Where did the summer go?

Man, this summer has flown by!  Sounds like every one had a little fun.  Things I have heard - a cruise to Alaska; a trip to Vermont; a trip to India; summer camp; helping Todd with his Eagle Project; Bobby's Eagle Ceremony; hanging at the pool... What else?!?

School is right around the corner and so is our first Scout meeting of the 2013 - 2014 year on Sept 9th.  Some scouts met with Mr. Koehler to set the agenda, which sounds fantastic!  You'll find out at the meeting.

Don't forget to e-mail Justin, our SPL, about your availability to help the Rotary Club, the Troop's sponsor organization, at the Burke Festival, Sept 7th and 8th.

See everyone soon and I want to hear your summer stories!!

June's campouts

Look's like we all had a good time on our 2 different campouts in June.  I have not seen all the pictures from the hike in the Shenandoah National Park so I'm not sure if you got any rain.  Well, those of us who stayed at Burke Lake Park, we had a fun and a beautiful Saturday then woke up to the pitter-patter of rain drops.  The pitter-patter turned into a down pour!  Check out all the pictures on the website.

Some of our scouts were not as prepared as they should have been.  I was the only one who had a rain coat although it didn't help too much in that weather.  The campout was the first for a couple of our scouts so we'll cut them a little slack.  Hopefully, these guys will remember their 1st campout as a true learning experience and to always bring a raincoat and mess kit.

We can all learn from each campout we attend - things to pack, observe in nature and how to have fun.

Speaking of fun, have great time at summer camp and all your activities on your break!

More integrated patrols

I'd like to share thoughts on how our patrols can operate more as teams.

Things that currently prevent close teams:
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- low participation to events. We are all busy and that means that sometimes there are just a few members at any given event. If we don't get out TOGETHER we can't act like a team.

- Patrol Leaders not taking an active role to communicate often with the other team members. This is partly the fault of the adult team since that kind of leadership must be modeled and coached.

Ideas for better Patrol interaction:
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- single patrol outings (movie, pizza, sleep over?)

- Change some Troop meetings to Patrol time with games and event planning.

I'd like to hear other thoughts and ideas!!

MK

Are you Tougher than a Boy Scout?

We just watched the new program on the National Geographic channel "Are you Tougher than a Boy Scout?".  I think we have a couple of Scout in our Troop that could be on that show.  Maybe we should have a competition at one of our campouts - adults vs. scouts!  That might be interesting...

Any options?

Blue & Gold

This past weekend a couple of different Packs held their Blue & Gold banquets.  2 Packs also combined the Arrow Of Light ceremony and bridging to BSA together. The Troop reaped the benefits by gaining 7 new scouts!  More may be on the way....

Do you guys remember your AOL and bridging?

On January 21st, some of our guys helped out at the Inaugural.  After taking part in our Merit Badge weekend, the scouts changed into their Class A's and many layers to keep warn.  Heading downtown with the throngs of people taking part in history, the scouts took their posts ready to help when needed.

Here's a picture of the lucky scouts -

At least one other scout went into DC to be part of the on-lookers watching the President take the oath of office.  Here's one of the pictures he took -

Do you know anyone who was down there, too?

blog premier for 698

Just playing with our blog.  Scouts will be able to post comments about campout, events, outings or anything on their mind.  Some of the merit badges require the scout to write about the event to get credit, this is the perfect place.

Welcome to Troop 698's blog!  Look at our website Burke 698