No BALOO adult - What do you do?

[evmori]

If BALOO and other such core training courses were included in basic training AND available on-line, I'd bet this would help eliminate the problem we are discussing in this thread.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[Lisabob]

Ed, I agree that BALOO needs to be more widely available.

 

But I don't know if we could realistically fold it into the existing basic leader training, which is already quite long. Maybe one option would be to offer EITHER NLE OR BALOO in the morning segment (BALOO for those who have already done NLE), and then position-specific training in the afternoon.

 

While I'm generally in favor of online training, I'm not sure BALOO makes sense to do that way. I did BALOO several years ago now. But I recall having a fairly active, hands-on session. We talked gear with people who knew a thing or two about what to buy and not buy. They had examples of everything from tents to backpacks to stoves there to check out, hands on. We did a little bit of cooking. We wrote a camping plan. We set up a duty roster. All of this might be difficult to duplicate on line and was of use to people who had either very limited camping experience, or who were not used to BSA's way of doing things and regulations - ie, most cub leaders!

[LongHaul]

Lisabob,

How long did the Baloo course you took run? Ours runs from 9am to 5 pm. I don't see how we could do it in half the time and still "do it". Some of the training is a repeat and if you were taking Baloo in the morning and WDL specifics in the afternoon I could probably fit everything in. If you came for CM, DL,Pack Committee training your specific modual would not have segments on the Baloo outdoor stuff that were left out in the morning. But WDLs don't need Baloo it's only mandetory for Pack Camping not Den Camping. I'd love ideas on how to stream line the training but still train the leaders. I face the "time" issue constantly in attemptiing to get leaders to take training.

LongHaul

[Lisabob]

LongHaul, you're right about the time issue, I had forgotten about that. Heh, so much for that (not so) good idea.

[willhi1979]

I figured I'd post a reply to this. I recently ran my first BALOO course, I'm a District Training Chair. The course is a 8 hour course and very hands-on so it's impossible to put it on-line and get all the data out of it. We had 4 different councils come to the course that we put on and had 28 participants and 8 staff.

 

I can see why it's required to take a Pack camping. It equips the leaders to plan a quality program for boys that age. It focuses more on the age group then how to do things, I thought. Every leader that attended left with an idea to make their Pack Camping Program better.

[Novice_Cubmaster]

There seems to be a huge variety in the quality & quantity of BALOO training offered. The course I took was about 4 hours of minimal material, including an hour at lunch making hobo meals. I wish there was more standardization, along the lines of the day-long, useful training that some of you were lucky enough to get.

 

Barring that, maybe BSA could split BALOO training into 2 parts.

 

One part is an online part that deals with basic camping safety & Tour Permits, etc.. There could even be an online test at the end. And, it could also be used as an online reference when questions come up.

 

Part 2 would be in-person training on hands-on skills and how your pack can put on a good camping program.

 

NC

[willhi1979]

There is standarization, it's called the course syllabus. For some reason, some Districts and Course Directors feel like they don't need to follow it. When that happens, you end up with substandard training that doesn't cover the breadth of material in the course.