September 2007 Pack 336 Newsletter
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Dear Pack 336,
Welcome to a new year of cub scouting! We are excited to kick off another great year of cub scouting with you and your boys.
Fundraiser
By now you should all have your fundraising packets. If not, please contact your den leader. This fundraiser is our one main fundraiser of the year so it is important that we all participate. I went around our neighborhood with my two cub scouts last weekend. Many people buy a wreath anyway so they may as well buy it from the cub scouts! Thanks to Jenny Nagy for taking on the Fundraising Coordinator role and thank you to Jane for working with Jenny and for serving so wonderfully in this role the last years.
First pack meeting
Our first pack meeting is at Friday, September 21st at 7:00 PM at Hidden Valley Park in Savage. Below is a map to the park. There is a big shelter so we plan to meet there even if the weather isn't great. However, if it's raining cats and dogs we will meet at Westwood.
We will go through stations where the kids will have a uniform inspection, play a game, sign up their parents for volunteer opportunities (this means you!), etc.
Then we will roast marshmallows over a fire in the fireplace at the pavilion at the park. Please bring a roasting stick for your son and bring an extra one if you can so we have enough for the new scouts and any other kids you may bring.
Please bring a flashlight or a safe battery-operated lantern as it of course gets dark earlier and this meeting is all outside.
Here are the den duties for the pack meeting:
Set up: All
Den Display: Den 7
Registration Table: Den 3
Flags: Den 4
Song or Skit: Den 9
Food and drink: Den 7
Retire the colors: Den 4
Cleanup: All
Parents meeting
Thanks to Jim Nagy, Jim Collins, John Torvik, Wade Mosset, Jim Stahl, Jane Broberg, and Linda Chandler for attending our September parent planning meeting. Den leaders usually attend these meetings but your den leader can ask you to attend a meeting at some point during the year and the meetings are really open to any interested parent. Those attending these meetings serve as the decision making committee of the pack so they are very important. They are usually from 7-8 PM the first Monday of the month at the Savage Library.
Web site and e-mail
We try to put all pack meeting and calendar information on our web site on a timely basis. You should be able to find out most of what you need about pack events on the web site. The web site address is http://www.priorlake-savage-pack336.org/.
We communicate via e-mail for pack-wide information. If someone in your den isn't getting the e-mails, please e-mail me at jrtorvik@aol.com or have them e-mail me with their e-mail address. Thank you!
Recruiting
We only had a few boys join our pack at the cub scouts open house last night. Your son can earn a recruiting award if he invites a boy and he joins the pack. We could especially use a few more tiger scouts so if your son knows any first graders or has friends with younger brothers in first grade, please invite them to join us! It's never too late to join so other grades are welcome also!
New leadership
Thank you to Jim Collins for taking on the role of Committee Chair. This position serves as the chair of our parent planning committee.
Thank you to Linda Chandler for agreeing to take on the role of Awards Coordinator. Shelly Hulse, our current Awards Coordinator, will graduate with her son Dylan in February so she will be "passing the baton" to Linda in the months ahead.
As mentioned above, thank you to Jenny Nagy for taking on the Fundraising Coordinator role as Jane Broberg will graduate with her son Jacob in February.
We do still need a Treasurer as Jane also serves as our Treasurer. Please contact Jim Collins at jimcollins24@gmail.com if you are interested.
New school
As you know, the Prior Lake Savage School district continues to grow and a new elementary school is opening in fall 2008 in south Savage. It will be called Red Tail Ridge Elementary. At this point we serve Westwood and Grainwood and have boys from Westwood, Grainwood, Glendale, Five Hawks and Jeffers Pond in our pack. When Red Tail Ridge opens, some of our boys will move to that school and some will remain at their current schools. We plan to approach the situation the same way we have in the past by finding out from you, the parents, where your boys will be going to school, and then making a decision based on what seems best for the boys and the pack. We moved to Westwood because the vast majority of our boys were moving to Westwood. Our pack has moved twice in it's history. Once from Glendale to Oakridge when Oakridge opened, and then from Oakridge to Westwood when Oakridge closed. We may continue to be the Westwood/Grainwood pack or we may move to Red Tail Ridge, but it's premature to make a decision until we know where everyone is going. There is a committee in the school district that is working on redrawing school district boundaries so we will know more when they complete their work. In the meantime, rest assured that any decision we make will happen only after seeking input from you and then the decision will be made by the parent planning committee and not any one person.
Final word
Give you cub scout a hug and tell them you love them and are excited for them to be in cub scouts. I look forward to seeing you at the pack meeting on the 21st. Please contact your den leader or me if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
John Torvik
Cubmaster
h) 952-440-1203
m) 612-770-7136