If you're wondering what Troop 730 has been doing over the last six months, please check out the great photos under the "Photo Albums" tab on the left side of this website.   You'll find that, in the last six months, the members of Troop 730 have experienced a great 4 day Winter Campout at Camp Trevor Rees Jones in Athens, collected hundreds of cans for the annual Scouting for Food canned food drive for the North Texas Food Bank, hiked on a 5 mile hike on a terrific Campout at the LBJ Grasslands near Decatur, participated in the grand opening ceremony of the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in downtown Dallas, had a lot of fun learning and demonstrating Scout skills at the annual Circle Ten Camporee in Athens, participated in the flag ceremony of the annual St. Mark's Spring Convocation, built water and drainage improvements in a wonderful conservation project for the Connemara Conservancy in Plano, canoed down the scenic waters of the San Marcos River (and tumped a few canoes!), participated in the Order of the Arrow Ordeal in Camp Constantin near Possum Kingdom Lake, powered through a beautiful 50 mile bike ride in Ft. Worth, and enjoyed two fabulous Courts of Honor to celebrate rank advancements and literally hundreds of merit badges!  It's been a very busy Spring semester.   For all of those who volunteered countless hours in order to make this Troop run smoothly, thank you!

If you're a 1st class scout or higher rank and need a Position of Responsibilty for further rank advancement, please read the attached documents - the detailed descriptions of all of the Positions of Responsibility as well as the Application for Leadership Position.   Please note that we've pulled together a detailed description of the job responsibilities so each Scout will have a clear understanding of each position's requirements.   Please complete the Application for Leadership Position document and return it by email to our new Senior Patrol Leader, Jack McRoberts (jack_mcroberts@att.net) or hand it to him at next Monday's meeting (Monday, May 21st) - that is a real deadline for the application.   You'll be submitting your first three choices.   Please note that your parent needs to sign the application as well.    Also note that a few of the positions have BSA training requirements - make sure that you're qualified for the PoRs that you're selecting as your first 3 choices.  Jack will be deciding the PoR's based on the applications received and will email the selected scouts by email.  For the Patrol Leaders who were selected by election at the last meeting, please complete the application as well, but you only need to list your one elected position.   If you have any questions, please contact Jack, Scoutmaster Pigg or Assistant Scoutmaster Pittson prior to the deadline.  Good luck to all of the applicants!

Scouts, we need your help starting at 4 pm on Thursday, May 17th at the Scout trailer to help Mr. Schaeffer and Jr. Assistant Scoutmaster, Alex Munoz, lash together the cross-over bridge.   We'll need three groups of 4 scouts each (older Scouts - we *really* need your strength and lashing experience) to complete the project.   Then, please volunteer to attend the highlight of the cub scouting program - the Arrow of Light and cross-over ceremony on Thursday, May 17th at the Rupe Amphitheater at St. Mark's at 6 pm for set-up and rehearsal of the ceremony (scouts will be reading parts of the script).    The Troop will be providing pizza and waters at 6 pm for the Scouts and the Webelos.  Each of the 4th graders will begin his ceremonial journey as a Webelo and will cross over the bridge to become a Boy Scout.  Ideally, we would like a terriific turn out from Troop 730 to encourage each of the boys to join our Troop.   We will be flying our Troop flag and handing out Troop 730's neckerchiefts to each of the boys who crossed over and join Troop 730.  Den Chief Parker Kirkby will be coordinating refreshments for the families attending the ceremony.   Please help the 4th graders celebrate this very special achievement and welcome them to Troop 730.  Please wear your Class A uniform to show the younger boys your bling!  We also need four families to bring a cooler full of small waters - if you're willing to volunteer, please indicate in the notes in the Evant Registration feature so we know that we have this task covered.  Please sign-up on the website using the Event Registration feature so we have an accurate estimated count.

The Dallas County Department of Health & Human Services' Public Health Emergence Preparedness Division and the Dallas County Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) is hosting a Full-Scale POINT OF DISPENSING MASS PROPHYLAXIS EXERCISE at Woodrow Wilson High School  in Dallas on Saturday, May 19th. For this exercise, they are testing the ability of county volunteers to rapidly administer medications to the Dallas community in the event of a public health emergency or biological terrorist event. In order to really test whether their dispensing plans will work, they need to have at least 500 people come through the dispensing clinic.

Interested in earning a merit badge over the summer?  Check out these Merit Badge opportunities at the National Scouting Museum in Irving. 

One of the foundational tenets of the Boy Scouts of America (BSA) is reverence to God.  The Boy Scouts of America have a number of religious awards and knots specific to each religion that encourage boys and adults alike to further the study of their faith.  In fact, as an indication of the importance of religion to Scouts, a religious knot is the only award, besides an Arrow of Light and Eagle Scout, that a Scout is allowed to transfer to his adult uniform.  Religious organizations themselves set the requirements for the award, not the BSA, and the award is often presented at both a Scout’s place of religious worship as well as at a Court of Honor.  Again, the goal is to encourage boys to further the study of religion in conjunction with their own religion in a respectful, serious, and heartfelt manner.  St. Mark’s Chaplin, Reverend Michael Dangelo (dangelom@smtexas.org), who presides at our Eagle Courts of Honor, has kindly agreed to serve as a mentor in this effort as well.  Of course, Scouts are free (and encouraged) to reach out to the religious leaders within his own particular faith as well to deepen one’s understanding of a Scout’s own religion.  It is a wonderful summertime activity.  Please contact Darryl Burke at dburke@mckoolsmith.com or 214-373-9550 for any questions about the material or requirements.