Philmont 2011 Council Contingent:

Upcoming Contingent activities:

• The Contingent has been assigned its permanent Expedition Number.  It is 626-E.  Each of the 16 crews in the contingent has been assigned a unique number to be used with this expedition number.  Please use your full crew expedition number (626-E-nn) in ALL correspondence.  Philmont has no knowledge of your Troop or Venturing Crew number and only the crew's expedition number may be used to identify your crew.

• The first crew payment was due at the Capitol Area Council office April 2.  Statements showing each crew's balance were sent to the crew's contacts.  Crew payment status may be verified by checking the Crew Info link at the left.  If there are any discrepancies, contact Sid as soon as possible.

• The first Contingent organizational meeting was held Thursday March 25.
  Information about the meeting may be found by clicking the Meeting link at the left including the PowerPoint presentation used at it.

Three areas that were problematic for crews in the summer of 2009 were Wilderness First Aid training, adults not meeting the height/weight requirements, and crews that had weak map and compass skills. 

• Thirty-seven crewmembers (28 adult advisors and 9 youth participants) were sent home for failing to meet the height & eight requirements creating problems with two-deep leadership, first aid training, delayed check-in, etc.  Please check with all your crew's participants to insure they will meet these requirements.  The requirements can be viewed by clicking the line at the left.

• Click the button below for information regarding Wilderness First Aid Basic courses conducted by the Capital Area Council.  Crews are required to have at least one crewmember certified in WFA and one crewmember certified in CPR.  This does not have to be the same crewmember but the "new" WFA course has CPR as a prerequisite.  Because there are only a few courses taught each year and these have limited space, sign up as early as possible for this training.
                                                                   

• A Spring Wilderness and Remote First Aid course has been scheduled.  This course is the replacement curriculum for the Wilderness First Aid course which is no longer available after March 1, 2010.  A major difference is that having CPR certification is a prerequisite for the WRFA course.  Information about the spring course may be found by clicking the button below:
                                                                  

• Crews should become proficient in map and compass use.  A number of crews became "lost" or "disoriented" in 2009 because they didn't have adequate skills, didn't take or consult their sectional maps, or relied on their GPS and/or iPhone.  Philmont is a wilderness area.  Crews will need to be able to navigate.  Skilled use of map and compass is critical.  Using GPS's can be helpful but, without basic map and compass skills, a GPS is no more than extra weight!  Philmont maps use the UTM coordinate system.  Crews should become proficient in using UTM, compass, and topographic maps.  Philmont is a great place to use a GPS but not the place to learn how.