Greetings to All.

This is the second major Projectoree 2001 emailing (Note: the Solicitation Notice of November 26th, 2000, was Newsletter#1). This email contains a fair amount of critical information, along with several action items which will require your close attention. Please read it carefully. It is being sent only to the members of the Chainemail e-net whose Units who have signed up to attend. If your Troop has people who should be added to the *Projectoree* e-net, please send me their names and email addresses asap (if they want to be added to the *Chainemail* e-net as well, please also include that information, too). If you are receiving this mailing, and do not wish to, please notify me of that request, too.

As I did last year, I will try to keep Projectoree Newsletters to a minimum, and will also try to ensure that no frivolous and/or duplicative information is included. However, also as I did last year, I will continue to be completely intolerant of failures to attend the upcoming organizational meetings (on time), or of failures to respond (on time) to inquiries and deadlines. In plain language, this means I will be terminating those Troops who fail to heed their obligations. I will not take your participation any more seriously than you do.

If this seems too hard core, recall that I am a Camporee Committee of exactly one, run the event essentially out of my pocket, and will put in at least 250 man-hours into planning and preparation. I haven't got time for nonsense.

Anyway, for these reasons, I strongly urge each participating Troop to form a Projectoree subcommittee, with 2 - 4 members, to ensure that nothing is missed due to a critical person being out of town, sick, or buried at work. Your subcommittee should include at least one Scout who will definitely be attending the Projectoree in a leadership capacity - this Scout should also be one of your Troop's representatives at the organizational meetings. For these reasons, I suggest that you not use as your representative a Senior Scout who has no intention of attending the Projectoree.

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1) When and Where

There is only one Projectoree this year, to be held the weekend of April 27th - 29th. It will again be held at Camp Wilson, at the Pohick Bay Regional Park near Lorton, VA - the same site we used for the first seven Projectorees. The site has already been reserved and paid for.

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2) Costs

The site cost went up again this year (2 years in a row for increases), but I will stick with the previously stated (lower) Basic Registration fee of $5 per. Basic Registration and a T-Shirt will be $13 per, and Basic Registration, T-Shirt, and Staff Food will be $21 per. FYI, note that the current Projectoree surplus stands at: $909.81, so we can handle a deficit if need be (however, I don't expect to run a deficit at all).

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3) Troop Signups

The following Troops are confirmed to attend the Projectoree:

Note that this is 29 (30) Patrols - 5 more than the current competition schedule allows. After much cogitating, I have decided to add a 9th "short" event in order to accommodate this surplus. We will have to expand the 2 "long" events to 5 Patrols each for some sessions: the Firebuilding Race (easy) and the Obstacle Course (not so easy) in order to make this work. What this means is that each Patrol will now be doing 8 of 9 events. I will try to have the new format delineated by the first organizational meeting.

For the record, past experience has shown that every Projectoree suffers a decline from initial Patrol signups, and I think we can reasonably assume a similar scenario this year. I do not think, however, that a drop all the way down to 24 Patrols is likely, especially with 1 Troop already looking to expand their participation.

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4) Meetings

As detailed in the January 1st Chainemail, there will be 2 organizational meetings this year, on Sunday, February 4th, and Sunday, April 1st. Both will be held at the St. Agnes Parish Center, 1914 N. Randolph St., Arlington (07). If anyone needs directions, email me well in advance. The meeting will start at 7:30pm sharp, and will end by no later than 9pm. All participating Troops are expected to have at least one and preferably two knowledgeable persons, including the aforementioned involved Senior Scout, present...

to sign in, discuss mutual issues of concern with their fellow Troop representatives, and do the usual socializing. During the meeting, all participants will actively participate in the selection of this year's games and administrative tasks. Obviously, each Units' representatives must be both authorized and prepared to sign up for the various Projectoree administrative tasks and/or games (delineated below).

If your Troop's representatives are not present and seated at 7:30, ready to go, your Troop will be terminated on-the-spot from this year's Projectoree. 7:31 will be too late. Show up at 7:15. Again, if you don't know where St. Agnes is, don't assume it's easy to find: email me and I will happily provide more detailed directions.

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5) Games

As we did last year, in order to save time during the game selections, certain perennially popular games will be "automatically" voted into this year's Projectoree: Caber Toss, Cave Rescue, Egg Toss, Firebuilding Race, Nuclear Reactor, Obstacle Course, and Radioactive Basketballs. Four additional "short" events are therefore needed, and will be voted on at the meeting. The (unscored) Scoutmaster Chariot Race will also be run again (of course!) The list of potential games are:

Acid Bath
Ball Toss (possibly replacing balls with frisbees?)
Bangalore Torpedo
Hot Lava Rescue Relay
Knot Tying Race
Log Raising Relay
Running Kim's Game (properly run this time)
Spider Web Escape
Synchronized Walk
Walk the Plank

These events have all gotten high marks from the Scouts at previous Projectorees. For those who have forgotten, detailed descriptions of these games are available on the 2000, 1999, and 1998 Projectoree webpages (see "Detailed Games Instructions and Scoring Sheets" under each year).

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6) Signups at the First Organizational Meeting

All of the selected games and the following administative taskings must be signed up for at the first Organizational Meeting. As noted above, your Troop representatives must come to the meeting authorized and prepared to sign up for these taskings. Each Troop with one Patrol must take at least one tasking from each of the following three categories: Games, Administrative Duties, and Sunday Morning Cleanup Duties. Larger Troops should take additional duties.

If anyone wishes to pre-sign up for their staffings, please email me. First come/first serve. (Note that some tasks have already been signed up for as of today's date.)

Games:

Caber Toss
Cave Rescue
Egg Toss
Firebuilding Race
Nuclear Reactor
Obstacle Course
Radioactive Basketballs
Scoutmaster Chariot Race (unscored "fun" event)
Selected Game #1
Selected Game #2
Selected Game #3
Selected Game #4

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Administrative Duties:

Catholic Mass Coordinator
First Aid/Communications/Timekeepers/Lost and Found/"Rovers"
Flag Ceremonies/Campfire Program Coordinators
Protestant Services Coordinator
Publicity
Registrar/Treasurer
Scoring and Awards Coordinator
Service Project Coordinator
Site Coordinator
Staff Food Coordinator

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Sunday Morning Cleanup Duties:

Staff Area
Campfire Circle and Trails
Roads and surroundings around the Staff Area and Comfort Station
Sign Removal and Recovery
Firebuilding/Obstacle Course/Dining Hall Areas
Main Competition Field, and road to Gunston Road
Comfort Station - Late Job
Primary Camping Area - Late Job
Secondary Camping Area - Late Job

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See you this coming Sunday night, February 4th. Three Months to Go!

- Dr. Bob

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2 February 2001