[philmont] Program Activities

If I may be so bold, what did they want to do instead?

GEORGE TAYLOR wrote:
> The discussion of the 2008 itineraries brings to mind an issue that we
> encountered last summer on our Trek. We really didn't discuss with the
> boys in advance the program aspects of the Philmont treks, other than to
> note one or two options in various itineraries. The boys did not have
> much interest in picking treks but we finally settled on a strenuous
> trek, complete with burros (#27) that turned out to be great for us.
> Even the burros (both of them) were cooperative and helpful.
>
> Our failure to discuss program aspects of Philmont became something of
> an issue during our Trek as we had a small minority of boys who didn't
> want to do ANY program activities. It started with reluctance to hike
> down from Sioux Camp for the cantina at Ponil, and became more
> pronounced at Pueblano when half of the boys would not participate in
> the logger activities there. By the time we got to Head of Dean, there
> was heated debate over whether to participate in the challenge course.
> (We opted not to, much to the displeasure of the Head of Dean staff.)
>
> We hear a lot about boy-led activities, and ultimately all our decisions
> were made by the consensus of the boys, but it took considerable
> discussion during our trek to work out the question of which activities
> to participate in. The process itself was a good one for the boys and
> taught them a lot about leadership and the decision-making process. On
> balance, we did a fair amount of program activities and have no regrets
> about our trek BUT, on reflection, I wish we had talked more about the
> program activities in advance of the trek. Had we spent an intense
> session going through the map step-by-step and talking about the
> programs, that would have given us a better point of reference when we
> were on our Trek. We could have said, "remember, we decided . . . ."
> rather than engaging in the discussion for the first time. As an adult
> adviser, I found myself arguing strenuously that the boys should
> participate in all the program they could because there would not be
> returning to the Ranch. My comments were probably not respectful of
> the boy-led troop principle.
>
> SO, if there is something I would add to the discussion, it would be my
> recommendation to talk about your specific trek a lot in advance,
> particularly the program aspects, so that when you are out on the trail,
> you will have a pre-determined sense of what the boys expect to
> experience, and you can spend your mental energy soaking up the beauty
> of the ranch rather than discussing the day's activities.
>
> Yours in Scouting,
>
> George Taylor
>

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Received on Mon Mar 3 05:40:32 2008