2007 signups

OK… I’m going to post from the Scouting point of view. I certainly understand everyone’s concerns about favoritism, and other issues, but part of the issue is understanding how the Scouting program runs.

First off, someone posted about the Scouting calendar, and how it works. For us (in my troop), to go on the Flags on th 48 Hike, I need to have a committment on what’s going on in September back in the May/June time frame. This is because in our scouting year, this is when we are doing planning for a September activity.

Someone else posted saying

Why can’t the Scoutmaster simply sign up for the peak and then worry about filling it later, or giving it up later?

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Again, it is a scheduling issue, as someone stated. First, sign ups this year were on July 10th. In my case, I was with my troop at summer camp that entire week.

In addition, scout troops are actually run by the boys, not the Scoutmaster. You see me posting here on behalf of our troop, primarily due to youth protection guidelines associated with the web (essentially, having under 18 boys post name/address information in any form on the web falls outside youth protection guidelines). Becuase of the summer scheduling issues that my troop faces, our next planning meeting after the signup wasn’t until early August.

Finally, when I’m working with the scouting program schedule from an administrative level, I need to get signups going in late June, as that’s when I loose the parents (who at the end of the day need agree to the trip). I don’t have direct contact with all the parents in my troop again until next week, when we start meeting again.

At the end of the day, I’m not stating an opinion in any way, as my opinion is obviously biased by the group I represent. I know my Troop loves the event, and I know the boys have gotten alot out of it. If we were in a system where our peak/participation became more unsure, unfortunately it might make our decision process/ability to attend/participate in the event more unsure as well depending on how the rules/regulations of the event is set up.

Again, I’m not making a plea on behalf of BSA units (far from it). I’m simply stating the effect/consequences of decisions that the Steering Committee might make. At the end of the day, this is not a BSA event, it just happens to be one which is very compatible on both sides, as the BSA is a patriotic organization, and this is a very patriotic event. As a Scout leader, I use this event to really emphasize the outdoors, and patriotism all at the same time. Its a great lesson for our boys.

If we didn’t have this event, I’d find ways to do it another way, so no pressure should be felt by the steering committee from my statements.

Vernon.. with ALL due respect… I must interject…

I am an Assistant Scoutmaster myself, and you just made the scheduling process sound MORE difficult than it actually is.

What you and your troop have planned is a WEEKEND long event… I assume your camping with this being the main project of your campout. However.. EVERY peak that the scouts of acquired in this years event (and in years past) is a day hike for ALL of the boys in your troop.

Yes… Scout camping weekends do indeed take some time in planning. HOWEVER.. if your troop wished to make it an available day hike activity for your troop… all you need is 2 weeks. 1 week is to hand out your permission slips and acquire a tour permit.. the other week to have the boys bring the permission slips back.

As an assistant scoutmaster and former scout… I STRONGLY AGREE that the scouts should NOT take precedent over others wishing to participate and they should also have to wait to sign up just like everyone else. ONLY because this event can be a day hike just as much as it is monthly campout. Yes.. I know the next argument… “but we live in Massachusetts.” I guess leaving earlier is in the solution.

I am also against any type of lottery system or pre-registration due to the implications of Favortism.

I do however… agree that certain peaks should be reserved for those whom are disabled. “Easy Access”

:flag:

While I understand the difficulty of signing up in advance, I feel that there are many other groups out there who face similar issues but don’t (and shouldn’t) get special treatment. I’ll admit to feeling a little chafed that some youth groups get special permission.

This will be our third year doing it with a school group (actually two different school groups this year). Sign-ups are in the summer when all of our participants are scattered to the wind. I had my wife sign us up this year, because I was out running rivers that week.

You know you will have scouts each year, just like I know I will have students (many of whom are actually scouts as well). I don’t think it is an undue hardship to sign up in the same manner we have done. I sign up the group as one individual so as not to monopolize space so others can feel free to join us and also so people know who we are.

I hope this process never becomes so unwieldy that we have to resort to a lottery system. I’ll point out that just a few hours before kick-off, there are still many spots available.

Have a magnificent hike everyone!

-snowball

Am I missing something here? I know I am fairly new here at this site. But there it seems that quite a squabble could grow over this event. Planning and details and paralisis by analysis….

Why can’t it be that on the sign up sheet, folks sign up and actually go there and raise the flag. And if there are 2 flags up on a peak, so be it. If there are five, all the better. It seems to me that the sign up sheet would serve best to assure that each peak is actually covered.

Pedxing mentioned that he was covering Carrigain and asked if I had any ideas for a flag pole. He wanted to raise it higher than a leki would do. We hadn’t hiked with Pedxing for quite some time, so we asked if we could join him, and I had a telescopic engineer’s rod that would work great. We planned to meet at the trailhead at 8 AM and head up. He had the flag and duct tape, I had the pole and 2 carabiners. We added two lekis for braces and that was that. We stayed most of the two hours and when the weather got questionable, we left, close to 2 PM. That, is the long and short of any planning we did.

Oh yeah, there was another group there with a larger flag. I thought it was great. If there had been 17 flags there, I’d have felt it would have been a very heartwarming experience for such a show of patriotism.

Maybe I’m reading to much into this…… at least, I hope so.

@vpalango wrote:

A simple solution might be to hold the selection process earlier, so that someone like me can plan further in advance.

i think it should be before july – vacation time starts in july – some vacations are away from computers (like if you are hiking or canoeing)…

@Frodo wrote:

We have contemplated earlier sign-ups, but we worry about cancelations. It’s hard enough to get people to committ to a hike 2 months in advance, let alone 3 or 4…

i didn’t say “3 or 4 months” i said before the summer vacation time which would only be 2 weeks earlier…