The Crew COPEs

As one of our Troop’s eight COPE facilitators, I’ve been very proud of the six boys who are not only Boy Scouts but also members of the Crew.  They have had going to COPE as one of their primary goals since inception a year ago.  Right now, at Winter Camp, all but one are participating in it.  The sole member who could not do it is focusing instead on completing his merit badges so he can meet his more immediate goal of Eagle Scout by April.

At first, I was a little concerned that by going to COPE, they were taking away from all they could ascertain by attending winter camp because many of the more difficult merit badges are offered there.  But then, at this month’s Venturing Round Table, we discussed the Bronze Awards and my opinion changed.  Three of the Crew joined me at the meeting and all three, who were not previously enthusiastic, about the recognition potential of Bronze Awards, are now eager to see where they fall in the accomplishment of each.  One, in particular, is actually very close to two of them.  Attending COPE will become a major contributor to their earning the Outdoor Bronze Award.

However, I haven’t lost focus on how these boys attending COPE will help the troop.  In the past year, as many of you know, our troop has been extraordinarily blessed with the number of scouts who have become Eagle rank and then moved on to college.  Because we had a slow recruiting season for two years several falls back, this left a gap in ages, and as a result, our leadership is primarily 15 years old to young 17s.  This training is going to go far in maturing their leadership skills; enabling them to become stronger troop leaders at a younger age.  I fully expect that the troop will see an immedate change in their leadership styles, integration of technique into guiding the troop, and most of all, their trust in each other.

Times of change are upon us and I, for one, am very excited.

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