[philmont] Tour Permits

"FWIW" - I freely admit that it's overkill, but we file Tour Permits for
everything we do, regardless of whether it's required or not. If I have
two Scouts going to the Council Exec's Office for a Council-sponsored
burping contest, we file. Period. Basically, I want that piece of
paper to wave at the lawyers when the time comes, and that's whether
it's worth anything in a legal sense or not - and BTW, I suspect it
ain't worth much. Regardless, when I am asked (and I have been asked
thrice in 18 1/2 years, each time while reporting minor injuries) "Did
you file a Tour Permit", I don't want to sit there with a sheepish look
on my face, saying "Uhhhh". Or is that "Duhhhhhhh"?

The other reason why I always file is that I don't care to be chasing
some nebulous and shifting line of when I'm supposed to, and when I
don't need to. That is what is happening here - a Council is changing
the requirement. Murphy's Law guarantees that the one time you assume
you didn't need to have a Tour Permit, WRONG! In addition, will you -
or your successors - be on top of it if/when they change it back?

In Troop 111, Tour Permits are the responsibility of the Senior Scout
who is in charge of the trip, with careful (but subtle) oversight by my
(adult) Camping Coordinator. I sign Tour Permits at 2 or 3 meetings a
month, sometimes more, no big deal.

One of the things we do to make it (nearly) painless is we have the
entire Troop list of every possible driver and every possible vehicle,
and just staple it to the Tour Permit. This way no matter who drives,
or what vehicles are used, they're all on file. Since National Cap
insists on Tour Permits being submitted no later than 2 weeks in
advance, this precludes change issues. Since that's about 150 drivers
and nearly 200 total vehicles, it saves a lot of agita.

For all the bitching and whining people do about Tour Permits, it simply
isn't that hard. And establishing a "zero exception" policy in your
Unit encourages an "automatic" protocol for filing. Works for us.

As they say, your mileage may vary.

- Dr. Bob

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Received on Tue Nov 21 16:44:20 2006