Good afternoon,
What an amazing weekend! I have now witnessed a goodly number of these T648 Patrol Leadership Council Planning sessions, and they continue to impress upon me the skills, commitment and character of our boy leadership. Whether this was a boy’s 4th weekend or 1st, they participated with creativity, opinions, and enthusiasm. At its conclusion, the entire 2011-2012 calendar of outings, service projects, and fundraisers materialized out of the fog. While no bears were sighted while we were roughing it in the backcountry casitas of the resort, there were instances of adults implementing the use of earplugs to escape various growling German metal bands during free time, and an occasional change from normal shoes to pink slippers to sooth a pair of aching feet. Leadership Roles have been identified and communicated, and the associated boys debriefed. We finalized a draft of the new patrol structure, which will include a leadership patrol and 4 patrols. We hope to firm up patrol assignments in the next day or two, and will communicate that to you as well. For those of you interested in getting a sneak peek, upcoming outings have been added to the troop calendar which is accessible from the calendar tab on our website.
This coming weekend, we will have an opportunity to cool off from this oppressive heat in the pines and the sparkling mountain water with our backpacking trip to Fossil Springs. We have had tremendous interest, and it will most likely be our largest backpacking attendance in many years. This short trip is a great opportunity for a novice backpacker to gain experience, and for a more experienced backpacker to take an extended day hike or just hang out in the pools. Come tomorrow night for an opportunity to get your pack checked during the course of the meeting, and to get any of your remaining questions about the trip answered.
On September 10th we will join our nation in remembering the 10th anniversary of 9-11-01 during a national weekend of service. S. Frank has scheduled his Eagle Project on that weekend, and we will contribute more than 150 hours of service to his Eagle project. The project will be in the context of this larger effort to drive value back into our communities through individual gifts of our time in memory of those who lost their lives in these senseless acts of terror.
See you at tomorrow’s 7PM Troop Meeting. Thanks for your continued contribution of time and energy to our troop. It’s a beautiful thing!
Mr. Cole