wrhatfield

I'll second that! Some of the programs don't consider as Dan said" the real world" when it comes to traning the Scoutmaster.

Hello Gray Eagle, Very nicely put; I hope you don't mind if I use it as one of my Scoutmaster minutes?

Ok here I go. I hope I can get it right this time. At my wood badge, from what I remember, when we went to the patrol leader meeting the SPL ran the meeting. He gave us ideas;It seemed to me that these ideas were things he wanted us to do at each meeting. He did ask questions and we responded to his ideas, but in the end it was what he wanted to do. As far as our troop meetings I try to talk to the different patrols along with the SPL trying to let him get a feel as to what each patrol would like to do. Then we sit down and talk about the different things the patrols would like to do, allowing the SPL to come up with an agenda to bring to the Patrol Leaders' meeting to discuss their(PL) plans for the next several meetings . At this point I allow them to do their thing as they say and I as they say in Wood Badge I sit in my rocking chair. If they need help in explaining something or just to ask a question I am there to help. I really try to let them run the meeting. I hope this clarifies things a little. If not, I guess I just don't know how, to.

All right Mr Bob White I KNOW it is not MY Troop I am SORRY that I did not pick my words wisely. As for being a country boy I do not have the ability to explain myself as well as you. Now when it comes to running a Troop I generally do as you say. My statement on how the leadership is suppose to run a troop was just a outline of how to do it. I was not trying to give a class on the way to run a troop meeting but just a outline, whch you obviously did not understand. Your example was very good and I commend you on your ablity to make yourself a little clearer than I.

Hey, Bobwhite I would love to hear how you're course went and anybody else's just to compare one to another. I did not mean to bust Dan's bubble. My course did teach a lot of things, and I had a great time. I have sent a number of ASM's to Wood Badge, all seem to have had the same exprience and they went to different courses. As far as the patrol method, the break down as I see it is: Scoutmaster, Senior Patrol Leader, and the Patrol Leader. It works like this: You the SM consult with the SPL on what you would like to do in your Troop( campout, merit badges that need to be taught, ect); the SPL then holds a patrol leader meeting and explains this to the leaders, also asking for volunteer PL's to help with different aspects of the Troop meeting( the opening, a game (if you do this) , the meat of the meeting( what you decided to do at the PL's meeting), and the closing. After the SPL meeting the PL's are to go to their patrol and explain to them what the next meeting is going to be about and what their job for that meeting is, whether it's teaching a skill, leading the opening, or cleaning up after the meeting. Your job as scoutmaster is to just make sure it stays on course and to lend a hand in what they (the boys) would like to do. Now this dosn't always work out, but this is the jest of it, as they say.

As for the old Wood Badge course, from what I remember (I took it in 1985) we arrived at the camp and were told to find our campsite. We were given a piece of paper with compass readings on it and the number of feet to the campsite. Upon arriving we met our coach and were told that we are new scouts and to choose a patrol leader. At that point the rest of the course was an example of how a troop is run. We went to patrol meetings and watched how they were run. We did a number of outdoor skills - cooking, following instructions, being a leader by coping with certain problems (like planning how to get over an imaginary electric fence and then doing it) building a patrol flag and table totems. We went to classes on planing menues , first aid, learned how to identify our resources and how to use them. The patrol leader went to meetings on how to run a patrol meeting.Most of the things we did were leading up to the final day when we cooked a feast so a lot of the patrol meeting focused on what we were to cook and how we came up with the menu. Our campsite was judged everyday on different things as we competed with the other patrols in who had the best campsite. This being the case, we had to look in the field book and scoutbook to find ideas on things to build so our campsite would be the best. All the time we did this we wrote our tickets as to what we wanted to do when we got out of the couse. We even had to have patrol meetings during the week as our course was every other weekend for 3 weekends. These meetings basically focused on what we needed to do to improve our campsite. Overall we learned about how to work with people we did not know. We had to join forces with a group of people we did not know, learning about who knew what and who didn't. I really enjoyed the course then and still use a lot of the skills that we learned, mostly how to indentify skills in people and to use those skills to benefit the person in being a better person. But as far as how to teach boys how to lead, that is something I don't think you can do. You can show them, but if the boy or man is not interested, no amount of show and tell is going to work. I have seen a number of boys who have the talent to be leaders but are not interested in being leaders and I've seen other boys that are interested in being a leader and they are the ones that try to plan campouts and teach the scout skills you have taught them. Yes, you have to teach them because if your boy leaders are like mine you have to share them with church, 4-h, school, athletic summer and school,and any other things they or their parents would like to see them in. This being the case, I have a different group just about every week and again this boy is going to see how fast he can go to earn his Eagle and be out of here so he can do somthing else.So as far as a method, there is no Method.You just have to get in there and just do it for the boys sake. Reading every book you can find to help make each meeting fun, having Senior patrol meetings with your PL's and letting them know what you expect of them is the only way your boys will learn.

Rick, it looks like you went to a course that used the "old" school. The "new" one is more classroom then outdoor.

It's true, I hate to admit it.These are some of the worst examples of their trek. The ranger was written up but he feels like it didn't go any further than the front desk. This poor girl just didn't know anything. If he hadn't been a experienced hiker at Philmont, there is no telling what would have happened if she had taken out a bunch of greenhorns.

This scoutmaster has been to Philmont several times and he knows about female rangers.Maybe he did have a bad experence, and yes he knows the differance between swimwear and underwear. But we must remember that there are boys (young men) who have been raised to respect a female's privacy and he should get the same respect in return. It would not be a problem setting up differant campsites and haveing a male ranger take out the troop. The people just need to be aware that if this type of situation keep occurring, someone will eventually mess up which may result in charges being pressed against them. Won't the liberal newspapers and T.V. like that! When you light a match, if you keep putting wood on it you are going to get burned. It is time to blow it out before this happens.

First, let me say I think women in Scouts is OK but only in certain places. What I am getting at is this - if a woman wants to be a ranger, that is fine. However, she must understand that there are small young men in the groups. I had an Asst. Scoutmaster who just returned from Philmont and he had a woman ranger. Well, was he ever surprised when she needed to go to the restroom, she didn't care who was watching. Then they put his group in a campground where the group had to pass through two groups of girls and boy did they get an eye full! Half dressed and running around in their underwear! Come on now -lets get real! If things don't change we are going to have something really bad happen to someone. And talking about bad - does anyone remember the bear attack just weeks ago? Well, it seems that a girl ranger had a young boy get sick and throw up. Did she make him change his clothes and put it in the bear bag? No! The puke she picked up, she put it next to the outhouse - so where does the bear go? Straight to the boy and almost killed him. People, there are lawyers who love this kind of stuff. Talking about bear attacks, has anyone wondered why Fort Collins has had 47 sightings in 3 weeks? Well, if you looked at who is saying there and what they were doing with their food, you would know. Lets face it, if scouts is going to keep being a viable program we are going to have to get rid of some people who can't see the end of their nose when it comes to using their head. We need to wake up and look at who we are hiring - are they going to hire someone who is qualifed or are the just going to hire them to keep up the correct quota? Which is fine with me, but lets make sure they have all their smarts. The scouting program is too good a program to let it go down in the name of political correctness and hiring quota.

Mr rgreenland, did you do any overnight campouts?Was there any emphasis on outdoor skills or was it just a classroom-type school where they told you how to use your resources and encourage the boys to lead their troop and for you to find a rocking chair to sit in?

Does anyone know the break down of the Council and District programs and what their responsiblities are? You know: Council President, Council Executive, District Chairman, Commissioner and so forth.

Glad to hear you are going to Wood Badge. It is going to be something that will last forever if they use the old book. I would like to know if they use the new book and a review of it would be nice if they do. Good Luck

Do you think a person could get a copy of the new program. I would think it would be interesting to compare notes.

I was told that National is going to do away with Wood Badge as we know it. It is to become a non-camping and more into a lecture type where skills will not be emphasized. Does anyone know if this is correct?