All scouts who are not yet First Class should bring their scout books to the meeting tonight so that we can enter their progress into our database.

Troop 24 is offering a Nuclear Science merit badge workshop at Fermi Lab in Batavia, on Friday, Feb 12 from 1-3 pm during the long President’s Day weekend when the boys are off from school. The cost of the workshop is $6 per scout. The Nuclear Science badge is not an Eagle-required badge, but it is very popular and the Fermi Lab is booked for their weekend workshops all through 2016, so this date was among the very few still available. For more information, please contact Linda Sanduski at lsanduski@gmail.com

Some scouts signed up before year-end; if so, the parent registering the scout has received an e-mail asking for payment. If you are one of those families, you don’t need to register again–just pay!

The registration deadline is February 1. We have a limited number of spots.

Register here: http://troop24riverside.com/2015/10/nuclear-science-mb-form-2122015/

It is that time again: New Boy Scout requirements! However, there are major changes for this year and all scouts will have to abide by these new requirements, no matter how long you have been a scout. This is different from most requirement changes where scouts could continue with requirements in the book that they started in. For this change, all scouts have to convert to the new requirements sooner or later. Here are the major items to be wary of:

• There is a new Boy Scout Requirements book and a new Boy Scout Handbook. You can buy these at the Scout Store for our council at 811 W. Hillgrove Ave., La Grange, IL
• All scouts joining on or after January 1^st, 2016 MUST use the new requirements
• Scouts who joined before January 1^st, 2016 have some rules as well:
  • Scouts working on the Scout badge MAY continue to work on the existing requirements, but MUST convert to the new requirements upon completion of the Scout badge.
  • Scouts working on Tenderfoot through First Class MAY continue to work on the existing requirements, but MUST convert to the new requirements upon attaining First Class.
    • So if you are a Tenderfoot scout, you CAN use the old requirements to attain Second Class rank and First Class rank, but once you receive First Class you must switch to the new stuff.
  • Scouts that have completed First Class MAY complete the rank they are currently working on in the existing requirements, but then MUST convert to the new requirements for subsequent ranks.
    • So if you are a First Class scout, you CAN use the old requirements for Star, but once you attain the Star rank you must use the new requirements for Life.
  • HERE IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ONE: All Scouts MUST use the new requirements, regardless of rank, starting on January 1^st, 2017.

Most of the changes affect the Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class ranks. These new requirements can be found at:

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/boyscouts/pdf/524-012_BS_Requirements.pdf

Kit K

Waterfall Glen. One of the basic rites of passage for Troop 24. On November 7, a group of scouts took on this endeavor with the help of Mr. Flaherty and Mr. Hartwig. The outing consists of a five-mile hike and orienteering to complete some of the requirements for First and Second Class. Basically, the scouts who attend this outing need to find their way around the forest preserve using a compass and map. The map has some markers to tell the path that the scouts need to go, so they aren’t lost completely. Lucky for participants, there was not a cloud in the sky and no one ended up breaking any bones this year, so it was a very successful event all around. To top it all off, some of the scouts needed to complete some requirements for the Cooking Merit Badge, which is now Eagle required, so all of the participants were well fed by food that was planned, packed, and prepared on trail stoves by the scouts. It was an eventful outing and the group accomplished all of the goals they had set.
Kit K

What’s the Holiday Season without trampolines, dodgeballs, basketball, and a giant foam pit? On December 11, the troop held the holiday party at Sky High Trampoline in Naperville, all organized by Mrs. Dawn Gmitro. Eighteen people from Troop 24 came to the event and they all had a blast. There was no age limit to this event as people from all walks of life participated in the antics. A couple of adults, some siblings, new scouts, and old scouts came together to jump on trampolines. The facility at Sky High is enormous, with multiple different areas. There is a trampoline dodgeball court, a free jumping area, a basketball trampoline court, and a foam pit where scouts could jump, trampoline, or swing-on-a-rope into. Not surprisingly, the dodgeball court was extremely popular among our scouts and rumor has it that someone had a tendency to nail other people in the face. To end the day, the participants ate great pizza and played the arcade games that Sky High had. It was an extremely successful and fun event, enjoyed by all (ages).
Kit K