The Ockanickon Leader Meeting is an opportunity to show polish. The directors deliver prepared comments, and then answer what are usually straight forward questions. This year, I did a large webpage update before the event to make sure I was on the same page as the program directors and went so far as to have a projector at the meeting showing the pertinent parts of the webpage as directors spoke. This went swimmingly until one area director decided to add two new merit badges to her program. So there she was, talking about her six badges, and there I was displaying four on my screen.
We broke for a break and a steady stream of leaders approached me in a daze telling me “the screen said four badges, she said six badged, which is right?” I told them six and got quizzical looks that said “but the webpage said 4” followed by an angry grimace that I’ve only seen before in disappointed children. I think camp finally met it’s goal of having an up-to-date web page that people could trust that inconsistencies were treated like someone just told them there wasn’t a Santa Claus. Maybe I’ll seed the leader guide with errors to keep everyone on their toes and prevent this disappointment in the future.