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Well said Jessica, well said.

When I was a kid, we referred to the adults as Mr. and Mrs. (we had a mom as our Committee Chair for a time, which was quite unusual then). When I was not at a meeting, my ASM, who became my Scoutmaster, was a great friend and mentor, so he was Jim to me. We're still great friends to this day. Now in my troop I insist that the boys use the formal Mr. or Mrs. to address adults, as a sign of respect, but I will allow the older boys to call me by my first name when not at the meetings, and they do...

Regarding the reason why WB training is not scout specific, I think I understand why that is. It seems to me that the Blanchard / Covey materials (and all the others) used are not industry specific, scout specific, organization specific. They're just good management techniques and practices, and they happen to fit well with what we as adult leaders do. Communications is important regardless if you're talking in front of a board of directors, a troop committee, a church session...they're all important and the skill set is the same. Team building takes place on a daily basis in a boy scout troop, and it's important that we know what is happening and what can be done to ensure success in that process (or at least how to recognize when success is not on the horizon). Conflict resolution, project planning, ethics in action...all important in our work and play. I believe the thinking in why the course was changed from a purley scouting based skills course to a management skills course was so that it would appeal to a broader audience. There was a tendency to see WB trained leaders poo poo'ing units that did not lash thier furniture together, use service patrol implements, wear shorts, knee socks and campaign hats as a required uniform... I could be all wet on that, I've not spoken to anyone who was in that decision tree, so it's pure speculation. I do know that the WB21 is a great course and produces some great results in the people that use the skills to deliver a dynomite program. I also know that those folks I've met who took the last iteration of the course are awesome leaders as well and are not WB Lords, in fact most of them like the new course better than the last for what it does teach. Oh, and I still like the patch, it's good looking even though it's not official. Cheers

The Centennial Ring is to be worn around the World Crest to show off the BSA's 100th Anniversary. I bought several dozen and gave them to my scouts and adult leaders. I also gave one to each of my 100th Anniversary committee members at my last council meeting. They're awesome I think. The "Year of celebration" patches are a sqare white patch that is worn as a temporary patch over right pocket. The patch itself has no requirments to purchase for $1.99, but the ribbons do. That program launches 9/1/09 and continues through 2010. I'm buying each of my scouts and adults one of the Year of Celebration patches also, they are quite a unique item with those ribbons hanging from the bottom.

I'm pretty generous when it comes to FOS, but if I wasn't in tune to what it was actually used for I'd say... I would be impressed with something tangible and something I could get my dollars and sense around. I'd want to see some improvements at our summer camp property. I know FOS $ are not for that purpose, they are meant for general operating cash flow, but by and large the rank n file member of the council want to see something, touch something that they can correlate value with, and camp property works well for that.

Awesome, and congrats again. I've been doing Regalia presentations a lot lately, I'll be staffing my 3rd course in 3 years in a couple of weeks, and in our council any staffer from any course is asked to help out with beadings from courses they weren't on. I did one last night. I took my kudu (I'll be the SPL for our upcoming course WE4-45-1-09) and summoned the presentation to order. A friend who staffed the participants course and I did the presentations. This was at a troop CoH and this gentleman was the ONLY member of the unit who had attended WB. Now there are 8 more from that unit signed up for our Fall course. Awesome. Maybe next time there will be enough of us critters there to sing the song. I have noticed a resistance lately to having presentations of the Wood Badge at Roundtables. One or two a year is great. One a month gets on the nerves of the RT commissioners I've found. While we as Wood Badge Staffers like to appeal to the greatest audience, we need to make sure we're also not alienating those we're there to serve. Locally we've taken to convincing our participants to have their regalia presented at unit meetings and training activities. We still have one or two Roundtable presentations a year, but we're getting the message out to a broader audience.

I think one of the biggest difference between the BSA and GSA (not from experience, but from it being explained to me by others) is that the BSA charters independent organization with ownership of the local program, who in turn charter local units with ownership in the program... Girl Scouts are centralized and ownership remains with the national council and is licensed to local "neighborhoods" or councils and in turn troops. This is a fundamental organizational difference and produces or necessitates a different communications matrix.

For Boy Scout Books the spiral bound books are much better and seem more durable, as long as the boys don't rip the pages out. We try to get the boys to make them last the 7 years they're in the troop. The cub books however are ok with the standard binding as they are used for only one year (more or less) then traded up. I wouldn't spend the extra money on the spiral cub books unless you're using them on an extended basis. Note about the standard bound scout handbook. My son's first scout handbook started to fall apart within a year of joining the troop and receiving his first book. The rank advancement section 'fell out' and was eventually lost. This was a huge pain in the back side as we needed to replace all of those dates and sigs... We ended up retreiving the official record and guessing at who signed what. Part of the cool thing about scout books is seeing who signed a kid off and when through his years in the troop.

Lisa, Our main fundraiser for our Jambo Bound boys is our annual Popcorn sale. The boys can make up to 40% or so on commish which goes toward their payments. One of my boys from my troop earned 1/3 of his Jamboree fees this year already. The council loves this idea as well because they also make a percentage. My Jambo troop is looking at selling first aid kits / earthquake preparedness kits (California, go figure), and recycling electronics as cash generators as well. When my son attended in 05, his troop sold Christmas trees, pumpkins, patches, did car washes, just to make it easier. some kids participated some didn't. One boy participated in most fund raisers and paid for his Jamboree experience 100% and had $800 in spending money on top. He spent about $150 at the Jambo and kept the rest. Your son's going to have an incredible time.

Pack meeting and troop courts of honor are always good bets. It's important to the boys to see their leaders earning recognition as well, gives them the sense that "we're all in this together" when it comes to rank advancement and special training awards. You do Wood Badge a service when having your beading in such a public way as well. The next course will benefit from your ceremony by possibly enlisting some of the other adults in your unit to attend. Congrats on completing your ticket and earning your Wood Badge.

When I attended Wood Badge in 03 the entire staff had those patches on, with 3 beads. I thought it was pretty cool honestly. I love the patch, but it is not an "official" patch, so I won't put it on my uniform. I will add them (2 beader, 3 beader) to my patch collection. someday when I grow up I'm going to do something with all those patches...haha.

Holy Cow, $3800...I thought our costs were high at $2800. Sure want to see your tour itinerary. Our council just filled our 4th troop, which makes me happy. We'll start regular monthly meetings starting in August with a couple from now till then. very exciting.

Wow, awesome. Thanks for the pictures. That will definitely be a very special way to honor your Eagles. Great work on that.

nice. if you host the picture somewhere else you could post the link to it here. I'd love to see it.

We used a 3 lane track, each car per category (tiger, wolf, bear, webelos, siblings and adults) were laid out in order of entry, each car ran three times, once in each lane, results recorded (1 for first, 2 for second and 3 for third). The top three cars with the lowest scores were 1, 2 and 3 respectively. all of those that placed in 1st, 2nd, or 3rd in the scout classes raced each other in the same fashion. Then we had an overall 1st second and 3rd. Easy to deal with, no room for argument, everyone could participate and have fun, and we never had any hurt feelings.