members of our troop and 4 from another troop. We should go there every other year from now on. Kennedy-Nixon debate event went well. Meetings are going well so far, but some scouts are not getting feedblitzes. We will hold boards of review this Thursday at the meeting.
4. Venture Crew – nothing to report.
5. Eagle Committee – N. Hopkins reporting for G. Potamianos. Brian R. is still working on his plan, but couldn’t go before Village Board because someone didn’t get him on the meeting agenda. Cody V.’s project needs to be done soon. M. Payne met with him and his father. Ben M. needs to send his list of scout service hours from his project to R. Olszewski, so the scouts get credit for service hours for rank advancement.
6. Advancement – R. Olszewski not here, but wanted a cut-off of Oct. 7th for any advancements to be given at the next Court of Honor.
7. Popcorn – No report.
8. Outdoor Activities – Council Camporee Centennial Oct. 22-24 is the next event. M. Payne and S. Lanken will go. Same weekend as RBHS Telethon, so some people will be unable to go. D. Gmitro tried to get us camping at Waterfall Glen in November, but they are full, so we will do it as a day trip. M. Payne said that it will be OK for the required Webelos outing with the troop. We need to get some older scouts who have done orienteering to lead. Thanksgiving weekend camping at Starved Rock coming up. Boyce Building outing is cancelled. D. Gmitro will look into Little Red Schoolhouse and Nuclear Science at FermiLab for possible bad weather outings. M. Payne will address the cave outing location choice at the meeting for scoutmasters. We don’t have dates or commitments for Eagle Cave or the Indiana cave yet.
9. Ski Outing – B. Robertson will coordinate this event. It can be a family outing. Webelos will cross over Feb. 13, and they will be ready to go on a scout trip. Instead of long weekend at President’s Day, when a lot of people go skiing, the following weekend will work for us.
10. High Adventure – Luge in the first week of January, when RBHS students are still on their Winter Break. Can’t book with the Luge place until the first week of November. D. Gmitro will check on availability – Camp McLean Jan 15-16? Lincoln Pilgrimage April 29-30 – we need to decide where to camp. New Salem is great, but 30 miles from Springfield. Fairgrounds are not that great, but close to events. We will try for New Salem.
11. New Business – Holiday Stroll at Riverside Garage – selling hot chocolate – OK with Rick. We need a coordinator for this event. Training – R. Rogers has records for our troop which are more complete than Council’s. D. Gmitro will find out when troop can help the Night Ministry make food for later distribution to homeless people. Last year we tried to do certain things on certain nights of the month, but because of holidays, it is not happening this year, so far. F. Mitchell thinks the scouts need to be better prepared for their boards of review, so they will do a better job. B. Robertson mentioned a Cook County Sheriff Dept. medal of honor for kids who have done at least 100 service hours in their community.
12. Meeting adjourned.