The Phil-list Mar_2008: [philmont] Program Activities

From: Larry Taylor <Larry.Taylor@co.travis.tx.us>
Date: Mon Mar 03 2008 - 09:18:10 CST

Last year, was my first Philmont trek. Someone thought that I would be a good advisor.
So when we were chosing the trek I polled each scout with these questions.
What are you top 5 favorite activities? ( gave them a list of all the activities)
Must you climb the tooth of time?
Must you climb Baldy?
Do you want to use a burrow?

The compiled answers to these questions narrowed down our choices of treks to 5
Nothern treks that the Scouts dicussed and ranked at a crew meeting and then I sent in our preference card.

Suppose that their are many ways to do things
from a left-handed Bear,
Sam Taylor Troop89, Austin Texas

Prudence, Justice, Fortitude, Temperance

>>> On 02-Mar-08 at 10:58 PM, in message <MDAEMON-F200803022259.AA5946917pd50005512848@troop47.com>, GEORGE TAYLOR <gmtaylor@prodigy.net> 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

Dave Smith <dave-s@pacbell.net> wrote:

We did trek #11 in 2005 (it was called Trek #6 then). After setting up
camp in Vaca and getting ranger training, I highly recommend hiking over
to Harlan to do the Burro Racing. Our ranger suggested it, the scouts
didn't really want to, but the adults gently coerced the scouts into
going (scout led - within guidelines). Boy were the scouts happy they
went. It was no more than a mile hike, and as the scouts rounded the
corner and saw what was happening, they broke into a run to join in the
fun. They had time for three races, and had a blast.

It was hot the first 2-3 days - I sweated a lot. Then, the morning at
Comanche Peak Camp, it was freezing cold. Be prepared for a range of
temperatures.

Good luck,
Dave Smith
Troop 32
Santa Rosa, CA

>OK I'll break the ice. We had a crew meeting last week and had the boys
>review, assess, vote on their top 5 programs they wanted to do then
>selected what mountains they wanted to climb. Using Philsearch they
>then figured out which treks would most suit their requirements. Having
>said this, any comments or recommendations out there on Treks 4, 11, and 13?
>
>David Barkdull
>Philmont 08-0610
>
>
>
>

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Received on Mon Mar 3 09:23:01 2008

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