TAHAWK

I sympathize with your experience, which has not been mine,

I have a 9 11/16 x 11/15/16 size, six page, folded and stapled on the left, promo piece for The American Boy Scouts ("Plays and Pastimes")[We would say "play" today rather than "plays.] C.H.Lawrence '12 Wonder if yours is the same sort of thing.

Between disinterest and myth, lots of work remains to get a clear history. Old newspaper files are a great source.

​Harrisburg Telegraph, September 12, 1911 "BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA, A MIGHTY ARMY FOR GOOD, NOT FOR WAR BUT TO MAKE THE BOY A BETTER MAN"

Council 440 called it "440 Training" (And the roundtable district slots were "Chairs" and reported to the Scout and Cub Chairs, respectively, instead of the DC.)

There is "trained," and then there is "trained." So if you staff current basic training, it's as if you took the training. Do the Cooking session, and you're completely "trained" as if you actually took the entire course. But we really, really want you to be "trained" -- or "trained."

And since it's the Patrol Method . . . .

I have never taken IOLS. (Which aims to give you the information and skills to pass the outdoor portion of the T-F requirements) I twice completed the outdoor portion of Scoutmaster training and completed Wood Badge at a time when outdoor skills were part of the training. I have staffed IOLS thirteen times. This sort of combination of facts may apply to any long-serving commissioned Scouter.

Yes. Heading for a presidential election with no candidate I can vote for. Again. We should have an option of "None of the above." Girl Scouts. http://www.girlscouts.org/content/dam/girlscouts-gsusa/forms-and-documents/about-girl-scouts/facts/2014_audited_financial_statements.pdf http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/girl-scouts-face-financial-troubles-declining-membership-article-1.1381945

.When National mandated that my oldest council use BSA software, all the pre-2005 data was not just lost but replaced. I am shown as having completed SM training in 1910 and staffed WB in 1926. We are told to just submit what we think is correct and the Council Registrar had the access to change to what we say is correct. "Records"

Yes. Given that the good words on what the Patrol method is are still here and there in BSA's publications in 2016 but largely missing from the training syllabii, the comment I received that "the Patrol Method has been misplaced" seem to be accurate. Now if we could just find those folks with "strategic" input. 0___0

I mentioned that "learners" in the first version of Wood Badge were supposed to already know about Scouting methods. Here are some questions they had to be able to discuss well enough to satisfy staff before they could take the "practical" course: 1965 3(a) How do you interpret the words of the Scoutmaster's Handbook: "The Scoutmaster's job is not to run HIS troop, but to train his boy leaders to tun THEIR troop"? 5. List what you consider might be five obstacles to the use of the patrol method and explain how those obstacles can be overcome. 11. ... [How would you] tell [a Scoutmaster] how he can make the patrol method a reality in his troop. 1969 3. Added comment for staff grading question 3 (above): "This is the heart of citizenship training on the troop level. The writer should indicate that he realizes this and has thought about the theory behind the statement as well as its meaning."

The paperwork from the years when I was taking "junior" leadership training did not survive four family moves and my move to Ohio fifty years ago. I recall: Since our Scoutmaster, Mr. Smith, was the Council Training Chairman, the topics covered at the troop, district, and council level covered pretty much the same topics, only with more detail and more practical applications. Training started with going over the Patrol Method as set out in The Handbook for Patrol Leaders, 1950 ed. We were responsible for our patrol and its members, to those members, and to the troop. We were encouraged to lead by consensus (by "agreement") and plan separate patrol activities (meetings, hikes, campouts, service projects) according to what the Scouts found most interesting. (I recall "Don't be a boss" being emphasized as contrasting with leading.) We were given mimeograph copies of suggestions for themes and specific activity element to share with our patrols. Some of them showed how activities would help pass advancement requirements. We were given planning forms and sample equipment and supply lists for meetings, hikes, campouts, and service projects There were presentations on planning process (Although "process was not used.): goals; resources needed; written plan; communicating plan to all involved; checking up with those involved as the event neared to be sure all were informed/ready; always thinking about if the plan would work; and AFTERWARDS discussing what worked/what didn't/how to improve - all in a positive way. We were told to get to know each Scout in the patrol as much as possible and to be a friend to each of them. (At council training, there was a skit "Why is Bobby unhappy?" that was about paying attention to each Scout as an individual Correct in private; praise in public. We were told that example is the best way to lead Scouts to good behaviors. ("Follow me" vs. "Go.") Troop structure was discussed. We were told we represented our patrol at the Patrol Leaders Council and kept the patrol informed about what went on at the PLC. We were told we could not do a good job of teaching Scoutcraft if we didn't work hard to master it ourselves. At the same time, we were told to be happy if a patrol member became a real wizard on a given Scoutcraft topic and to use him to teach. (Be a leader in Scoutcraft knowledge.") We were told where to go for answers, which came down to more experienced Scouts, adults, and books. The district even ended with a demonstration campfire and we had three campfires at the week-long council training. I especially recall a session of "What makes something funny?" and one on song-leading (a skill that seems to have disappeared from BSA literature and campfire practice).

Leadership for whom? As we were discussing Wood Badge, do you mean training for adults? "in the training" = ??? "redefined" by whom? My first SM told me that taking care of the Scouts under your leadership was the Gold Standard of leadership. I had not heard from anyone that meeting that standard was all there was to leadership. Apparently Bill did not think that given the contents of the leadership handbooks that he wrote. desertrat77, as we had six Patrol Leaders, two Crew Leaders, one Senior Patrol Leader, two Assistant Senior Patrol Leaders, and a Senior Crew Leader, the word "leader" was often heard in Troop 43 The Handbook for Patrol Leaders began with "Patrol Leadership," and the Scoutmaster's Handbook was subtitled "A Manual of Troop Leadership." As I have said, I missed the 70's and was not in your troop, so YMMV. "I will plan my work. I know that there is only one way to be a successful director and leader and that is to know that I am trying to accomplish and how I want it done." "Bill Hillcourt, "The Patrol Leader's Creed"

There is some question - again - about the "ends"? An adult got Eagle when I was a Scout. We all thought it was pretty weird.

I spoke of version 2 - Wood Badge that some allege marked the beginning in 1971 of the conspiracy to destroy "traditional Scouting." The current version has virtually no Scoutcraft. It is all leadership methods training. Supposedly, IOLS covers the same material as the original Wood Badge in 1/8th of the time. What are we doing about that in our districts? Some White Stag folks influenced adult and youth training in BSA. In their confidence, they do not feel the quoted language puts them in a bad light. As they(believe they) were right and Bill was wrong, the quotes show how poor, obsolete Bill had to be disregarded. But BSA has left White Stag behind. They preach the disregarded notions of "leadership skills " Yet they go on doing what they can to advance the ideas that they think are best. What are we doing about promoting the ides we think are right? There ought to be a required ratio of doing something to complaining about what others are doing.

You must Scout in a different "world" than the rest of us. Practically speaking, and regardless of theory, all the strategic-level Scouters are paid Scouters. We volunteers can come up with strategically-significant ideas, but we will not have input into strategic decisions. We are neither strategic leaders nor members of the core constituency for BSA.. If we were, things would look different. Under two years ago, I encountered a paid Scouter at Corporate who was a real Scouter, and he had great hopes to fix things, esp. in the realm of training. He saw many areas where improvement was needed. He no longer has that job. So even he could not have strategic impact. I do what I can when I can to brighten the corner where I am. I do not delude myself that I have any great impact on the machine - just hope to impact some kids - directly and through training other Scouters. __________________________ The patrol is the team in Scouting. The troop is merely the league in which the patrols play the game of Scouting. Scoutmaster, how are your teams doing?.

I don't think Bill gets enough credit. However, B.S.A., through Scouting, did say this about Bill in 1985: "the foremost influence on development of the Boy Scouting program." Source: https://books.google.com/books?id=Hj46AQAAIAAJ&pg=RA12-PA26&lpg=RA12-PA26&dq=%22the+foremost+influence+on+development+of+the+Boy+Scouting+program.%22&source=bl&ots=mv-4wP8d8H&sig=uq_UiZ2UpAE-b-kQ4hZFFzeiowM&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi1vI-k8JbLAhVD6CYKHasrCE4Q6AEIJzAC#v=onepage&q=%22the%20foremost%20influence%20on%20development%20of%20the%20Boy%20Scouting%20program.%22&f=false Who since 1985 has approach Bills' statute? I think he remains "the foremost influence on development of the Boy Scouting program" by a large margin. BSA also awarded Bill the Silver Buffalo after his second "life" in Scouting, and it was clearly not for writing a big check. Most of us know about the quote from the White Stag site. Consider who is writing and what motive they might have. Where is the citation from any BSA source? Why MUST this be true in the absence of primary source evidence? Further, what do White Stag's claims prove about the change in Wood Badge being in service of the New Scouting Program? Have you read the syllabus? Camping for eight days-- especially cooking all meals over open fires - does not seem especially "urban centered." Did I mention that we had to build our own toilet before we could use the camp's toilets? I did mention the shower we had to build is we wished to shower. Pioneering; map and compass; axe work; wide games; first aid. As I had seen the first course as "junior staff," I saw differences but not that difference. Not very urban-centered. The NSP came at a time when membership growth had flattened and, according to BSA, retention was pretty bad - 50% dropout before Tenderfoot. Clearly BSA did not do the right thing, but there was obviously an urge to move somewhere different. They "noticed" that most Scouts came from urban areas and off they went. (They missed the fact that most Scouts had always come from urban areas. Knowledge of the past is not big at B.S.A. If it were, Bill would be a choice for the Scouting Heritage essay and his statue would greet you at HQ.) Thankfully, Bill rewrote Scouting in 1978.

Version 1 of Wood Badge did not go away by accident. It went away as the result of a process that started in 1965 and ended in 1971 by replacing T-F first class skills with eleven "leadership skills" plus less Scoutcraft. If BSA wanted to use Wood Badge to downplay outdoor skills, they did a poor job as version 2 was still by invitation only to experienced Scouters. I had six years as an SM and three as an SA and I was very junior when I took the course in 1984. For eight days we tented in tents we erected with tent stakes we made and with proper knots and hitches we tied. We showered in showers we lashed together in our respective patrol sites and ate food we cooked over open fires - even for the course "feast." I have utterly failed to find statements of why BSA did what it did in 1972, beyond vague references to decreasing dropouts by offering more choice in advancement. Nor can I find when the process that lead to 1972 started, much less a single connection to training. Perhaps you can do better. Can't address "Across the Board." The non-scouting factors you mentioned--decline in support, adult willingness to support scouting--true, hard to pin those on WB. But I'll offer this. I've been in councils and districts where WB was used as a wedge rather instead of an organizational rallying point. The attitude turned alot of people off. Not true everywhere (like the council I'm in now) but it's out there. No vacuum and hardly grass roots. The Patrol Method ceased being taught in an coherent or complete way in Scoutmaster training in 2000, not 1971. From 2000 until September, 2014, the information about the Patrol Method in Scoutmaster training was in bits and drabs and by reference to other publications. Now, part of the Patrol Method is once again in Scoutmaster training, although all of it is still in BSA publications, scattered here and there for those that recognize it for what it is. (Funny it's all still there if the goal is to eliminate it. E.G.: “(d) The membership of a troop shall be organized on the patrol system.†Rules and Regulations of the Boy Scouts of America (2016); e.g. : “[The patrol members] interact in a small group outside the larger troop context, working together as a team and sharing the responsibility of making their patrol a success.†B.S.A., website (2016) A coherent and express description of the Patrol Method was never in Wood Badge. For versions 1 and 2, experienced Scouters by invitation, it was assumed that you knew about Scouting's most important method if you were accepted. Indeed, for version 1, the prospective learner had to write an essay demonstrating knowledge of Scouting and its methods and have that essay accepted before taking the course. In version 3 of Wood Badge, I am told that the Patrol Method is "taught by example." Given that the goal is to have everyone take Wood Badge and that many "participants" are very new to Scouting and never had a shot at a proper explanation of the Patrol Method, that approach seems like poor pedagogy to me. But a poor job of teaching Tuckman's "Situational Leadership" is also part of the course after BSA's internal editing of the original Blanchard syllabus. These are clues for a conclusion of DABJ (doing a bad job) -- EDGE without the first "E." If some are more satisfied with conspiracy that incompetence, I'm not one of those persons. I have seen too much evidence supporting Hanlon's Razor. If you refer to the prohibition of camping without adults "present," I suggest that you look to "risk management" in this Age of Lawsuits to find the reasons. If, as was in my experience in the 1950s, the adults are taught to stay away until time to ask, "Are you guys about ready to go home?" all is not lost. (The bigger problem is the notion that the boy-lead troop" is all there is to the Patrol Method and the rejection of even that little part of the method.) Wood Badge is not the end-all-be-all of strategic leadership training. It is about leading small groups. Indeed, version 2 (AKA "THE BEGINNING OF THE END") was very heavily about small group leadership tactics. E.g.: how to counsel a Scout. There is a little strategy training in version 3, but not much. Nor have I found Wood Badge to be something in the nature of a Secret Illuminatii that governs Scouting. Wood Badge, for those in real power, is merely an item on a punch list. The real enthusiasts are volunteers and, thus, without much power to influence even council direction, much less large national moves or strategy. And were Wood Badge some sort of secret virus to destroy "traditional Scouting" (even the traditional Scouting that is merely imagined), why was version 2 not opened to all - especially the clueless newbies -- the quicker to achieve the eeeeevil result? Instead, it remained by invitation only for experienced Scouters and offered, in my large council, every three or four years. As for arrogance by training, there are always those who seem to feel "taller" only when "standing" on others. If they are not made to feel more wonderful by beads, then knots, medals one can purchase, being mentioned in the newsletter, a better car or house, or some stuff will serve. Perhaps the goal of universal Wood Badge will scuttle their flagship where it is allowed to sail. Bill guided BSA away from its heritage of twenty years when he led us to his version of the Patrol Method. We are free to use and advocate the Patrol Method and to teach Scoutcraft to volunteers. Will we?

I have listened for years as various and sundry here blamed the decline of Scouting on the change in Wood Badge from its original (pre-1971) emphasis on First Class Scoutcraft. (I witnessed version 1 as "junior staff" and have the syllabus.) Some of those blamed the changes in Wood Badge for the loss of things that never were, No one explains precisely what was the cause for each alleged effect. Meanwhile, we have the disaster of the New Scouting Program with everything that was wrong about it, Merit Badge Mill summer camps and the ilk, a decline in the quality of BSA publications, the virtual disappearance of the Patrol Method from basic training for Scoutmasters, the general social decline in willingness of adults to join any group, schools becoming seven-day-a-week/twelve-month programs, loss of support in the community (Out of those schools!), and a steady drum-fire of political/cultural attacks that BSA has handled --- let's see --- not very well. Blaming every bad thing on the two changes in Wood Badge seems just a tad simplistic. At best. And Bill attended dozens of Wood Badge reunions in the last years of his life, including those here, at which he urged those present to attend the second version of Wood Badge if they had not done so. So I know what Bill was do to try and make things better,

Again, problematic under federal bankruptcy laws designed to share the debtor in bankruptcy's assets according to priorities set by federal law.

Yup. 1936. Bill states the objective and warns against the opposite of the objective.

Bankruptcy laws regulate transfers of money or property "in contemplation of bankruptcy" to prevent distributions contrary to the system of priorities under those laws. Too bad he didn't consult a competent attorney.

http://kidsnchess.com/history.html https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_chess

"There is nothing wrong with the idea of friends joining the same patrol ...." No, indeed. That is called "Boy Scouting" according to B.S.A., BP, and Bill Hillcourt..