[Philmont] Paint Pails and Micro Management

My cooking description was how our crew finally decided to do it this summer
at Philmont after many months of trial and error. Some may not agree on the
approach, but I think our crew learned a lot and for the most part, they
made excellent decisions.

The crew had six shakedowns before Philmont. They tried 8 qt pots and 4 qt
pots. They had crunchy food one trip, lots of unhytrated lumps on several
others and a spilled pot on another. They cooked directly in the pots and
they tried turkey bags. They also had the opportunity to talk with other
scouts who had been to Philmont the two previous years. The scouts rotated
jobs, throughout the shakedowns, so everyone had the opportunity to do every
job several times. By the time we went to Philmont, any of the scouts could
have done any of the jobs. The point is, the scouts tried, succeeded and
failed during the shakedowns and they made the decisions on what worked best
for them. This included the cooking method, whether to use permanent or
rotating jobs while at Philmont and many other things as well.

The advisors made sure the jobs rotated during the shakedowns and they
pointed out some of the pros and cons of rotating vs. permanent jobs. But,
it was the crew's decision on how do to things at Philmont. For the most
part the permanent jobs worked well, although the crew chief made some
adjustments a few days into the trek. There were also several times when
one team had more or less to do than another, and for the most part the
scouts jumped in to help where necessary.

The paint pails were added at the last or second to last shakedown. The
scouts had struggled on how to best support the turkey bags and at one
point, they were using a third pot. One of the scouts had recently finished
an Eagle painting project. He had a lot of leftover paint pails. They tried
them on the last shakedown and it worked. Everyone thought it was a great
idea, and the crew took them to Philmont. By the way, these were new,
plastic pails that never had paint in them. The food never touched them and
the advisors all thought the scouts had a great idea.

The scouts were exposed to a lot in the nine months leading up to Philmont.
Some came from other scouts, others came from a council training program and
still others came from the advisors. Our crew figured out a lot during the
shakedowns that went well beyond learning ways to cook. They were well
prepared by the time they hit the trail at Philmont, but they also had new
experiences every day at Philmont. The shakedowns were great, but there are
so many things you cannot learn on short training trips. Philmont provided
that challenge.

Jim Sergison

Randolph, NJ

********************************************
Change is inevetible, but some of the change I see taking place in Scouting
is not in the best interest of Scouts.
 
 ....
Yes, that does lead to proficiency, but what about the other skills that
each and every Scout missed? Is the proficiency they gained worth the
absence of all the other experience they missed? They solidly miss the
oportunity to learn by doing anything but their one job. That is wrong!
 
Why go to Philmont to learn that? Just drop out of Scouts and get a job at
McDonalds.
 
......
As Sheehan posted about a week ago, forget all this micro management stuff
and stick to the basics, team building and acceptance of a new idea from a
PhilRanger or PhilStaff member.
 
You Mr./Ms. advisor need to do what's important for them to succeed and not
necessarily what's easiest.
 
John LeBlanc
 
PS For gosh sakes don't use plastic paint pails or any otehr non food grade
plastic container for food, water or anything else going into your mouth.
This is just asking for trouble.

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Received on Sat Oct 13 08:10:45 2007