This month was full of exciting meetings! These meetings were not like the normal meetings we have been doing though. They were our first in-person meetings in a while! We learned how to tie useful knots + lashings, camping skills, and planned for Goshen during these meetings. We also had fun activities like playing TIPS, playing Steal the Bacon. This month, we had our first large in-person trip in over a year!
Our first event of the month was in-person meeting where we went over how to tie square lashings. Square lashings are a type of lashing that tie two poles together by making a plus. It can be used to make chairs, stretchers, and other camp gadgets. We also learned how to properly build and douse a campfire – when you douse a fire remember to make sure that all the embers are put out! After that, we played several fun rounds of TIPS. In this game, you have to jump and throw a ball to someone else while mid-air, but if you drop it or make a bad pass you are out. For it being our first in-person meeting, it had really good attendance!
Our second meeting was also in-person. We first went over and practiced setting up tents and then we had a competition on who could take down and put away their tent the fastest. The Eagles and Panthers won bragging rights for the day! We played several rounds of Steal the Bacon once we were done. In Steal the Bacon, each person gets assigned a number that is the same number from one of the people on the opposing team. The leader then calls a number and whomever has that number runs to the middle and tries to get the object first and make it back to their side without getting tagged. If you got tagged you had to drop it and hope your team picked it back up and made it to their side. This meeting, we also had two new Scouts join the troop – what a great meeting!
Our third meeting was not in-person, but it was still interesting nonetheless. We began by talking about Goshen, a major Scouting camp where you stay there for a week and have tons of fun earning Merit Badges and doing activities like swimming, kayaking, leatherworking, basketry, fishing, rifle shooting, archery, and much more. Along with that, we cook our own food on our own fires that we make. A popular event we do there is Pirates Breakfast where you eat breakfast early then go in kayaks and canoes on the lake when it is still foggy and try to flip the boats of other camps that are also doing Pirates Breakfast. Troop 150 always comes out on top!
During our third meeting, we were also visited by some Order of the Arrow members that talked about the OA, Scouting’s honor society. The most important thing that took place this meetings was SPL elections. The Senior Patrol Leader (SPL) is the youth in charge of making the Troop function – he is the head Scout. These SPL elections were important as the nominated Scout will lead the Troop until November 1, 2021. The newly elected SPL and his staff will begin their term on May 1. After SPL elections, we finished this meeting with a fun who-wants-to-be-a-millionaire themed competition.
At the end of April, we had a fun in-person 8-mile hike around DC on the “History of Scouting Trail.” We also stopped at our Scoutmaster’s favorite ice cream shop called Captain Cookie and the Milkman. The hike was a fun first in-person troop trip since the ILST campout over a year ago. We learned all about BSA’s first ever Chief Scout Executive, James E West, on this hike. There were also some challenge questions that helped us learn some great historical facts. Did you know that the Boy Scouts were the main security and crowd control for President Eisenhower’s 1953 Presidential Inauguration?
Lastly, we had an in-person PLC where we planned the activities that we will be doing at the next couple of meetings that will help prepare Scouts for our first in-person campout since COVID started. Everyone can’t wait for this campout! This PLC was the final PLC of the term, so we held an executive session afterward.