SR540Beaver

The group has a facebook page with info and pictures. I'd say they are the real deal.

Calico, at first I didn't realize that they were a non GSUSA troop that has co-opting the brand. Part of my concern in what they were doing would be no different than if a KKK chapter charted a Cub Scout pack and altered the program to push white supremacy upon 6 to 10 year old children. I would think the BSA would have concerns. But you are right, this is a group that has founded a new program that obviously their parents approve of. Sadly, instead of learning about leadership, character, etc. they are being taught that white policemen are killing black people for no reason. I don't see how they are a benefit to the community........but I know there are those who think little of the BSA these days too.

My issue is this, it's indoctrination. I know there are those who would make the same claim with the BSA, but I would argue the point with them. Over all, we do have things like "reverence" and expectations of duty to country. But we do those in a fairly generic way. When we teach Citizenship merit badges, it is teaching about the role of government and our rights, not a preconceived agenda........and certainly not to grade school children. Scouting really does make a serious attempt to be diverse and inclusive. Can we do better? sure. But would you call these Radical Brownies diverse and inclusive? Are they teaching values and principles that foster character, independence, citizenship, etc.? I believe that the leaders think they a good thing, but I think they are doing more harm pushing an agenda as opposed to teaching principles that will serve youth thru their life.

I believe the title for that would be "awwwwwwsome brownies dude".

I'm not a Girl Scouter and I know that they are run differently than BSA, but this doesn't seem like an appropriate use of their program to me. http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2015/02/10/radical-brownies-girl-scouts-social-justice-oakland-black-lives-matter-protests/ "OAKLAND (KPIX 5) – After the recent Black Lives Matter protests, there is a new brownie troop in Oakland. Instead of selling cookies, they are spreading a message. On a Saturday afternoon in Oakland, a handful of 8 to 10 year old girls are gathered, in brown uniforms, giggling and eating cupcakes. They look like Girl Scouts, but it’s not just fun and games. And it’s not just fun and games. “White policeman are killing black young folks such as women, men and children,†one of the girls said. Another girl said, “Mike Brown. He was shot because he didn’t do nothing. Only the police officer shot him because of his skin color.†These girls are called the “Radical Brownies.†And instead of learning sewing, they’re learning social justice. Even their uniforms have a message. “The beret, it’s a Black Panther/Brown Beret twist,†one of the Radical Brownies said. “I think it’s very appropriate. A lot of the work the Black Panthers did was community oriented,†Radical Brownies co-founder Marilyn Hollinquest told KPIX 5........"

Let me play devil's advocate. So a kid writes his plan. It isn't on the national supplied form, it consists of a few hand scratched notes in pencil that really aren't even complete sentences, there are no pictures or diagrams and he can't articulate his project in an understandable way, but it has unit leader signatures......do you rubber stamp it because the kid "wrote" it and wish him luck? What is your standard within the stated rules and guidelines from national for an EBOR that you will accept a project or deny it? http://www.scouting.org/Home/GuideToAdvancement/EagleScoutRank.aspx

My troop did and I assume they still do as I'm no longer active with them. We created the position somewhat in self defense as many kids in our district would get turned down on their initial BOR. This had much more to do with the district advancement chair and Eagle coordinator and lack of training and consistency. We always had volunteers on the EBOR's each month and knew the process. We had an Eagle adviser in the troop who would walk the boy thru each step. Don't get me wrong, we didn't tell them what to do, find projects, do the write up or anything like that. They did all the leg work, we merely looked over their shoulders and made suggestions on how to polish it so it would get thru the first time. It worked. We had one kid in the troop who chose not to avail himself of the opportunity and did it "his way". It took THREE EBOR's to get his project approved and TWO to get it signed off. Things have changed since then as our retired SM has taken over as district Eagle coordinator and runs a pretty tight, trained, consistent and efficient ship. That being said, I do sit on EBOR's every month and I'm shocked at what some of the boys bring to us that their SM and CC have signed off on. An adviser is a good thing to help a boy learn how to put his project together and present it.

Actually, that's the legislature. If they can't iron out that pressing issue, it could wind up in the state supreme court I suppose.

I'm proud to say that here in Oklahoma, my troop includes one of our state supreme court justices as a registered leader. Been on many a campout with him and he has written a number of recommendation letters and provided reference for my son thru college and beyond. In fact, he recently server as our district chair........but then, we're knuckle draggers here in fly over country, so...... Oh I almost forgot, our Council President is also a Federal Judge.

Back when I was a kid in grade school in the 60's, we had no school busses. There were no daycares that picked up either. Most moms stayed at home, but many families only had one vehicle. Everybody walked to school. My elementary school was three blocks from our house and I walked it everyday from kindergarten except in bad weather. There were probably 6 or 7 kids that lived on my block and we all walked together or one of the moms took us in bad weather. I began walking to school and back in kindergarten at the age of 5. I'm still here to tell about it at 57.

Skip, No one complained about the parents. A police car drove past the kids walking home and picked them up. They took them home, spoke to the parents and then called protective services. Funny, on my way to work this morning, I drove past four grade school kids in a "rough" part of town walking to school and thought about this story.

Putting on my moderator hat here. There is an expectation for our members here to get along by applying the Oath and Law and to lead by example. Please knock off the sniping at each other. I'd prefer not to have to edit people's posts.

Well that's just sexist!

I'm going to show my age here, but remember the Disney educational films you would see at school. You know, the ones where they roll a film projector into the room and mount a film and show it on a projector screen? Of all the educational films I ever watched, they were the best and most informative. They were humorous and featured well known and loved characters which made them appealing. But the real key was taking the information and breaking it down into bite size pieces and presenting it in very easy to understand terms. Sadly, I don't think the BSA could get Disney to make a cartoon with Donald, Mickey and Goofy showing the right way and the wrong way to use the patrol method, but what a gold mine it would be. In our tablet and youtube world today, a simple, yet funny animation that teaches the principles of the boy led patrol method would be a great way to reach our youth without them sitting thru boring classroom presentations for hours on end.

Yes, and having an engine isn't the aim of taking a trip by automobile either.......but it sure comes in handy having one under the hood when you want to take the trip. Is having an engine a weakness in car building or taking a trip?

Sorry for the long post. Yes, Wood Badge is an adult leadership training course. That is how it’s sold and that is what it is. It is not a skills course. IOLS teaches Tenderfoot to First Class skills. It is not a course to teach you the ins and outs of being an SM or a Committee member. SM Specific and Troop Committee Challenge do that. BSA has various training courses designed to teach specific things and WB is an adult leadership training course. Nothing more, nothing less. Primarily, its purpose is to teach us as adult Scouters how to work in a cooperative fashion with other adults to achieve a successful outcome. That is in my own words, not anything from the course. Now, that being said, I think of it as a chicken fried steak. You can cook the meat all by itself and it wouldn’t be half bad. Or you can dredge it in flour and seasoning and fried to a delicious, crispy, golden brown piece of heaven on Earth. WB is an adult leadership training course, but it is dredged in Troop and Patrol culture. I honestly don’t see how anyone can go thru the course and not see it. You have an SM and SPL with ASM’s and QM’s on staff. You cross over the first day of the course into a troop and patrol and are assigned a Troop Guide. Facilities permitting, you should be camping as a patrol away from the other patrols. You should be cooking as a patrol. You will make a patrol flag, totem and yell as a patrol. You will eat, sleep, learn and travel as a patrol. Almost each day of the course, you will have a Troop meeting, a Patrol meeting and a PLC. You have a Scribe who will write and submit stories to the Gillwell Gazette. You do Start, Stop, Continue as a patrol. You participate in activities like the Who Me game as a patrol where you learn about each other and The Problem Solving Round Robin where you work as a team to solve problems. You take part in a campfire program as a patrol. In the midst of all of that, you are learning diversity and inclusiveness, stages of team development, communication, planning, the teaching and leading EDGE, problem solving, decision making, coaching and mentoring, self assessment and more. And you do all of that learning as a patrol and practice it within your patrol. Your WB patrol is the lab where you put what you are learning into practice. When you leave the course, you have the skills to teach the interaction of a patrol to the boys in your unit thru modeling it in the way the adults work together. How people can say that the patrol method is almost non-existent in WB is beyond me. It’s everywhere in WB. The whole culture of the course is built around the patrol model. Just as the outdoors is the classroom in a troop and patrol, the patrol is the classroom in the WB course. That adults take the course and then come back to their unit and adult run it is not a failure of the course or its materials. It is an adult not taking the lessons to heart and being able to turn lose and let go to work with the boys on how to run it themselves. We are in an era of helicopter parents and they all fear for the safety of their children. I grew up standing in the seat of my parent’s car without a seatbelt and rode my bike without a helmet. We left in the morning and came back home when the street lights came on. For most people, those days are gone. We schedule every minute of our children’s lives with activities and want them all to be little Einsteins and excel in everything. We fret over whether their food is organic or has the proper balance of fats, proteins, fiber etc. We won’t let them go in the front yard alone. In our current day environment, is it any surprise that we have adults afraid to let the boys run the troop when we have parents happy to let their kids live at home until they are 30 and cook and clean for them? WB is a great course and it has been a real eye opener for many scouts, but I don’t know that it can reverse conventional “wisdom†and culture for everyone.

I'm always disheartened to read these threads. I've staffed 4 WB course and 2 NYLT courses. I've been an NYLT course director and WB backup course director and attended 3 course director conferences. The course directors conferences are required and bring together CD's from across the region for networking, training, best practices and to learn of upcoming changes to the course. Each CD signs a pledge to deliver the course as written. It is the BSA's best attempt to ensure that the course is being run correctly and the training materials are being imparted correctly and that a WB course is a WB course and everyone is on the same page across the nation. Are there some traditions or differences between councils? Of course there are. Everyone's resources are different, so they can't be identical in every way. But I am familiar with the syllabus and I assure you, the Patrol Method and servant leadership are front and center in the courses. They camp as a patrol, cook as a patrol, move as a patrol, sit in patrols in meetings and sessions. They make their own patrol flag and totem and rotate patrol positions thruout the course. The troop and patrol is modeled and followed thruout the course. It if isn't in the course you were in, they are doing it wrong and someone needs to say something to your SE or national. From my training experiences, I can't begin to see how anyone could walk away from WB or NYLT and not understand the Patrol method of servant leadership. Obviously, some of you have. Just my two cents.

There were a variety of Wood Badge courses. There was Cub, Boy Scout, Professional, etc. Just like BSA now consolidating to one oath and law across programs, they decided to consolidate down into one course. It's much easier to keep up with one set of training materials than 3 or 4. I don't know if that makes it better......but it makes it easier.

First, you're entitled to your opinion. Second, the purpose of the OA is service. Third, there isn't a district lodge meeting. There are chapter meetings at the district level and lodge meetings at the council level. There are chapter advisers and lodge advisers. Native American lore and traditions have been a successful part of OA since its inception.

Interesting! For all of the 21st Century naysayers, the current course syllabus still has every one of the elements in it that Hillcourt, Thomas, and Lawrence put in back then.

Jesus would also do this. Luke 9:5 "And as for those who do not receive you, as you go out from that city, shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them." http://biblehub.com/luke/9-5.htm

Part of the OA's purpose is to promote camping, especially summer camp. While OA has taken a more visible role in community service, part of their purpose is to provide service to the council's camp properties. In our council, our lodge holds a service weekend once a year where we go to one of our six properties and spends the weekend doing projects. That is besides the service provided during Ordeals. Many chapters will provide some sort of service to a camp. Stop and think about it. Consider the following taken from OA literature. One of the requirements states, "In the past two years, have completed fifteen days and nights of camping under the Boy Scouts of America. The fifteen days and nights of camping must include one long-term camp of six days and five nights, and the balance of the camping must be short-term camps." The Purpose of the OA is: ◦Recognize those who best exemplify the Scout Oath and Law in their daily lives and through that recognition cause others to conduct themselves in a way that warrants similar recognition. ◦Promote camping, responsible outdoor adventure, and environmental stewardship as essential components of every Scout’s experience, in the unit, year-round, and in summer camp. ◦Develop leaders with the willingness, character, spirit and ability to advance the activities of their units, our Brotherhood, Scouting, and ultimately our nation. ◦Crystallize the Scout habit of helpfulness into a life purpose of leadership in cheerful service to others.

We don't hold OA elections in the park where everyone is invited to come participate. OA has very specific rules and regulations for OA elections. They are held at the unit level by an OA election team who are not members of the unit and the boys in the unit vote on their peers on the ballot. If the unit does not allow an OA election, the boys of their unit will never become members without switching units. The SM serves at the pleasure of the CO. They are within their rights to determine policy for the unit.

Hear, hear!!! As a former Chapter Adviser, I can attest first hand to the lack of support from units. I came from the largest troop in one of the largest districts. My troop has always supported the Lodge and Chapter. No matter how we tried, we just couldn't get other troops off of high center. Only about half of them allow us to do an election for them. We had one troop that resisted each year for years saying that the parents believed OA to be a cult! Say what? It's an official program of the BSA to recognize honor campers and is based on service to others. When the old SM retired, the new SM finally allowed elections. The biggest issue is SM's. I can't tell you how many of them would refuse to be nominated and say they didn't have time for OA in addition to the troop. Boy Scouts may be boy led, but boys follow the example set by adults. If SM Bob doesn't wear his uniform or support the OA, neither will Boy Scout Timmy. Press you adult leadership to support OA. If you have a non-functioning chapter who won't come do an election, call someone from the lodge. If you can't light a fire under them, contact the Scout Executive. He is the Supreme Chief of the Fire and whether a council has a Lodge or not is solely at his discretion. Your Chapter and Lodge, if properly run provides so many avenues of adventure, service and leadership that compliment a boy's troop career it is unimaginable. Right now, two of our former Lodge Chiefs are serving as Section and Region Chiefs.