RE: [Philmont]: Philmont Council contingents [opposing views]

> From: j.tavares@comcast.net
> If there were 2 things Philmont could do to improve the
> opportunities for troops to send boys to Philmont at least
> once, they would be 1) provide a number of crews based on the
> number of eligible boys in their troop, not the number the
> Unit Leader requests

If you put in a request in the lottery, you only get one for a unit. AFAIK,
Philmont does things by contingents, not crews or number of youth or
participants. A mega troop with 60 people wanting to go will get one
lottery entry for its 5 crews, and have an equal chance of getting its five
crews as the little troop with 7 people in its one crew. So, the inequity
isn't in "unit leader requests", rather it is in larger troops having no
greater chance than smaller. Seems to me that a large troop, by dint of its
very success, should get a better shot on a per crew basis.

The way to improve the odds is to charter additional units, such as a
varsity team and venturing crew. Then that same unit could get three shots
(we don't get to transfer between units, but if the participants are members
of both, it works out). That is a rather personal decision whether such an
approach is scout like or gives that unit an unfair advantage.

> and 2) weight the odds in favor of a
> troop that has not been in a while (with a sliding weight
> based on the last time they went (never would be a LARGE weight).
>
Which suggestion gets made every year at this time (when the lottery entries
are being made), and which suggestion gets ignored every year by Philmont.

Don Roberts
Philtrek 05

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Received on Thu Nov 17 22:12:19 2005