The New Wood Badge

[Eagledad]

Hi All

 

Just got back from my first week as a staffer on WB. Hey Beav, we have something in common.

 

Anyway, I like the new course. I think it is much more appropriate for adult leader training than the old course. Many of the staffers still like the old course better, but they admit that the lesson content is better in the new course. I think they miss the way the old course applied the Patrol Method.

 

I always had trouble recomending the old WB course as a training course because I didn't feel it perpared adults for a boy run program, but this one does a good job of preparing adults to lead in any part of the BSA program.

 

Hey, you want to go get some valuable training and have some fun at the same time? Go to Wood Badge.

 

I love this scouting stuff.

 

Barry

 

 

[SR540Beaver]

Barry,

 

I was going to send you an e-mail and see how the first weekend went. Sounds like it went well. Am I to assume you are the Troop Guide for the BEAVERS? If so, then they hooked up the best with the best! I loved my course!

[mk9750]

Barry,

 

While understanding that the world doesn't revolve around me, I can't help but feel that based on a previous conversation you and I had, this thread is pointed at least partially at me.

 

Point no longer! I'm signed up!

 

Thanks for all you help, and I'll make sure I follow up like you asked me to do.

 

Mark

[Fat Old Guy]

Let's see the New Version of Scoutmaster School doesn't apply the Patrol Method and now MS Woodbadge 2001 doesn't either. Where the heck are leaders supposed to learn how the patrol method works?

 

I still find it ironic that in my troop that the two graduates of MS Woodbadge 2001 are the ones that act like Den Leaders for Webelos III.

 

 

[Eamonn]

The Cankerous Overweight Gent asks:"Where the heck are Leaders supposed to learn about how the Patrol Method works?"

Take a look at the Scoutmaster and Assistant Scoutmaster Specific Training and the outdoor skills course. It is all in there.

Eamonn

[Eagledad]

Hi all

 

>> Where the heck are leaders supposed to learn how the patrol method works?>I still find it ironic that in my troop that the two graduates of MS Woodbadge 2001 are the ones that act like Den Leaders for Webelos III.

[Bob White]

No one training course will make you a good leader. The BSA recognizes that and sees training as an ongoing process. Because of that, a conscientious volunteer will approach leadership development as a regular part of their self development just as they teach the scouts. In response to this need the BSA combines classroom learning with on the job application, evaluations, mentoring resources, and resource sharing among leaders.

 

Wood Badge is an excellent course which gives a leader an abundance of effective leadership tools and an organized implementation plan. But it is not the final training chapter.

 

Once a leader has completed basic training in the position of responsibility and Wood Badge, there are a number of other supplementary course available to them to "sharpen the saw".

 

One of the most effective I think is participation in District/council/regional and national events where you get a chance to observe and evaluate the styles and scout method implementation used by other leader. This gives you a real chance to see first hand what works and what doesn't as well as see the kind of leadership you want to exhibit and the kind you want to avoid.

 

By all means attend Wood Badge. I have only met three scouters who say they didn't get anything positive from their Wood Badge experience and all three said going in that they knew it would be a waste of time. The rule of GIGO.

 

Bob White

 

 

 

[Fat Old Guy]

"Wood Badge is an excellent course which gives a leader an abundance of effective leadership tools and an organized implementation plan."

 

Odd, I thought that Bob once ranted at us that adults aren't supposed to be leaders, the Scoutmasters primary function is to train the Junior Leaders.

[johnsned]

FOG: Why do you think Wood Badge doesn't teach the Patrol method? What part of the patrol method is missing?

 

John Snediker

Course Director (to be)

Fall 2004

[Fat Old Guy]

johnsned, read Eagle Dad's original comments.

[evmori]

I took the old course and the patrol method was used 100% of the time. We were in patrols. We functioned as patrols. We did everything as patrols. I understand the new course doesn't do this.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Eamonn]

Ed

The course does use a troop setting and participants do everything in patrols. In fact to my mind the entire course is a little to much along the workings of a troop.

The patrols do eat together and on the second part of the course do cook meals in a patrol setting. While there is mention and a couple of activities that have to do with Cub Scouting and Venturing, in the most part these are almost symbolic.

This isn't a big deal as the reasoning for doing this is explained at the opening luncheon and again in the course overview on day one.

The course is about Leadership, not about how to run a specific unit. The skills that participants come away with can be applied almost anywhere. However as the methods of each program are different you would need to do the specific training for that program. A Tiger Cub Den Leader could and can attend Wood Badge. Come away with all the Leadership skills but this isn't going to prepare him or her to be a Scoutmaster. Wood Badge is not the end of training.

Couple of questions to those staffing.

1/ Is the Course Director following the schedule for the Staff Development?

2/ Sometime back I posted that I had been asked to be a staff member this year on a course that was having a problem finding staff members. This even though my wood badge days are over. Unless I am asked to be a mentor. I have now said thanks but no thanks. Mainly because I think three courses in three years is too hard on my family.

Still if we go with the idea of District Trainers and using the people who are the best at presenting the material why don't we use this idea for Wood Badge?

Eamonn

[Bob White]

Eamonn explained the course very well. Yes, our course director is following the syllabus plan from what I can tell. we have 20 participants signed up and I know of two more from my son's troop that will be going. We need the minimum of 30 by July and I do not see a problem getting there.

 

I agree Eamonn, while I think it is important to have a regular flow of new trainers joining the team, I also think it is important to present the best possible course with the talent that is in your council. Have served in a course where there were three past course directors I can see the need to control their managerial input while still making use of their presentation skills. It's the 'too many cooks spoil the broth' sort of thing.

 

Bob

[OldGreyEagle]

Ed, I took the "new" Wood Badge, as I have comemnted before I am Bear, and a Good "Ol' Bear" but I digress.

 

Anyway, from very early Friday morning of the first weekend I was with brer Bears, We had a campsite to ourselves, the 4 brother bears and big momma bear as well. As luck would have it, we all had our own tents. We rotated Patrol Leader duties daily and had a duty roster. During didactic sessions we always sat together a the same place dubbed the Bear den and during outdoor activities we were always a "team" and were together. We planned our Patrol Presentation during 2 patrol meetings during the two weeks between campouts and on the second week end we camped away from the other patrols and cooked our meals. We had a patrol flag and call ::stand at attention, then slide head off to the side while saying call:: Oh Bother ! At my beading ceremony 2 of my brer Bears were there. When we assembled in Gilwell whether it was for the opening, Colors, or the closing ceremony we always were in patrols and reported as such.

 

I do not know where or how you were lead to beleive that the patrol method is not emphasized in the new Wood Badge, but who ever told you that is flat out wrong

[Eagledad]

>>johnsned, read Eagle Dad's original comments.