Tonight is, I think, Back-to-School Night at Clarke. I will be at the Parish Hall as early as possible, but I probably cannot get there until around 7:00 PM. If another couple of adults can get there earlier in case some families want an early dropoff, that would be fine with me. I will try to get there earlier than 7:00, but I have a meeting at the Town Office Building which starts at 5:30 PM and could run past the hour time limt that has been set.
Tonight is scheduled as an Advancement Night. That will mostly be for Scouts who are not yet First Class. We are trying to work on a place to finish up Swimming merit badge and other merit badges, but we won’t be able to do them tonight. To that end, JASM, ASM and Troop Committee participation would be helpful in case there are Boards of Review. Moreover, I would like to have ASMs or other adults available in case there are questions or logistical problems.
I would like all of the Scouts in the two older patrols (the Greenbars and the patrol with no name which I call the TBD Patrol) to be available to participate in a group discussion of what we are going to try to do this year. I have gotten conflicting ideas of those goals from both parents and Scouts so now it is time for the Scouts involved to sit around a table and tell me and each other what they really want.
The tentative schedule is:
7:00 - 7:30 Informal pre-meeting activities
7:30 - 7:35 Opening and announcements including a quick Camporee rundown
7:35 - 7:50 Patrol corners to finish work on campfire songs and skits
7:50 - 8:30 Advancement and Older Scout Discussion Group
8:30 - 8:45 Game
8:45 - 8:55 Patrol Competition — each patrol shows off a skit or song
8:55 - 9:00 Closing
9:00 - 9:05 PLC
Somebody asked where the meeting layouts come from. Do I just make them up? The answer is that the calendar, which had a great deal of input from Scouts, is the base. Then the PLC plans out the meetings for the next month and does a rough meeting plan. After that, the SPL and the SM meet weekly to figure out what has to go on at a meeting to meet those objectives and to prepare Scouts for upcoming events. In short, most of the work is done by the Scouts.
See you all tonight!
-Hank Manz