RE: [Philmont] - philmont Digest - V01 #1132

RE Parents meetings,

Ahhh, my favorite people...PARENTS.

RULE # 1 for parents: DO NOT TRY TO "OUTSMART" THE PHILMONT PACKING
LIST. There are lots of ways to get to meeting the clothing/gear
requirements, but we found that we needed just about everything we took.
The only thing I never used was my silk long john bottoms. Please don't
let parents who aren't going to be there think "...they won't really
need that in July..." , etc.

I'd strongly recommend that you take a firm line NOW to inform parents
on the requirements for every member of a crew/contingent to wear their
full uniform, especially while traveling to/from. We were very
pleasantly surprised at the courtesy and curiosity of former/current
scouters and non-scouters alike in our travels. The boys were given
free pizza, got lots of positive attention and even had some "hot" girls
attracted to their sharp appearance. I have a picture of the girl and
she was, indeed, quite pretty. The guys were shocked a girl would think
their uniforms were cool. It starts with parents being made aware that
every component of the uniform must be BSA. There will be some
resistance, thanks to the ridiculous prices of BSA uniforms. Find ways
to reduce objections. For example, we bought the khaki Philmont shorts
from ToTT for $18 and made them our "uniform" shorts, since they are
BSA-approved items. Cool souvenir, saves money, BSA item, uniform
appearance. Meets all the "Principles".

Per the gear discussions, let parents know that their children should
not be asked to "get by" with rain gear or boots that are less than
adequate. I'm sensitive to budgets, but those two items cannot be
provided by anyone else and are extremely important. Doesn't mean you
buy top-of-the-line, but make sure those two things are sufficient for
the boy. The tight-fisted parent will not be shivering at HoD with rain
and 40 degrees. Fortunately, none of our crew was shivering that
evening at HoD thanks to good gear and packing what Philmont said to
pack.

Open an account at CampMor in the name of your Troop organization.
Contact Dawn at 800-525-4784. You get a price break on almost
everything (10%), great bulk shipping rates, extremely fast shipping,
super customer service. By consolidating your groups gear needs, you
can save a lot of money by ordering in 'waves' and their online web
bargains are very good (Marmot Precip jackets for $55, etc.)

Parents will do what their kids need but you must help them along.

Dave Parmly
Advisor, Crew 506
Knoxville, TN
I used to be a Bobwhite...SR424
IWTGBTP

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As you gather around this virtual campfire with fellow
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Received on Wed Sep 15 07:05:57 2004