Melrose Troop 68 Scout meetings have been put on hold as social distancing has become the new normal as the virus moves across the nation and the world. While I feel sorry about meetings and activities being cancelled for the next month I feel worse about the high school and college students and athletes whose activities and games have been cancelled for the year. While I understand the need for social distancing I often wonder if things could have been handled differently. But that is just my opinion.
Meanwhile, Scout Troop 68 is trying to work their way through this new challenge. Troop meetings have been cancelled. Our March outing was cancelled, as was the March court of honor. The patrol leader council meeting has been postponed. The council’s Ripley Rendezvous has been rescheduled for later this year.
The troop has their spring pancake and sausage breakfast fundraiser, which was planned for March 29, put on hold. Due to state government regulations and the American Legion not being available anymore it will probably get cancelled.
The troop committee meeting scheduled for Tuesday, March 17, was conducted in a new format. It was the first time in my forty years of being an adult Scout leader that the committee met online for a video chat conference. We held a second online meeting on Monday, March 23.
Today, March 28, I plan to try an online meeting with some of the newest members of Troop 68 to work on their Scout Rank requirements. On Monday, we are going to hold an online troop meeting and try to get the Scouts started on a couple different merit badges.
Of course, we are all frustrated with the current restrictions but we understand why they are in place. My fear is that if this lasts too long we may start to lose membership in Scouting. Online sessions may work fine but they cannot really replace a troop outing or outing. Hopefully this will soon pass as we can return to Scouting as it was meant to be.
