Re: [Philmont]: help

I fully agree with Dr. Bob's approach. It certainly does not have to be
done in a harsh manner. I suspect the vast majority of the parents will
agree that the safety of the crew and individual scouts comes first. Any
scout without proper foot gear and rain gear is an accident waiting to
happen.

This could be a situation that I call "pretending not to know". What are
you pretending not to know? My example is my very first high adventure with
our troop with my son. We went to the Quitico in early June. Cold,
changable weather. We had one scout who would consistantly come with
minimal gear to the pre-trek meetings. And we had one mother who really
wanted to come that we suspected would not be able to handle things if they
got difficult.

Long story short, the trip out was down a lake 16 miles by 2 miles into
35-40 mile an hour winds. VERY difficult. He scout, who plain insisted on
minimal gear and minimal quality gear paid the price. The mom "lost it" is
a rather big way. It is OK to look back on it now, and take to heart the
lessons learned, as every one got out OK. But I will never, and I mean
NEVER, allow a scout or parent go that is border line. They can easily
endanger everyone. What I was pretending not to know was that the scout was
putting himself and the crew in danger and that the mom was not mentally
ready for a challenging trip. We ignored it and frankly got lucky. A
mistake I won't repeat in the future.

Send the letter, send the money and they will either change their stance or
not go. Maybe this is the lesson the scout needs to learn on this trip.

Have a great and safe trip!!

Bill Keller

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Received on Mon Jun 6 19:23:03 2005