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Troop 463
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Approximately every month, the leadership of
Troop 463 gathers at the Senior Patrol Leader's house in the Patrol Leaders'
Council to plan, among other things, the next month's meetings, and outing.
We meet every Tuesday evenings from 7:30 to 8:40, with a pre-meeting and
post-meeting for the leadership only. Therefore, we can incorporate a wide
variety of activities within the 75 minutes, while still having an organized
structure.
For example, each meeting starts with an opening ceremony and uniform inspection, where patrols are checked for attendance and completeness of uniform, and given Honor Patrol points (see below) for them. Then, we usually allot the first period for skills instruction, when the leadership scouts (First Class and above) teach the younger scouts important skills, such as first aid, camping, knots and lashings, cooking, gun safety, orienteering, or backpacking. We never simply lecture the scouts, but instead have hands-on activities, allowing the scout to ask questions or try the skill himself. This allows us to quickly advance the younger scouts through the ranks, while still making sure they know the required skills thoroughly. Then, we usually have an inter-patrol competition to test the newly learned skills. For instance, if we had just taught how to build a fire, the competition might require each patrol to build a fire as quickly as possible with flint and steel. Each patrol then accumulates points based not only on completion, but also on the important areas of leadership and spirit. Later, at the Court of Honor, where we present rank badges, merit badges, and other miscellaneous awards to scouts, the patrol with the most points is named the Honor Patrol, and each scout in the Honor Patrol receives prizes, usually toys or games. Thus, these competitions serve to reinforce the teaching, inspire patrol unity and cohesion, prepare the patrols for the Camporee, a district-wide competition in which Troop 463 consistently excels, and, most importantly, let the scouts have fun. Next, we have a patrol meeting, where the individual patrol leaders each communicate with the individual scouts in their patrols, giving them a chance to sign off requirements for ranks, develop a patrol yell or flag, plan exclusive patrol outings or activities, or develop menus for our monthly troop outings. After that, we have a game (a different one for each week) that is usually unrelated to scouting (such as a sport) and designed to let the scouts have fun. It does not count for points, but the scouts take great pride in vanquishing each other in games such as Nerf Dodgeball, Football, Keep-away, Eric's Ultimate RED Frisbee, James' Incredible Glowing Cheez-Ball Basketball, or David's Ultra-Leet Modified Capture the Flag. Finally, we bring the scouts back into the church and give them announcements about upcoming events, before conducting the closing ceremony. However, some of our meetings do not follow this structure. For example,
each year, we have a Webelos' meeting just before the Webelos' outing
to welcome cub scouts from many different packs in the area into our troop.
In this meeting, all of the scouts arrived early to lash together an insanely
cool monkey bridge, set up a burn-the-string competition, and set out
refreshments for the Webelos. Another special meeting we have once in
a while is the fitness meeting, where we all go to the field at Stocklmeir
to work to help new younger scouts accomplish one of the hardest requirements
for the Tenderfoot merit badge: the dreaded fitness requirement. Also,
we have the Halloween meeting, where we just forget everything and chill
for 1 hour 15 minutes carving pumpkins, showing off costumes, and playing
ridiculous games such as the ubiquitous "chubby bunny" and "donut-on-a-string."
Furthermore, there is the Court of Honor, described above, and last and
definitely most, the explosively leet FuN mEeTiNg!!! After every Court
of Honor, the Honor patrol gets to choose any activity, anywhere, for
one meeting, for the entire troop. In the past, the most popular fun meeting
has been at LaserQuest on Shoreline Blvd in Mountain View. We come there
so often, and there are so many of us, that we get a group discount, and
the staff probably remembers our callsigns. Some of our scouts are so
talented at this that we rival LaserQuest members. This one Tuesday, the
entire Troop 463 storms LaserQuest, playing arcade games and kicking each
others' (and everyone else's) @$$ in a free-for-all laser tag in a dark,
fog-filled, two-story maze with mirrors, lights, and blaring techno music. PLC Agenda 08/19/2001 09/18/2001 09/25/2001 Outing: 9/1 - 9/3 Lost Coast |
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