From: Dr. Bob Klein (drbob@troop111.org)
Date: Thu Nov 14 2002 - 17:33:27 CST
Be careful, I'm about to bare (some of) my soul.
As a 10 time attendee (2 x Scout, 8 x Advisor), I will try to make the
case for the defense.
The first and perhaps most important point in defense of Repeat Advisors
is this list server itself (and bowline.org previously). Do you like
what you get here? Do you find it valuable? Instructive? Funny?
Infuriating?
The point being, the guts of the sage advice provided on this forum is
from a rather small circle of highly experienced Philmont Advisors. How
legitimate would my comments, or those of Coop, or Wally, or Calvin, or
Roy, or Al, or any of a dozen others be, if we had just gone once or
twice, and our experiences were 10, 15, 20, or more years out of date?
Would Coop and Wally's Philmont Guide even exist? Would any of us
veterans even be members of this forum? - speaking quite frankly, I
strongly doubt if I would be (other than generic camping advice, what
could I offer? - and other than generic camping advice, what would I
gain?) In point of fact, I doubt if this list-server would even exist
without the core veterans answering (well or not) every question and
issue that comes down the pike. We offer a desperately needed service
that Philmont itself either cannot, will not, or prefers not, to
provide. Could it be that they prefer to leave it to us to provide the
hard-learned lessons??? I submit that they do.
We have each of us seen many Crews in the back-country over the years
that were so utterly clueless it seemed a miracle they made it back to
Basecamp alive - but we have also seen many more who got the advice they
needed (most from here), and excelled. How many more of the former
would exist if all that had to go on is the hilariously inadequate and
often substandard advice offered in the Philmont literature or in "The
Right Stuff"? Why is there such a market - and such praise - for Coop
and Wally's Guide?
And it doesn't end just here either. I answer hundreds of inquiries
off-line every year. Some found me by doing a net search, others
through my diaries on Selden's website - but most found me right here.
I know the other veterans on this list are similarly inundated off-line.
People don't want "The Right Stuff", they want "The Real Story". This
list-server is an invaluable resource, and IMNSHO a very large part of
what makes it so are the Repeat Advisors.
Now on to the harder question - Why do I keep returning to Philmont?
Well, that is an interesting question, and it has (I suspect) a more
complex answer than one might guess. When I went my first and second
times as an Advisor, it was - I admit it - for me. I remembered
Philmont as being the pinnacle of my own boyhood Scouting career, and I
wanted to return for fairly selfish reasons - that being, I wanted to
have a great time, again. And I was still immature enough to think that
wearing a vest adorned with a dozen or more Arrowheads - like some
grizzled Advisors I had seen when I was a boy - would prove what a tough
stud I really was (yawn....) Yes, I wanted my Scouts to have a good
time, too - but I confess it was as much for me as for them.
There it is - the raw, brutally honest Dr. Bob. I hope you don't need a
Maalox.
But as the years wore on, it got to be less and less about me, and more
and eventually much more about the Scouts. I started noticing some VERY
IMPORTANT things - First, nearly all the Scouts that went to Philmont
with me stuck with the program, only age-graduating out. Second, most
of them also made Eagle too. [These first two points, by the way,
included Scouts from neighboring Troops that went to Philmont with me.]
Third, my Philmont Scouts were those that also attended most of the
Troop's other high adventures too, whether Sea Base, Maine, Canada,
Wyoming (Wind River Range), Virgin Islands, and even our more "tame"
adventures like biking 200 miles on the C&O Canal towpath, or canoeing
90 miles of the Susquehanna River. The preliminary high adventures gave
them the confidence to tackle Philmont, and Philmont gave them the
confidence to tackle the even tougher stuff (like the Wind Rivers in
2001, and Switzerland this coming summer). Fourth, my Philmont Scouts
are my most legitimate instructors, looked up to and paid attention to
by all my younger Scouts - just a critically vital aspect to running a
Scouting program. Fifth - just like me - virtually all of my Scouts who
attended Philmont listed it as their Number 1 most important,
life-altering experience in Scouts when we held our Scoutmasters'
Conferences for Eagle. And Sixth and maybe most interesting, when I
talked with dozens of former Troop members when I did my Troop's 50th
Anniversary historical searches in 1989-90, the number one thing THEY
recalled from their distantly past (up to 40 years previous) Scouting
careers was - what else? - Philmont. Troop 111 Scouts were graduating
from Philmont when I was graduating from diapers. That's a hell of a
legacy.
In short, Philmont has traditionally been, and still remains, an
integral part of my Troop's operations. For us, it's just not
"something different to do" - it's a critical component. Yes, we do
plenty of other high adventures (Switzerland will be my 25th, and we are
also doing two other mini-high adventures in 2003), but Philmont is
simply the most important. This is why we try to go every other year -
and is also why I am willing to put up with the mickey-mouse and added
expense and try to sign up with the Council contingents on those years
that we lose out on the lottery (as we just did for 2004; the Titanic
will sail into New York harbor before we get off the waiting list).
Do I feel bad for other Units who try and fail to get in? Of course. I
feel bad for everyone who can't go (especially including ourselves!) -
but I don't feel at all guilty for taking care of business for my Troop,
and my Scouts. Delivering the program is a major part of my job as
Scoutmaster, and I don't apologize for doing so to the best of my
abilities. Plus, as some of you will recall, I have already proposed
here and forwarded several times to Philmont my own lottery system,
which I personally believe is even more fair than Calvin's, and would
also severely hurt my Troop's chances of going biannually. Well,
Philmont turned it down, there's a big surprise, and I will therefore
continue to play with the hand that's being dealt. The deck may be
stacked, but it's the only game in town.
The answer, as has been hashed out innumerable times here, on
bowline.org, philmont.com, and elsewhere, is another Philmont, or even
two or three. The problem is that there's only one Philmont, and way
too much demand for it. The best lottery in the world isn't going to
change that simple reality. You would think that the BSA would get
their act together on this, but the odd rumor here and there that
they're considering a second "Philmont" never pans out, and I suspect
I'll be dead and buried before it ever happens - if ever. It is
interesting that so much time, effort, and money is expended on
developing Venturing, when each additional "Philmont" would likely
guarantee another 20,000 "lifer" Senior Scouts every year, basically
forever. But that's another post, for another forum. And I have a
campout prep session in 30 minutes, and Roundtable in an hour and a half....
- Dr. Bob Klein, SM-111, Arlington, VA
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