Northeast Brownsea, Fall 2014

Since this blog seems to be turning into a record of the current phase of my Scouting career, I should give a mention to the second Brownsea Training Camp (BTC) I got to go to last fall.  Our Northeast regional commissioner was heading out to Massachusetts to the second NE BTC for the year, so I thought since it was so close to home, I may as well go, get some camping time in, and get to know the updated version of the course syllabus.  The event was held September 26-28 in Hingham, MA at Wompatuck State Park.  The park, situated south of Boston, contains old WWII bunkers which are now buried.  We camped in Scout Area 4, which contained one unnatural hill, which indicated a bunker was underneath the surface.  

There were fewer attendees than the last Brownsea I attended in Kingston, NY, but it was still a fun time.  I was a bit less anxious than the last one, mostly because I was getting back into the groove of things, and I didn't have an entourage of Knight candidates to tend to.  Advising a Rover is something I enjoy doing but it's serious work, so not having this on my shoulders meant I could relax a little more. There were Squires who came from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Maine, and Massachusetts, plus staff from New York and Connecticut.  I'm always impressed with the diversity of our Squires and distances they will go to attend a BTC.

One of the fun aspects to the weekend were organized patrol activities.  Most notable was the campfire building competition.  Each patrol had to build a fire and burn through a line of twine.  Whoever completely severed their line first won.  What did they win?  The satisfaction of knowing their patrol did a good job!

Firebuilding patrol competition

Now a funny story to come out of the weekend was the story of the rusty pot.  Some things are better left in camp, but let's just say, if it's trash, it's not best if left in camp, so when a rusty old pot was found discarded amongst the raked leaf litter, and left for someone else to pick up, some Rover who we won't name, found it and recycled it into an award for the best (or possibly worst) skit from the campfire program.  Amid cries of, "what's this??" and "we're starting a new tradition!!", the pot was happily awarded and thereby rescued from a certain fate of loniness on the forest floor.  Yes, I do cause trouble even when in uniform!

Before there was TV, there were campfires!

 In attending this training camp, I quietly reaffirmed my commitment to Scouting, and Scouting for all.  This was the first time wearing my new Inclusive Scouting patch on my uniform shirt, and it certainly won't be the last.  I came home from the weekend feeling recharged and excited to be back involved with BPSA.  More to come...

For more photos from the weekend, please visit my online web album.

Inclusive Scouting Award