Philmont Going to Electronic Trek Selection This Year

[mt_goodrich]

I had been conditions about the post card method of selecting the preferred treks and mailing it in (or send via FED EX to get ahead of others). However, just received the following email from our contingent coordinator:

"New for the 2010 season: selection of itineraries will be done online; postcard itinerary selection cards will no longer be used or accepted. More information will be available after the Philmont Treks Itinerary Guide is sent to confirmed crews in March 2010."

I just got off the phone with Mark Anderson (Philmont Program Director) and got some answers on this. Philmont is changing this year to an online sign-up. Postcards will be mailed out this Friday to all the crews (I will receive the postcards for our 5 crews). I anticipate the cards arriving Tues or Wed. Each card will contain a password and will tell us a date we can log on to the Philmont site to sign up for our trek.

The live date for sign-up will be MARCH 29 (not sure about the time). All crews going to Philmont in 2010 will be able to sign-up on March 29. The Trek Itineraries will be sent out next week sometime. This will give us a week or so to review the treks before the sign-up date and will avoid the mass scramble to get to the post office or FedEx. At sign-up, we will put in our top 5 treks just as we would have if we were filling out the itinerary card. After we submit our top 5 treks, we will immediately get a response telling us what our trek is – no more waiting. So, I will again contact each of the lead advisors and distribute the post cards when they come – same thing for the trek itineraries when they come.

Philmont made this change to avoid the mad rush of cards coming in. Also, to eliminate what has become a large expense. Evidently, there are a few hardy souls that rather than wait for USPS of FedEx, drive to Philmont to turn in their cards ahead of the crowd.

[FrankJ]

This is good news for those of us that do not live in Irving. Those of us on the east coast were always hampered by getting the trek books (and the selection cards) a day later than those in Texas. Those going through a council contingencies had it worse since those pesky council volunteers always keep the trek books for a day or two.

I hope they beef up the internet to handle the band width on, March 29th, the day trey selection opens.


Thanks for the update Mike.

[mt_goodrich]

When I read the part about people driving all the way to Philmont to turn in their cards, I thought "wow..that is crazy".

Hopefully things will go smoothly, but I am prepared if they don't.