Thank you if you have already signed up for Univ of Scouting this year. Nov 7 at Wake Tech will be an excellent day if you are going to attend.
For those of you that are still undecided if you want to attend this year: We have over 370 registered already to attend from our Council. We have over 121 courses. And many classes are already filled.
You still have time to register to get in the courses that you want. But DON’T wait any longer! If you wait even a few days, the classes you want to take may already be full.
Be sure to put a second choice down for every time period. As courses are very full and once it reaches the classroom limit, I cant put any more people in the room!
Although, I wish I could push more people into rooms (like the Japanese Subways!) But the NC Fire Codes wont allow it.
So, Register Today, there are plenty of courses that will help you be a better scout leader (and Parent!)
Classes that are still available include how to handle challenging youth behavior, Developing Troop Leadership, Merit Badge Counseling, Trail to Eagle (period 5-6), Cub Scout Ceremonies, Effective Pinewood Derbies, Knots for Cubs (period 4), Pack Programming and Advancements, Summertime Program, Webelos to Scout Transition, Making the most of your unit commissioner, the ABC’s of leave no trace and Cycling/Mountain Biking and many many more.
There is plenty to choose from, you just have to go online and register and pick the classes you want.
Here are the links:
Course Catalog and Information:
http://www.doubleknot.com/openrosters/DocDownload.asp?id=62698
Online Registration Form
http://www.doubleknot.com/form/formjump.asp?bidx=0&surveyID=14118&OrgKey=382
Payments mailed to: Occoneechee Council, University of Scouting, PO Box 41229, Raleigh, NC 27629
Don’t Wait….this may be your last chance until November 2010!
Sign up today,
YISF,
Gary Thorn
Vice Chancellor - Student/Instructor Affairs
UOS-2009 Committee
Crosswinds District Committee
Asst District Commissioner for Roundtables- Crosswinds
ASM - Troop 212
The web site directions to Camp Durant actually point you to Camp Reeves down the road. The true location of the Camp Durant entrance (for those driving at night) is
Those of us who went camping, you are all now veterans of a true camping experience (wet camping). Hope you had a good time. The boys had a lot of fun on the “trail” despite the rain and it was fun firing the bottle rocket into the air (thanks Neil).
Anyway, before I head out of town again, I wanted to get a quick message out to remind those who have not turned in their popcorn money to get in touch with Leopolda to schedule a time to go to her house to get your money turned in. I think the boys have done well in selling this year.
Also, we have a regular scheduled leaders meeting on Thursday, Nov. 5 at 7 p.m.
I am requesting that every member family have at least one person in attendance as well as we are going to be planning through the end of the year and will begin the planning for the Pinewood Derby, the Blue and Gold and camping in the spring. We have had several committee members move up with the graduating Webelos to the Boy Scouts and we need to fill in those positions. So please come prepared to volunteer on a committee or with a den. We have some great den leaders, but we also need to identify some backups for them. In addition, I need to find someone to back me up as the Assistant Cubmaster. These are all important roles and we need everyone’s participation to make things run smoothly.
I look forward to seeing folks on Nov. 5. Have a great Halloween if we don’t speak before then.
If you have popcorn orders to turn in for your son, please contact Leopolda Ramos. She will be taking the final orders at her home on Monday, Oct. 26th until 7pm. Please contact her in advance if you will be bringing your orders.
Please remember to make a copy of the order form. Please have your son to make his prize selection. All checks should be paid to Pack 393, cash cannot be accepted.
Wow, hard to believe that tomorrow night many of us will be under the stars and enjoying smores. Pack 393 is staying in Poplar A (you will see it on the map attached).
Bathrooms and Showers:
All campsites have flush toilets and showers available. My advice having been at Durant for Summer camp in Red Oak is to reserve one bathroom and one shower for adults only. This will help to keep the toilets and showers clean for adults and teach some responsibility to the Webelos.
Remember a scout is clean. (Borrowing the 10th point of the scout law)
Logistically for Friday night:
Maps are available online at www.campdurant.com. The camp address, for those with GPS or want to Google Map it is
4637 Old Carthage Rd.
Carthage, NC 28327.
Those who are camping Friday night should plan to head down to the camp and once you arrive I am sure there will be someone to direct you to Poplar A. It takes about 1 and a half hours to get there from most points in the Triangle, so plan accordingly. It gets dark shortly after 7 these days.
Vivek will be in charge for those on Friday night and will hand them off to Juan for Saturday night.
Parking:
Council office has approved us to park all vehicles on the side of the roads at Durant. Only utilize one side of the road and pull off the road as much as possible.
One important note, We can NOT have ANY Vehicles in any campsites. They must be on the road. Only Trailers can be parked in campsites. Be very careful when backing up trailers as there are lots of places to get “Stuck” in some campsites (i.e. Large Holes, ditches, etc.)
So, each person (scout, adult and sibling) should have a bag lunch packed and brought to carry in the chuck wagons along with the materials that are needed. I need to ask all the Wolves to bring their books as we need at least two (I’ve got one from last year) to carry in the wagons. The rest of the materials I will bring with me on Saturday morning. Also, we need a parent or two to plan to come back to our campsite to start the charcoal fires for the hobo pack meals Saturday night as we only have an hour and 15 minutes slated to put this together. It would probably be good for a couple of parents to head back during the award ceremony to being having things prepared as an assembly line for the meal prep.
They also note that a couple of the events are “messy” and “wet” and the boys should each pack an extra pair of clothes in a plastic bag to change into in case they do get messy. Also note that there is a good chance of rain on Saturday, so prepare with ponchos and rain gear as the event won’t be canceled for bad weather.
All, this will be a grand adventure. I look forward to seeing the boys (and the rest) have a bunch of fun and make memories for us all.
I thought the boys did a great job putting together their “Chuck Wagons”. Leaders, I will follow up with details for what needs to go in the wagons. We still need to finish up the flags and attach them to the wagons and Brian Adams is going to bring our final wagon to the meeting next week where we will finish up the remaining tasks and have all the boys help build and decorate that one. These things look great. So good that I think we’ll plan on a Pack 393 Chuck Wagon parade with the combined dens next Thursday.
For all of those planning to go down to the camp on Friday to spend the night the first night, we will need to meet and make sure that we have all of the equipment that you will need for the trip. As a reminder, I can’t go on Friday night, but Vivek will be going and can coordinate the camping from a Baloo training standpoint. I don’t know if there is anyone else with a trailer hitch to pull the trailer out to the camp or if we just need to coordinate someone taking a couple of tables and the stove down. If not, we can plan meals around campfire cooking.
We’ll need to get a final head count as we had several new boys register tonight and several of whom want to attend the campout, so I’ll need to work with Bobbi and coordinate what needs to be done to register them. I think it should be fine, but will need to coordinate with her once she returns from her trip. The final head count will help me in buying the food for Saturday breakfast, Saturday dinner and Sunday breakfast on Friday (would also welcome a volunteer to help me with this) and then we’ll need to work out getting it transported with the Pack group that goes down Friday night. So plan on staying a few extra minutes on Thursday night to make sure we have everything coordinated for what should be a fun Pack 393 adventure at the Cub Scout Chuck Wagon Derby.
Thanks to all the parents and leaders who jumped right in a helped the boys build their wagons tonight. I hope you had as much fun as I did.
