Hello TLSV,
We look forward to seeing you Tuesday evening, January 18th at 6:15PM for our next troop meeting at Newheart Church. We will focus our Woodlands activities on Heritage and the Navigators will be working on their Camping Badges. See below for specific announcements from both the Woodlands Trail (K-5) Ranger, and Navigators (6th-8th) Trailmaster.
Our Officer's Conference will finalize plans for the upcoming Hit The Trail event scheduled for Sunday, January 23, and we will get those details out shortly thereafter.
Walk Worthy,
Ryan Settle
Troopmaster
WOODLANDS TRAIL (K-5TH GRADE) UPDATES FROM OUR RANGER
Good evening Trail Life parents. First off, I want to send my personal thank you to those of you who have stepped up and helped out this season. Many of you have brought your talents and time and faithfully showed up and taught our young Trailmen. Thank you to all who have taught and to our Trail Guides!
Second, I am asking for some assistance in filling up the teaching calendar for the remainder of the season. It takes a handful of dads to make this happen week in and week out. If you haven’t had the opportunity to lead an activity now is your chance!
We will be taking signups this Tuesday January 18th at the end of our next Trail Life meeting, so get brainstorming! If you are not sure what activities to lead let me know and I can help you come up with an activity or lesson. Also, you can log on to Trail Life Connect. There are a ton of resources and preset lessons ready to go!
Walk Worthy!
Bobby Albanese
Woodlands Trail Ranger
NAVIGATORS (6TH-8TH GRADE) UPDATES FROM OUR TRAIL MASTER
Navigator parents. We had a great meeting two weeks ago, and each of the boys who attended fulfilled all of the requirements of the Computing Elective Badge— this week we will be working on the Camping Badge (as our last two meetings we didnt start this badge.)
CAMPING BADGE
As a reminder to you Navigator parents, there are some Badge requirements that must be completed outside of our regular meetings....and the Camping badge includes some outside meeting requirements. Specifically, to complete the Camping Badge, our Trailmen need to actually spend some time Camping out under the stars, with a minimum of two Troop camping trips completed while a Navigator or Adventurer (and we like the Trailman to have experienced 15 nights of camping in total between family trips and Troop campouts). Full details are included on the Camping Badge Resource Page » If you have questions or need help with any of the requirements, please reach out to me, and I'd be happy to help!
(P.S. Many of our Trailmen also completed the meeting portion of our "Trail Skills" badge earlier in the season— but still need to attend a "Hit the Trail" or camp with the troop to demonstrate and practice their Hiking and Compass work on an actual trail. We've still got upcoming Hit the Trails that would fulfill these requirements — so please make attending these events a priority!)
WORTHY LIFE AWARD BADGE OPPORTUNITY
Our Worthy Life Award is perhaps our most important award in our Navigator Program, as it centers around our Faith. Our Navigator Worthy Life Award is one that is completed entirely by the Trailman outside of our regular meetings, and includes (among other things) regular service to His home church, and participation in a 10-week age appropriate bible study. We announced an opportunity on Saturday mornings @ 7am for any interested boys, and will be starting that this week for any boys interested. Please see me, or email for details and meeting specifics. (While we are offering this, Trailmen are also welcome to fulfill this requirement with another study as long as it is pre-approved by myself and/or our Troop Chaplain). Please encourage your Trailmen to complete this valuable badge — and full details are available in the Trailman's Guide handbook.
ELECTIVE BADGES
Additionally— all year we have been reminding our young Navigators about Elective Badges that can be completed— and we've seen more badges completed this season than in most— so great work Trailmen. If your Trailman is interested in earning these elective badges, a full list can be found on our troop website here: All Elective Badges. These badges allow our Trailmen to dive deep in subjects that interest them from archery to Rock Climbing and more. And do note, that for our Trailmen to earn the Rank of Able or Ready— they must complete 3 or 5 electives (in addition to other requirements)— so while these are called 'elective', we do really want to see them be completed by each and every Trailman during their time in the program.
We've got an amazing group of young men in our Navigator program, and I'm looking forward to finishing strong in our troop season.
See you Tuesday,
Walk Worthy!
Brian Fox
Troop Lead, and Navigator TrailMaster