thayer1924

My troop has been progressing towards ''proper'' uniforms. I right now have requested for the boys to get official BSA pants. I took over this troop a couple years ago, and most meetings no one was in a uniform shirt. They even, during saluting the flag would say "hand over heart" so at least they knew not to salute. I informed all the boys when I took over that they had to wear uniform shirts. We ordered class B only for basic meeting but the rule was , court of honors, having visitors or board of review & conferences... class A. I know my son was probably the worst offender as I sometimes didn''t want to put the uniform on after a day at work wearing a law enforcement uniform... but I got used to putting on the shirt and my son followed.. so did the rest of the troop. They tuck their shirts in at beginning of meeting. I have a new ASM who is strick about uniform protocol, so we informed the boys, this year to go get pants. We have about 1/2 complying with a promise of the other boys getting them soon. We have a state police camporee coming up next month and I explained we need to be in full uniform. I''ve requested a uniform ''shakedown'' at next meeting to see who needs what. It is true.. scouts will follow what the leaders do. I''ve been wearing full uniform for about 6 months or so and more boys are showing up in uniform.

Glad your second weekend was great. I also felt like it was the best two weekends of my adult life in many many years. I have 4 new great friends. We have met a couple times since our course last year. The first member of our patrol is getting his beads next month and we all have agreed to be there. We struggled a little with our tickets but had a great TG. I was amazed that the knowledge I learned at WB made it much easier to guide the boys in my troop this year as we started up our meetings again. I have been asked (and agreed to) to staff the next course in 2009 "I used to be a BEAR!!!"

Our troop just reserved tickets for the scout weekend West Point Football Game in September. Anyone recommend where we might find camping in the area?