The Phil-list Oct_2007: [Philmont] Health, safety and "what

From: Jack Bolinger <bolinger@cox.net>
Date: Wed Oct 17 2007 - 23:31:55 CDT

I think you may have answered your own question. "when you have a crew..."
Once a crew is formed they have to act and function as a team, the good with
the bad, the weak with the strong. If a group wants to undertake a strenuous
or super strenuous trek then it should set down the requirements and
abilities to join that trek. However once a scout becomes a member of the
crew, I feel the crew should operate to make it work.

If the crew wants to move faster there are several things that the faster
stronger scouts can do to speed things up if they so desire. They can carry
the crew gear of the slower hikers who either may be slower in general or
just having a bad day etc and hope this helps to speed the crew up. Or they
can adjust their pacing to better fit the slower scouts to maximize their
production. Or they can give those scouts small head starts after breaks so
they are not slowing down the speedsters. Some of our crews give the
slowpokes a 2-3 minute head start after breaks and then break again when
they start to get too far behind to let them catch up and then repeat the
process. Philmont does not like crews to become separated so I don't think
that allowing the rabbits to run ahead and start setting up camp some 30
minutes before the pokey hikers arrive would be well received.

If you become aware of this before the trek some additional work at the
local stadium might be in order. My thoughts are that once a scout becomes a
member of the crew the crew needs to adapt. Taking a few more breaks and
giving these slow pokes a few head starts, would not qualify as punishment.
Also if the crew needs to budget more time to get where they are going, they
just need to leave a little earlier in the am.

If the scout is so much slower than the other scouts that it will become
a major issue, then this should have been evident to the scoutmaster on
their troop backpacking trips and the scout not selected for participation
in the trek. If it is a troop trek then perhaps some performance standards
could be set 2-3 years out and then measured before the scout is allowed to
become a member of the crew. If it is a council trek, the advisors will have
less knowledge about the performance abilities of the crew members and thus
less ability to control crew make up.

The trek I was on this summer, I had concerns about one scout on our
council contingent who had those large chubby looking legs. He performed
okay on our practice hikes but always seemed to finish near the back of the
pack. At Philmont he had the ABSOLUTE best attitude on the trek, led our
prayer groups and was the crew Chaplin. He was the best Chaplin that I have
had on our past 7 crews. He never complained and always had a smile on his
face. It would have been a shame if he had been "cut" from the crew because
he wasn't as fast as most of the others. I would take him on my next trek in
a heart beat to the exclusion of some of our much speedier hikers.

Just some thoughts.

Jack

-----Original Message-----
From: Philmont@troop47.com [mailto:Philmont@troop47.com] On Behalf Of Mark
Liechty
Sent: Wednesday, October 17, 2007 11:05 PM
To: Philmont List Member
Subject: [Philmont] Health, safety and "what's best for the boys"

David Palmer wrote:
> Mark says, "If the guys at the front of the crew get lost, or the guys at
> the back go a bit slower and fall behind then I am not worried either."
>
David Replied: > I respectfully disagree. Philmont is a crew event, not
an individual event.
> Your crew looks sloppy when it gets divided. The adults, who are
ultimately
> accountable, lose control when you get divided. If you are going to get
> lost, it is better to get lost together than to get lost separately.
################################

Good discussion. So what happens when you have a crew of 10 and 8 are
fine moving at 2 miles an hour and the other 2 only move at 1.5 mile an
hour?

Do you punish the majority of the crew and force them to wait for the
slower ones or do you throw the slower guys off the crew before you get
to the trail in the first place.

I have had the experience of being both the fast person and the slow
person in the same crew in the same week. Allowing separation kept me
from quitting and feeling embarrassed and ashamed that I was holding
everyone up. When I was moving faster the separation allowed me to
start getting camp setup and make things easier on the slower guys.

I agree that if the primary goal is to make the adults look good then we
need to keep the boys in a clear and even marching order. Keep them all
clean and make sure that they perform in lockstep (pun intended) in
every action. But I'm pretty sure that what I read and what David means
is not the same thing.

So how do you guys deal with the slower guys? Do you punish everyone
else or toss them? And when do you make that decision?

Mark

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Received on Wed Oct 17 23:38:22 2007

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