IUsing Your Troop's Tax Exempt CardWhen
using troop funds to purchase items for your troop, troops do not pay
sales tax in Maryland. Your troop needs a tax exempt card to show
merchants (obtainable at http://www.gscm.org/Resources/resourcesnew.htm).
Some stores make it hard to use your card, others will give you extra
discounts when you use your card. Please let us know the good places
to shop! Wal-Mart makes you
get a separate tax exempt card that it issues -- but it won't tell you
that until after you have stood in one of its interminable checkout
lines. Home Depot won't let you use your personal credit card
to charge your purchase if you use your tax exempt card. Michaels
makes you fill out a form before using your card -- every time you use
it. What have your experiences been?
FIELD
TRIPS: Various sources for field trip information have been mentioned
at past meetings. Here is the URL for the Maryland Office of Tourism
publications: http://www.mdisfun.org/planning_a_md_visit/publications.asp
. Publications
can be downloaded from here or can be ordered. The "Maryland
Field Trip Guide" can by downloaded in pdf format from this web site
as can the Maryland Calendar of Events. Pennsylvania, Delaware and
Virginia have comparable web sites (www.visitpa.com
<http://www.visitpa.com>
, http://www.visitdelaware.net/
<http://www.visitdelaware.net/>
, www.virginia.org
<http://www.virginia.org>
). And if you are
looking farther afield, the following web site lists all of the state
government sites with tourism being one of the choices: http://www.statelocalgov.net/50states-tourism.cfm. Other useful
portals for trips are: www.familydaytrips.com
<http://www.familydaytrips.com>
, www.areaguides.com
<http://www.areaguides.com>
,
www.thechesapeakebay.com <http://www.thechesapeakebay.com>
, http://www.tripadvisor.com
<http://www.tripadvisor.com>
and http://www.landmarks.net/
<http://www.landmarks.net/>
. www.amazon.com
<http://www.amazon.com>
has books on day
trips. Currently they allow you to view several pages of a book
while you are on line without purchasing it. Portals are groups of web
sites with a common purpose (in this case travel). There are links from
these more general web sites to specific locations. When planning a
trip, start with the general web site but once the trip is laid out, link
to the more local web sites for the most recent and detailed information.
Bridging Notes
Share
your bridging ideas! Do you know of a great location for
bridging? Did your troop create a particularly meaningful ceremony?
Bridging
location: The bridge at the Font Hill Wetlands Park
Our
Registrar has a bridge that troops can borrow.
When
our troop bridged from brownies to juniors, the brownies stood on one side
of the bridge wearing their brown vests. Each walked individually
across the bridge, stopping at the mid point to take off her brown vest
and receive a green vest from her parent/grandparent. She then put
on her new vest and finished walking across the bridge to meet juniors
from another troop and her junior leader.
