Patrol meeting: October 1, 2008
As is becoming tradition, the patrol's early arrivals play football while waiting for the others to show up. It's a fun way to get a little energy out before we begin our meetings.
Our recently appointed patrol leaders, Dallen and Joey, opened our meeting by helping everyone to recite the Scout Oath, Law, Slogan, and Motto.
This meeting had two agendas. The first was to assign leadership roles to all remaining patrol members. A primary objective for any boy scout program is to teach the scouts how to lead. After a few years in boy scouts, each patrol should be nearly capable of running itself with only limited guidance from adult leaders. Since we have an 11-year-old age group, this year is their introduction to the leadership that will hopefully become a prevailing theme throughout their lives. Unlike the positions of Patrol Leader and Assistant Patrol Leader, the four new leadership positions were assigned with their particular talents in mind. Our four new leaders are as follows (in alphabetical order):
Ben is our new instructor. He has a strong propensity to push ahead of the group and learn the next item on our list before we even get to it as a patrol. His role as instructor is to help teach necessary skills to the rest of the patrol.
Christian is our scribe. As such, he will assist the leadership in keeping track of what happens in each of our meetings. He will also keep track of which rank requirements are met by each member of the patrol.
Tamanui is our historian. His primary role will be to document all our meetings and activities in photographs. We have seen his work and we are excited to show you the quality of his photojournalism. He will also collect any keepsakes that may prove interesting to future members of the patrol.
TK is our quartermaster. He is extraordinarily organized, thorough, has a great mind for details, and shows a strong desire to take care of those around him. As quartermaster, TK will be responsible for the patrol's equipment and in assisting the individual members to know what they will need for each of our activities.
There is no doubt in my mind all four of these scouts will magnify their position in the patrol. We have a powerful group of boys that will prove to inspire those around them by exceeding their expectations.
Our second agenda for this meeting was to prepare for the coming campout. We reviewed what gear would be needed for the patrol and for each scout. We also created the menu for the food the scouts would be preparing and eating while on the campout. We learned about the food pyramid and chose items for our menu that met the pyramid's nutritional requirements.
Up next: Camping!
