Spring Camporee 2008

Spring Camporee 2008
Tustumena District, Great Alaska Council
May 16 to May 17
May 16

Friday night was arrival and setup night. The major thing was the adults interfering too much in unloading and setting up of the campsite. I expect the adults to be their to assist but it should be the responsible of the SPL for the campout to ensure the site is setup properly and all camp chores are completed. I will be talking to the SPL about the duties of a SPL during a campout in the hear future so he knows that he needs to take a more active participation level in activities. Friday night was Order of the Arrow Tap outs and unit elections. Three people from my troop went through tap outs and those were Leif D, Olen D, and Tony D. After that we a a dutch oven desert, played capture the flag with another unit at the camporee and went to bed.

May 17

Troop wake up time was 7:00 and everybody in the Troop was out of their tents by 7:50, the SPL was one of the last people out of tents which is disappointing to me as the JASM for the weekend because of the fact that it should have been him to wake up the scouts and not me. During this time we cooked dinner and had breakfast done by 8:45 because we started at approximately 7:15 even without the SPL. Cleanup was done by the adults because the adults had the idea of dismissing everyone from the site before cleanup was done. I know that I should probably not be complaining about not having to do dishes but the fact remains that it should have been the youth's responsibility for making sure camp was cleaned up. One of the older scouts did a excellent job cooking and did not have to participate in cleaning but everyone else in the Troop should have assisted in this task. After this their were about six or seven different stations to work through and earn points at, I am not going to spend time explaining each activity but i will say that all the activities put together took about 2 hours to complete. After this competition period came lunch preparation for the Dutch Oven potluck later that afternoon. My Troop decided to do gumbo but forgot the okra so we ended up we a fairly good tasting stew. After the dutch oven competition we had approximately 45 minutes of free time and then site pack up and awards. Our Troop to first place in the camporee and got a ribbon for participation. After this came time for departure. The adults did most of the packing into vehicles which disappointed me again because the youth should have to show some level of responsibility for Troop gear too.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1616