[Philmont]: RE: Contingent Structure, etc.

RE Crew Structure

Don't make it too hard.

Three of our 4 crews in 2004 (I was Contingent Advisor) were exclusively
from one troop/crew or 80% same troop. My crew was exclusively from our
troop and crew. Our one "mixed" crew was made up of excellent
individuals who blended seamlessly and had a marvelous trek experience.
Of course, I attribute that to my prowess as Contingent
Advisor.......THAT WAS SARCASM!

Actually, Kirk, you are doing the most important thing that a Contingent
Advisor does, i.e. assessing and evaluating the entire group and trying
to put together teams to ensure the experience is great for all. I just
wouldn't try to hard to resist the natural impulses of people to be with
other people that they know and are comfortable with. As others have
noted, if this speeds the "Forming" and "Norming" stages, more's the
better. IMHO, pick the best Scouters to be your Crew Advisors and let
them run with it. DELEGATE, then hold them accountable for training,
recruiting, team building, etc. You set the standards, along with them,
then hold them responsible for execution. Who will know better if their
crew is having problems? Not you, in all likelihood. Coming from the
same troop/crew also makes the logistics of training and prep activities
easier.

The bottom line is that the youth enjoy the experience. IMHAWIO, the
idea behind Philmont is NOT to learn "group dynamics" or anything like
that. If a crew is familiar with each other, knows strengths and
weaknesses, has developed SOPs, etc., then why would you want to
fragment that cohesiveness? Moreover, if they have been together coming
up in Scouting, Philmont will become a capstone to that experience as
well as a foundation for their future relationship.

RE Contingent patches

I doubt you'd be able to sell enough to "make much money", but we did a
custom patch for our contingent in 2004. I got a lot of favorable
comments on it, and our decision was to do 2 CSPs per contingent member
and allow them to order as many as they wanted, and they could do what
they wanted with the rest. Our intent was to make it "Exclusive" and
"Rare", not to make money. Follow the link below to the cover of my
journal which has my design. The journal is on our troop website. If
anyone likes it and wants to use the basic design, knock yourself out.
If not, then "Nyaah" to you.

http://bsatroop506.org/pdf/PhilmontJournal2004.pdf

Dave Parmly
GSMC High Adventure Chair
Or is it Adventure in a High Chair?
Knoxville, TN

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Received on Thu Nov 17 08:46:32 2005