[Philmont] Ranger 2008

Matt

I had been thinking of what to respond with. Dr. Bob made it easy for me. I would pretty much second everything he said here. Something I might expand on. Most of your time will be spent with the crew leader and the youth. But don't do that to the point that you ignore the adults (granted there will be a few that you would really prefer to ignore). Make it a point at various times to visit/talk/discuss with them, even if it is just 5 or 10 minutes a few times each day. Most times, they will appreciate that. First timer advisors will be wanting to ask questions (maybe even out of ear shot of their crew) and repeat advisors may just want to BS about the Ranch. Either way, hopefully both of you will learn something in the process and will improve your and your crews experience.

Allen Jones
SM Troop 168
Oklahoma City
  ----- Original Message -----
  From: Dr. Bob Klein
  To: Philmont List Member
  Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2007 6:16 PM
  Subject: [Philmont] Ranger 2008

  Matt - Installment Number II (or) What I as an Advisor would expect
  and/or like to see from my Ranger.

  In the interests of brevity (not something I am often accused of), I
  will not repeat here the comments I made last month. However, I still
  believe that those comments (and everyone else's too) are still a good
  general summary, and I recommend that you read them again (all of them).
    If nothing else, it will show you that Advisor advice varies all over
  the map. Caveat Emptor.

  It will be impossible for you to develop a m.o. that will delight
  everyone - it could hardly be otherwise when your Crews will vary from
  highly experienced and barely needing a Ranger at all, to utterly
  clueless, dysfunctional, and in actuality needing a Ranger escort for
  most if not their entire trek (if such a thing was allowed). [Your
  Training Rangers will be happy to relay all the horror stories you can
  stand.] Understand that variance, and don't go nuts trying to be all
  things to all people. Fortunately most of your Crews will be between
  those two extremes, in your classic bell pattern distribution.

  You asked for what worked. You didn't ask for what didn't work, and in
  many ways that is equally or more instructive. Here are some comments
  from my personal point of view, both positive and negative. I'm sure
  others will chime in. Remember that these are my personal opinions, not
  a writ from God, offered in the spirit of helpful advice.

  1) Be quick in getting to the Welcome Center when called. If you're
  Johnny on the Spot, you'll make a good impression on everyone. Flip
  side from an Advisor's viewpoint, it is simply infuriating to get up at
  3:30 am "somewhere in Colorado", drive 4 or 5 hours to get to Philmont
  "early" (by 8:30 or 9:00 am), and then stand around for an hour or more
  waiting for the Ranger to show up. Yes, this has happened to me (our
  wait one year was 90 minutes, and the Welcome Center Staff would not
  even allow us to move our gear to our tents, for reasons that still
  mystify me). We didn't even get an apology or an explanation when the
  Rangers did finally show up. Naturally, we were then behind the
  timeline all day long, and also got a late bus the next day "because we
  were late" to Trek Planning. I was lucky I passed the blood pressure
  check that day.

  2) Spend a Couple of Minutes with the Advisors at the Welcome Center.
  Some Rangers go a little overboard with the brusque
  "Nice-to-meet-you-Where's-your-Crew-Chief?" routine. Yes, I understand
  that's what you're taught. Take it under advisement. Most of the
  Advisors are just as excited to be at Philmont as their Scouts. The old
  aphorism that "You Never Get a Second Chance to Make a First Impression"
  is damn good advice here. Three or four or five minutes chatting
  everyone up, including the Advisors, will go a long way in bonding with
  your Crew; it's time well spent. You don't need to have your Advisors
  pissed off at you 10 seconds after you meet them - and if they are,
  you're already in a hole with the entire Crew before you even learn the
  Crew Chief's name.

  3) Know the Basecamp Circus Cold. If you are able to guide your Crew
  quickly and efficiently through the various Day I chokepoints, again you
  will make a very favorable impression. On the flip side, experienced
  Advisors in particular will quickly become unhappy if you're insisting
  on doing scutwork while lines are building up everywhere - especially if
  they got up at oh-dark-thirty and busted hump getting to Philmont to
  avoid that very scenario. Even novice Advisors will recognize that a
  lot of hurry-up-and-wait could have been avoided if you were a little
  more adept at picking your way through the maze, and not just
  methodically going through the checkoff list. Get good at the paper chase.

  4) Quickly Recognize Experienced/Well Trained Crews, and modify the
  S.O.P. accordingly. Probably a third of your Crews are already
  heavy-duty backcountry campers. Probably half of that subgroup are
  already Philmont trained, and have at least a few members (Advisors,
  Crew Chiefs, and Scouts) that have been to Philmont before (they're the
  ones that did the training). Too many Rangers see experience in their
  assigned Crews, and inwardly groan because they've been repeatedly told
  "what a royal pain in the ass repeat Advisors and Scouts are to deal
  with." Nice insult to those Advisors' and Scouts' previous Rangers,
  huh? The real problem is that these Rangers are incapable of modifying
  to suit, and insist on pounding "the way we do things" over everyones'
  heads. If you're a college sophomore taking Organic Chemistry, you
  don't need to be forced to take the High School sophomore year
  Introduction to Science Class - and if you were, you'd resent it. Same
  here. Ask the Crew some questions - ever been to Philmont before?
  When? How about other BSA backpacking treks? Where? When? How many
  shakedowns did you do? Where? Tough events, huh? Anyone teach you the
  Philmont ways of camping? Got all your own Crew gear? Got a list of
  Crew gear and personal gear that everyone in the Crew used? Can I see
  it? Is this how everyone is packed? In 10 minutes discussion you'll
  have a pretty good sense of how prepared - or unprepared - this Crew is,
  and you can rationally proceed from there. Half the Crews will need the
  full Monty. Some less, and a few significantly less. If a Crew already
  knows how to run, don't force them to learn how to walk - instead,
  emphasize the new protocols and changes that Philmont has implemented
  since their last Philmont experience.

  5) Support Trek Augmentation(s). Most Crews only want to do their trek,
  or want to make changes that can't be approved (like switching
  campsites). Nothing you can do about that. But a few of us want to go
  the extra mile, do extra programs, longer trails, more peaks, whatever.
    This past year, my Crew 2 did Trek 32 straight up. My Crew 1 (the
  Crew I was in) did Trek 32 plus an extra 25 miles. When a Crew wants to
  do things like this, unless they're obviously inept, take an interest,
  look over their plans, offer support, and make suggestions. You know
  the Ranch as well as anyone, and your advice and counsel will be well
  valued.

  6) Be Early for All Other Appointments. Vis #1 above. If you make
  appointments to meet for meals, for Campfires, for photos, whatever, be
  sure to be there a little early - not late. It is amazing how often
  some of my Rangers (virtually all of whom were damn good, by the way)
  would set up an appointment, get a blood oath sworn by the Crew Chief to
  be there on time, and then they'd be 10, 15, 20 minutes late. Grrrrrr!

  7) On the trail, if the Crew wants to show you how they do things,
  always accept. Let them do their thing, and if nothing violates
  Philmont policy or common sense, let it ride - especially if they're
  obviously proficient at it. Once they're done, offer suggestions,
  explain and (where appropriate) demo the Philmont methods, discuss
  differences and advantages. Explain is always better than Dictate. And
  realize that if you dictate for no good reason other than "because I
  said so", the Crew will happily do whatever they feel like the second
  you leave for Basecamp. Don't order, convince.

  8) Before you leave a Crew, find out if there's any possibility of
  meeting up on the trail. It is amazing how much a Ranger visiting his
  Crew in the back country, even for just 5 minutes, will brighten up a
  Crew. If not, see if there's any way to meet them coming down off the
  Tooth, or once they're back in Basecamp. If you don't have another Crew
  assigned, join them for dinner, whether at the cafeteria or at Simple
  Simons, wherever. Get some photos taken. Exchange email addresses.
  Make everyone sorry to see you walk away for the last time.

  The last comment I will make here is that there's another group that
  should be offering comments, and that's some of the former Rangers on
  this List-Serve. You guys also know what makes for a good Ranger; let's
  hear it. If you're wary of exposing trade secrets, let Matt know what
  you think, off-line.

  - Dr. Bob

  Matt B. wrote:
> Dr. Bob,
>
> Please forgive my delay in responding but I have been waiting on a
> package from Philmont which arrived today with some information (staff
> guide, contracts, specific duties, etc.) I wanted to have more
> information from Philmont before I asked any other questions.
>
> Thank you very much for providing me with a great deal of information
> for the summer. It seems that most people I have talked to have told me
> to go out and get to know the crew which seems to resolve many issues.
> I must confess that I have a bit more experience than I may have
> suggested in my first message, did Rayado in 2006 but wanted to hear
> advice that would not be colored with the assumption of experience, I am
> sure you can understand how the responses might have differed.
>
> If I may ask for some specific advice from an Advisor, what have you
> seen from staffers in the past that has WORKED and that has made your
> trek better for the youth and adults? I am a bit worried about going up
> to Philmont from sea level and then leaving on my training trek, any
> tips for this? On my last trek, I got very sick the first week because
> of the elevation which is not something that I want to experience with a
> crew looking up to me to set the example. The last thing, for now, I am
> looking at making a list of gear to acquire for this summer (working in
> a gear store is a big plus in this area) but is there anything that you
> could reccomend to make life eaiser in Base and on the Trail?
>
> Thank you for your advice and I hope to hear from you soon.
>
> Matt B.

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As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
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Received on Wed Dec 12 19:29:12 2007