2017 1st scout meeting, 14th January 2017

Written by: Syed Shafiq, Senior Sixer & Scribe

 I came to school half an hour early because my younger brother wanted to sign off some things on his gold arrow. I can’t believe that it was already the first official scout meeting. Last week was between the sixers and assistant sixers. When I reached school, I waited for about 5 minutes until the fist few people came. They helped me lift the flagpole so that I could put the flag up. Pressure was on me since last week I had messed up the flag, the recruits also arrived. It was the first time that we met with the new recruits. I then blew the whistle at 9 am. The clueless recruits were then guided by mdm Kerina to the back of our horseshoe.at last when the sixer pulled the flag, it was the right way around. I felt a sigh of relief sweep through me.

When we lined up in Indian file, mdm Kerina brought the recruits to one corner with mr Tan to teach them a bit about scouting. On the other hand, the rest of the unit had their sixer’s corner to discuss how they were going to achieve their progress badges. Many of the sixes had members which had some sign-offs. After the given amount of time for that, we gathered back in Indian file. We then had the sixers come out to sing some songs eg: father Abraham and the bee song. It was fun to sing along with them. After a while, mr Tan came and started to refresh our memories with the other songs. We then formed horseshoe after I blew the whistle. We had our flag lowering and dispersed except for me and two other sixers.

I had to stay back for the recruits briefing on what we do in scouts and what we would be doing during the recruits’ camp. Half way through the briefing, he brought me in front and used me as an example for the highest leader in the unit with the senior sixer status and that I had an akela award. He also brought up another sixer as another example. We then heard experiences of the other parents of cubs that are and were in henry park pelican scouts. We soon ended the briefing and were dismissed.