Hometown Fair

• The Troop has two booths at this year's Home Town Fair (Hamburgers and Pizza) on October 5th and 6th. The hamburger booth is on Live Oak field near the Scouthouse. The Pizza booth is on Dorsey field near the Beer garden. We expect a large turnout of scouts and parents to volunteer to work the booths. Please check the sign-up sheets at the booths to see when the opportunities to volunteer are. For parents, it is a great opportunity to meet other parents and contribute to the troop.

October Activities

• The Hometown Fair booths plans were discussed. We have at least the minimum staffing for all shifts. We look forward to a successful and profitable fair.
• A number of scouts will run the Hometown Fair 10K on Saturday morning.
• October 18 to 20 is the Fall Rock Hike to Joshua Tree. We have reserved 1 group site and some individual sites to accommodate about 80 people. We will need to be sure we have enough trained instructors going on the trip. The night at the Rock Gym is scheduled for October 9.
• The Eagle Court scheduled for October will be cancelled. We are looking to possibly holding an Eagle Court on November 17th.
• An Eagle Project for the weekend of October 26/27 needs to be postponed. The new date will be announced when it is set. The project will involve the relocation of the murals from the fence on the East side of the Metlox property. These murals were made as part of a prior Troop 849 Eagle Project.

November Activities

• The Fall Bike Hike is scheduled for November 2/3. New plans are being made for the location since both the Angeles National Forest and the San Bernardino national Forest are closed due to dry conditions (fire hazard). The prime possibility is Big Sycamore Canyon in the Santa Monica Mountains.
• Plans are being made for Troop participation in the Manhattan Beach Veteran's Day activities on November 11. Scouts are to meet at 10:45 AM in their class "A" uniforms in front of the Josyln Center. Pizza will be available afterwards.

Discussions of Past Events

• The Mystery Trip was held on September 14. The day was a test of scout skills, problem solving, community knowledge and clues around Manhattan Beach. The scouts that participated had a great time and a hot dog lunch.
• The Fall Court of Honor was successfully held on Tuesday, September 24 at 7:30 PM at O'Donnell Center. We celebrated the achievements of the scouts and completed the program in about one hour. A big round of Thanks goes to the coordinator who stepped up to do this event even though she had not been to a Court of Honor before.

Committee Chairman Report

• An Eagle Candidate Character Board was held. The committee approved and endorsed the candidate.
• The re-registration letter sent to the returning scout parents last year stated our goal is to provide a quality program to those Scouts who are committed to active participation in the Troop. Specifically, during 2002 we are requiring each scout to participate with the Troop in one overnight backpack trip, two additional weekend outings, and twelve hours of service projects. Scouts that do not meet this minimum participation level may not be invited to re-register in 2003. If your son has not yet met the minimum requirements, please review the Troop calendar for activities planned for the remainder of the year and discuss the situation with your son.
• The monthly adult leaders' breakfast has been established on the third Thursday of each month at 7 AM at the Kettle in Downtown Manhattan beach.

Scoutmaster Reports

• The opportunities and training of youth leadership was discussed. The scoutmasters will make this a focus of upcoming meetings.

Subcommittee Reports

• Service Project Subcommittee - There is only one potential Eagle Project being discussed for the remainder of the year. Service hours are needed for scouts to fulfill their rank requirements and their service obligation to the Troop. Ideas for service projects should be brought to the Committee meetings. The possibility of participating in the National Good Turn event (i.e. Scouting for Food) was discussed.
• Summer Camp Subcommittee - Our tentative dates for 2003 summer camps are the week of June 29th and the week of July 27th. We discussed the need to coordinate the summer camp schedule with the longterm and summer school schedules.
• Philmont 2004 - The committee approved the phone by committee approach to reserve 16 spots for 2004. This would give us flexibility to send up to 24 scouts and adults.

Other Discussion Items

• HAT (High Adventure Team) Backpack Leader Training for Troop 849 adults was discussed. The District HAT training is tentatively scheduled for the weekend of February 14 to 16, 2003. We are investigating our options to have our own training for Troop adults. It was noted that past history shows we have been able to add only one or two new hike leaders a year. Because of the number of hikes and weekends we are now doing, we need to add at a higher rate than in the past.
• We are encouraging all parents and scouts to sign-up for our broadcast system at announce@troop849.org. We need to use this system to communicate more thoroughly and completely because of the size of the Troop. If you are not on the list, please sign up by going to www.troop849.org/homeMailingList.html.
• Suggestions/ideas for improving the Troop are always welcomed and should be directed to the Committee Chairman or Asst. Committee Chairman.

The next Troop Committee Meeting will be Thursday, November 7th, 2002, in the School Hall, American Martyrs School at 7:30 PM.

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