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Scoutmaster Moment This weekend the troop’s youth leadership camped out and met for a full day of leadership training and games - and visits by goats.  We discussed having a vision of where the troop would be at then end of this leadership term in the Spring, the importance of delegation to others to spread the workload and enable others to learn.  The stages of team development and what they mean, what “servant leadership” is and means.  I saw a group of developing leaders working together, learning, and caring for one another - and have great hopes for this term. [...]

Scoutmaster Moment This week we chose new Senior Patrol Leader and Patrol Leader, decisions for remaining troop positions will be announced soon. Our first Leadership Skills training will be this weekend, and I’m greatly looking forward to spending time with all the troop leadership on this.  Leadership is not a trait that individuals are born with like their eye color; it is a skill learned over time, practice, and yes with failure thrown in to learn from.  This campout will give everyone some time to work on learning those skills.    If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn [...]

Scoutmaster Moment This past week all of our scouts returned to their classrooms in their schools and we had our annual back to school picnic. I’m sure that in preparation for this there were new clothes purchased, school supplies obtained and more.  The first week of school is often filled with some consternation with finding the right classroom, meeting new classmates and learning the best routes between classrooms.  With this comes the need for some flexibility, adapting to new schools, learning from new teachers, meeting new classmates and group projects.  All this is true for many aspects in life, new [...]

Scoutmaster Moment This weeks meeting had lashing activities and a last-minute added activity of building a troop recruitment board.  It was great to see the scouts teaching one another skills to lash and tie sticks together to build something useful.  Both recruitment tables went well, with enthusiastic scouts getting 14 names for the girls troop, 2 for the boys troop, and an interested person in the 893 Pack.  These leads will be followed up on and hopefully lead to more scouts joining us soon.   Every woman should recruit a female friend to take up golf so there will be [...]

Scoutmaster Moment This weekend the troop campout held at Prince William Forest.  The weather was yet another hot weekend in the DC area, but the campsite was well shaded and afforded a great opportunity to work on orienteering with the linked 893 boys troop.  Mr. Morley arranged for a great guest speaker from the Quantico Orienteering Club to come in and work through the orienteering course and how to “read” terrain and maps well.  Thank you to Mr. Morley and his guest Mr. John Organek for having us participate!  Another big shout out to the many adult leaders who stepped [...]

Scoutmaster Moment This week we discussed plans and activities for the early Fall.  Importantly we have two campouts on the calendar that will need a bit of planning for, and some activities that should be fun to participate in and even learn from.  Elections and CoH dates were discussed, it is getting time to think about what roles you would like to hold over the next cycle and what the next six months in the troop will look like, we’ve come a far way in the past 6 months and continue to learn.   Camp is what the boy looks [...]

Scoutmaster Moment This week the troop had an outing to Splashdown Water park.  A day filled with sun and swimming, perhaps a bit too much sun for some and “too much” doesn’t apply to swimming fun. Another troop member (and a leader) made it to World Jamboree this week too - truly a phenomenal experience to see over 40,000 scouts from over 150 countries all gathered in one place for fun, adventure, and fellowship.   The man who is swimming against the stream knows the strength of it  – Woodrow Wilson   This week - 8/6 - Troop Meeting (7-8:30pm)  Uniform: Class A [...]

Scoutmaster Moment   This week our troop was scattered to various summer activities. Interestingly, all to Scout related activities!.  Our meeting was a small group enjoying some fellowship with games.  The girls at Philmont with the 893 Crew returned to base camp after their trek, and one scout attended World Scouting Jamboree (WSJ) in West Virginia with her family.  This is the 24th WSJ, and was last hosted by the US in 1967.  They are held every 4 years, 2023 will be held in South Korea.  You can see many of the activities at this year’s “Jambo” online at https://www.2019wsj.org/new-world-news/.  As [...]

Scoutmaster Moment This week marked the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission to the moon and the famous step made by Neil Armstrong (and Buzz Aldrin), a challenge issued by President John F. Kennedy in his famous “We Choose to go to the Moon” speech only 7 years before. The cost in time and treasure was immense, but the raw science gleaned from the Space Program then and since has brought us super computers, weather satellites, GPS, ball point pens, the environmental movement, navigation, medical advances, and so much more.  A dream presented as a challenge to a nation [...]

Scoutmaster Moment Summer, that time full of sun, pool, trips, and relaxing has come in full.  We have members of 893GT hiking Philmont, many others traveling with family.  This month our meetings will be a little smaller as we miss those who are elsewhere. With a troop our size, this can be an added challenge with meetings, but we are rising up to meet it!  This week we had many items signed off in handbooks, ranked up two Scouts. This week also marked the start of a new 893 fundraiser. There are many things the troop has discussed as activities, [...]