It is strongly recommended that each crew prepare a duty roster prior to arrival at Philmont. Philmont provides a blank Duty Roster on the back of the Crew Leader Copy you will receive at Logistics during Day 1 check-in but there is little time to prepare it!
Having a duty roster not only helps keep your crew organized and minimizes the amount of time spent on campsite chores but also makes a measurable difference in crewmember attitudes.
Hints:
Try to avoid assigning duties to tent mates that will keep the tent from being set up/struck. If possible, ensure that one tent mate has a duty so the other can set up/strike the tent when arriving at a campsite.
Where possible, assign an experienced crewmember with a new crewmember and make sure everyone understands the job descriptions.
Try to avoid assigning adult leaders clean-up duties on the evenings in staffed camps. After dinner on these nights, adults will go to Advisor Coffee at the staff area leaving the youth participants in the campsites.
It is up to the individual crew to decide whether to include adults in the duty roster or not. The developer of this tool recommends that all crew members (youth and adults) participate equally. You are a crew!
It is also up to the individual crew to decide whether or not the Crew Leader should be included in the duty roster. The Crew Leader is responsible for ensuring all jobs are performed, checks the crew into campsites, and numerous other tasks beyond those on the duty roster. Because of the responsibilities of the Crew Leader, the developer of this tool usually recommends they not be assigned specific duties but provide overall direction and supervision.
After preparing the duty roster, copies should be made (and laminated) for each crew member. This way everyone knows what their jobs are every day.
Duties are everyone’s responsibility! The people named for a specific duty on a given day are formally responsible for being sure the job gets done. Other crewmembers should pitch in and help.
Because of these considerations, it takes some effort and thought to develop an effective, balanced Duty Roster. For this reason, it should be done before departing for Philmont while the Crew Leader has time to consider these.
Duty Roster Tool: This is an Excel spreadsheet where the crew roster and selected Itinerary number are entered. The user can then customize the “jobs” to be assigned to the crewmembers throughout the trek.
When the duty roster has been finalized, it is recommended that copies be printed and laminated for each crewmember.
There are Duty Roster tools for 12-Day, 9-Day, and 7-Day treks. All have been updated to reflect the 2024 itineraries as published in the Philmont TREKS 2024 Itinerary Guidebook.
Click on the links below to download the Excel Duty Roster Spreadsheets
The names of the crew members are entered into the “roster” section along with trek information and duty assignments — it has been suggested that something like ALL CAPS or preceding the name with “Mr”, “Ms”, etc. be used to differentiate adults from youth. The duty roster can then be printed. The Crew Advisor may want to print a copy for each crew member and have them laminated prior to leaving for Philmont. This duty roster forms have been updated to reflect 2023 itineraries. It may be customized to better fit the needs of your crew by changing the “crewmember #” in the job assignment table.
After the duty roster has been customized to fit your crew’s needs, it should be printed with each crew member having a copy. The duty roster shows staffed camps in ALL CAPS and, for each camp whether Showers are available, if it is a Commissary camp, if there is a Trading Post, and if it is a Dry camp. It also shows the crew members assigned to the jobs for each day of the trek.
Note: These documents were developed using Office 365 on Windows 11. The spreadsheets will only run in a Windows desktop environment. The Excel spreadsheets make extensive use of macros and VBA code. You may have to enable these in the “Trust Center” to run the spreadsheets.