Sea Scout and Wood Badge

[Overtrained]

I am serving on an upcoming wood badge course with a Sea Scout Leader participant. We give each participant a course t-shirt and hat. We ask the they wear the t-shirt or other scout t for activities during the course. The wood badge admin guide states a participant should wear their official scouting uniform signifying their Scouting position. For this Sea Scout leader that would mean the Sea Scout Whites, Tan or BDU. For those Sea Scouters, uniform experts and wood badgers - what would you suggest this sea scouter wear and what deviations would be aloud? i.e course short and hat.

[Papadaddy]

My first question is why would a Sea Scouter be in a WB course? Don't they have "Sea Badge"? (just curious...I don't know the answer). If they do attend, I think common sense should prevail, as it does in the military (quit laughing!). The whites are a dress/ceremonial uniform. For everyday work wear (ie, office or classroom), the khakis are appropriate. For field training, the BDUs, or "Navy Working Uniform" is appropriate. If you are camping, the whites would get ruined.

[emb021]

"My first question is why would a Sea Scouter be in a WB course? Don't they have "Sea Badge"? (just curious...I don't know the answer)."

 

Sea Badge is NOT Wood Badge. Wood Badge is the advanced leadership course for ALL scout leaders. There is nothing wrong with Sea Scout leaders attending WB. They will get a lot out of it.

 

 

"If they do attend, I think common sense should prevail, as it does in the military (quit laughing!). The whites are a dress/ceremonial uniform. For everyday work wear (ie, office or classroom), the khakis are appropriate. For field training, the BDUs, or "Navy Working Uniform" is appropriate. If you are camping, the whites would get ruined."

 

BDUs are NOT an approved Sea Scout uniform. For adults, there are only 3: Dress blues, summer whites, and tan working uniform. Go with whites for dress use, tans for everyday use. For instance, at the Sea Scout booth at the National Jamboree, we used whites for dress, tans for most wear, and for work, it was tan shorts (those are NOT BSA Boy Scout shorts) with our staff t-shirt.

 

 

[Buffalo Skipper]

I second what emb021 said.

 

Wood Badge and Seabadge ("Wood Badge" is two words while "Seabadge" is one) are two different courses each with a very different purpose.

 

I would suggest the Khaki uniform for WB. If your ship has a t-shirt or polo shirt worn as casual wear, that would suffice; otherwise, the official Sea Scout polo would be good.

 

Keep in mind that upon completion of the course (and tickets) the beads are NOT to be worn with the Sea Scout uniform. The only acceptable WB insignia is the ax and log pin to be worn on the pocket flap.

 

I would certainly encourage the participant to also attend their regional Seabadge course upon completion of WB, if they have not already done so. It builds up WB with program and environment specifically suited to the Sea Scout program and especially useful in the ship environment.

[dctengdin]

I attended Wood Badge last year as a Sea Scouter. I wore the khacki uniform, but with boots rather than with dress shoes as is more normally proscribed with the uniform. It caused a small ruckus when I refused to wear the course neckerchief, but the staff got over it pretty quickly when I explained that neckerchiefs are definately not to be worn in Sea Scouting. Most had never seen a Sea Scouter before, so were at a loss on what to do. I met them in the middle on wearing the course t-shirt rather than the proscribed white one under the khackis.

 

Sea Badge is a 3-day weekend conference. It's more about how to run a unit than Wood Badge, which is about personal development and leadership, though there is some overlap

[BDPT00]

And ... ? Did you have a good time? Get anything out of it? Meet some good people? Would you encourage others to take it?

BDPT00

[dctengdin]

Honestly, and on balance for myself, no. If you have never done this sort of teaching / leadership training before, and you are relatively early in your Scouting career, you will get something out of it. If you've already done a zillion of these sorts of things before, it's just another entry-level leadership course, which are quite widely available on the private market. Honestly, I was bored most of the time.

 

What is ALWAYS useful, is a commonality of experience with other folks, and the friendships and acquainences you make along the way.