From: Dr. Bob Klein (drbob@troop111.org)
Date: Thu Mar 28 2002 - 16:30:54 CST
According to the Philmont authorities (e.g., Doug Palmer and Mark
Andersen), "most" Crews get their #1 or #2 selection. Asked to define
"most", they will state "about 85%".
There are two issues to be concerned with. First, certain treks are
considerably more popular than others. That is, they have a combination
of difficulty level, geographical features, and programs, that are
appealing to most Scouts. Trek 24 is an example of such a trek, and you
have seen all the positive press that has gotten over the past three
weeks. So, if you're late submitting your postcard, and your Scouts
have picked highly popular treks, you may not get one of your top
choices.
Issue two is a specialized problem related to Issue one. Some Councils
send large contingents all on the same day (by large I mean 16 to 20
Crews all arriving on the same day as part of a mega-Contingent). In
many of these cases, the Contingent leader is a savvy old Philmont
veteran who knows how the system works and gets all his Crews' choices
lined up well in advance of the TREKS Books arrivals, based on last
year's TREKS Books. This person then either has Philmont mail the
package direct to his house, or camps out at his Council on the expected
arrival date(s) awaiting the packets. Then he just checks out the Book
to make sure there were no major changes in the treks, fills out all the
cards, and Express mails them back to the Ranch. Thus, if your arrival
day has such a Council Contingent arriving, you can see how many of the
most popular treks on that specific day can be all reserved almost
immediately by a single Council.
Ready to despair? Don't. Here's the up side. First, there aren't all
that many mega-Contingents out there, and most of those don't follow the
above protocol in selecting treks.
Second, people who subscribe to this list server are in fact only a
minority of all those going to Philmont. Everyone here well knows the
importance of speed in returning the cards if you're REALLY focused on
getting your #1 choice. However, across the country, there is nowhere
near the sense of (almost desperate!) urgency that you can sense here.
The reality is most of the Crews make their selections at a much more
relaxed pace.
Third, there are nearly twice as many trek slots as arriving Crews every
day. Each itinerary can take 2 Crews - so with 35 treks to choose from,
that's 70 slots. Furthermore, Philmont will occasionally allow more
than 2 Crews on a specific trek (for example, we had 3 sister Crews in
1995 on the trek that was quite similar to the current Trek 24). So,
there may be even more than 70 slots available per day. Now, each day,
between 35 and 40 Crews arrive at Philmont - so you can see there are
plenty of slots to go around. This is why most people get their 1st or
2nd choices. My guess is that the only people who don't get one of
their top choices are the ones who are picking popular treks and turning
their cards in "way late" - like late April/early May.
Finally, you have seen it here 50 times in the last month, and it bears
repeating - there really are no bad treks at Philmont. That is
something you definitely need to inculcate in your Scouts and fellow
Advisors; if it even happens, there is absolutely no need or sense in
being "disappointed" because you only got your 4th or 5th choice - that
still beats 30 or 31 other treks, right? As the commercials say:
"Attitude is Everything". With the proper attitude, you will have a
wonderful trek, no matter what trek that might be.
- Dr. Bob Klein, SM-111, Arlington, VA
Karl_Hebert@SIND.COM wrote:
>
> We have still not received our PEAKS package and itinerary selection cards from
> Philmont. We called them and they are sending another one. With many of you on
> the board having already received confirmation on your trek selection, how
> likely is it at this point that we will get any of our top choices?
>
> Karl Hebert - Troop 39, Cumming, GA
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