Well, Scouts, the new year is here and it's time for New Year's resolutions. In other words, as our theme this month says, it's time for a fresh start.

I don't know whether you make New Year's resolutions, but if you do, I hope that one of them is to move up Scouting's advancement ladder. Next month we'll be having a Court of Honor, and I'm looking forward to seeing a lot of you receiving awards then. I'm especially hopeful that those of you who haven't moved up a rank since last spring will get busy this month and do it in time for the Court of Honor.

All it takes is determination and some work, I'm sure your patrolmates will help you, and of course our leaders will, too. But you have to make the effort, no one can do that for you.

So let's have a fresh start from everybody in the troop this month so that every Scout is called forward at our Court of Honor in February.