SueM

I just got back from staffing weekend 1 of our council course and what the Buffalo patrol came up with was "Yaba Daba Doo!" in honor of Fred Flintstone being a member of the Order of Water Buffalo. At the last course they used Tatonka.

I have heard many times that there was a saying in the "old" (pre-WB-21Century) "It will be revealed to you at the proper time". IOW, they did not WANT participants to know too much about the course ahead of time and things were kind of deliberately held back from participants. Now, as staffers, we are told to answer questions from potential participants openly but without giving out too much information, as "discovery" is still something that the participants need to go through...it's part of the fun of going through the course IMO. I certainly discuss what the ticket is about and advise potential participants to think about possible ticket items pre-course. I went into my course fairly prepared as far as ideas for ticket items..but still had to rethink many of them..but it was a help I think to have that information about the ticket before the course. sue

We started a Wood Badge Association in our council about 5 years ago and we (the association) plan and hold our own reunions. We are basically an independant group, though we do have council staff advisors on our BOD and all our funds do go through the council channels. We raise our own funds through dues, memorabilia sales and other fund raisers. We get no financial help from the council...but provide the council with program support in any way we can. For example one of the projects we've done is to build collaspable bridges for cub scout packs to use for crossovers..one for each district in the council. We also provide scholarship help to people who want to attend WB or Powderhorn, who may not be able to afford the fees. We've also provided cracker barrels for summer camp staff, etc. Anyway..when it comes to reunions, we generally just have a member find a place that we can use for free..perhaps a church or fire hall or the like and then we plan from there. The last one we did was a spaghetti dinner on a Sunday afternoon, where we just charged a minimal fee for dinner to cover the costs of food and also invited the families to participate so that we would not take away from family time too much and they could have a better understanding of what WB is all about. We had a great turnout and had a really good time. As far as I know, we have no issues with liability or insurance and have not had to do any kind of waivers for any of these events. It may take a bit of a fight to get your council to agree to it, but it sounds like forming your own formal WBA might be what you need to do. It took us a while to "convince" our council that it was a worthwhile thing. Sue M.

A little background....A local AF Scouting friend of mine is currently stationed at one of Saddam's former Palaces in Iraq. There are so many scouters over there that they have set up a local council for them, so that they can go out into the community and bring scouting to the local kids. Anyway, I received this message a couple of days ago and thought I'd pass this along here...the goal is to collect soccer balls. If anyone is interested in doing this maybe on a troop wide or as a community event, let me know and I will supply you with a contact name and number, which I did not want to post here. Sue M. "ACST Classmates,Hope all is well! Lookin' for some help with the program below we're"kicking off" (see attached charts). It's PA & SJA approved so widestdissemination is possible. Pls send to friends/orgs back home as yourtime allows. Thanks!Maj Chaudhary--------------------------------BLUF: Request your help getting the word out on a program we are kickingoff. The program is called OPERATION SOCCER BALL(See attached PPT). BACKGROUND: Improved security conditions in the battlespace provides atremendous opportunity to build bridges at the point-of-effect. Today,the point-of-effect is the Iraqi people, and how our service membersrelate to them. - I had the chance to play soccer with some Iraqi kids a week ago at aclinic. I have to say there were significant communicationbarriers...UNTIL THE SOCCER BALL SHOWED UP, and we were able to have alittle "kick around." No translator needed, we were instant friends.Soccer was our common language and the kids all went home with smiles. REQUESTED ACTION: We need your help building bridges with the Iraqipeople--send us a soccer ball; one, five or twenty--if you could see thelasting effect it had on them, you'd send a 1000!! Address is in theattached PPT. As we celebrate the 60th Anniv of the Berlin Airlift,you'll see that Operation Soccer Ball continues the legacy of the "CandyBomber,"and the message of hope. - Can you pass this around? Its got PA & SJA's stamp so widestdissemination is possible through DOD/civilian channels back in CONUS.We're looking for max participation from back home. Schools, scoutingtroops, etc. Anybody that wants to donate. Thanks for your time!"

KC53, This is my home council camp and I just got back from Week 1 on Saturday. This was our second year at the camp and I know most of the staff, but to answer your question...I was impressed with the MB instructors that my boys had for various MB's as they were thorough and just did not accept "I did that in school!" as a verification for requirements (as sometimes happens). They held to requirements pretty well from what I could see and expected high standards of work. Our Nighthawk program leader is really good! She had something like 140 boys in the program last week and they had a great time! The 2009 leaders guide will be available in the not too distant future. The camp is still in the formation stages though and may be experimenting with different programs along the way, but they do offer the CHASE program which takes scouts out for real sailing and we have a nice COPE/Climbing program too for older boys. There are also some good waterfront programs but they are very restricted in numbers so a very early registration in those programs is suggested! Sue M.

Beaverlll, Thanks! How did you find your experience a SA-TG as opposed to being a TG??? I think it's going to be difficult for me to have to somewhat step back from things and just watch..I'm the kind who wants to somewhat help -too- much!..in the sense that if I see something that needs to be done, or isn't being done, that I jump in and do it myself..It's how I was brought up - that if you see something that needs to be done, you don't wait for someone to tell you to do it! So..stay tuned!! We're having our first short staff meeting next week, so I'm sure I'll have a better idea of things and start trying to develop the mindset that I'll need more. SueM

Love it Brent!! sue

John, Thanks..I appreciate the advice. It sort of makes sense..but in our council, we don't use slides, etc. Each TG makes their own personalized presentation, though they are presented and reviewed by the staff during the staff development days to make sure that they are complete. We were advised a bit as to things like limit the bullets on a page..number of words in the bullets, things like that. suem

I have acted as a MB counselor to my own son for several MB's along the way, including a couple of Eagle required that I worked on with the troop as a group. Since I am also the SM, the I felt that I needed to avoid any illusion of "conflict of interest", so what I did was to have other adults in the troop review the worksheets for any work that my son did outside of a group effort to get their opinion as to whether or not he had met the requirements. I did the same thing for his Eagle project..took it to several other adults to review and had one of them sign off on it. When I did his Eagle SM's conference, I also had a couple of adults there to witness it too and encouraged them to ask questions themselves if they had any that they felt I might have missed. I did not want anyone to be able to "question" whether I had given him any "special treatment"...as I do have those types in my troop! But I did these things on my own..not as a troop "bylaw" or anything. SueM

John, Thanks! I was honored and totally shocked that I was asked to step up and do this, as I was only signed on as a TG at first and then he reshuffled the staff a bit. I'm not sure I was the best candidate..but the CD said that he had confidence that I could do it, so how could I not give it a try!! Luckily, I know all the troop guides pretty well already, so I have a pretty good idea of how they do things and their committment level. We haven't started the staff development yet..but will soon so any advice or suggestions for me are welcomed! SueM

I don't know if anyone has seen any of these yet..but a friend sent me this link to some videos on youtube and I thought you'd all enjoy them too...especially "The Ticket from Hell" and "Telling Secrets of Wood Badge" SueM Beaver SR-605 TG- SR-741 ASM for TG's SR-881

In my troop, it hasn't been too hard to get the boys to be the Chaplain's Aide because they feel it's the POR where they have to do the least work!! Another question I would like to throw out is, of those troops who DO have CA's...how many of those boys actually have or are working on their religious emblem, as one of the "requirements" for the POR say they should? I know that in our case, we probably have not had one who even earned it in Cubs. However, we only rarely have the training available for the boys for the most part...and the council can't even tell us where to find someone who can do the training for the boys. SueM

Argyle, To answer your question...No, the basic leaders training is NOT the same as the NLE! The NLE covers subjects that are more along the lines of how and where to get help, the organization of scouting, etc. and is the same course for both Cubs and Boy Scouts. The Basic leaders training is then leader -specific- ...teaching them the things that they need to know to run a troop. sue m.

TG has final say although if they or the participant have any questions or issues, all the staff is there to help in anyway they can. Sue M.

Haven't posted here in ages but I used to be a Beaver Sue M.