A Scout is Loyal

Wolverine Patrol
James

   Since we formed the Wolverine Patrol in March, we have been able to accomplish a lot. There are two scouts who have earned the rank of Scout, Matthew P and Sean P. All of the other Wolverines have also been working very hard. They have all shown up to the troop meetings, some of the outings, and even the one patrol meeting that I was able to schedule. Even if they don’t receive their rank by the next court of honor, they are very close to obtaining it. Since many requirements can be done on the outings, all of you should try to attend and go to the senior scouts for sign offs. Just a reminder for everyone in my patrol, when you come to the meetings, please bring your scout books. If you have any questions, you can ask me during the meetings or give me a call. If you want a requirement signed off, I will try to set up a patrol meeting or a separate day when we can get together… you just have to ask! I would like to see all of you finish your 30 days of exercises for Tenderfoot (very soon), and give me a call for the sign off. Have fun over the summer, and I will see you next fall, or maybe at Summer Camp.

Spoons Patrol Report!
Bryant Look

Well, a lot has changed since the last Court of Honor, that’s for sure. The Sharks have been disbanded, and only Chris Davis has come with me to my new

patrol, the Spoons. Thankfully, we have a lot of new and enthusiastic Scouts around, as well as a sometimes helpful (haha) Quartermaster, AJ. One of our new scouts, Curtis, (and his parents I might add) built our awesome new flag, which we took to Camporee. Our patrol did relatively well at Camporee, seeing as it was everyone’s first time competing against other troops, and that they hadn’t learned most of the skills. Most of the new scouts have been working hard to get a rank, a few are very close to Tenderfoot and only a couple have not gotten Scout rank yet. I hope to see everyone in the patrol get Tenderfoot by the COH after the one coming up. Well, that’s all, enjoy summer camp!

Flaming Waffles
Daniel

This is the first time that I have written an article about my patrol for this paper, but that is not surprising because this is the first time that I have had a patrol to write an article about. The Flaming Waffles (don’t ask) came into being about 2 months ago when the troop grew by about one and a half times its size. The troop acquired two new patrols and two new patrol leaders. One of these new patrol leaders was me. The Flaming Waffles patrol (really don’t ask) now consists of Chris, Todd, Edward, Nathan, Spencer, Monet, Cameron and myself. It has been interesting being a patrol leader but the boys are a lot of fun and very enthusiastic and I can only see good times in the future. We have gone on several campouts as a patrol and, even though it rained heavily at Del Val, people were still enthusiastic enough to come on the most recent trip to the Yuba River which was really a blast. Well, that’s the end of this article for the Flaming Waffles (I mean it about not asking. I don’t even know) you’ll hear from me again in the spring, So Long!

Blank Patrol
David

… [ leader ] … Hi everyone, this is David Ho, patrol leader of the totally elite Blank Patrol. Of DooOOoOm!!! Well, these past few months have been quite an experience for me as a leader. I started out as patrol leader of the Dragons years and years ago, then became ASPL, then SPL, then JASM, and now, hey look, I’m patrol leader again! =) I’m finding that patrol leader is, without a doubt, the hardest leadership position… I missed a few meetings, which was not so good (it’s a much bigger commitment than SPL), and I had to relearn a few things about being Patrol Leader that I’d forgotten. However, at the end of this leadership rotation, I feel that I’ve learned to lead better than ever before, and that I’m able to apply many of the lessons I’ve learned about leadership from my entire career in Boy Scouts.

… [ teamwork ] … Even with experience, though, nothing works out perfectly in the beginning. Little kids will be little kids, so of course there was quite a bit more goofing off and quite a bit less focusing than I would have liked at first. But as time passed, with more meetings and more outings, we functioned more and more as a patrol, whether it was during a skills instruction at a meeting, during a cleanup at an outing, or during a competition at the Camporee.

… [ kids ] … Now on to the scouts themselves. In no particular order, they are: James M., Jordan, Chris S., Aaron, Erich, Benjamin, and Nick. And wow. They are amazing. I was incredibly imp

pressed by their dedication to advancement. These guys took initiative and worked hard on their own, and it clearly paid off for them, as you can tell from the Court of Honor. I couldn’t ask for any better group of scouts for my return to a position as Patrol Leader.

… [ events ] … We did awesomely at the Camporee. Although in the previous meetings we weren’t focused in the competitions, everyone pulled together and busted out some massive teamwork at the Camporee, and we basically owned =P. I was amazed at how suddenly everyone became cohesive and spirited (and of course they were always skilled). We got a red ribbon, meaning we beat more than 1/3 of the patrols there, even though we had brand new scouts and most of the other patrols were much more experienced than we were. Furthermore, we won 1st place in Spider Web thanks to our cooperation, enthusiasm, and unique patrol yell =D. Back at camp, everything worked out all right with setting up tents, cooking, cleaning, etc. Except that it took forever. Cleanup was horrendously inefficient; we took hours longer than we should have. But it was ok, and we came out confident that we are just clearly superior =). On the backpacking trip, we had a smaller group than we had on the Camporee, but it was still pretty good. The 3-mile hike in wasn’t too bad, and even though all three of the scouts who came (Aaron, Benjamin, and Nick) were completely new scouts, they managed to keep up. The site was pretty beautiful when we got there; canopy of trees, cliff overlooking a river, etc… In between setting up, cooking, cleaning, and stuff, we played cards, went down to the river, and did advancement. The only problem was the mosquito bites. We all got like 5238795238909082579864706187091 mosquito bites. That wasn’t fun at all. But besides that, everyone survived, so it was all right in the end.

JLT
March 8-9, 2003
James

This years’ JLT was at Lake Del Valle, near Livermore. For all of you who don’t know what a JLT is, I will tell you. This is a once a year, overnight camping outing, where the senior scouts (First Class and above) get together to learn teaching skills, and plan future outings. We decided on the outings for next year. During this years’ JLT, we also learned how to work with all you young scouts. Before you joined our troop, we had only about half as many scouts as we do now. We learned how to handle, teach, and sign off requirements for larger groups of people. To help us accomplish this, we decided to make a box containing everything one may need to get requirements signed off. We will bring this box on some outings, so no matter where we go, we will have the equipment easily accessible for you to use. You should try to get to First Class as soon as you can, so you can join us. We also had a little free time to play volleyball with some of the other people camping near us. The adults cook for us on this outing, too. If any parents have any suggestions for future outings, or anything else, please let us know, via the committee meetings. As you know, it is held on the second Thursday of each month (on weeks when scout meetings are scheduled). The senior scouts are looking forward to using their skills to help the younger scouts have fun and advance. Remember, they will soon be our future leaders

Hiller Aviation Museum
March 15, 2003
James

Although many of you have flown in an airplane before, how many have actually flown a plane? At the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, some of us scouts were able to fly in a private plane… a few were even able to fly the plane, momentarily. We went up in small groups of about 3 to 4 people. Once up in the sky, we were able to get a magnificent view of the surrounding cities and terrain. Flying was only a small part of our visit. After we were all once again on the ground, we started our tour of the museum. There were many different types of planes, from the earliest biplanes to the recent jets of today. We also received an unexpected treat. Several interesting speakers were in attendance and talked about books they wrote and planes in general. Before leaving, we were able to go to the gift shop for some neat souvenirs. This was a very fun and educational outing for all who attended.

Henry Coe “backpacking with a car” trip
Wait, it was the Grant Ranch car-camping trip
Err . . . maybe the Del Valle car-camping trip?
April 12-13, 2003
By Brian

We arrived at the church early in order to get up to Henry Coe and maybe backpack in and drive in before they closed the roads due to the rain. We were loading the cars when . . . It started raining. Well there goes the outing, the inexperienced thought, yay I get to go home instead of suffering through a Boy Scout outing! Soon however, they realized we would go camping anyway, and a little later we had a new plan, we’d simply camp at Grant Ranch and we could still have a fun outing. So we loaded up, drove up on the long windy road which afforded some nice views of the bay area . . . o, wait a minute, its raining, I take back the view part. Anyway we got up to our destination, checked with the ranger and we got two sites. Unfortunately, the group sites were closed due to lack of water (don’t ask, I know it was raining, and I know we had planned on going to a place with only 1 car and which was miles away from water.) We went in search of two sites that would work and, you guessed it, we couldn’t find one. But the campout must go on so we racked our brains and decided to go to Del Valle instead. Back down the windy road we drove, then back on the highway and a little over an hour later, Del Valle, and the end to our interesting drive (I’d like to note here that I

wasn’t driving so it wasn’t my fault the drive took so long, I mean that was probably the longest drive we’ll ever take to get to Del Valle.)
We got to Del Valle and it wasn’t raining, but it sure looked like it was about to so we set up the dining-flies first. It took a while and by the time we finished, it was raining. After this, we set up the tents. It was highly windy which was annoying since it made the conditions a lot worse than a little rain. After setting up camp, we ate lunch, then pretty much did nothing (we did work on requirements) until dinner. After dinner which was, unfortunately, nearly identical for all the patrols (a tendency of the meals for all outings), some of us played cards, while others slept, while still more enjoyed singing and talking around a campfire. The following morning we got up, ate breakfast, broke camp and went to Taco Bell. It was about the least exciting morning ever due largely to the rain (which most people didn’t mind much) and its amazing power to make home feel so comfortable. After lunch, we returned home and hung out wet things, thus ending many of the new scouts’ first campout as Boy Scouts.

Camporee
May 17-18, 2003
Derek

Did we all have to get up before the sun? I think we did, and more, we had to pack everything together, check out last minute equipment, and assemble before we could leave by about 7:30 am. Oh yes, there were items that were forgotten but who can we blame for that? The SPL? Surly there are other explanations for that adversity. However, being the boy scouts that we are, we pulled through, relying solely on our preparedness and the supervising grownups on the trip who happened to be a bit too comfortable and yet quite accommodating.
The weather couldn’t have been better, or our campsite smaller. One snag in the trip was that our campsite had been mistaken for another. However, we had already completed about half of our setting up, when the mistake had been discovered. So we made do, even if it did take us an extra 2 hours to complete our campsite. The boys however, slowly they got moving did quite well in the neatness that they achieved for the camp inspection.
The weekend turned out to be a fun and humorous experience for many and generally snag free for the rest of the trip, until the end. I never heard any complaints about the activities and competitions, so I assume that most of the boys had a rather entertaining experience. Now I, the Acting SPL for the Camporee must commend our troop for doing such an excellent job on our competition score. Half of the troop actually made it

to the second place level among the entire Camporee competitors. This done with newly recruited scouts many of whom had not achieved even the Scout rank yet, was a brilliant act of spirit, skill, and preparedness. With the experience and training the boys will have by next time, I for one would not be surprised if one patrol made it to a first place level. As well as having a much more enjoyable trip.
Other than a few brushes with poison oak, I believe that the trip was fairly pain free. We had great meals and spent most of our time preparing or cleaning up from or for those meals. One other activity we participated in was the raising and lowering of the American flag on a Boy Scout built flag pool, to fulfill a rank requirement for many of the newer scouts.
The last thing I wanted to say is about our departure. We had in effect one of the slowest departures ever. Again there must be some reasonable explanation other than the SPL’s inefficiency to determine why this occurrence only happened on this one trip. We probably spent over half an hour total picking up trash in our attempts to leave the campsite by the Boy Scout code, cleaner then when we had found it.
Written and typed by your very own Assistant Senior Patrol Leader

A Scout is Brave

Scouting Transitions
Tim

I would like to welcome our new scouts. I hope you will find Boy Scouts and being in our troop both rewarding and fun. You are making a big transition in going from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts and I thought I would take this opportunity to explain a little of what Boy Scouts is about.
Obviously, there is much about Boy Scouts that is similar to Cub Scouts and hopefully you will quickly feel at home. There are however, some important differences. You’ll notice that the troop is run by the boys and not the adults. You will also find that you will have to do much more yourselves and that getting requirements signed off and earning rank is up to you. It will not happen unless you make it happen.
Boy Scouts attempts to help boys in the bigger transition of becoming adults. Its goal is to develop character and create good citizens. To make this process fun, the program is centered on the outdoors. Just as in Cub Scouts, there are ranks to be earned by passing sets of requirements. The requirements for the first three ranks, Tenderfoot, Second Class, and First Class, are for the most part skills and knowledge that are needed to safely enjoy the outdoors - pitching a tent, cooking, map and compass, first aid, knots, lashing, etc. I want to emphasize that the real work of Boy Scouts is not in acquiring the skills themselves, but in the character building that occurs in the process of learning the skills. The scout learns initiative, self reliance, and responsibility. This does not mean that we are not serious about the skills. They are useful to know in and of themselves and we want the scouts to be do their best, not learn how to get by on minimal effort. Ideally, the rank is a symbol that the scout has acquired certain skills, but in practice,

it provides the motivation for learning the skills.
After earning First Class things change somewhat. For the upper three ranks, Star, Life, and Eagle, merit badges are earned to learn the skills. Each merit has its own set of requirements, allowing the topic to be learned in much greater depth. While certain merit badges are required, the scout has large variety to choose from to suite his interests. In addition, the scout also has to perform community service and serve in a leadership position. He now helps run the troop - plans the meetings, chooses the outings, teaches and guides the younger scouts. This is the heart of scouting. The saying the best way to learn is to teach applies to much more than just the skills that are being taught. By being responsible for seeing that the troop functions properly, the scout learns the importance of planning, preparation, respect, discipline, and so on.
I think the transition to leadership is actually more difficult for the boy than the transition from Cub Scouts to Boy Scouts. The transition to Boy Scouts is the more difficult one for the parents. Things are not as organized as when adults ran the pack. And the parent often doesn’t know what is going on since information goes directly to the scouts and mostly stops right there. For the boy, there is the big unknown and corresponding anxiety of going someplace new, but once he is there, it isn’t all that different from what he was doing in Cub Scouts. Of course, being away from home on the first couple of outings can be difficult, especially if it’s the first time. But hopefully he’s having so much fun and the older scouts are helping him through this transition (right guys?!) that its no big deal.
Changing roles from one of the guys to being a leader is not easy. Almost no one, including the scout himself, recognizes his role as a leader. The current leaders, who have been trying to get him to pay attention and stop goofing off, are not about to delegate any authority to him. And certainly his peers and even younger scouts do not feel they need to do what he says. And yet he has been given the responsibility to carry out some task and is being prodded by his scoutmaster to get it done. This is a slow transition, but eventually if he sticks with it, he moves up through the offices as he moves through the ranks and before you know it he is up in front leading the entire troop.