[Philmont] Increased Participation

While laudable in sentiment, this would appear to be a rather
questionable decision, both in view of the extensive damage from the
Ponil Complex fires and the now nearly annual closing of the Valle Vidal
during parts/all of each camping season. Not to mention the ever
increasing difficulty in hiring adequate seasonal staff (and let's not
forget the staff and support needed for Double H). As we all know,
complexity is an exponential, not additive, function - and in followup
to Doug's remarks I will add that I have personally noted increased
staff stress levels over my last three treks, as well as increased
impact in many already overused sites. A 15 percent increase on 25,000
campers is a heck of a jump. Obviously there is an upper limit to what
Philmont can rationally handle - let's hope the Ranch Administration
doesn't have to find it the hard way.

- Dr. Bob

doug marquis wrote:
> It's not a rumor. The Philmont administration definitely was starting
> to plan over the past summer for increasing the number of participants
> next summer. I believe the figure was about 15%, as someone said. This
> would amount to about 50 participants per day, or roughly five crews.
> There is concern among the staff about whether the land and the program
> can handle the increase. The executive staff seem to believe it can be
> handled. They want to make the Philmont experience available to as many
> Scouts as possible, and you really can't fault them for that. I imagine
> you're correct that this is why Fran is-- at least-- discouraging early
> arrivals. There are some days over the summer with a low crew load, but
> there are many others when the base camp tent cities are bursting at the
> seams.
>
> Doug Marquis
> Asst Mgr. CHQ Activites Dept. 2003-2006
> (We run the Welcome Center, among other things.)
>

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Received on Tue Sep 26 19:58:20 2006