[philmont] Philmont 2008

First off, I have no inside information as far as the lottery is concerned,
but this may be significant in that I am my council's HA Chair and I can
tell you that there is no information made available to me that you haven't
already seen. I can say having been on this list for many years now that
this is one of many annual topics. I can also share some facts:
  a.. The process is better now than ever, every year sees refinement, '04
was the last year of the Phone lottery - a process that was so daunting that
many never applied, further those with access to technology like autodialers
had a leg up. The on-line process has evened the playing field. Point being
... it will be different next year as the ranch's administration continues
to fine tune the process.

  b.. This year saw the introduction of a bias towards crews that were
unsuccessful in past years ... I have no insight to the algorithm used but I
can speculate that the first year of data would be '05 as it was the first
year of on-line registration ... I can't imagine that previous years data
was entered.

  c.. Hundreds of crews that get reservations will not use them. My troop
was number 280 something in '06 and got offered two crews in February ... we
passed.

  d.. Philmont is very disciplined with councils ... getting more crews than
you have had historically is for all practical purposes is impossible ...
the stated reason being that there is a high demand for crews both from
units and councils. Councils are encouraged to have whole units used the
lottery. There are councils with strong HA programs and councils that have
non-existent programs ... I think the blend is here to stay.

  e.. One problem that unit crews create that council crews avoid are light
crews ... philmont's capacity is really crew based more than individual
based ... a crew of 7 consumes the same resources (campsites, rangers,
program) as one of 12. Units reserve crews and often go light, councils
reserve heads and are allocated crews based on that number so they tend to
be fuller. Perhaps units should be held to the same standard.

  f.. It is true that council contingents are more predictable from an
availability perspective but demand can fluctuate greatly year over year ...
as recently as 2003 we turned away literally 100, last year everybody that
signed up went ... that being the goal ... serve all that wish to be served.

  g.. 2010 will be a great year to go to Philmont ... everybody else will be
a Fort A P Hill doing the Jambo thing (BTDTCIO)

  h.. Often times adjacent councils will pool resources folks to fill out
crews and eliminate waiting lists ... a good thing I think.
Having just read Dr Bobs comments I had to laugh out loud. I've apparently
gone over to the dark side having assumed this role this year ... a veteran
of both unit and council trips to the ranch. That said I have to agree that
I prefer to do it my way than let somebody else be my cruise director and
his top five are valid points that we all need to resist ... either as unit
or council advisors ... I'll add one more - "its about the participants"
all of it, every bit of it. period.
A) Risk-adverse (and usually boring) in their pre-trek activities.
B) Prone to cronyism on leader selections.
C) Penny-pinching - yet making quite sure that the Council coffers get a
serious piece of the action for often trivial "administrative" functions.
D) Spineless when dealing with "difficult" Adults/Scouts, or with
Adults/Scouts who are clearly not physically, mentally, or emotionally ready
for Philmont ("If they paid in full, they're obviously fully qualified").
E) Indifferent to Advisor concerns about TREKS book timeliness.

YIS
Jim
HA ASM Troop 6
HA Chair Chester County Council
www.troop6bsa.org?cmd=philmont
PSR '74(16) '04(4) '06(26)
IWTGBTP
www.troop6bsa.org?cmd=philsearch

  -----Original Message-----
  From: philmont@troop47.com [mailto:philmont@troop47.com]On Behalf Of Rice
Brewer
  Sent: Wednesday, December 06, 2006 10:44 AM
  To: philmont List Member
  Subject: [philmont] Philmont 2008

  I suspect that the council contingent crew will become THE way to go to
Philmont in the future. No, I do not have "inside information" to that
effect but I can see it coming someday.

  Rice Brewer
  Fort Smith, AR

  Kevin Mineart wrote:

    We did the same thing, my troop has 10 signed up to go with the council
including 2 adults, we're all in the same crew with one of my 2005 Jamboree
Troop members and his father (and fellow volunteer) from the opposite end of
the council going along to fill out the crew. I'm really looking forward to
getting back to Philmont.

    Our council routinely sends a crew or 2 to Philmont every year but this
year we had 3 crews made up from basically 3 troops in the council with a
few fill ins. It's getting tougher to get to Philmont and the council
contingent route will get far more popular for those that don't manage to
get a unit based crew before age out becomes eminent.

    Kevin Mineart

     ...

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Received on Wed Dec 6 17:59:58 2006