orconnie

All courses had Weds morming sessions scheduled this year when I went.

My understanding from back a few years ago when taking the Wilderness First Aid course at PTC is that the weight limit is definately an issue for extraction by Philmont's Search and Rescue teams, not just "fitness" for the activity.

I was at PTC in early June and there were many heavy scouters there but there was also a young man who came thinking he was going inn the backcounrty on a trek and was refused due to his weight. He was a wrestler and not a "rolly pollie", he was turned down for exceding the weight. A weeek later I was there fro a trek with my crew. The medical recheck there was more detailed, recheck blood pressure, etc. I saw a scale but they did not recheck my weight, I did not see any "rolly pollies" in the backcountry.

I have some experience with needing special food due to a severe nut allergy that I and my son have. We were at Philmont 3 summers ago and I will be bringing a crew next summer. The Philmont staff was very helpful when I called about this concern. At that time they said that they were only able to help with special food handling when it was needed due to a medical or religious need. After reviewing the menu, we assembled replacement food for the meals that presented a problem due to nuts. We then packaged and labeled the replacement items with the day and meal, ie B2 for breakfast day 2. We brought these foods with us to the Crew leader planning meeting where the staff separated out the foods by which day it should be picked up at the backcountry commissary. It was placed in a large garbage bag and labeled for our crew. Sure enough, 3 days later when we made our first commisssary stop it was there waiting for us and several days later at our second pick up the second bag was also there. Pretty amazing when you think of the thousands of folks that go through there!

We were thinking about the Timberline, I had one for years. There is a new design Timberline SQ but those are really pricy

Has anyone recently bought tents for their Troop? We are in need of a few new tents. The model we previously bought from Eastern Mountain Sports(EMS) now has a full vestibule rather than a overhang over the door . That may be great for some but not a good choice for us since we are in South Florida, unless we want to cook some of our scouts.

Has anyone been experienceing difficulties with Internet Advancement? Our Troop has used it since its introduction and up until October it had been working fine. Since November it won't progress past the log-in page. I am using the same computer, router and internet provider, Interneet Explorer version 8. The Council regitrar has even cleard my account and let me log in as a new user, but nothing works. Seems like maybe a conflict between an update to Internet Exploreer and national perhaps?

The pilot course was held during the Fall Session in late Sept. They don't run any youth treks at that time. Our schedule was full and we were camping in the tents at the Rocky Mountain Camp area which is a remote location and was for participants only. I don't know how they manage family members when they run the course during the summer session. Maybe family members would stay in the tents adjacent to the Philmont Training Center, I really don't know but you could call out there.

I was fortunate to attend the Pilot Course 2 years ago. The course was excellent!. It is based on the NAYLE course and is very hands on, no just sitting around. PLC focuses on what it means to truely be a servant leader, in your personal life as well as in your scouting life. I would definately recommend it.

Well we have also taken a narrower view and that is where we are in a bit of a bind. We have some recent crossovers but they have completed many of the requirements listed in the Life requirement options. There is no intention to deny a Star scout the chance to advance but we also want to require no more and no less that the stated requirement.

How have folks been working with scouts to complete this new requirement?

We have several boys who need to complete this and not nearly enought younger scouts who need all of the listed requiremnts in the six choices offered.

I agree that it is an underused resource. Most boys in our Troop don't own it and like looking through it when I bring mine out. I would like to encourage some of our boys to get a copy on sale but if a new edition is about to come out, some parents might not appreciate my suggestion.

I just recieved an email from Scout Stuff and they are advertising to "save big" on the Fieldbook. Now $9.88 instead of $19.99. Is there a new edition coming out, I know there is a new Handbook due out by the end of the summer.