As Scouts and as school pupils, you spend a lot of time meeting standards. In school your work may be graded on a scale from A through F. In Scouting, you're asked to meet a set of standards before you can earn a skill award, merit badge or new rank.

These are all pretty clear cut standards. Either you can tie a bowline and perform rescue breathing, or you

can't. There's nothing in between. We have other standards in this troop that are harder to measure. I'm talking about our standards of behavior, dress and grooming, and Scout-like conduct.

Soon we're going to go to summer camp (or on tour), and these standards will be particularly important then. I'm not saying that they are not important all the time. But in summer camp (or on tour) you're not just John Smith, you're representing this troop and the whole Boy Scouts of America.

I hope you'll all remember that and do your best to be neat and clean, wear your uniform when it's appropriate, and, above all, to conduct yourselves as Scouts should.

That doesn't mean that you have to be a goody two-shoes. There's a time for horseplay, getting mussed up, and teasing. But in this troop, the standard is that when the horseplay and games are over, we look like Scouts, sound like Scouts, and conduct ourselves like by the Scout Law.