BSA Troop 366 (Bloomington, Minn.) Profile

Basic Data

Troop Number: 366
Council: Viking (Minnesota)
Chartered: now in our 39th year
Host Organization: Atonement Luthern Church
Location: 98th & Portland, Bloomington, Minnesota, 55420
Meetings:
- Troop usually 1st & 3rd Mondays at 7p.m. at Atonment
- Patrol usually 2 & 4th Mondays (scheduled by Patrol leader)
Size: 10 current scouts
Advancement (94-95): 80% of scouts advanced at least one rank
Senior Scout: Matt Meinke, Senior Patrol Leader
Scoutmaster: Paul Stachour
Contact Phone: 884-5977
Contact EMail: stachour@winternet.com

Main Focus (Interest)

Our interests vary because the troop's programs have been boy-driven The Patrol Leader's Council choses and plans our activities. Our current Merit-Badge focus is the Hiking, Safety, and Family Life badges.

Outings

We usually have 4-5 camping outings each year.

Fall: Either district campout or one of our own, often at Nerstrand Woods south of Northfield
Winter: Weekend in Lodge at Sterns Scout Camp
Spring: Either district or own
Summer: Have gone to ManyPoint Scout Camp each summer for last 5 years or so. Will be at ManyPoint in 96, planning for a different camp (most likely Tomahawk of St.Paul's Indianhead Council) in 1997.
Summer: family weekend, often at Carver Park

Activities

In the last three years, we have done the following activities:

Played laser-tag at Star-Base Omega in Mall-of-America
Saw "Sharks" in the Omntheater at Science Museum of Minnesota
Participated in Jamboree-on-the-Air and Jamboree-on-the-net.

Equipment (and Condition)

We have three fully-furnished patrol boxes. We have a big canvas tent used by the adults, and 3 2-person Eureka tents available for scouts who don't have their own. We have 4 big tarps we use to cover patrol boxes, tables, etc. at campouts. We have a big gas-fired blaster we use for quick heating of community dishwater and rinse water.

Our Scout Population

Troop 366 is currently in a rebuilding stage. There were a group of boys who became cub-scouts together, and advanced pretty much as a group. Of this group, 4 have earned Eagle rank within the last 2 years, we also have 3 life scouts who will probably earn Eagle in 1996. In a city-wide school re-organization, the school where troop 366 did its recruiting was torn down about 5 years ago. Since scout recruiting in Bloomington has been done mainly through the schools, and there was no longer a neighborhood school for us, and all other schools already had troops, this has posed a recruiting issue for us. Through greater involvement with the cub pack, we believe that we have overcome this limitation, at least for the near future. We invited the 2nd year Webelos to our winter campout last year; we're working with 8 potential new scouts joining 366 1966; we've got 4 new boys who just moved into the neighborhood started with us in September.

Funding

Dues: Several years ago the parents decided that annual dues per boy was better than weekly or monthly dues. Workerships are available (supervised community service at $5/hour) where family needs so indicate. Our Committee Chairman handles workerships.
Fundraisers: Our big fundraiser is wreath-sales (+ similar items) at Christmas. Profits go 50% to boy's camp-fund and 50% to troop camp-fund. Those boys who wish may participate in the Council popcorn sales, but we do not "push" it. We recently started a can-recyling project with a local service club; we process and recycle containers used for beverages from their club. We also ask boys to collect their own cans and that of their neighbors. This money is split 50-50 between the scouts participating on a given day and the troop fund.
Scout Accounts: Each boy has a camping account, where his share of earned monies go. He may draw on that for campouts and camping equipment if about a given level.

Narative

BSA troop 366 is in Dan Patch District, Viking Council (Minnesota), USA. Our 1996 summer-camp is scheduled for July 14..20 at Many-Point Scout camp, near Ponsford (Northern Minnesota). We have reserved a site with enough room for both ourseleves and a partner troop.
We are looking for a troop interested in a home-and-home camping exchange, preferably in 1996/7 and 1998. We have approval of Viking Council and the International Division of BSA to seek a partner troop interested in such an exchange. What country we would visit is open, however our boy's preference is Europe. We are aware that many European troups are mixed-sex, i.e., both boys and girls. Such a troop, as well as an all-boy troop, would be welcome with us and at Viking Council's Many Point Scout Camp.

Our vision is for a roughly three-(might be four-) week visit each year, structured as follows: (extra week is home or local trip)

Summer of 1996 or 97: Some group of 5..10 visits us.
- 1 week: Both troops jointly at Many-Point
- 1 week: They stay in our homes, we host them at local places
- 1 week: They visit around someplace midwest USA by themselves
Summer of 1998: Our group of of 5..10 visits them.
- 1 week: Both troops jointly at their camping spot.
- 1 week: We stay in their homes, they set activites as they wish
- 1 week: We visit around someplace in their country

Some Scouting WWW References

My complete set of Scouting URLs

USA Boy Scouting Home-Page, InterNETional Scouting Home-Page, Scouting in Switzerland, Scouting in Iceland, A troop in Virginia, A Girl-Scout troop in Massachusetts, A Scoutmaster in the Netherlands, and Flint River Council's Camp Thunder in Woodbury, Georgia.

This page, found at "http://www.winternet.com/~stachour/scouts/trp_prof.htm" is maintained by Paul Stachour , stachour@winternet.com.
It was last updated on 04 Jun 1996