Greetings to All, and Welcome to 2000! I sincerely hope your Holidays were both joyous and Y2K bug-free. Again, thanks to one and all for the many cards and emails, plus (of course) the two Troop gifts of a scanner and high quality camera. I appreciate the appreciation!

Now, Welcome to Volume 13 of the (seemingly) never-ending "Scoutmaster's Minute," (an award winning series... !??! - Not!) Let's get to it....

There were no rank advancements this past month, but a number of Scouts checked in on the Merit Badge Front. Jeffrey C. earned Fishing and Motorboating as a result of his efforts at Camp Seagull this past summer. Jeffrey C., Matthew C., David G., Matt G., Ian H., William L., Casey S., Danny S., Neil S. and Tom W. all earned Orienteering - a tough one! (Thanks to George L. and Rich S.!) Stefan N., John P., Nick T., Dan T., and Chris W. and Eric W. all earned Citizenship in the World (Thanks Larry H.!)

Congratulations to all of the above Scouts!

Continuing a tradition that dates back to 1988, we'll be hitting the slopes at Canaan Valley, West Virginia, over the Martin Luther King Holiday weekend. I very much regret to announce that the Troop 96 Scout Hall is no longer available to the Troop, as Scoutmaster Dr. Tom Patrick is quite seriously ill, and has sold his practice to a partner. We will therefore be staying at a large, unfurnished house which is maintained by the local Methodist Church. "Different." On January 28^th - 30^th, we'll be returning to Camp Tuckahoe in Dillsburg, Pennsylvania, for our annual Winter Cabin Campout. Although no program is formally scheduled for this weekend, we may offer the First Class Practical Exam for those Scouts who want to practice or take it. You will doubtless be intrigued to hear that the first four Scouts to ever pass the FCPE - John Brady, Geoff Evans, Greg Landrigan and Chris Yarbrough - did so in 8 inches of snow at Camp Potomac, that year's Winter Cabin Campout (so yes, it is possible.) Note also that Rich and Larry's buddy Harold will be attending this event, and is hoping to sharpen our Scouts' skills in Winter survival techniques. Harold's superlative survival skills were a big hit with the Scouts at the Guns 'N Arrows campout last October, and he's looking forward to joining us again at the end of the month.

A) Steering Coommittee Meeting Saturday, January 8^th, 9am, at Sue N.'s house. Committee members take note. An agenda was forwarded by Sue to all Steering Committee members.

B) PLC on Sunday, January 9^th, 7pm, at the Parish Center. This is an important meeting, and all Patrol Leaders and active (and inactive) Senior Scouts should attend. Of note, I need to know which Senior Scouts are planning on taking the SAT's this May, since it's a dead conflict with the Projectoree Saturday. I also need status reports on each Senior Scout's expected activity levels these next 5 months.

C) At the Monday January 10^th Meeting, we will be measuring all Canaan Valley Scouts who need rental skis, plus getting their parent's signatures on the rental/liability release forms. If you're intending on attending, and need to get rentals, you and at least one parent MUST come to the meeting! All attending Scouts should also refer to the Gerarden's Mass eMailing of January 5^th for additional pertinent information.

D) Eagle Scout Projects - Brendan M. and Chris W. both finished their projects last week, and now join Adam S. in the eternal quest for the perfect writeup. I have not received an update on John C.'s project, but a review of the doorjambs in the Parish Center would suggest that it's still ongoing. Please offer your assistance when John comes calling.

E) Troop Registration - With the start of the new year comes the next round of registrations. Criteria and costs will be finalized at the Steering Committee Meeting, and you can expect to be contacted soon thereafter. If anyone is planning on dropping out of Scouts in the immediate future, we need to know so that we don't re-register your son(s).

F) Also with the new year comes the annual query on summer camp. Matt and Suzi B. are again handling summer camp coordination this year, and will soon be soliciting for deposits. FYI, we are again attending Camp Powhatan from June 25^th through July 1^st, and total costs may be estimated at about $200.

G) Philmont 2000 - I will attempt to formulate and mail the next newsletter this upcoming weekend.

H) National Jamboree 2001 - Applications and First Deposits are due to Council next Friday, so if any Scouts are interested, it's time to gear up now. (Please let me know immediately.) Remember, National Jamborees only come around once every 4 years, so (realistically) this is the only shot at it for most of the Scouts currently enrolled in the Troop. For some basic orientation on the Jamboree, see:

http://www.scouting.org/jamboree

J) Lunar Eclipse Coming Up! - Sky Watch; A Total Eclipse Of the Moon - check out the skies on Friday, January 20^th for a 3 and one half hour celestial show. Beginning around 10pm, the full moon will spend the next hour slowly darkening. The Moon will achieve totality at at 11:04pm and will remain completely dark for almost 90 minutes. Enjoy the eclipse!

We'll start off with a few "nice" news spots this month - First, you will be happy to learn that this past November's Scouting for Food Drive collected 867,000 pounds of food Council-wide (and we helped!) Kind of puts all those other more highly publicized TV and radio-based food drives in their place, hmmmm? Second, how many of you noticed that Troop 111 was mentioned no less than five times in this past issue of the Scouter Digest (the official Council Newspaper?) Our Niagara Falls (60th Anniversary) Troop photo was featured, a full writeup on the Baltimore Orienteering Meet gave us some nice kudos (and included the names of our top ten finishing teams of Scouts), Matthew Stainback and Michael Strasburg's Eagles were listed in the "New Eagles" citations, and Bill McCahill had a nice farewell writeup for his years of service to Scouting on the Troop, District, Council and National levels. I don't think we'll be beating this record anytime soon, folks! (but I'd like to try!)

On Saturday, December 4^th, Rich S. and George L. held the outdoor orienteering practical exam at Potomac Overlook Regional Park, a complement to the Baltimore Council Orienteering Challenge and the culmination of the Orienteering Merit Badge for the Troop. According to Rich, it was a productive and fun day, and every Scout involved now has a real feel for what orienteering is all about.

Also starting on Saturday, December 4^th, was the Troop's 15^th Annual Poinsettia and Christmas Wreath Sale. This year we also added garland to the sale, which ended up being a big hit (we sold 400 yards worth.) The Scout volunteers all seemed to have a good time, and received many compliments for their demeanor and helpful attitudes. Unfortunately, a complete sellout remained elusive, and selling our last 80 Poinsettias was a bit of a struggle - probably a combination of the distinctly non-Christmasy weather (about 60 degrees and sunny), and possibly consumer overload (as poinsettias and wreaths are now offered by numerous other local groups.) But sell them all we did, and we're quasi-solvent for another year (at least!) Thanks to one and all who assisted, especially Betty B. and Heidi B.

The following Saturday, the Troop took advantage of a special Student Discount and attended a George Washington University basketball game. (From ASM Glenn M.) The Scouts who attended the GWU/Siena basketball game on December 11^th were treated to a game filled with the joy of victory - GWU rebounding from a 16 point deficit to tie the game late, and the agony of defeat - GWU Head Coach Tom Penders being thrown out of the game and GW ultimately losing. We moved from our original seats into the student section to get the full flavor of the game, including the cheers and taunts. We also got a chance to see one of the top scorers in the country SirValiant - yes that's his first name - Brown. A good time was had by all. Participants included: Rich S., Mark T., Tim T., Chris W., Eric W., and Glenn M.

On Wednesday, December 29^th, we headed off to Whitetail Resort in Mercersberg, Pennsylvania for our now annual beginner skier/snow boarder trip. Although many Troop members have braved Whitetail over the past 7 years, this was the Troop's first formal visit since it opened. Oddly enough, the original owners (a Japanese group, I believe) went out of business, so Whitetail is now owned by the Ski Liberty/Ski Roundtop consortium. I can't say how it was before, but we certainly found it to be a smoothly run and reasonably efficient operation.

Our trip started at 6am in a very chilly and windblown parking lot at St. Agnes, with ominously heavy clouds scurrying past overhead. This was the last truly cold day in a string that started before Christmas - good snowblowing weather at the resorts, lucky for us. Traffic was surprisingly light (even for Christmas break), and we made it up to Whitetail in about an hour and a half. Charles and John B. arrived about 10 minutes afterwards, making the short hop from their Catoctin hideaway. Rentals and lift tickets were as tedious as usual, but fortunately we were essentially first in line for both - glad we didn't have 30 Scouts, though! Once everyone was outfitted, we split into two groups, with the three W.'s training Jack O., Jason P.s (a friend of Eric's), and Patrick P. in Snowboarding, while I started in with Matthew C., Drew D., Norah P., Dale R., Sarah R., Charlie S., and Sarah W. on skiing, with help from Charles B. and John B. a bit later on. By the time we actually hit the slopes, the morning clouds were gone, replaced by clear blue skies and brilliant sunshine - what a day!

In one quick surprise, Neal K. stopped by and said Hello just after we got started; all three K.'s were there, along with 4 or 5 friends, and we ran into them on and off all day. We did the training on a short stretch of unused beginner trail which offered a fairly gentle slope with little fear of collisions with other skiers. Both the snowboarders and the skiers were up and at `em in about an hour and fifteen minutes, and we hit the lift lines for the first real runs of the day. Whitetail has two "Bunny" slopes offering nice easy runs, plus a considerably longer and somewhat more challenging Beginner Slope. Well, every one of the skiers had it down cold within two runs (must have been the quality instruction!), and we gave them their release for the rest of the day. All the beginner Scouts tackled the Beginner Slope at least once or twice, either late in the morning or just before we called it a day. Charles and I kept a loose eye on everyone 'til lunchtime, at which point we left it to the Buddy System. Snowboarding went equally well, though I saw Jack, Jason and Patrick rubbing an awful lot of falls out of their butts at the end of the day!

After a quick lunch, I headed over to the Intermediate and then the Expert level slopes - they had one full Intermediate and about one and a half Expert level slopes open. The killer Expert Slope "Bold Decision" was pretty scary - but also almost deserted, so I hit that five times before my legs (and my nerve) gave out. Then Chris W. and I did lower Angel Drop (the "half" of an Expert Slope) for the rest of the afternoon, linking up with Nathan K. and a few of his college buddies on regular occasions. I also got to watch Chris run into a sign on the slopes, but that's OK, he watched me finally wipe out on a patch of ice a little later (payback is Hell!) We finally called it a day around 4pm, with all the upper level slopes fading into shadows with the setting sun, and it was a pretty tired set of puppies that turned in their rentals and returned to the vans.

On the way home, we stopped off for a great dinner at an off the beaten track Pizza Hut in Hagerstown, and then home by about 7:30. A great day! Participants included: Charles B. (and his four younger siblings), Matthew C., Drew D., Jack O., Jason and Norah P., Patrick P., Dale and Sarah R., Charlie S., and Chris, Eric and Sarah W. What the heck, we'll toss John, Nathan, and Neal K. in there, too. Thanks also to Heidi and John B., Hillary P., Annette R., and Rick W., who shared the day, and Ann G., who helped Heidi set the event up. Looks like we have a new beginner ski slope, folks!

- Bob

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15 January 2000