Home.28 November 1999
Happy Mother's Day!
As mentioned in the last "Minute," the Troop gained over a dozen members in the past 3 months, including rising Webelos, walk-ons and transfers. Welcome to the following:
1) Matthew C.
2) Scott C.
3) Drew D.
4) Ray D.
5) David G.
6) Daniel M.
7) Shane M.
8) Jack O.
9) Dale R.
10) Charlie S.
11) Casey S.
12) JJ T.
13) Mark T.
In addition, please add our new Assistant Scoutmaster:
14) Josh Gartner
Five Scouts advanced at our last Board of Review: Moving up the ladder from Scout to Tenderfoot Rank were: William L. and JT R. Matt G. earned Second Class, while Michael R. and Eric W. jumped to Star. Many more to come, and soon!
It's also been a busy two months on the Merit Badge, but I don't have the latest data on Merit Badges at this time (so we'll publish them in the next "Minute.")
1) Projectoree Issues - Any and all receipts are due at the May 10th meeting, or by alternate arrangement with Hugh S. I have received numerous photos - Thanks! - but suspect there are still a few more "lingering" out there. Please bring them by the meeting tomorrow night. Projectoree T-Shirts - all look the same - your son should have put his initials in indelible marker pen on the back label; please check to ensure this did indeed occur! - or you will soon be missing your Shirt. Projectoree patches will be distributed at the upcoming Court of Honor, along with the patches from the Vint Hill Fall Camporee (and all other awards.)
2) Spring Court of Honor - Sunday, May 23rd, late afternoon. ALL TROOP MEMBERS ARE INVITED AND SHOULD ATTEND! Virtually every Scout will receive some award or patch, etc. All new Scouts will be formally recognized and inducted into the Troop. Note that this Court of Honor will also include the inductions of Eagle Scouts Greg Brady, Tim Hupalo and Jamie Smith, and will therefore have a light dinner served after the ceremony. Each family will be contacted regarding bringing something for the dinner (a bottle of soda, a bag of chips, etc.) All Scouts should be in FULL UNIFORM for this event.
Scouts attending either the Order of the Arrow Ordeal or the Shenandoah National Park Campout (Bearfence Mountain) will be back in plenty of time to attend the Court of Honor. Those attending the campout should make a special effort to get their homework done on Friday night.
3) Summer of Fun (message from ASM Rich S.):
Greetings All - I am currently coordinating the Summer of Fun. For the newcomers to the Troop, these are activities we run to keep Scouting "alive" during the summer break from meetings. I have been asking the Scouts what they would like to do; so far their suggestions include; laser tag, play soccer, play frisbee, go to the former adventure world, go to a minor league baseball game, go to a DC United game, have a merit badge day, have a day of advancement.
The Summer of Fun happens every Monday night, from 7pm til 8:30pm, on those Mondays that the Troop is not out camping. All activities must be for Scouts of all ages and be reasonably inexpensive. Movie nights are never planned as an individual events, but rather as back-ups in case of rain. I would like sugestions from parents and Scouts for activites. I also need parental help; For example, in the past, Helene S. was very helpful setting up the Troop soccer games.
Any questions or offers of help, call or email me. Thanks for your support! - Rich
4) Sea Base Opportunity! (from Joe Gibson, SM-869 - the "Dr. Bob" of the McLean Troops, and a great Scouter.) Note that the Florida Sea Base is a Boy Scout High Adventure Base (i.e., like Philmont) oriented around sailing the Florida Keys and Carribean; the last time we went there was 1990. This is a great opportunity for Scouts who are not interested in attending the Troop's Canadian Adventure or Shenandoah National Park Backpacking Trek.
Bob - I have now received enough information from Troop 869 to be able to confirm that we will have 4 additional slots on our 70+ foot, twin masted, gaff-rigged schooner at the Florida Sea Base this summer (Thursday to Thursday, August 12-19), and I would you and Brad to offer this opportunity to Troop 111. Scouts must be 14 on day of sailing, and also need to be easy-going but hard-working individuals, since we'll be in close quarters for 6 days and nights on a large but somewhat cramped boat. The venture is primarily snorkeling, sailing and fishing (but no SCUBA).
The total cost will be $720 ($495 BSA fee = $171 air fare + $40 bus + $15 for an Everglades excursion.) Maybe a tad of personal spending money ($30??) for the Sea Base.
Please let me know as soon as possible. - Joe
5) New ISP Wanted - Rich and I have pretty much had it with our Internet Service Provider (World Data Network.) Whereas Crystal Quill bent over backwards to give us good service at a reasonable price, WDN - who devoured CQ about a year ago - is significantly more expensive, has experienced numerous service interruptions (although some were not their fault), and has eliminated several software features which made my e-net endeavors and Rich's webspinning much easier. In any case, we're looking to move the site to another ISP. Ann G. and Neal Wood (ASM-647) have given us several suggestions; we are also open to any additional suggestions you may have.
6) Message from Kim S., regarding MB Counselors - Dear Bob: In your next Troop-wide missive, would you please put out another plea for those who have not registered as merit badge counselors to please do so -- and that everyone registered in the past as an MB-C MUST do so again! Thanks! - Kim
7) Personal Fitness Merit Badge, Revisited - Troop-wide, the following Scouts all have this badge (not necessarily earned this year!):
John A., Chris B., Richard B., Christopher B., Luke B., Greg B.,, Charlie B., Matt C., John C., Sam F., Todd G., Matt G., Daniel Ho., Dan Hu., Tim H., Will K., Kevin K., Nathan K., Neil K., William L., Brendan M., Nick M., Jay P., Patrick P., John P., JT R., Michael R., Hugh S., Carl S., Max D., Adam S., Matt S., Neil S., Mike S., Steven S., Dan T., Nick T., Chris T., Tim T., Chris W., and Chris Y.
If you're not on this list, then we have no record of you having completed the badge, and you need to contact us ASAP regarding it.
Well, as we all know, if it was April, it must have been the Projectoree, and indeed it was. This year we ran two Projectorees, with the first ("A") being the traditional version for the North Arlington Troops, and the second ("B") being for South Arlington and McLean. Ten Troops (19 Patrols, 270 attendees) attended "A," so it was our biggest Projectoree ever. Although the weather ended up being marvelous for Saturday and Sunday, it started off very rough, with a tremendous thunderstorm (and possible tornado) on mid-afternoon Friday, April 23rd, complete with the classical "freight train" noise, torrential rain, and hail reaching up over golf-ball sized. Fortunately, the Troop was still 20 to 30 minutes up the road, so only about a dozen staff members on-site (who had been doing set-up) got to enjoy Mother Nature at her worst. At the apex, Rich S. and I had to scream at each other from 6 inches away inside the van to be able to make ourselves understood; the noise of the hailstones on the van roof was just unbelievable. Fortunately, it passed fairly quickly, leaving only an instantaneous fog and deep puddles everywhere. Lucky for us, that was pretty much it for the night, with just another passing shower around 7pm to mark the end of the cold front. The arrival of the Troop (in dribs and drabs over the next half hour) was illustrated with many stories of life on I-95 South during the storm; another Troop 111 legend is born! We quickly spread out and established campsites for everyone, prepped dinner, started a fire with the help of a road flare (things were just a tad damp, you understand!), and played multiple games of Logan's Run (flashlight tag) and some guitar songs by yours truly as the night wore down.
Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, and we quickly moved into the Patrol competitions; we had 11 games this year: Acid Bath, Ball Toss, Caber Toss, Cave Rescue, Egg Toss, Firebuilding Race, Hot Lava Rescue Relay, Human Chain Tire Pass-Through, Nuclear Reactor, Obstacle Course and Scoutmaster's Chariot Race (the latter being an unscored event.) The Troop ran the Cave Rescue and Obstacle Course, and also helped with the Caber Toss and assembling of the Campfire. We had five Patrols this year - the Flying Hellfish had 13 Scouts (maximum Patrol size is 10), so we split them into two groups of 6 and 7 Scouts, respectively. Taking individual event honors were the "Hellfish" (#1 in both the Ball Toss and the Egg Toss), "Flying" Patrol (#1 in the Acid Bath), and the Mavericks (#1 in the Firebuilding Race.) The Troop also won the Scoutmaster Chariot Race, even though one of the 2 x 2's snapped in half under my incredible bulk, and the Scouts later dropped me on the ground. Better than 3 years ago, when they threw me into the gravel road!) A great time was had by all. After dinner, we headed down for the Closing Campfire, where New Scout Casey S. handled the American Flag Retirement Ceremony as Troop 111's representative. We also put on two skits and - what else - several songs by yours truly (although a broken string stopped me one verse into "Ghost Riders in the Sky.") Following the campfire, the Troop once again enjoyed multiple games of Logan's Run, "Manhunt" (a related flashlight game), and another Troop campfire.
Sunday morning was marked by a rather leisurely camp breakdown and an early return to Arlington. So how did we do, overall? - Glad you asked! The "Hellfish" Patrol (the second half of the split Flying Hellfish Patrol) took first place overall, with a mere 62 points (second place was 70 points, so it was a solid win.) The Mavericks took 6th Place (79 points), while the "Flying" Patrol (the other half of the Flying Hellfish) took 7th Place (82 points). A great Projectoree for the Flying Hellfish! Gravediggers came in 9th with 104 points, while Rolling Thunder came in 17th Place (123 points.) Award ribbons were given to the top seven placing Patrols, so 111 took three out of seven. Regardless of where everyone placed, a great time was had by all.
Participants included: John A., Chris B., Richard B., Christopher B., Luke B., John B., Jeffrey C., Matthew C., John C., Drew D., Ray D., Max D., Kenny E., Sam F., David G., Todd G., Matt G., Daniel H., Ryan H., Dan H., Tim H., Brad J., Will K., Nathan K., Neal K., William L., Brendan M.d, Daniel M., Nicholas M., Matt M., Stefan N., Jack O., Jay P., Patrick P., John P., Dale R., JT R., Michael R., Thomas S., Charlie S., Casey S., Carl S., Neal S., Mike S., Steven S., Dan T., Nick T., Chris T., Mark T., Chris W., Eric W., and Chris Y. I think I got `em all.
Thanks one and all to all the Adults who camped out, drove or ran events; thanks also to all the Senior Scouts who came down for either "A" or "B" (or both!) - we couldn't have succeeded without you!
- Bob
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