Gore Mountain Ski Trip

This year's ski trip to Gore was a blast.  9 Scouts and 5 leaders hit the Mountain both Saturday and Sunday and skied until we were exhausted.

Two Scouts learned to ski and everyone got better.

Even though this winter hasn't been the best for snowfall Gore managed to have enough runs open to interest everyone and the condition were good.

Can't wait for next year.

For a look at all the pictures check out our picture page:

https://goo.gl/photos/gw7q6yqGecXPafMB8

2015 - Troop 4 Year in Review

A photo retrospective of Troop 4's 2015.

2015 is done and it was a fantastic year.  Looking back on 2015 I see several highlights that make me proud of our Scouts and Troop 4.

• In 2015 we  welcomed six new fantastic young men as Scouts bringing the Troop total to 20, both the new Scouts and the old Scouts very quickly became a single group creating friendships and working relationships across different ages and grades.
• In 2015 the Patrols were beginning to work well together as teams.  
• In 2015 the Scout leadership was transitioned from the original Troop 4 Scouts to a new generation of leaders.  The new leaders worked very hard at learning to manage a large group and the old leaders continued to exert a quiet influence on the Troop while they focused on their own personal scouting goals.

So what's left to do in 2016?  Fortunately we have plenty we can focus on to make the Troop better and provide more personal growth for our Scouts in the coming year.

In forming Troop 4 our goal was to create a program as close to Baden Powel's vision of scouting as possible, where the young men are in charge, learn responsibility, and all can share in the managing of the Troop.

With that vision as a goal our 2016 focus will be on increasing the responsibility of the Scouts in our Scout led Troop.

• At the Patrol level we will focus on making the Patrols take more responsibility and building more independent Patrol activities.  I have several ideas on how to make this work I will be sharing with the Troop during the Spring.
• At the Troop level our goal in 2016 will be to push more of the management oversight responsability to the Scout leaders.  Early on in the life of Troop 4 the Scouts sat me down and asked that I do less and allow them to do more.  I think we are at a point where we can ask the Scouts to do even more, to truly make this Troop theirs.  This process may not be pretty but it will be educational.
• Our last goal for 2016 is to be more creative in our activity planning and not do things just because that's what we do.  Even if we liked certain activities lets not just redo them, I would like the Scouts to be a bit uncomfortable and try new things instead of falling back on what they know.

I look forward to seeing everyone in 2016 and having another terrific year.