Summer Camp meeting

Wow! Eric Tuttle and myself attended the meeting for summer camp. Delose Connors is the camp director and this is going to be a great wilderness adventure for our scouts and leaders. Delose reviewed the leader packet, told some jokes and got us excited for summer camp. We'll be putting together some information packets for the scouts and the parents. Camp will cost $90 for camp fees and $65 for food if we do commissary. There's also the opportunity for us to buy Camp Loll troop t-shirts for $8. We can order them ahead of schedule or the boys can buy whatever up at camp. We'll have to have money for lunch going up and lunch coming back. That's not included in the 90/65. Gasoline for transportation is also a big cost this year. The bottom line is that it may cost $155 minimum, less the $45 ward contribution, plus any other fees (lunch and gas). We'll have to figure out the details soon. As a young boy, I went to Camp Loll two times. As a previous scout master, I went three times. This is going to be a camp your sons will remember their entire life. Especially Lake of the Woods.

Full house!!!!

Well, last night was far different than the week before. We had 10 scouts. Wow! I thought how great this was. Until I started in on the photography merit badge. Everyone of those scouts couldn't sit still, couldn't be quite, couldn't listen to me talk. It was a little frustrating and brought back memories what a pain in the butt I use to be. I guess turn-about is fair play. I decided to repeat some of the things I discussed the previous week and one of the scouts asked if he could leave because he had learned this last week. This is the challenge I get with scouts earning the required merit badges ahead of the troop's schedule. It's all a challenge!

As part of the merit badge, I gave two groups cameras to take pictures. I thought they would go about the church and take some pictures. One group took 8 pictures while the other group took 4. Far less than I had hoped for. I wish I'd had some beautiful pictures I'd taken over the years to get them interested. Maybe next time.

Then, a great opportunity for a scout master minute and I didn't have one. Dang!

PS. The boys had the most fun of the night playing steal-the-bacon. Merit badges are a pain to these young carpet-rats!

April troop meeting - small group

Well, last week at our troop meeting, only 3 scouts showed up. We discussed the photography merit badge. I brought several cameras and we went over the various parts of a camera and how the parts all work. It was really great. Eric did a stretcher with two sticks and a blanket. That was really great learning experience too. We concluded with a scout master minute. What a great time to sit down Indian style, around a fake campfire, and listen to a thought from the Scout Master. This one was particularly good, in that a roll of film was used to describe what happens in our lives. We can be exposed to the right things properly and we'll turn out good. Otherwise, we may be overexposed and ruined. To my frustration, someone barged in during the best part of this minute and took away from the moment. Nonetheless, I'll keep trying.