[Philmont]: council contingents v. unit lottery

In reviewing my previous postings and the others on this topic, I realize that I did not make one point as strongly as I could. Here goes.

In our council, the contingents are filled on an individual basis, first come, first served for the boys and adults alike, and are truly "provisional". We have had as many as 4-6 boys get their reservations in before the expedition is filled and an adult or two over the years. We have had some boys get their act together in time, whereas others who wanted to go waited too late and had to make other arrangements. We have also had adults who talked about signing up, but waited too long and were shut out.

What I would not want to see is a situation where, if enough scouts in my troop happened to get their act together to sign up individually, and two adults did similarly, and they happened to be grouped in the same crew (which I think is adviseable), that they would somehow be considered to be "breaking the rules" for not having entered the lottery as a "unit crew". As I say, in my council, the contingent is filled individually and it is up to the individual scouts and advisors to get their reservations in pronto.

As I stated in my previous posting, I would not want a couple (or three or four) highly motivated scouts kept back from the Philmont experience because their troop mates wouldn't commit in a timely manner. Nor would I want the group "branded" (who remembers Chuck Connors in this role?) as some sort of usurpers if they all (miraculously, some would say), got their reservations in early.

We do offer our Scouts High Adventure trips each summer, in addition to the Council Philmont expeditions, by choosing summer camps which offer such programs to the older scouts. See the BSA publication "Passport to High Adventure" at your local council office for listings and descriptions of these programs. Some are available for only $25 more than the week at camp! That publication also offers a "soup to nuts" description of how to plan and carry out a high adventure trek, including cross country travel.

Because we annually offer this option, and because Council regularly schedules provisional Philmont expeditions, we do not set aside a year to raise a crew and enter the lottery. Those who wish to go with council have that option, the others go on our troop trek . Those who are not of high adventure age go to the Scout camp associated with the trek progam of that year, and have the traditional Scout camp experience.

All for now.

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 Fri Nov 18 09:48:34 2005