Election Night

The most recent troop meeting began a little earlier at 7:00, but only for those who were going on the whitewater rafting campout this upcoming weekend so the plans as to how to carry out the trip could be established. Half an hour later, the real meeting began as usual. To start off the meeting, Joel Neuhart hosted a short skill session on the 8 and ½ points of safe swimming, which was a good refresher for those going on the upcoming campout.

After the skill session, the scouts headed into the chapel to cast their votes for the next Senior Patrol Leader (S.P.L.). The nominee votes had been counted from last meeting, and three scouts were eligible for the position: Bret Carwile, Joel Neuhart, and Avery Reynolds. After each of the candidates had given their speeches, the other scouts were given a sheet with the names of the three possible choices and were instructed to circle the name of who they wanted to be the S.P.L. before handing the sheets back in. When all the votes for the next S.P.L. were turned in, the next item on the agenda was Patrol Leader nominations for the individual patrols, but unlike the S.P.L. votes, scouts could choose two scouts to nominate to run for Patrol Leader. Finally, after passing in the second round of ballots, the scouts went back into the main hall to play “swing the thing,” where one scout swings a “thing,” an unlucky paper towel tied to the end of a rope, trying to trip scouts who are jumping over the “thing” a few feet away from the swinger.

In between the elections and the game, I got comments from the S.P.L. nominees in regards to their feelings about the election:

Avery Reynolds: “This election could decide the course of my life for the next year!”
Bret Carwile: “The three candidates are great, any one of them would be great for the troop.”
Joel Neuheart: “I think whoever is elected S.P.L. will do a phenomenal job!”

At the end of the meeting, the results of the two elections had been tallied and were announced. The new S.P.L. after Will Carlson’s term ended would be Avery Reynolds, although the votes for each candidate were reportedly very close. For Patrol Leader candidates, they are: Max Goldberg and Steven LaCount for Hurricane, Nick Burnley and Dante Smith for Viking, Adam Oppold and Matthew Ruehlman for the Kodiak Bears, and lastly Ben Marquez and Alex Stringfellow for the Falcons. The Flaming Arrow patrol had already elected their Patrol Leader at a previous date, so they did not need to perform elections.

One last big event occurred right before the meeting was closed, however, and that event was Dillon Whitehead receiving his Eagle Scout patch from the previous scoutmaster, Mr. Siebenburgen, completing the Whitehead Eagle Scout trio. Mr. and Mrs. Whitehead were also in attendance as well so Mrs. Whitehead could pin the patch onto her son. When she pinned the rank onto Dillon, however, the resulting scene could be compared to Captain Parmenter receiving his Medal of Honor from the 1960’s TV show F-Troop.

Ben Hallenbeck, Troop Historian