Here’s where we stand on planning for the West Point Camporee. This covers everything we talked about at the Troop meeting yesterday. Detailed directions for driving to West Point will be forthcoming early next week.
One thing we did not discuss, and should have, is that we need to get some additional forms filled out for the Camporee staff (not the permission slip for the troop). The forms can be downloaded here. For each Scout, we need both the “Release form liability (Minors)” and the “Medical Form.” For each adult, we need the “Release form liability (Adults)” (no medical form needed). Since we have a group going early Friday, we must have the forms back by the Troop meeting on Thursday evening. You can drop them at my house (34 Harding Rd, not 11 Minute Man Lane), mail them, or bring them to the Troop meeting. If we don’t have the forms, you can’t attend the Camporee.
At any rate, here’s what we discussed:
- Patrols. Since we have Scouts coming from several different patrols, we’ve organized the group into two provisional patrols, plus adults:
- Patrol Red One
- Wilson H. (PL)
- Eliot W. (APL)
- Jimmy C.
- Gabe C.
- Alex C.
- Patrol Red Two
- Nathan C. (PL)
- Matt S. (APL)
- Jonathan M. (APL)
- Ray S.
- Alex G.
- Rae T.
- Dylan C.
- Greybars
- Joey C. (SPL)
- Hank Manz (SM)
- Alan Wrigley (ASM)
- Sean Caples
- Lien Ho
- Grieg Greenwald
- Jeff Shorter
- Keng Tan
- Jeff Curtis
- Early and late departures. We will be traveling in two groups — one Friday morning, and the second Friday after school. Times are tentative, but the early group is expected to meet at St. Brigid’s at approximately 8:30 for a 9:00 departure. The late group will have to wait for some Scouts to return from a field trip; this is expected to be around 4:00. Driving time is 3-4 hours, depending on traffic — more information on directions will be forthcoming. People listed for the early group include the following — if you’re planning to go early and you’re not on this list, please let me know promptly:
- Hank Manz
- Lien Ho
- Wilson H.
- Eliot W.
- Ray S.
- Joey C.
- Return on Sunday. We should return to the church around 3pm on Sunday, and then unload, hang tents, etc. Scouts can make calls en route to let parent know our ETA.
- Food.
- Friday en route. The early group will eat lunch en route, and the late group will eat dinner en route. Everyone should bring a bag meal or money for food.
- Friday evening (early group only). The Troop will provide food for the early group to eat at the Camporee site on Friday evening.
- Saturday lunch. The Troop will provide food for lunch on Saturday.
- Saturday and Sunday breakfast, and Saturday dinner. These meals will be cooked by patrol. We’ll be pretty busy, so try to pick foods that don’t take too much preparation or cleanup. For breakfast, consider doing something like what we did last year — rolls, juice, hot chocolate, and oatmeal in the bag. (By the way, the Troop has a lot of Tang, hot chocolate, and instant oatmeal in the Quartermaster room if anyone would like to use some of it.) Please buy food before the Troop meeting next Thursday — since we’re leaving on Friday you won’t have a chance to buy food afterward. The Troop will reimburse each patrol up to $10/person for these three meals (plus free oatmeal), so bring your receipts to Mr. Griffiths at the meeting.
- Sunday lunch. This will be eaten en route — again, bring a bag lunch or money for food.
- What to bring/what not to bring.
- As always, bring personal gear, sleeping bags, ground cloths, and so on. Many of the events will require Class A uniform (official Scout shirts, etc) and others Class B (Troop T-shirts, etc). Be sure to bring rain gear and extra clothes — it almost always rains at least a little for this Camporee. Frisbees, footballs, and the like are popular.
- Do not bring any military-style clothing — this is forbidden by West Point. Also, Scouts should not bring cellphones, iPods, or similar devices that are expensive and easily lost — the Camporee is the size of a small town, and we’ll be moving around a lot. (Adults who are considering bringing cellphones should probably do so — we’ve found them very useful in coordinating all the cars.)
If you have any questions or comments, please contact Barry Griffiths (doctorg -at- grifworld -dot- com).