Barry Bingham

Here's a list of some in the news or who are well known that I quote often. If anyone wants to add one or make a comment, please let me know. The year in parathensis is the year of the Eagle Award. There are many more, including other Senators, Congressman, and CEO's. Steve Fossett (member of the National BSA Board) Mike Bloomberg - Mayor of New York City Dick Gebhardt (1955)- Minority leader US House of Representatives Neil Armstrong - first man on the moon Bill Bradley - former US Senator, New Jersey and New York Knicks basketball star Jeff Beingaman (1958) - US Senator, New Mexico Gerald R. Ford (1927) - US President James A. Lovell, Jr (1943) - Astronaut, Gemini, Appollo 13 J. William Marriott, Jr. - CEO Marriott Corp Sam M. Walton (1934) - deceased, CEO, Wal-Mart William Westmoreland (1930)- General, US forces Vietnam Elmo R. Zumwalt (1937) - Admiral, former Chief of Naval Operations. Mr. Justice Stephen Breyer - US Supreme Court

Your comments are an excellent testimony to why former Course Directors should not serve on another staff. I'm sure there are many former Course Directors who would NOT debate how something should be done based on their own course experience, but the opposite has been true too many times resultling in the policy I quoted from the Administrative Guide.

You are correct that former Wood Badge Course Directors do not serve on another staff (see below). I just completed serving as Course Director for C-34-02 in the Greater St. Louis Area Council. It was an honor to serve as Course Director. Page 3 of the Administrative Guide for Wood Badge for the 21st Century says: The Boy Scouts of America encourage volunteer leaders to achieve high levesl of leadership ability. To expand opportunities for as many Scouters as possible, a Scouter should serve only once as a Wood Badge course director and, after serving as a course director, should not serve on a Wood Badge staff again. There are three exceptions to this rule: (1) At the discretion of the Council training chair and with approval of the Scout executive, a veteran course director with recent course experience may be appointed to be a mentor for a current course director (2) in the event of the unexpected withdrawal of a course director from a specific course, a veteran course director may assume the position of course director and (3) if no other candidates are available, a course director may lead a second course. However, this situation should be a strong warning to a council that insufficient attention is being paid to developing and encouraging Scouters to grow in leadership skills and to accept leadership challenges.

The designation for a Wood Badge course, at least in the Central Region, is based on the following. I'll use C-34-02 as an example. The "C" does stand for the Central Region. The "02" stand for the year 2002. The number in the middle "34" represents the order the Central Region received the application from Council to conduct the course. Our course is the 34th applicaton processed by the Central Region.

Does anyone have an authoritative list of famous Eagle Scouts? I often cite some of the more visible Eagle Scouts (those in the news) when presenting the Eagle to Scouts....now you can fly with the rest of the Eagles, etc....and then name a few.

I am Course Director for C-34-02. We just completed the first three days of C-34-02 and will complete the last three on Sept 7-9, 2002. This is the fourth course in the Greater St. Louis Area Council using the new syllabus. Over 200 Scouters will have completed these four courses by Sept 9, 2002. The feedback from the first three courses has been OUTSTANDING. It was my privelege to serve as ASM-Program on the second course (fall 2001) and now Course Director for the fourth course. Participants complete a detailed feedback survey on the final day of the course. The new syllabus focuses on leadership, and does it extremely well. Based on my 32 years with Monsanto Company, all in human resources, I can say that the new syllabus does a great job with leadership training. We are teaching contemporary leadership skills that progressive companies put into practice during the last five years. I encourage everyone to attend 21st Century Wood Badge.

I would like to purchase a replica of a Baden-Powell uniform to wear as part of Wood Badge ceremonies. Does anyone know where such a uniform could be purchased?