Welcome to Troop 642's Home Page!
Last week: Thank you to all of the adults who answered the call to serve on Boards of Review this past Tuesday. It’s very helpful and highly appreciated.
New venue: We had our first meeting in the Marina Community Center (151 Marina Dr, Seal Beach, CA 90740) and I think it was a success. It has the same tragically bad acoustics, but the adjacent playground certainly held some appeal to our scouts needing to burn off some excess energy.
This weekend: We have Trail to First Class this afternoon from 2 pm – 4 pm at Rush Park. Lots of (delicious?) food will be cooked in Dutch ovens, foil packets, and on the stove. Ryder, Connor, Nathan, Tony, Kelvin, Finn, Thomas and Leo H are all cooking. Please bring your mess kit if you’re coming or bring paper goods for the folks you’re feeding. I am not confident you guys haven’t plowed through all my paper goods.
Tuesday night: We will have our September Court of Honor beginning promptly at 7 pm. Please arrive no later than 6:45 pm, earlier if you would like to help set up. All scouts must be in their full Class A uniform (shirt, pants, belt, socks, & sash.) Absolutely no Crocs. All of this will be at the Marina Community Center Park.
Cooking today: As our new location does not have the best options for cooking, we will have to play it by ear on cooking at the Marina Community Center. We will continue to cook at Sunday Trail to First Class meetings for the foreseeable future. All the boys who cook need volunteers to sample and rate their food. Bring your mess kit and you’ll get priority in serving for being sustainable.
Photos needed for Slideshow: I have created a shared Google Photos album for our upcoming Court of Honor. Please add photos to it from the months of June, July, August and September. We really need all photos added no later than today for them to have a chance to make it into the slideshow created by Griffin Campbell. Here is the link: https://photos.app.goo.gl/zbSWn4LAJSS5uZeu9
Lytle Creek Backpacking Trip: This trip was postponed due to hot weather and will now be October 26th – 27th. It’s the same weekend as another outing, but the folks signed up for the backpacking trip didn’t sign up for the beach outing, so there appears to be no conflict.
Summer Camp Next Year: Please discuss summer camp at Camp Big Horn outside of Lake Arrowhead next summer and come prepared to let me know what weeks you would be able to attend. It was toasty in Lost Valley so pushing towards the earlier part of the summer might be a wise choice. I spoke to one of the scoutmasters from our district who went there this year and it was great except for a lot of flying bugs.
Upcoming meeting/events calendar
September
Sun Sep 22 – Trail to First Class 2 pm – 4 pm @ Rush Park
Tue Sep 24 – Troop 642 Court of Honor @ 7 pm at Marina Community Center
Sun Sep 29 – Trail to First Class 2 pm – 4 pm @ Rush Park
Mon Sep 30 – Troop Committee Meeting via Zoom
October
Tue Oct 1 – Patrol Meeting Week
Tue Oct 1 – Eagle Drop-In Hour (Rush Park 6 – 7 pm)
Sun Oct 6 – Trail to First Class 2 pm – 4 pm @ Rush Park
Tue Oct 8 – Patrol Leader’s Council Meeting at 6 pm @ Marina Community Center
Tue Oct 8 – Troop Meeting 7 pm – 8 pm @ Marina Community Center
Fri Oct 11 – Sun Oct 13 – Order of the Arrow Induction Weekend
Sun Oct 13 – Trail to First Class 2 pm – 4 pm @ Rush Park
Tue Oct 15 – Trail to First Class 6 pm – 7 pm @ Marina Community Center
Tue Oct 15 – Troop Meeting 7 pm – 8 pm @ Marina Community Center
Fri Oct 18 – Sun Oct 20 – Goldenwest District Camporall @ El Dorado Park
Sat Oct 19 – Seal Beach Clean-up
Tue Oct 22 – Trail to First Class 6 pm – 7 pm @ Marina Community Center
Tue Oct 22 – Troop Meeting 7 pm – 8 pm @ Marina Community Center
Fri Oct 25 – Sun Oct 27 – El Capitan State Beach Camping Trip
Sat Oct 26 – Sun Oct 27 – Lytle Creek Backpacking Trip
Tue Oct 29 – Troop 642 Halloween Party @ 7 pm at Marina Community Center
November
Fri Nov 1 – Sun Nov 3 Montana de Oro State Park Campout
Sat Nov 2 – Veteran’s Day Flag Planting at Forest Lawn Cypress
Mon Nov 4 – Troop Committee Meeting via Zoom
Tue Nov 5 – Patrol Meeting Week
Tue Nov 5 – Eagle Drop-In Hour (Rush Park 6 – 7 pm)
Fri Nov 8 – Sun Nov 11 Kelso Dunes Campout
Sat Nov 9 – Mon Nov 11– National Youth Leadership Training at Oso Lake Part I
Tue Nov 12 – Patrol Leader’s Council Meeting at 6 pm @ Marina Community Center
Tue Nov 12 – Troop Meeting 7 pm – 8 pm @ Marina Community Center
Fri Nov 15 – Sun Nov 17 – National Youth Leadership Training at Oso Lake Part II
Sat Nov 16 – Scout-O-Rama
Sun Sat Nov 16 – Seal Beach Clean-up
Sun Nov 17 – Trail to First Class 2 pm – 4 pm @ Rush Park
Tue Nov 19 – Trail to First Class 6 pm – 7 pm @ Marina Community Center
Tue Nov 19 – Troop Meeting 7 pm – 8 pm @ Marina Community Center
Sat Nov 23 – 8 am – 12 pm Long Beach Youth Fishing Derby @ El Dorado Park
Sat Nov 23 – Sun Nov 24 – Joshua Tree Backpacking Trip
Tue Nov 26 – Thanksgiving week – No Troop Meeting
December
Sun Dec 1 – Trail to First Class 2 pm – 4 pm @ Rush Park
Mon Dec 2 – Troop Committee Meeting via Zoom
Tue Dec 3 – Patrol Meeting Week
Tue Dec 3 – Eagle Drop-In Hour (Rush Park 6 – 7 pm)
Sat Dec 7 – Goldenwest District Merit Badge Day
Tue Dec 10 – Patrol Leader’s Council Meeting at 6 pm @ Marina Community Center
Tue Dec 10 – Troop Meeting 7 pm – 8 pm @ Marina Community Center
Fri Dec 13 – Troop 642 Adult Christmas Party
Sun Sat Dec 21 – Seal Beach Clean-up
Sun Dec 15 – Trail to First Class 2 pm – 4 pm @ Rush Park
Tue Dec 17 – Trail to First Class 6 pm – 7 pm @ Marina Community Center
Tue Dec 17 – Troop Meeting 7 pm – 8 pm @ Marina Community Center
Tue Dec 24 – Christmas Eve – No Troop Meeting
Tue Dec 31 – New Year’s Eve – No Troop Meeting
Scoutmaster Minute: The First Step
There is a Chinese saying that goes something like this - "The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step."
There's a lesson for us in that saying.
I'm thinking of advancement. If you come to troop meetings without ever looking in your Official Boy Scout Handbook all week long and if you never ask how to pass a test or who to see about a merit badge, you'll never advance very far in Scouting. In Scouting, and in life, the rewards don't come to those who sit back and wait for something to be handed to them on a silver platter.
I would like to see every one of you set the Eagle Scout badge as you goal in Scouting. As a step toward that goal, I hope that all of you will receive some award at our next Court of Honor.
Whatever the goal you set for yourself, remember that only you can take that first step toward it. No one can do it for you. Once you've taken that first step the next step becomes easier. And the ones after that will be easier still because you're on the way along the Scouting trail.
Yours in Scouting,
Mr. Moran
