sbemis1

around here, the blue card is required for review by council at time of application for Eagle. Nothing else counts, even their own records. That is probably appropriate since their records are often not in accord with the troops. Usually they want us to surrender our copy of the advancement form to make it good, though we don't let that part go.

The 10 month time from ordeal is the only requirement. As my son determined. Since he did nothing OA related between ordeal and brotherhood. As SPL, the troop came first and everything was a conflict. He could have made the meetings, though.

Of course I'd have to admit I haven't set the best example on that one . . . . .

Son's troop does first paid, first time youth get preference, followed by repeat youth, first time adults, repeat adults.

Troop's last Philmont personnel logistics was a mess. Started the process with a high of 16 'definates'. I got lead advisor when I failed to step back with the others during the volunteer round. After all the 'I changed my mind's came back we went with 10 after dipping below the minimum of 7 at one point.

6 youth, with crew leader an 18 year old youth (second trip for him) as a very late substitution.

4 adults, including a dad/son pair with the son being a 19 year old adult brother of a youth (second trip for him also).

3 (dad & two sons) met us there as they had moved out of state after signing up.

1 out-of-troop nephew of the other local advisor.

The troop schedule changed several times, knocking out scheduled shakedowns, leaving us with only 1 that was rather abortive owing to several illnesses. No danger of over-prepping there. Extremely hard on lead advisor's (me) nerves, that.

The saving grace was all were experienced backpackers, and the advisors were dedicated to be in shape, with my own health issues being the limiting factor in hiking speed. Excellent trip, excellent crew, I'd go with them again.

I bought the Olympus Stylus (water/shock proofish) to take to Philmont last year. Left it home and took my daughters Canon sure shot because the battery life in the Olympus was dismal. Others at Philmont had the Olympus and were happy with it (at least when I spoke with them). Also the zoom in the Canon was noticably better. Several others in the crew had the Canon and were satisfied. I changed the battery on leaving Ponderosa Park for base on the last trail day.

'course, I owed my daughter a camera since the Canon was never quite the same after the second fall....

The troop does:

1 - Name on the plaque

2 - Frame with patches, mb, badges

3 - Really nice ECOH

Retiring the flag would be too expensive for them also.

Yah. Our scout shop started requiring advancement reports for badges, now and then. It hasn't done anything yet to prevent records being screwed up, since council is the reason they get that way.

No troop tents here. No chuck boxes either. PLC has not raised the issue either way. Troop gear consists of utensils, pots, stoves, kitchen tarp, etc. Boys work out tentage on their own by patrol. A bit too haphazard I think, but I've not been asked for an opinion.

Always tough to know which of the three sides your are looking at (mine, yours, actual scenario)in cases like this, especially in a forum after the fact.

From what I've read I'm not sure your son is deserving of punishment and even an apology may be more of a protocol issue. Much depends on having been there. And your son isn't quite correct, a certain level of respect is expected/granted, however respect of this nature is quite easily lost and very hard to regain. I thought I read some of this occurred as a private exchange (a different issue altogether).

If a youth behaves in a socially responsible/respectful manner than an adult is out of line to expect said youth to say 'I respect you' if he does not. Said adult ought to be reflecting upon why that condition exists and work to correct it. From what I've read so far there seems to have been an extreme overreaction on this, so maybe some blanks need to be filled in.

Hope this works out for you. Looks like you will be having lots of meetings to get to the bottom of this.

Well if scouts aren't allowed to have an email address, then BSA needs to take that block off the scout application where it asks for the scouts email address.

In our area one of the troops usually runs the actual crossover ceremony, or with more time the local OA will do a really nice one.

If your son is in reasonable shape (sports) he could probably leave tomorrow and handle the physical aspects. Make sure he does some backpacking next spring in his broken-in Philmont footwear, with just a few more pounds than he expects to carry. During my own training (I'm no longer even near youth) I found when I added the final gallon of ballast water that the boots I was using were no longer adequate for me. I then had time to make a change and break in a new pair.

The story I heard as a reason for bear bagging first at Philmont is that they had a Kamikazee bear a few years back that would raid the pack line, or food pile, while crews were setting up. I'm sure others could clarify.

falcon93,

Sorry but,

/beginsarcasm

Your site

"Your website has been suspended"

doesn't really do much for me.

/endsarcasm

I tried to convince my son to continue figure skating some years back. High g-b ratio and one of the few activities the boys are instructed to 'put your hands here and there and hold on tight'. So now he runs.

Some years back the pack use Raceview in conjunction with a timer.

Shifted the finger pointing from a person to the equipment, and who can

argue with a computer? Successfully anyway.

brodiew

The fact that the risk involved is small will be no comfort if you get to be the one to deliver greivous news to someone's parents.

If you go to www.scouting.org there is a link to find your local council. You can drill down through that and your local council site should have a troop/pack locator.

of course the link is broken at this time.......you will get a be patient message.

Some years back after a cub overnight I had to do some damage control.

Some of the dads had a few brews after the boys went to bed.

It was a Salvation Army property.

They weren't amused.

Calico is correct

The troop is running over the summer whether they are meeting or not. High adventure programs are troop sponsored activites regardless of how many attend.

My son's troop has the new scout patrol, but their first PL is the outgoing SPL. The new boys usually think this is pretty cool.

Look in http://www.bacphilmont.org/links.html under the 'Related Links' are several good information sources.

Philsearch is great for planning trek selection

Seldon Ball's page has manymany links to good information

Not in the bac list:

www.troop116.org/philmont/phlDiningFlySetup.pdf

www.philmontforum.com - this one has lots of information including a walkthrough of check-in, first day, ranger training.

Based upon my recent experience, you will get plenty of conflicting information. Most aspects of the trip have the 'you must always' and 'you must never' proponents and everything in between. Review what you can (searhing for 'philmont trek' on google will bury you with sources, good AND bad), then pick what seems reasonable for you and try it out on your shakedowns.

The only absolute is that you must follow Philmont's rules.

Have the adults start training with backpacks, well, now.

Choose lighter gear when possible and affordable. It will make a difference, especially for the adults.

I would suggest making sure to include multiple night trips on your shakedowns to work out your routines.

I can think of nothing about the trek that turned out to be as onerous as I had expeceted. Enjoy your trip.

Actually, if you call certain services for breakdown assitance, e.g. flat tire, your auto insurance companies are now privy to that information and may (will?) use it against you.

They couldn't take time to tuck in their shirts?

our district requires the signed blue cards be presented at time of application.

Systems engineer/administrator (Microsoft-ish) for a contracting firm.