Leaderboard

These "tents" are on the PTC campus, not on the camping headquarters side of the ranch. Rest assured, trek participants are still residing in standard issue BSA wall tents with cots when they are in base camp, trailbound and homebound. No electricity or other amenities. PTC and CHQ are two entirely different worlds.

PTC is for families. Why the hostility towards making them comfortable? We want more folks trained and if this is what it takes, why not? This is not for the folks on Trek. and you forgot .......air conditioning.....you ever been in the tents there?

Unsolicited requests for help from outside organizations go to the Chartered Organization. If the CO wants us to look at it, we will. If the CO wants some other branch of our organization to look at it, they will. Otherwise, the CO responds to the outside organization with a polite refusal letter. It's better if the outside organizations feel like they were turned down by the Chartered Organization rather than the boy scouts.

As mentioned earlier, the camping HQ side of Philmont hosted over 24,000 trek participants. Here's a link and a quick sample of the summer of 2019: " The most popular spot for Crews to pick up meals in the Backcountry was Baldy Town, which distributed nearly 60,000 meal bags to 12,335 Participants." That was Baldy Town alone! "Grand Central Station" comes to mind. More data at https://www.philmontscoutranch.org/philmont-by-the-numbers/ While I don't have the PTC data, I've heard that the family adventure numbers were quite low. So I ask again: how are a dozen or so kids from the PTC going to ruin your Philmont experience? If your experience is going to be sullied, it will more than likely be by another 12 or 7 day trek crew. Ponil alone hosted 828 overnight crews this summer. The PTC Mustangs are the age group that we should be welcoming to the backcountry. They are the future of the BSA.

My experience with the new BSA is that experienced scouters are being told to sit down and shut up. A new day has dawned and our experience is no longer required.

Having been a COR and a CC, I want you to be both the resource person and a bit of appetite suppressant for the youth. Help your SPL have options for camping weekends. At the same time, help SPL understand limits, before the planning meeting...it fails common sense to drive 150 miles on a Friday night in Michigan in November. Finally, BSA has its annual program monthly themes. I’ve linked the program planning guide from the WD Boyce Council, which has them for Cubs (think den chiefs) and Scouts... http://www.wdboyce.org/document/program-guide/181492

So the youth in the picture pass your crew on the trail. Or spend the night in the neighboring campsite. What are the potential negative impacts on your Philmont experience? Edited to add: Mustangs are 11 - 13, and if memory serves, they are accompanied on their overnight by PTC staffers, not mom and dad.

Please talk to your council's Advancement Chair to confirm, but #1 is the answer. The leadership POR requirements for Eagle Scout rank have not changed. The only thing that has changed is that these older Scouts (girls and boys) can request a temporary time extension to continue working on Scouts BSA ranks, merit badges, and awards. Please do not register them as an Assistant Scoutmaster (ASM). This will mess everything up for them in the BSA's computer systems and would most likely risk their ability to earn the Eagle Scout rank. ASM is not one of the allowed positions under requirement #4 on the Eagle Scout rank application (page 2). As long as they are covered by the time extension, they can hold any of the Scouts BSA youth leadership positions. #3 is an option for them, but it is their choice (not forced by unit leaders) to join a Venturing crew or a Sea Scout ship (assuming that there is one nearby to join). From what I have heard, there is going to be a new registration code called Unit Participant (UP) for these older Scouts with time extensions but still pursuing Scouts BSA ranks and advancements. More information is supposed to be sent to council registrars in August (I do not know if this information has been sent out yet or not). To me, this sounds like a temporary version of Venturing/Sea Scouting's "adult participants" who can continue working on their ranks, awards, and advancements while they are age 18-20.

The way we do it is that the boys brainstorm and select their top "themes" --- backpacking, climbing, shooting, etc., and they can suggest locations if they have had good experiences someplace. We have a "camping coordinator", who is a committee member with lists of state parks, BSA camps, ACE properties, national forests etc. and he/she will then start calling around for reservations. If a location that the scouts suggested is available for the kind of activity they suggested, it's booked. If it's unavailable, another site is found that enables the type of activity. Only after the camping coordinator is able to lock down all (or most) dates and locations is the plan reviewed by scoutmaster and committee chair and then published. Families can then plan their calendars and the District gets a fair opportunity to cause us headaches by moving their Camporee dates.

What?!?! Your summer camp doesn't have coffee trucks? Ours does...

I prefer patrol cooking like at Camp Bell in NH. Nearly all mess hall camps have "pack out" nights for patrol cooking at your site or a remote, rustic site. That said I am promoting "adult out". Scouts can head to the mess hall and I will stay back at camp, brew my coffee, cook my meal, relax and eat in peace.

Campers and staff at Camp Somers, a Boy Scout camp on the Mt. Allamuchy Scout Reservation in Byram, NJ between June 23 and Aug. 7 may have been exposed to Hepatitis A, officials said. Campers who visited the health center the week of Aug. 4 are at an increased risk of exposure. Health officials say that a worker at Camp Somers was diagnosed with Hepatitis A, prompting concern that children or other attendees may have been exposed to the rare and highly contagious virus. Anyone who might have been exposed is advised to monitor their symptoms; those who visited the health center are advised to get the hepatitis A vaccine, officials said. Hepatitis A is a liver disease, which can cause fever, stomach pain, dark yellow urine, and jaundice. Most people recover on their own within a few weeks, but it can be serious in some people. It is highly contagious among people who have not been vaccinated. https://patch.com/new-jersey/longvalley/campers-north-jersey-camp-exposed-hepatitis https://www.nj.com/healthfit/2019/08/children-possibly-exposed-to-hepatitis-a-by-worker-at-nj-camp.html