January 4th 2021

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

Well, officially 2020 is behind us, and hopefully, we can look at 2021 as a NEW YEAR leaving behind some of the things that have made 2020 one of our most challenging years. 2021 does not flip the switch to a post-pandemic time, but at least there is hope that a life a little more normal as we move forward. I would like to thank EVERYONE for their support and cooperation regarding scouting in the past year as we had to adjust and change almost weekly to keep Scouting alive at Troop 161. We can proudly say, we only missed ONE meeting so far, which is far better than many other units in the area, we have had a good Super summer program and got to do some fun things. Virtual Troop meetings still tend to be a struggle as we are limited on what we can do but the PLC is working hard to come up with some innovative ideas. If you have any ideas, please let us know, we would love some additional ideas to work with. At last week's PLC they came up with the following events for the next month. I want to share with you a game plan because we are moving into an area that requires some additional tools and we are not sure what people have out there. Here is a list

Monday, January 4th, we are planning on going to The ROCK SnoPark to go snow tubing. The cost is $16.90, you can sign up electronically at the Troop Signup Page till Sunday night, which will allow you to take the cost for the Scout out of your account as we will purchase your ticket online Monday morning. You can still sign up on Monday at the ROCK webpage for the discounted price (but not out of your scout account), if you do not do either, you can buy a ticket when you arrive, but the cost will be $20 plus tax. We will be meeting AT THE ROCK to avoid any Covid concerns related to transportation. If your family wants to tube, that is fine too. We remind everyone that social distance and/or masks are required. If you are sick, stay home! Temperatures may be taken on arrival! Dress warm, the Rock is discouraging the use of the indoor warming area, they have set up outdoor warming areas. If you must go inside MASKS ARE REQUIRED. You can see all the rules at https://www.rocksnowpark.com/covid-19. All Tubers MUST fill out a waiver, that link can be found on our Fact Sheet located HERE. Be sure to follow the direction to add Troop 161 as the group name so our waivers are all together.

Monday, January 11th We have another project that requires some pre-planning. We will be assembling a kit for this meeting to make Horseshoe Nail Crosses and hope to give it out at the Rock event, if you do not attend, please contact me to pick one up at my office. Besides the supplies that are provided in the kit, we are asking each family if they have the following, needle-nose pliers, vice grips (locking pliers), tape measure, and a piece of wood (a breadboard will work). We will have safety glasses available for those who do not have glasses.

Monday, January 18th- we will have a guest who is a Human Resource person who does hiring for a large area company. The topic of the meeting will be How to be Successful in getting a job. We will have some discussion about it then we will do some exercises to improve your skills at landing a job. While Scouts covers several age groups, eventually all of us will be looking for a job, for some, it might be mowing the neighbor's yard for a few bucks to earning money for your college education, to a job that will become a career. Come virtually and find the skills you will need to be successful in getting the job you want.

Monday, February 1st Seeing many of us are working from home, some may also be working in remote areas to complete homework, we are going to be building lap desks, we are still working on gathering the materials for this one, but one tool that is needed by each scout is a construction style stapler, so do you have one of those?? You will also need ¼ inch staples, do you have those??

Tools needed

We have outlined some tools needed for upcoming meetings, please complete this quick survey to let us know what you have or need. For those missing tools, we will do our best to get tools to you if you don’t have what is needed. If you have extras of these tools and willing to lend them to someone who does not have them, please let me know.

Saturday Event

We are looking to see what kind of interest there is to attend the District Klondike Derby at Camp OhDaKoTa on January 30, 2021. The cost is approximately $15. A Klondike Derby is a test of scouting skills against other Troops in the area. It would be an all-day event but not a sleepover event. We would also be competing in the snow snake competition, don’t know what a Snow Snake is, give your googles a workout. Are you interested?? Check out the survey noted above.

Future Meetings

PLC will meet again on January 25th to plan another month of activities, we are looking for ideas. Right now we are looking into a Virtual Racine Police Department tour. We also have a couple of other projects we are looking at. If you or your parents have some ideas PLEASE let us know. If any parents have a job they would be willing to talk about with Scouts, we would be glad to hear from you. Maybe a family friend that does something cool as a hobby or any combination of all of those. Even though we are still in virtual meetings for a while, does not mean we can not do some cool things for meeting ideas to learn more about the world around us.

Scout Accounts

Scout Account Statements should be coming out soon, recharter fees have not been taken out yet but will be in January. Wreath Credit is coming out soon as well!

Sorry for the long email this week, but we wanted everyone to know we are working on getting some better quality meetings as we enter into 2021 virtually. There are very little program helps for hosting virtual meetings and we are forging new ground and trying our best to come up with an interesting program, any help would be appreciated.

Meeting Zoom (same every week) is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/216722273

Happy New Year to All!

Mr. F.

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