[Philmont]: Tips on planning for '06 /and/ Basic Question

Ched Hudson you wrote:
>thinking about the upcoming 2006 reservation lottery. ...
>How do other units manage this process? Do you ask for commitments before
>the lottery? Deposits? What do you do when a scout's plans or interest
>change? For that matter, what is Philmont's usual payment schedule? (We
>made six bi-monthly payments to our council beginning last June.) Does
>Philmont allow any changes in crew number before the first payment is due?

and Mark Johnson asked about managing their crew reservation, including
adding additional members.

We prepare for these high adventure reservation processes by communicating
to the troop, about the potential trip, and assessing the level of
interest, starting several months in advance of reservation date. By the
time of the call-in (or lottery) we have evaluated the pool of eligible
participants and the replies to our interest survey. Our communications
have included full-blown informational programs for the Scouts and their
parents. We want to apply for enough spaces to serve and accurate number
interested participants.
But, we hope to not reserve more crews than we can use. By collecting
"informed" (but non-binding) commitments and then evaluating the results we
have been pretty successful.
Sea Base is more complicated than Philmont because of multiple program
offerings. We had Scouts who wanted to go to four different programs. We
ended up sending five crews to two different bases...

We do not collect deposits until a reservation is secured. We plan our
reservation so that a few people wind up on a waiting list. Experience has
shown that there will definitely be drop-outs. The deposits are taken on a
"first come" basis and this locks your spot on the "go" list or "waiting"
list. That method seems to speed the deposits and usually helps sort out
who was really interested. BTW - the deposit matches the adventure base's
first payment (currently $50 to $100). Deposits are generally not refundable.

When paying the fee's to an adventure base we verify their policy on
minimum crew size and their policy for adding members (up to the maximum
size). The first payment is when you "lock in" your (minimum) crew size.
Our experience has been that the policy, at Sea Base and Philmont, is that
you may lose some money if you drop members and that you can add members
without penalty. Therefore - WE ALWAYS PAY FOR THE MINIMUM CREW SIZE - even
though we know we have more people who will make the trip.
* we do not like this method of operation, but feel that the refund policy
forces the need to manage our funds in this way.
As recently as June (2004) the Philmont policy allows for payment, of the
full fees for the additional members, during the check-in process.
BTW - We have always maintained ongoing communications with the base so
that they know the number of people we are actually bringing, so that they
are not caught off guard and unprepared for the extra numbers. Not only did
we let the registrar know we were bringing extra people, via phone, we also
noted this on the transportation card that is sent to in May.

* On three different trips we had late dropouts (due to medical situations)
and have, on one occasion, had one or two less participants than originally
expected. Our method allowed us to refund some money without the extra work
of trying to get a refund from the adventure base. * Most bases will give
refunds for legitimate dropouts - please contact the base for details.

The 2006 trek fee is $515. The Philmont payment schedule, if the same as
current, will be -
January 2005 - deposit (was $50 for 2004 trek)
October 2005 - $232.50
March 2006 - $232.50 (final payment)

After determining a trip budget we start taking monthly payments - in this
case we would want to start in the summer of 2005. If a Scout drops early
enough, and a replacement is available, they can get most of their money
back. If someone drops too late we will not take and untrained replacement
and will only refund money that we are able to recover. So - we expect that
a Scout and his family have a pretty firm gage on their commitment level,
because there is the prospect of losing some money. So far, we have
exhausted the waiting list, due to (early) drop-outs, and have not left an
interested Scout at home.

YMMV

IWTGBTP,
Rick Neff
Scoutmaster, Troop 31
State College, Pa.
Hopeful entrant in the lottery for 2006 treks!

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Received on Sun Aug 8 19:40:50 2004