From: Dr. Bob Klein (drbob@troop111.org)
Date: Wed Sep 18 2002 - 17:24:36 CDT
Note that Philmont itself shares a significant percentage of the "blame"
for the insufficient number and in some cases insufficient quality of
the Rangers on the Ranch this year. One of the really serious problems
was the lack of timeliness on responding to applications. I made a
point of asking most of the Rangers I met this past summer how long it
had taken Philmont to notify them that they had been accepted (I'll
explain why below). Way too often, the answer was "a couple of months".
With camps (of all ilks) all across the country begging for staff, and
with certain areas paying kids 10 - 12 bucks an hour (or more!) to flip
burgers or sit in a lifeguard chair, YOU CANNOT DO THIS!
Exhibit 1 was my Ranger this past summer - Rene Wicha. Great guy, and
ridiculously overqualified. After months of waiting, he was about to
take a "real" job when he had a chance to hook up with Mark Anderson at
a collegiate recruiting station, and asked him personally what was up.
It was only because Mark confirmed to Rene that he was "in" that he
(Rene) held off on taking the job opportunity he had already been
offered, and came to the Ranch instead.
Exhibit 2 was one of my graduated Eagles, Chris Wolff, now a sophomore
at Vermont. Here's his Scouting resume, which was tacked onto my own
enthusiastic recommendation:
http://www.troop111.org/eagle70.html
...and what is not listed here (but that I added) is that Chris has
already climbed about 30 of the "High 50" peaks (top peak in each
state), including all the Rocky Mountain states high peaks, and he had
also earned 3 Alonzo Stagg 50/20 hike medals (50 mile hike completed in
20 hours or less).
So Chris (like Brad Jones) applied, and waited. And waited, and waited,
and waited some more - and finally gave up and took a job selling
camping equipment for the summer. Then finally got his acceptance
letter a month later than that. [In contrast, Brad, with an equivalent
resume, was accepted nearly immediately.] Look at Chris' resume and
tell me (please!) why there wasn't a sonic boom as the Ranger
application appraiser dude instantly dove for his "Accept Immediately"
stamp when he saw this. Why the 3+ month delay? No way to run a
railroad, or a high adventure camp.
As I noted above, based on my discussions with a dozen Rangers this past
summer, this scenario appears to have played out multiple times this
past spring. I wouldn't care so much if every Ranger we saw was
hyper-qualified, or if they had a surplus Ranger staff, but we all know
that wasn't true on either account.
So it appears that the Ranch has a problem here - and on the surface of
it, an unnecessary and perplexing one. I invite those more in the know
than I to comment....
- Dr. Bob Klein, SM-111, Arlington, VA
-------------------------------------------------------
Scouting E-mail Discussion Lists @ usscouts.org
Subscribe/Unsubscribe at http://usscouts.org/lists/
Listserv Commands at http://usscouts.org/lists/lc.asp
-------------------------------------------------------
Send listserv commands to: listserv@troop47.com
Send postings to: philmont@troop47.com
List FAQ found at: http://usscouts.org/lists/faq.asp
List Administrator: philmont_owner@troop47.com
-------------------------------------------------------
As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
Scouts and Scouters, do your best to be trustworthy,
loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind, obedient,
cheerful, thrifty, brave, clean and reverent.
-------------------------------------------------------
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.7 : Thu Mar 13 2003 - 10:38:45 CST