Philmont Journal

Philmont Journal Day 2
October 19, 2008.

Had a 6:00 am wake up. got dressed, had a quick small bite to eat to hold us over until we had a full breakfeast a little was down the road. We had everything loaded and departed the house around 7:15 am. We head down to the colorado springs and then ended up eating a a place called the Cracker Barrel which is a country based breakfeast place. It ended up being a very good meal. Had lots of people approach us making very positive about the scouts or themselves being involved in the scouting program because we had on full uniform shirts. After that we drove to Trinidad, Colorado where we stopped at a walmart to pickup a few more last minute supplies for the trip and to go the the restroom. After that we loaded back into the vehicles and drove to the welcome to New Mexico sign were we took a few minutes to take a group photograph. Next we drove to Cimmaron, New Mexico and had lunch at a place called Hecks, I had no problem with the food since the food was very similar to the standard of food that you expect from a small town which is exactly like the food quality from where i live. I had a cheeseburger and then we loaded back into the vehicles to drive 5 minutes outside of town to Philmont Scout Ranch where we went to the check in center to check in. Once we arrived at the check in center I realized that I forgot my health form since my was not with the rest of the groups since I came at the last minute. Mr. Speights who is one of the adult leaders of the group got a hold of his wife and got the health form faxed down. Thank's Mrs. Speights for saving the trip, it is amazing what people are willing to do for certain organizations. After the adults determined the route we met with our guide who was Eddy. We distributed meals and the crew gear that philmont would be providing to us. We also had a final gear shakedown with our philmont guide to make sure we had everything we needed. We identified a few missing items that needed to be bought at the trading post. The guide left us at basecamp to spend a night in canvas tents with cots. After doing some final preparations we had a religious service. The religious service was a jewsih service which was very interesting learning about some of the customs of the service. This service was put on by one of our adult leaders Mr. Benzel. We then hiked 5 miles back into town which took until 7:30 pm to have dinner since philmont was not providing dinner that night. This time instead of going to Hecks we went to C&C which is a mexican place where the waitress ended up being overwhelmed with such a large group so late at night but that did not matter to us since we had all the time in the world. By close 9:00 we had finished dinner and ended up getting ready to leave. Instead of hiking back we took a car which one of the leaders brought just in case it was too dark and dangerous to walk back. We got back to camp brush our teeth and had taps at 10 pm.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1616

Philmont Journal

Philmont Trip Day 1 Journal
October 18, 2008

Arrived in Colorado from Soldotna, Alaska. The flight I took was a red eye flight which got me into denver at about 10:15 am. At 10:15 meet up with friends from local Colorado Troop which I will be going with. This colorado Troop is Troop 780 based out of Castle Rock Colorado which is a suburb of denver. The reason why I went with this group was because before I moved to Alaska I was involved with this unit for a long time and became very close friends with many of the scouts and leaders of the Troop. Started driving towards Castle Rock and ended up going out to lunch and REI for last minute gear pickup for crew equipment. We got over to the friends house by 2:30 pm and by this time since i did not sleep very well on the flight took a short nap before the rest of the crew for the philmont trip started arrived. At approximately 4:00 pm the rest of the crew began arriving with gear. The purpose of coming over to the Benzel residence before leaving for philmont was because we had to leave fairly early in the morning to leave and also because we had to do a gear shakedown. At the gear shakedown we setup the Troop backpacking tents to ensure we had all of the correct pieces, setup stoves, check and cleaned the water filters, discussed what gear needed to go in our bags for personal gear, and discussed formulating a duty roster. After this we had a pizza dinner play some video games and went to bed.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1616

Troop Meeting Review

After Meeting Review Troop 1616
October 27, 2008 Offsite Meeting
Central Peninsula General Hospital

For this nights meeting we had a tour and discussion of the services provide Providence Air Ambulance Service based out of Central Peninsula Hospital in soldotna, Alaska. For me personally this was a great opportunity because of the fact that I am interested in learning how to get into a career with a air ambulance service. I found out the answer to the question I have been looking at for sometime now which was great. After we had the helicopter portion completed we had a tour of the hospital conducted by Elizabeth Wilson who is the volunteer coordinator at Central Peninsula Hospital. I know Elizabeth really well because I am part of the auxillary their at the hospital, the auxillary is the volunteer department at the hospital. The tour went great and was very informal for many of our scouts.

After the the tour we sat down to run through the announcements, the scouts had a major problem with listening tonight for some reason which lead me to believe that most of the information was not effectively distributed but eventually the scouts will learn that announcements are very important. After gneral announcements I released the scouts minus the leadership group from the meeting. The leadership group talked about having a meeting to get the camporee planned and have a PLC meeting this coming sunday for 4 hours. This may seem like a long time but is not even close to the amount of time i will have to spend in order to plan the camporee since our unit is hosting the camporee.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1616

After Meeting Review

October 13, 2008.

The Troop's SPL was not present at the meeting and the ASPL of the Troop had to take care of the meeting for the night. The SPL was not their because of the fact that he was sick. The ASPL in my opinion definitely has more self confidence than the SPL. the ASPL did a average job for this meeting. I would not say that they did a great meeting but the meeting ran smoothly and efficiently. He started off with announcements. The only problem with the opening and announcements was that we start the meeting almost 10 minutes late because the ASPL did not look at the clock and does not have a watch or cellphone to keep track of time. Once he was instructed in getting the scouts ready for opening he did not have very many problems minus the normal troublemaker's in the Troop. After that he was loud and fairly clear with announcements. After this we had a discussion on themes for a camporee since our Troop is hosting the Fall Camporee in November. Next came the primary activity which was a advancement night. Advancement Night for the Troop is a time to work on and sign off requirements for rank advancements and get a general feel for how everyone in the Troop is doing. This is relatively easy right now since the Troop is fairly small. The Troop was able to get a lot of work done and for the most part stayed on task for the entire night which made me very happy. Finally came the closing for the meeting. For some reason this is the part of the meeting that just fell to pieces because of the fact that the ASPL was not able to get the Troop formed in a circle for the closing ceremony. The scouts just would not listen. This caused problems for the ASPL because he is good when the scouts are good but struggles when their is behavior problems. I kept reminding him to get formed up and made the comment we are not leaving until this gets done but other than those two comments I let the situation work out itself. Eventually everyone got the picture and formed into the circle for closing. I will have to discuss how to give directions to young hyperactive scouts with the ASPL next time I see him. My favorite solution is to remind the scouts gently and just raise the scout sign until you have their attention. Scouts will figure out that the more time that they have to wait for instructions or information to be given out the less time they will have for the fun activities of the meeting.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1616

More Quotes

Quotes of the Week


Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy. Norman Vincent Peale (1898 - 1993)


It seems to me that people have vast potential. Most people can do extraordinary things if they have the confidence or take the risks. Yet most people don't. They sit in front of the telly and treat life as if it goes on forever.Philip Adams


Getting ahead in a difficult profession requires avid faith in yourself. That is why some people with mediocre talent, but with great inner drive, go much further than people with vastly superior talent.Sophia Loren (1934 - )

Dedication

"Never give in! Never give in! Never, never, never, never - in nothing great or small, large or petty. Never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense."~ Winston Churchill

Life can be hectic, crazy, wild, and messed up but people must remember how to prioritize their needs and their schedules in order to live a balanced life. Living a balanced life means know when and what activities to participate in. If we all step back and look at how we spend our time each and every day many people will notice that their is time wasted. Yes everyday people waste their time.

I have noticed a pattern with certain individuals in this world that think it is okay to continually not participate or continually back out at the last minute. Yes I agree emergencies come up, I have had a few of these incidents myself, but the fact remains people need to understand that when they do not show up or participate they are not just affecting themselves they are affecting everyone in the group.

Dedication is more than just showing up and having regular participation, yes these are elements but it goes even deeper than that. Dedication in its true form requires passion. I am not talking about the passion in the form of love but passion to a group or organization. This sort of passion is not as deep as love passion but is equally if not sometimes more important in life.

So before you don't volunteer or drop out at the last minute remember it goes beyond just affecting yourself.

Yours in Scouting Service

Troop Meeting Review

After Troop Meeting Review
October 6, 2008

Tonight we had a field meeting meaning that instead of meeting at the normal location of the Soldotna Church of Christ we meet at the Soldotna Post Office in town for a orienteering course. The orienteering course in town went great, only one of the three groups of scouts completed the course but the other two groups had lots of unexperienced scouts who did not have people who did a orienteering course very recently. This meeting was primarily run by an Assistant Scoutmaster but the SPL did take charge fairly well during the flag ceremony and during announcements.

Before the regular meeting the PLC group meet to determine the meeting plans for the next three weeks. These plans were put together by the youth but the youth need to take a more active role in planning and leading activities.

One of the interesting comments made was that "I am tired of being a babysitter". I get this comment alot my solution is th tell that particular leader that yes sometimes you do have to serve as a babysitter but it does not happen all the time. Being a babysitter is not always necessary if you can find ways to actively engage scouts in activities that require most of their attention or by making sure you are setting a appropriate example.

Yours in Scouting Service
Mark W
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1616

After Meeting Review

Troop 1616 After Meeting Review
September 29, 2008

I have one major problem that I really need to get sorted out in order to continue advancing as quick as I want to in regards to learning leadership. How do you take Scout A and Scout B who are both senior leaders of the Troop from not having self-confidence to having self-confidence in a fairly quick time. I know the saying that people will develop confidence as time goes on but these two leaders just do not seem to be making any progress in regards to self confidence. I am not trying to put Scout A and B down but I am just making observations.

One the things that I am going to be doing is giving them more and more responsibility in each meeting. We started off by just having them do announcements but are now getting to the point where they should be taking responsibility for the majority of the meeting.Hopefully time will pass and the self confidence they need to do the job will come to them otherwise it could be a rough few months for these scouts.

Back to the meeting this week we had another orienteering Classroom session. This is our last classroom session and the next monday we have a meeting will be the field session to test our newly learned skills. Hopefully are hard work at teaching and showing the skills will pay off and the scouts will have a great time. We will just have to wait for next week to come before I can tell.

Your in Scouting Service
mark
Junior Assistant Scoutmaster
Troop 1616