From: Donald S. Roberts (don@hummellawfirm.com)
Date: Tue Jul 16 2002 - 16:56:18 CDT
Up to now, I've been discussing the programs for family members (at least
that *my* family members participated in) and the overall camp. It's a
little hard to discuss the classes since I went to a class that was somewhat
unusual. I was in the James West Fellowship class, which is focused more on
showing the members what scouting does with the money than on lecture. For
the week I was there, I think my entire time in class amounted to no more
than a total of 3.5 hours, and never more than 1:15 in one day. There were
classes that went both morning and afternoon sessions, a couple that did a
morning session on Wednesday (family day) and one that went a full day
Wednesday. Although the class was undoubtedly valuable, that may be more
intense than mose PTC candidates want to commit to. You should probably try
to contact the faculty member for your desired class if that is an issue.
We had wonderful weather the whole week, with rain only on Sunday. Yet the
only time I saw classes moving outdoors was on Friday morning. I don't
understand that, unless there was a lot of need for the media for
presentations such as the white boards and projectors. Obviously the
"wonderful" is subjective, since no rain in a drought is not good.
The faculty in my class, and the other faculty I spoke with were great.
They had a great attitude and really seemed to enjoy teaching the classes.
Everyone I talked to that attended classes said they got a lot out of them.
Since I am an estate planning attorney, I didn't really expect to get much
out of my classes, but even I felt a lot of information was conveyed in that
short amount of lecture.
Those who attend the classes still (for the most part) get Wednesday off to
"do Philmont" and many hiked the Urraca trail. A lot of people drove into
Cimmarron or Raton on the off day. Everyone can take advantage of the
evening activities such as movie night, western night, the Koshare dancers
(too bad they can't be there every week), cobbler nights at the tent cities,
closing campfire, etc.
There is plenty of time between sessions for a walk over to TOTT or the
Philmont Museum, or just walking around CHQ. There is also lots of time for
tours of VIlla Philmonte (open house on Monday evening, too). Just talking
to other folks was quite enjoyable (the kids didn't care for that too much).
Brian (the guy in charge of PTC) was all over the place during the week, so
you had someone in a decision making position nearby for any issues that
come up. The scheduling was smooth and well put together, and there were no
problems keeping things within time bounds. I wasn't aware of anyone having
a problem picking up their kids.
Our class went out and about every afternoon. We went to Hunters Lodge, T
Rex, Pueblito, Ponil (to survey the fire damage), went to see the bison,
toured CHQ with Doug (who is in charge of CHQ), went to Rayado for an
evening BBQ of Bison steaks with Keith Calloway, the guy in charge of all
the BSA high adventure camps. We drove all over the north country in
Philmont Suburbans, surveying the fire damage and visiting the northern
staffed camps. Our faculty person, Ben Stahmann, had a "50 miler award"
specially designed for us. It looks like the 50 miler afoot afloat award,
but instead says "afoot aboard" and has an image of a Suburban. You could
say it is an official national award. We had a special tour of Villa
Philmonte.
We were told that PTC attendance entitles us to wear the bull on our
shoulders, and the Philmont back patch on our jackets. We just don't get
the arrowhead.
If you have to take a class, this was definitely the way to do it.
One of the best things about being in the classes is that we did not have to
do skits at the closing campfire :-).
Anyway, I would suspect the experience for each class was highly individual
and I cannot presume to generalize the class experience. As West Fellows,
we had a rather unique experience touring the ranch that is not available to
the other classes.
I definitely will go again, though I may have to wait a bit for sufficient
vacation. This is an experience that can be repeated with little loss of
enjoyment. It is easy to understand why people keep going back repeatedly.
Regards
Don
Donald S. Roberts
Law Offices of Philip L. Hummel, IV
500 N. State College Blvd., Suite 1200
Orange, CA 92868
714-978-6771 Fax: 714-634-3869
don@hummellawfirm.com
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