[Philmont] council contingents

Southern New Jersey council uses individual sign ups and first come first served for its council Philmont contingents. Sometimes the allotment fills up quite rapidly, other years not. Some networking has been done in the past to place oversubscribed Scouts in the contingents of neighboring councils which have space. Generally, those from one troop are kept together, if they desire. Occasionally, a Scout who is returning for a second trek may want to do a SS itinerary, while the others from his troop, first timers, have less lofty goals. This is accommodated.

I don't know for sure, but I don't believe there has ever been a problem with one troop hogging multiple crews. I would hate to have to commit to have a crew of twelve from just my troop in order to participate. Three years ago, four of our boys signed up. The advisors and the rest of the crew were from different units and they bonded together well. This year, five of our boys and one adult formed a provisional crew that wound up with 6 troops represented.

While at first, during the shakedowns, it was easy to categorize them as "the SNJ guys" and "the Burlington guys", by the time they got on the trail, each was seen as an individual and, more importantly, as a crew member.

While going as one crew from one troop has its advantages, I think that as long as you have one or two buddies going, the makeup of the rest of the crew is not so important, since they will all bond anyway by the end of the trek, in ways that don't happen on weekend Troop campouts.

There is also something about "first come, first served" and "don't be left out" to get some of these guys off the schneid. I'd hate to see a couple of go getters miss out because their friends couldn't commit.

Just my two cents.

Bill Sheehan, ASM
Troop 55, Pitman, NJ
Philmont '70, '72, Autumn Adventure '01,'03,'05

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Received on Fri Sep 29 07:50:25 2006