Court of Honor

Dear Scouts,

The Spring Court of Honor is on Tuesday night (6/20). All scouts should attend and support each other; and all parents, siblings, relatives and friends are always invited. We have plenty of room!

Congratulations Nathaniel and Lincoln on the SPL/ASPL election results. The summer term starts at Scout Camo (with some positions appointed at Camp), and we will be going back to basics for Positions of Responsibility (POR) qualifications. This might mean we have fewer eligible candidates for POR (First Class rank or higher) and maybe doubling up on positions and possibly decreasing the number of patrols. Most of these operational details will be worked out at summer camp. For those who want to be in these positions, summer camp is the time to work on rank advancement. All the ranks to First Class are skill-based and build for each rank. My advice is to keep going, learn, get tested, be recognized, and get signed off.
​
We keep our POR lengths short to accommodate sports and other school events and provide opportunities for scouts. Some troops elect SPL’s for 6 or more months. While it might be hard to elect and transition, the benefit is we have more opportunities for scouts. This comes with responsibility. That means that to be in a POR means participation for troop meetings, PLC’s, camping and service projects during your terms, regardless of position. We usually need all hands at these events and leading means being first to arrive and often last to leave and putting others ahead of your needs.

For the first time in a few weeks, we don’t have any projects or events this weekend so enjoy time to regroup. Next week we have our Surfing Outing, the Court of Honor and then we are off to Iceland Thursday night. This is a very exciting time for the Troop!

Thank you all for pitching in to help others (at all times!), especially the helping at the Concord Free Public Library Book Sale, and at Lincoln and Tommy’s Eagle projects. I’ve received many compliments on your good manners, helpfulness and hard work. Special shout out to Lucien, who led in the book sale service project's afternoon session, and who is now coordinating with the Library and to get us a shelf for our merit badge books! You are all good scouts living the scout law and having fun working together.

We need to pick a time for Automotive Maintenance Merit Badge completion including learning how to do an oil change and some hands-on tire changing. I’ll look for some opportunities to accomplish this.

I know many of you are continuing to work on advancements, and some of you earned ranks and merit badges beyond our 5/23 cut-off for this Court of Honor. We will make sure your records are updated with Mr. O’Neil, updated in ScoutBook and we will do our best to recognize you at this COH; but don’t worry – even we don’t formally recognize you this week, your records will still be updated (you will get credit from the date you actually earned the advancement or badge), and you will be “formally” recognized at our next Court of Honor.

Finally, this weekend is Father’s Day. Take some time to recognize and thank your dads, either here or in heaven, related by blood or not, or even your Mom (who can sometimes also fill the role of father). As we learn in the Family Life Merit Badge, families take on many shapes and sizes so think about fathers, grandfathers, uncles, moms or whoever serves that important in your life and thank them for all they do.

YiS,
Mr. Duggan, Scoutmaster