DFWDave

I took it (and paid for it myself) 3 1/2 years ago when I was a fairly new DL, my choice. My wife did also a little more than a year later. Both glad we did. It painted the "big picture" that neither of us had (I only went as far as Webelos as a boy), and upped the commitment ante for both of us and helped me in cub leader duties, district roles that I ended up in, and in my professional life. At the time I took it, there were probably 6 WB trained adult leaders (approx 100 cubs), and the troop my son chose to join also has about 100 scouts and probably 18 or so WB trained adults (including my wife and I). I witnessed beadings of some of our cub leaders, and noticed that those leaders stood out from the others (who were also great for sure). When I knew I wanted to take things to the next level, and after I attended a session at our council's University of Scouting describing WB, I decided that was the next step for me. No regrets! As for paying, I've seen one instance where I was part of a vote to approve the pack paying for our incoming CM to take it, and it worked out great. Another instance I advocated for a leader to take it using funding from council - while she completed the course and got beaded, the pack didn't quite get the benefit I would have expected out of her ticket items nor the course itself. That was more a lack of knowledge of the person on my part than anything else.