The American Legion’s Post 6 Boy Scout Troop 505 would like to invite any eligible Boy Scout who has not found a Troop to their next Webelos Open House. During this open house, attending Webelos will complete the majority of the requirements to earn their Leave No Trace Badge (everything except the Service Project and Merit Badge requirements).

The Webelos Open House for Troop 505 will be on Wednesday, February 1st from 7-8pm at the American Legion Post 6, 1714 Legion Road, Chapel Hill, NC.

Please join us for this evening of Scouting sure to be filled with spirited conversation, fellowship, a few laughs, fun and some valuable learning.

Troop 505 meets every Wednesday at the American Legion Post 6 Chapel Hill, from 7-8pm. Our Troop camps or is engaged in a high adventure activity over 40 days a year. Any interested boy is welcome to attend anytime. We hope to see you there! And please bring a friend not already in Scouts!

Please spread the word about this Scouting opportunity to anyone you think might be interested. If you are interested in getting involved in Troop 505 or have any questions, please contact Scoutmaster West at westandco@earthlink.net.

Our regularly scheduled PLC Meeting will follow the Troop meeting from 8:30-9pm.

The Pow Wow will offer Scouts two (2) Merit Badges during a 2-day long extended session: American Heritage and Cinematography. Any Scout that attends the the Pow Wow, brings the required video camera and tripod pre-reqs and successfully completes all the requirements with the Merit Badge Counselors the day of Pow Wow, will earn both Merit Badges.

This Merit Badge Pow Wow is comprised of  two (2) Merit Badge sessions over two (2) days, Saturday, February 18th from 9am till 3pm and Sunday, February 19th from 1pm till 6pm. A 30-minute lunch break from 12pm – 12:30pm on Saturday, lunch will not be served Sunday. The Scout MUST attend both days to complete the Pow Wow – do not send application if you are not able to commit attendance BOTH days. The cost per Scout is $20 to cover lunch which will be supplied by the American Legion. All proceeds from this event will go to the American Legion Post 6 Preservation Fund. Any registered Boy Scout may attend the Orange District Merit Badge Pow Wow, sessions will be limited to twenty (20) Scouts and will be filled on a first come first serve basis with session priority given to Orange and Mawat District Boy Scouts who send in application to Council by February 10th.

Not only will attending Scouts earn the American Heritage and Cinematography Merit Badges, they will create a piece of American History in the form of a fully produced video interview with a United States War Veteran, as defined by the Library of Congress Veteran History Project. For more information visit: Library of Congress Veterans History Project. All work produced by the Scouts attending this Pow Wow will be submitted to the Library of Congress where it their work as a cinematographer will reside as a permanent video documentary of our American History.

CLICK HERE FOR APPLICATION

During our January 25th Troop meeting we plan to complete:

3. Discuss with your merit badge counselor FIVE of the following concepts: a. The emotions you feel when you receive money. b. Your understanding of how the amount of money you have with you affects your spending habits. c. Your thoughts when you buy something new and your thoughts about the same item three months later. Explain the concept of buyer’s remorse. d. How hunger affects you when shopping for food items (snacks, groceries). e. Your experience of an item you have purchased after seeing or hearing advertisements for it. Did the item work as well as advertised? f. Your understanding of what happens when you put money into a savings account. g. Charitable giving. Explain its purpose and your thoughts about it. h. What you can do to better manage your money.

4. Explain the following to your merit badge counselor: a. The differences between saving and investing, including reasons for using one over the other. b. The concepts of return on investment and risk. c. The concepts of simple interest and compound interest and how these affected the results of your investment exercise.

5. Select five publicly traded stocks from the business section of the newspaper. Explain to your merit badge counselor the importance of the following information for each stock: a. Current price. b. How much the price changed from the previous day. c. The 52-week high and the 52-week low prices.

Our regularly scheduled PLC Meeting will follow the Troop meeting from 8:30-9pm.

2. Discuss with your merit badge counselor the following: a. The benefits of playing chess, including developing critical thinking skills, concentration skills, and decision-making skills, and how these skills can help you in other areas of your life, b. Sportsmanship and chess etiquette

3. Demonstrate to your counselor that you know each of the following. Then, using Scouting’s Teaching EDGE, teach the following to a Scout who does not know how to play chess: a. The name of each chess piece , b. How to set up a chessboard , c. How each chess piece moves, including castling and en passant captures

4. Do the following:a. Demonstrate scorekeeping using the algebraic system of chess notation. , b. Discuss the differences between the opening, the middle game, and the endgame. , c. Explain four opening principles. , d. Explain the four rules for castling. , e. On a chessboard, demonstrate a “scholar’s mate” and a “fool’s mate.” , f. Demonstrate on a chessboard four ways a chess game can end in a draw.

5. Do the following: a. Explain four of the following elements of chess strategy: exploiting weaknesses, force, king safety, pawn structure, space, tempo, time. , b. Explain any five of these chess tactics: clearance sacrifice, decoy, discovered attack, double attack, fork, interposing, overloading, overprotecting, pin, remove the defender, skewer, zwischenzug. , c. Set up a chessboard with the white king on e1, the white rooks on a1 and h1, and the black king on e5. With White to move first, demonstrate how to force checkmate on the black king., d. Set up and solve five direct-mate problems provided by your merit badge counselor.

6. Do ONE of the following: a. Play at least three games of chess with other Scouts and/or your merit badge counselor. Replay the games from your score sheets and discuss with your counselor how you might have played each game differently., b. Play in a scholastic (youth) chess tournament and use your score sheets from that tournament to replay your games with your merit badge counselor. Discuss with your counselor how you might have played each game differently., c. Organize and run a chess tournament with at least four players, plus you. Have each competitor play at least two games

Hope to see you there!

Tom Lynn

Scout Jose’s address is:
111 High Hickory Road
Chapel Hill, NC 27516

If you have any questions feel free to contact Jose at (919) 960-3607.

For the chess merit badge, he will cover how to move the chess pieces, how to write notation and how to use strategy. Before you come on Saturday, you can look at a brief history of chess online if you want. But he will discuss the history of chess at the beginning. We will also be playing some games and hopefully, have a tournament if we have time.

Everyone is welcome to come.

Here are the directions to his house:
1) From 15-501 South, take Carrboro-Jones Ferry Exit
2) At the bottom of the exit, turn LEFT at the traffic light onto Jones Ferry Road
3) Go approximately 3 miles on Jones Ferry Road (pass University Lake)
4) When you see the street sign, “Carolina Forest” on your left, you will take the NEXT RIGHT HAND TURN onto a gravel driveway. This is High Hickory Road.
5) See the light green house on your right.  That’s where we will meet. 111 High Hickory Road, Chapel Hill, Phone (919) 960-3607 Look for balloons tied to the mailboxes at High Hickory Road. If you see a brown sign that says Mel Oaks, you’ve gone too far. Turn around and come back.

Our next Troop meeting will be at the American Legion Post 6 on Wednesday, January 18th from 7-8pm. We will will be finalizing all plans for our Ski Trip to Sugar Mountain in the Blue Ridge from January 20-22nd. Bring your Scout Handbook, your outstanding fees for the Ski Trip and your BSA Snow Sports Merit Badge Pamphlet. Any person(s) planning on attending the Ski Trip is required to attend this Troop Meeting. Depending on the number of individuals attending, the cost per individual (including the 2 nights lodging, breakfast for both mornings – we will have lunch and dinner on the slopes). Trip deposit will be due at the Jan 18th Troop Meeting.

If you want to find out more about our destination, check out: www.skisugar.com.

Following our Troop Trip Planning we will break into Patrols for Second and First Class Scout Skills.

Our January 18th Troop meeting will be followed by our regularly scheduled Crew 505 meeting from 8-9pm. Any eligible Scout or current member of the Venturing Patrol are encouraged to attend.

Overview:

Costs

Food:  $24

Lodging: $8-12

Travel: $16-19

Lift Ticked: $66 (if age 11 or under then only $44)

Ski Rental: $27 (if age 11 or under then only $18)

Ski Rental insurance (highly recommended) $5

Snow tubing: $30

Food:  On this trip scouts will dine as a troop instead of patrols.  Patrols will rotate meal preparation and clean up.

Meals:  Friday Dinner (travel $5)

Saturday Breakfast $3   Saturday Lunch $3    Saturday Dinner $4

Sunday Breakfast $3  Sunday Lunch (pizza) $6

Equipment:  It will be cold and snowy on the slopes.  Scouts should dress in warm clothing that allows “flexibility” in movement so they can ski in comfort.  Hats, gloves, and warm socks are required gear.  Scouts need to bring their sleeping bags, ground pads, and additional warm clothing to change into after a day of skiing.  Additional gear will be discussed at the scout meetings.

Itinerary

Friday January 20^th:

6:00pm- Depart from American Legion for lodging in Seven Devils, NC

7:30pm- Stop for dinner

9:45-10:00pm-Arrive at lodging, unpack, lights out

Saturday January 21^st:

7:30am-wake, eat breakfast as a troop, prepare lunches

8:30am- depart for Sugar Mountain

9:00am-4:00pm Skiing.  Lunch on slopes by patrol

4:15pm- depart for cabin

4:45pm- arrive at cabin

6:00pm- dinner as a troop

8:00pm- watch movie in cabin

10:00pm-lights out

Sunday January 22^nd:

7:30am- wake

8:00am- eat breakfast as a troop

8:30-9:30am- pack, clean cabin, load vehicles

9:30am- depart for tubing at Hawks Nest

10:00am-12:00- snow tubing

12pm- pizza lunch

1pm-depart for Chapel Hill

4pm- arrive at American Legion, Chapel Hill

Directions

TO CABIN

177 miles, 3 hours 11 minutes

Head southwest on Legion Rd toward Ephesus Church Rd.  Turn right onto Ephesus Church Rd (0.1 miles).   Turn right onto N Fordham Blvd, go 1.2 miles. Continue onto US-15 N/​US-501 N/​Durham-Chapel Hill Blvd for 0.6 miles. Turn left to merge onto I-40 W toward Greensboro go 42.9 miles. Slight right onto I-40 W/​I-85 BUS S (signs for Interstate 85 BUSINESS S/​U.S 70/​Greensboro/​Winston-Salem) go 7.7 miles. Slight right onto I-40 W go 12.6 miles. Slight left to stay on I-40 W for 18.1 miles. Take exit 188 to merge onto US-421 N toward Yadkinville/​Wilkesboro go 80.5 miles. Turn left onto N Carolina 105 S/​US-221 S/​Hwy 105 Extension S

Continue to follow N Carolina 105 S/​Hwy 105 Extension S go 10.6 miles. Turn right onto 7 Devils Rd for 0.3 miles. Turn right to stay on 7 Devils Rd for 0.2 miles. Turn right to stay on 7 Devils Rd for 200 feet. Slight left to stay on 7 Devils Rd for 0.8 miles. Slight right onto Alpine Dr

Destination will be on the left (0.8 miles).  Arrive at 997 Alpine Dr Seven Devils, NC 28604.

FROM CABIN TO SUGAR MOUNTAIN

7.7 miles, 17 minutes

From 997 Alpine Dr, Seven Devils, NC 28604. Head southwest on Alpine Dr toward Meadowview Ct for 0.8 miles. Continue onto 7 Devils Rd for 0.8 miles. Turn left to stay on 7 Devils Rd for 0.2 miles. Take the 1st left to stay on 7 Devils Rd and go 0.3 miles. Turn right onto N Carolina 105 S/​Hwy 105 Extension S and go 3.1 miles. Turn right onto N Carolina 184 N/​Tynecastle Hwy and go 1.6 miles. Turn left onto Sugar Mountain Dr for 328 feet. Turn left to stay on Sugar Mountain Dr for 0.7 miles. Take the 3rd right to stay on Sugar Mountain Dr

Destination will be on the right for 0.1 miles. (arrive at 1009 Sugar Mountain Dr Banner Elk, NC 28604).

FROM CABIN TO HAWKS NEST

2.8 miles, 7 minutes

From 997 Alpine Dr Seven Devils, NC 28604. Head southwest on Alpine Dr toward Meadowview Ct for 0.8 miles. Turn right onto Skyland Dr go 0.8 miles. Slight left to stay on Skyland Dr for 1.0 miles. Slight left to stay on Skyland Dr for 0.2 miles.

Destination will be on the left. (2058 Skyland Dr Seven Devils, NC 28604).

During our January 11th Troop meeting we plan to complete:

2. Do the following: a. Prepare a budget reflecting your expected income (allowance, gifts, wages), expenses, and savings. Track your actual income, expenses, and savings for 13 consecutive weeks. (You may use the forms provided in this pamphlet, devise your own, or use a computer generated version.) When complete, present the results to your merit badge counselor. b. Compare expected income with expected expenses; 1. If expenses exceed income, determine steps to balance your budget. 2. If income exceeds expenses, state how you would use the excess money (new goal, savings).

After our Merit Badge Session will will begin menu planning fro our January 20-22 Sugar Mountain Ski Trip. Any Scout planning to attend the Ski Trip MUST attend this Troop Meeting.

Our regularly scheduled PLC will meet after the Troop Meeting from 8:30-9pm.

I would like to notify you that the first work date for my Eagle project will be this Saturday, January 14 at the Chapel Hill Memorial Cemetery on Legion Rd. from 10:00 AM to 2:30 PM. I would like to ask for volunteers from the troop to come and help out on my project. During the course of my project, we will be planting and mulching abelia bushes to screen a residual dirt pile at the cemetery.  Pizza will be provided for lunch. Scouts who choose to attend and help with the project should bring a water bottle, and if at all possible, a shovel or other digging tool (pickaxe, post hole diggers, etc.). Tools will be provided but the supply is limited, so please bring any tools that you can.

DRESS WARMLY AND IN LAYERS!! Please remember you can always remove excess clothing but you can only wear what you bring! gloves are also encouraged to both protect your hands and help to keep them warm. Any Scouts interested in helping should try to commit at the troop meeting on Wednesday, so that I have a rough Idea of who would be interested in going. Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks, Sam Abernathy, Life Scout, Troop 505