Greetings to All.

Well, as I mentioned in yesterday's Chainemail, I feel this may have been our best Projectoree yet. The games all seemed to be winners, we had no major problems that I was aware of, the Scouts all seemed to have a really good time, and most importantly the rains held off til it didn't matter anymore. [And BTW, the storm that eventually turned into the La Plata F4 tornado went right through Pohick Bay late Sunday, so we were indeed fortunate.]

Thanks to one and all who helped make this year's Projectoree a success.

Now for some followup:

1) Receipts Due - Please turn in any applicable receipts as soon as possible, email me for my address. Mark each receipt LEGIBLY with your name and what the receipt was for (if not already obvious). The accounts will be published in a future Newsletter.

2) T-Shirt and Patch Review - Did you get all the T-Shirts and Patches you ordered? If not, please give me a detailed discrepancy list. Troops 143 (7), 624 (5), and 1916 (3) - did you get the EXTRA patches you ordered? PLEASE CONFIRM YES OR NO.

3) Self-Critique Needed - How did your games and staff assignments go? If there were problems, what recommendations do you have for making improvements for next time? The only fubars I noted were Curt Dove having to do the Registration alone for most of the day, our missing Catholic Priest, the platforms for the Walk the Plank were too close together for the board lengths that were used, our primary Bugler disappeared mid-afternoon, there was no soccer game, and finally only 9 Scouts showed up for the flag retirement ceremony, and some of them were out of uniform. All things considered, these were pretty minor.

4) Patrol Evaluations - I am still awaiting the evaluations that Neal Wood collected, and will report the results in a future Newsletter. A number of Patrols did not turn in evaluations, but I'm not going to bother chasing them, since past experience has shown that's just a waste of time. If you have one and care to turn it in, please mail it to the above address.

5) Patrol Sizes - Probably the only "policy" issue that came up that will need to be addressed is Patrols that have less than the minimum six Scouts. Compounding the problem was the fact that several Patrols went temporarily under the limit for either the morning or the afternoon due to Scouts coming from or going to sporting events.

I have thought about this for the past week and a half. I am VERY disinclined to drop the minimum below six, for three reasons: First, my internal practice scoring in Troop 111 shows that a small Patrol made up of 4 or 5 highly athletic Scouts will tend to earn inordinately high scores. At 6 or more, this tended to be a less salient issue. Second, some games don't work with 5 or less, and can't be made to work fairly by merely recirculating the requisite number of Scouts. Right now, that is only the Egg Toss (and to a lesser extent, the Hot Lava Rescue Relay and Radioactive Basketballs), but other games that we didn't use this year would be similarly affected. Third, and perhaps most importantly, the growing attendance pressure for slots at the Projectoree really mandates that we have "full" Patrols. I cannot expand to 36 Patrols, because there isn't enough room on the competition field to run 6 short events with 24 Patrols (the 5 short events and 20 Patrols we have on the main field now are already pushing the limits, and 5 Patrols each at the Firebuilding Race and Obstacle Course are already too many - 6 would be impossible). It is not fair to have Patrols of 4 or 5 taking up slots that could be filled by Patrols of 8, 9, or 10.

Given all that, however, I want to be fair to those Patrols that are making an effort. So I am proposing that if a Patrol AVERAGES 6 Scouts for the day, then we will include them in the scoring. If they drop below that - and I mean 5.99 ain't good enough - then they will not be included in the scoring. This way, if a Patrol has only 5 boys in the morning, but 7 boys all afternoon, they're good to go. That will increase Neal Wood's Saturday afternoon migraine, but I think he can manage without too much trouble. This will likely only affect 2 or 3 Patrols at any one Projectoree anyway - and the real answer is to make sure you have at least 6, in which case it's a moot point.

If anyone has any comments on this, please get back to me soonest.

6) Ticks - Although I saw no problems with ticks this year, Old Dominion reported an infestation at their campout at Camp Wilson two weeks before the Projectoree. Worth a warning to your Scout families. We're close to the onset of the first symptoms of Lyme Disease, BTW, so if any attendee currently has a "bad case of the flu", CHECK IT OUT.

7) Service Projects - The Rangers were once again very pleased with our Service Project efforts. We are supposed to be getting a letter one of these days concerning our efforts, which I will publish.

8) Patrol Standings - I am including the Patrol Standings for all 29 Patrols below. I will not list the individual event standings here; it's too much of a PITA to reformat into straight email text. If you are interested, email me for the spreadsheet, and I will forward it to you.

1st - Blue Mooses (638)
2nd - Huh? (151)
3rd - Burning Pants (111)
4th - Snake Eyes (111)
5th - Scooters (111)
6th - Constipated Cows (624)
7th - Old Bearded Men (638)
8th - Spectre (111)
9th - Bullwhip (128)
10th - Oxymorons (167)
11th - Buccaneers (667)
12th - Radioactive Ho-Ho's (1916)
13th - Black Hawks (869)
14th - Mysticos (149)
15th - Flaming Monkeys (647)
16th - Stonecutters (111)
17th - Red Superiors (869)
18th - Chalupas (167)
19th - Rice (149)
20th - Conquistadors (111)
21st - Flying Penguins (143)
22nd - Gauchos (149)
23rd - Jayhawks (104)
24th - Kool Aid Men (624)
25th - Dragons (505)
26th - Chieftains (104)
27th - Jello Jigglers (624)
28th - Cheeseheads (638)
29th - Psychedelic Fuzz (638)

Note that 638, 151, and 111 all practiced the Projectoree events fairly intensely before the Projectoree, so the results were "as expected" once again.

One of the more gratifying aspects of this Projectoree is that many escorting adults personally expressed to me how they could clearly see and appreciate the team-building aspects of the weekend. That is something to express to your Scouts if they express any disappointment in their performance. And again, they all clearly had a great time, and isn't that the most important thing?

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10 May 2002