Dear Troop 160 Adults,

A few announcements from your treasurer:

I have an exciting news for you about the Troop 160 – Joe Lepore agreed to serve the co-treasurer for Troop 160! Please say hello to him when you see him at the meeting. He will also be at our next committee meeting to meet with you.

For those of you who are responsible for collecting checks for the trip you coordinate, you can start to send him checks and spreadsheets if you wish. Joe and I will work together to deposit these checks.

All the reimbursement requests will still go through me but please CC to Joe if possible. I will write checks to you as usual.

Our main contact person for the campership, especially Summer Camp campership, is George Kaplan. Please contact George for more details. We have $1000 budgeted this year and I want to spend every penny of it. Those families who have two scouts in the troop, please give George a call and he might have a little surprise for you.

Lastly, if you want to support your wonderful and awesome troop by making a donation, please make your check payable to Troop 160. If you have any questions about money business, please feel free to contact me at h389@rcn.com. Thank you very much!

Yours In Scouting,
Lien Ho (Wilson Ho, Eagle ’09)

A great job was done by all at an unusual meeting this past Thursday.  We ended up pretty much filling a 10 yard dumpster.  Most of it was not our trash, but getting rid of it has cleared the way for a future cleanup of our own storage areas.  Almost all of our stuff was off the ground except for a couple of tents, a sleeping bag, a sleeping pad, and a few pieces of clothing.

The flood was nowhere near what it used to be like in that basement.  I have seen more than a foot of water there before the window wells and windows were repaired and even a modest rainfall would often bring us water in that area.  This was as nothing compared to those ancient times.

There is still a modest inflow through the foundation on the church side of the hall.  Once that stops, there will be one last pumping followed by wet vac work by the custodians.

I have put some flood-related pictures out on a Phanfare site.  You can view it at:

http://www.hankmanz.phanfare.com/4599474#imageID=95522155

Click on Start Slideshow after you get to the site.  If you have any flood-related pictures you would like to share, you can give them to me by putting them in the dropbox.  Click on the dropbox symbol next to the magnifying glass in the upper right corner of the home screen and follow the dialog.  You do not have to have a Phanfare account to use my dropbox.  Or you can just e-mail them to me … but the dropbox is a lot easier to use.

Thanks again for all the help.  Our sponsor REALLY appreciates it.

-Hank

Two things I should have put in my earlier message:

- BORs will take place as planned and we will need adults to help with those.  I will waive the usual requirement that a Class A uniform be worn.  In addition, any Scouts who had intended to finish up a last requirement or two on something will do that.

- New Scouts will start on their Tenderfoot requirements.  I don’t have the e-mail addresses for the New Scouts, but John Woodhouse does and he will be sending out a note to them I expect.

I do not expect any damage to the computer in our Scout Room although I will be checking that today.  Unfortunately, I did not know about the flooding until last evening around 7 PM.  There was a breakdown in communcations which resulted in a presumption that we knew all about the water.  WIth a little earlier notification we would have gotten a crew in there before the water really flooded the place.

-Hank

Our program plans have changed and this Thursday we will be doing a major service project at the Parish Hall where we meet.  Plans are still a bit fluid (no play on words intended, of course) and this one is based on the basement being relatively free of water by Thursday evening.  If it is not, then the project is off.  I will send out a second note around noon Thursday.

Our basement storage area has flooded.  The area is being pumped out, but there will be wet gear and trash.  The water which flooded the basement was not contaminated, but things will still be wet.  Our recovery plan and the amount of material we will have to throw out depends on how high the water got.

So here’s the plan for Thursday evening.  I will be there starting at 6 PM for those who wish to start early.  For those who wish to help wear old clothes and sturdy shoes.  Bring work gloves.  Bring your own water bottle.  Do not wear a Class A shirt.  Do not bring food of any sort.  When cleaning up after a flood, don’t eat near the stuff you are working with.  That’s an important rule.

We will be sorting through gear and we will either be putting junk in a dumpster or piling it someplace to be put in a dumpster later.

This is not dangerous work and we will not be dealing with contaminated material, but if you feel at all uncomfortable with the work, then stay home for this week.  Moreover, we need to work in a coordinated and safe fashion with no skylarking or horseplay.  If we hustle, we can make a huge dent in a project we needed to do anyway.

We could use some tools and equipment including:
Two-wheelers, wheelbarrows, or yard carts
Shovels
Heavy duty push brooms

Because a majority of the work will be for the church and not for Scouts, I will give service hours for this project.
If you have questions, call my cell phone (617 -dash- 620 -dash- 5011) or send an e-mail to 160scoutmaster -at- troop160.com.

-Hank Manz

Guys–

SPL’s e-mail is down so you are getting this from me.

I am not sure we arranged for a crew to be at the Webelos crossover at the Elks tonight.  Things were just a bit busy at the last meeting.

In any case, we need at least four Scouts to help with Webelos crossover this evening.  More is fine.  Be in uniform at the Elks by 7 PM  for about an hour.  The Elks Hall is on Waltham Street just before you reach your usual destination of choice, McDonald’s.  It is right after the intersection with Concord Ave and Waltham Street.

Let me know if you can make it just so I won’t worry all day.  

-Hank Manz