RE: [Philmont]: Filling spots

My comments were in concern of availability, not in terms of Philmont's desire to assist. If I understand correctly, PhilStaff is currently constrained annually because of a lack of available and qualified people.

My take on all the threads interweaved into this conversation is that 1) we all want the crew to successfully complete and 2) it would be nice if Philmont plainly documented, in a generally available location, their policies and guidelines as it concerns the youth/quasi-youth/adult relationships. I am quite comfortable with the rather conservative approach I take. I know there is no shortage of adults, over 21, to fill the slots that I require for advisors (3). Some folks may be satisfied with 2 and some (including me the first time) wanted to have 4 advisors. I think I now am at a happy median. As the lead advisor, I am responsible to the parents of the scouts to provide a save environment for their scouts. Our troop's policy is probably conservative considering all of the comments I have read.

I do want to specifically state (and I'm sorry to be so harsh) that I would, as a parent, NEVER allow my teenage son go on a Philmont expedition with a 22 year old lead advisor and 2 or 3 advisors under the age of 21. I don't want to start an argument over that, I would just as soon not allow him to go given that situation.

I know that maturity does not, necessarily, come with chronological age, and that there are 22 year olds with the experience and the maturity to lead a crew, but I also know they are few and far between.

I'm going to give up on this conversation thread, really, and just state for the record that I'm going to continue to use the 3 advisor approach, no more than one of whom are under 21 (and probably none). My 18-20 year old "youths" will tent either together or alone, ditto for showers (why would anyone thing that is different?). I'm going to try bringing full crews of prepared scouts and prepared advisors that are at the adequate level of conditioning to perform at the necessary level (not just survive and finish (another personal lesson learned)).

And I'm going to let the crew chief manage, pretty much, the rest of it. I'll just try taking care of the paperwork and myself.

--
Joe Tavares
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attached mail follows:

Joe, I've had a situation where one of the adults has had to come off the trail and Philmont provided a 'rent-a-ranger' for the remainder of the trek. Philmont has no interest in removing a crew from the trail. In fact, it took a lot of talking to convince them that this adult really needed help (a breathing problem resolved by moving to a lower altitude).
 
Philmont will always work with you to resolve adult leadership issues.
 
Harry

                
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Received on Wed Aug 17 14:08:42 2005