[Philmont]: council contingent vs. unit lottery

Our council does not send a contingent every year but sends one more than every other year. Although I have not taken a crew of youth to the Ranch, I vigorously promote the council contingent within our troop. The earlier, the better.

I find some problems with the boys in making a committment. Often, at the Monday night meeting, some have not yet committed to the Friday night camping trip. I don't want those Scouts who are willing to make the committment to Philmont held back by others in the Troop too lazy to step up in a timely manner.. That's the beauty of the council contingent.

If only two or three boys step up, so be it. If twelve sign up, great (we usually have 4-6). If one or more adults in the troop step up or if none step up this year, so be it. If you get your application in to council on time, great. If you're late, you go on the waiting list. So be it. However, if 12 or 15 youth sign up (on time) and multiple adults, good for them! We have also networked with nearby councils if ours has a waiting list and others have vacancies.

I do believe that our boys and our adults, as well as our parents, would feel much better if they were grouped, as much as possible, into the same crew. This makes communication and shakedowns so much easier, geographically as well as a comfort zone. I think this factor outweighs the fear of clique formation. After all, if you are aware of the potential for clique formation early on, it can be dealt with. Those who take the time to read Cooper Wright's guide and elect a crew leader only after the whole crew gets to know each other can then educate that crew leader to minimize any problems.

You can also take the approach adopted by William Cass in his book, Return to the Summit of Scouting (available at Tooth of Time Traders online, or can be ordered at Barnes and Noble or any major bookseller-HIGHLY RECOMMENDED to get your Scouting juices flowing for your upcoming trip to the Ranch). Faced with a crew that was made up of Scouts from two troops (All of the other crews from Chester County Council were of the one-troop variety), Cass had two crew leaders, one for the first half of the trek and one for the second, and made sure that the duty roster had "buddies" of one from each troop.

After the recruitment period, although I am not going on the trek, I do everything I can to assist with shakedowns, equipment purchase decisions, etc. (and continuous promotion), whether or not my boys are going with an advisor from our troop, or with a Scouter they don't know (yet).

As a veteran of three Council contingents in my youth (1969 Jamboree, 1970 &1972 Philmont), I think the fear of clique formation is overrated. As an adult, my 2001 and 2003 Autumn Adventure expeditions matched Scouters from my Southern New Jersey council with Scouters from Cascade Pacific Council in Oregon (brought together with the assistance of this list). The Autumn Adventure participants remain friends to this day. ( My crews do actual seven day treks in September, rather than just set up a backcountry camp and enjoy the beauty that is Philmont in the fall. I highly recommend this program as well. You can try to duplicate the expedition experience of the summer, as I do, or take it easy- even take it very, very easy. You can always recharge your Scouting batteries at the Ranch).

For those who ask "what has Council done for my troop lately?", one answer is clearly the existence of Council provisional Philmont expeditions.

Bill Sheehan, ASM
Troop 55, Pitman, N.J.
Philmont '70,'72, Autumn Adventure '01,'03,'05 (and, hopefully '06)

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Received on Thu Nov 17 14:43:33 2005