The Phil-list Sep_2006: [Philmont] Increased Participation

From: Bacon, Bruce <bbbacon@walshgroup.com>
Date: Wed Sep 27 2006 - 12:24:46 CDT

We have a large troop with 70 scouts. We sent 1 trek to Philmont in
2000, 2 treks in 2002, and 2 treks in 2004. Our Troop has supplied 8
staff to Philmont in the summers of 2004 through 2006. Our past has
been a good one and we consider ourselves quite fortunate. We applied
for treks for the summer of 2006 and 2007, with similar results: take a
number and step to the end of the line. Upon calling Philmont to
discuss the process, it seems that all groups that apply fall into 2
groups: "those-that-went-last-year" (TTWLY) and
"those-that-are-eligible-to-attend" (TTAETA). The TTWLY are removed to
the circular file (trash can). The remaining TTAETA go into the
lottery. All of the TTAETA have the same chances of winning the lottery
and "going to the island". The pressure to increase the participation
probably comes from the TTAETAs that either do not get selected or do
not get a low waiting list number and risk having members of their group
graduate from the Scouting program and never have the opportunity to
attend Philmont with their peers (IMHO this is important). If a Troop
goes to Philmont in 2004, their 13 year old Scouts will not get their
first chance to attend until 2006, when they have reached the age of 15.
If the Troop is not successful in the lottery in 2006, they must wait
till 2007 when he is 16. If not successful in 2007, then 2008 when they
are 17, the last year. Those Scouts have only a three year window to
realize the High Adventure dream we Scouters refer to as Philmont. The
greater the number of years between treks, the greater the pressure to
attend. (While I will agree with those that point out there are other
ways to get to Philmont, I will point out that these alternatives are
for individuals and do not support a group of peers, which IMHO is the
best way to experience Philmont and it's programs.)

I would rather see another direction taken before increasing the
pressure on the ranch by increasing the number population at any given
time. I would suggest to Philmont that they "weight" the application
process so that groups that have a greater number of years between treks
have a greater chance of being selected over groups that have a lesser
number of years between treks. (Assumption: groups must apply annually
to attend Philmont to receive a more favorable "weighting". You have to
try to attend) In our Troop we could have sent 3 treks of Scouts and
adults, but because of our unfortuante luck in 2006 and 2007, we had to
settle for one council trek. We had 24 boys and 6 adults ready to go.
Selecting 12 out of the 30 was not fun.

I would support a measure such as outlined above as a first step. If
that didn't work, I'd raise the eligibility to every three years instead
of the two years currently in practice and finally, when all else failed
I would increase the number of people on the ground, but only as a last
resort.

I am sure that there are those who will see flaws in my thinking and I
respect them for their position. I offer my thoughts as a way to
stimulate some other course of action other than a population increase.

Bruce Bacon, 75, 76, 04, and 07.

-----Original Message-----
From: Philmont@troop47.com [mailto:Philmont@troop47.com] On Behalf Of
doug marquis
Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 7:31 PM
To: Philmont List Member
Subject: [Philmont] Increased Participation

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.)

P.S.-- How're you doing, Jim VanH?

----- Original Message -----
From: "Lou Schwing" <lou@troop288.org>
To: "Philmont List Member" <Philmont@troop47.com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2006 8:04 PM
Subject: [Philmont] Increased Participation

>
> On Sep 26, 2006, at 4:18 PM, JVH2099@aol.com wrote:
>
>> In a message dated 9/26/2006 4:30:04 P.M. Mountain Daylight Time,
>> bschaettle@msn.com writes:
>> In a recent email from Fran regarding the payment that's due on
October
>> 1st, she seemed to imply NO early arrivals next summer:
>> We heard that Philmont wants to increase participation by about 15%
next
>> summer. That may be the reason for no early arrivals. Things will
be
>> getting a bit crowded in tent city.
>
> The train from Los Angeles to Raton only arrives in the evening, so
you
> *have* to arrive a day early. In 2004, it wasn't a big deal for us
to
> stay that night at Tent City, although they did tell us that if there

> weren't any tents, we would have to pitch our own. There was plenty
of
> space to do that, so I imagine it wouldn't be that big of a deal.
>
> It was nice to sleep in those roomy tents with a mattress after our
trek
> though....
>
> Lou
>
>
>
>
>
>
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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.
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Received on Wed Sep 27 13:02:38 2006

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