21st Century Wood Badge Participants- Reflection

[Bob White]

Picture the Headline...

Boy Scout makes elderly woman sing I'm a Little Tea Pot for return of lost purse!

 

If you find something that belongs to another person the Trustworthy, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Cheerful, Reverent thing to do is to return it to them, not to make them perform for you.

 

The mission is to teach scouts how to make ethical decisions based on the Law and Oath, not how to embarrass others.

[dan]

A simple little fun, at someone else's expense. Taken to the extreme. Review what I wrote. It was encouraged to take unlost items. Is a patrol flag lashed to a dining fly a lost item?

I realize that this is only one council, BUT how many other training sessions within the BSA are full of garbage like this?

My guess is well over 50%.

I understand that it is volunteers putting on the training, BUT the BSA is still responsible for the training.

While I am out camping this weekend with the 4 new scout patrols, I think I will put to use what I learned at WoodBadge. I will suggest to the older scouts that they "find" lost items from the 1st year scouts (this will be the first campout for 24 new scouts) and Saturday night at the campfire, I will have them hold them up over the fire and have the owner come up and sing for them, if they do not I will have the SPL just dump the lost item in the fire! What a great idea!

When the complaints start coming in, I can tell the Unit commissioner that I learned this at Wood Badge for the 21st century. I think my a$$ will be covered, COOL.

 

Monday night I talked to a couple of Wood Badge staffers from last year course. there was singing for lost items, during last years course.

 

dan, the man that thinks the BSA is in big trouble with stuff like this, stuff like this will be the end of the BSA, not the gay issue or the atheist issue.

 

[lynncc]

It is so hard to get your point across when you have such a onesided way of conversing. You type something and there is no immediate feed back to clarify your point.

 

In my original message about singing. There was a big rivalry between the 2 of the patrols. The patrol that found the truely lost item (It came untied from the shovel thing) returned it a lunch with the approval of the woodbadge staff....but then without there approval they asked the other patrol to sing....lots of sad, shocked faces were seen on the staff. They had a talk about scout like behavior...etcc.....

 

But then when it happened again and the QM found the missing object, he announced to the group that he had found it and returned it. Have great pictures of him singing. Which he volunteered to do after he found out the patrol had permission to leave the object there.

 

Anyway. Things you do as adults are not always appropriate to do with kids. This was a positive learning experience in that it showed that singing is not a good thing to the ones that have to sing. Boy lead troops learn by making mistakes..... and so do adult troops.....

 

On a side note not all scouters are scout like. Did you play the win all you can thing...very heated people.... I mean really, its just a game....

 

But then again I'm a Laid Back, Waaay Back fox and not many things really get to me.

 

have a great weekend

 

Lynncc

I used to be a fox

(and dream of being a staffer)

[Aardvark]

No singing was done, but we had some "Lost" items!

 

5 Scouters from my Troop attended our course. Me and other were Beavers, 2 others were Bobwhites and the last was an Eagle (but we don't hold that against him!)

 

At the first break, the Bobwhite's patrol flag was left alone, and somehow got Beaver chew marks on the staff (yes, we do have Tote'n Chips!) Later some feathers appeared on out Patrol flag.

 

Day later, some plastic quail eggs appeared on out table. Of course some wood chippings appeared on the Bobwhites chairs.

 

None of the other patrols seemed to have the Spirit we did! Or had the fun!

 

Made the constant rain for the first weekend and the few cases of food poisoning seem not quite as bad!

 

By the ye! Getting my beads at our Next Troop Meeting; WB Scoutmaster "Suggested" I get them at our Roundtable, but wanted to get them in front of/with my Scouts!

 

Used to be a Beaver!

[Eamonn]

As I posted I'm not a great fan of the Win all you can game - The Game of Life.

While we do try and make the point that the Patrol is the all important team in Scouting there are times on the Wood Badge course when things do go to far and get out of hand.

A few years back I was the Troop Guide for a Beaver Patrol, these guys were good, they had a strong Scouting back ground and seemed to be first and win just about everything. They were also very competitive. None of this is bad, but they started wanting to put articles in the Gilwell Gazette which served no purpose but to put the other Patrols down. This of course was not acceptable.

I tried really hard to explain this to them and I think I got the message across to about half of them, the other half just didn't seem to have any idea what I was talking about.

One thing that I don't understand is how we can attend Wood Badge and come back being so proud of belonging to a Patrol, years and years after we make a point of saying I used to be a whatever and a proud ... But we don't seem to pass on this Patrol pride to the Scouts in our troops.

Can you just imagine how great our Patrols and Troops would be if Patrol members had this much pride in belonging to their Patrol?

Eamonn.

[Aardvark]

That was part of my ticket; getting the PAtrols to act as Patrols instead of a Mob.

 

None had patrol flags, cheers etc-or if they did they were lost in a corner of the Quartermasters area.

 

Now Flags are flying, yells are yelling! We make it a point on the Scoutmasters Review to have the Scout demonstate the Patrol cheer or yell-can get noisy at times.

 

Spirit seems to be on the rise; patrols are competing to be the best.

 

Made a difference!

[BeaverNEIV152]

My woodbadge expeirence was rather unique, being the youngest member of Troop 1 my council has ever had. I was 19 when I took thte course, am 20 now and hope to be beaded befor my 21st birthday. So having just left a Troop as a patrol member, getting comfortable in being an adult leader, and then being thrust back into a patrol was interesting. My patrol was also probally the most eclectic patrol there consisting of two Cubmasters, one Troop Committee Member, One Weblos Den Leader, one Venture Crew Leader, one District Exec, and myself an ASM. We had a very small course here in Mason-Dixon Council with 27 participents in 4 patrols. Through doing research in the Council i've concluded that in my council there are no antelpoes one buffalo, 2 bears, under a dozen owls, and a good group of foxes, eagles, bobwhites, and BEAVERS. NE-IV-152 was Mason-Dixon's third woodbadge and considering our last course was '99 it was the first 21st Century Course any of the staff had ever experienced. In fact the person slated to be SM disliked the new course so much he resigned as SM of Troop 1. All in all I place Woodbadge in the Top 4 Things I've ever done in Scouting allong with my Eagle, My Ordeal, and Philmont. Woodbadge has definatly renewed my intrest in Scouting and has caused me to examine my future, and strive to become a Scout Executive. I enjoyed every second of the course, and after the first weekend I came to the conclusion that I was never really in a "real" Patrol as a youth. The Patrol Spirit that Woodbadge fosters, is just so amazing and hard to describe. My only regret is that I wasn't aloowed t oplay Win All You Can, because I played it at the OA's National Leadership Seminar, and allready new the catch, but it was fun to be a spectator. In all i thought the Staff did an AMAZING job, and I can't wait to finish my ticket and join them.

[Eamonn]

BeaverNEIV152,

Like you I was very young when I made my first visit to the Happy Land.

At that time and place the course was a Boy Scout course and inter-patrol competition was real big.

Sad to say I must have been a lot more immature than you seem to be. I got caught up in the competition and a lot of the real meaning for being there was lost on me. I was also a cocky young thing, being the only person on the course who was a Queens Scout, I really thought I was the cats whiskers.

On the Staff of the course there was a Scoutmaster (Scout Leader)from my District. He was young by "Staff Standards". He took me under his wing and for a while the two troops that we served did a lot of things together.

The Guy became a dear and close friend and I still Hero Worship him from afar. The Last time I was in England being able to camp with him and the troop that he is now with and having my son along was too much for words. Even OJ, was taken in by the great love that Martin (His name) has for Scouting and his insight into this program.

Martin is now a Group Scout Leader and we are in contact a lot either by phone or by E-mail.

Strange thing is that our conversations lately have been about the ideal age for Scoutmasters, Martin really does believe that young Scoutmasters with the support and guidance of us old folks make the best leaders. He has never said so, but I wonder if he was thinking this 30 years back when he took me under his wing?

I can put my hand on my heart and say that he is one of the people who has been the greatest influences on how I see Scouting, sure there were people who opened my eyes as I grew up in Scouting.

I really do hope that one day someone will be able to say that maybe, just maybe I have done something for them like Martin did for me. I don't want the hero worship, but if I'm going to have a legacy I kinda think that is what I would like it to be.

I was also very interested to see where NE-IV-152 was held as I was the CD for NE-IV-153.

I really do hope that you manage to keep on Scouting at whatever level is the best fit for you. I am of course green with envy and wish I was your age and ready to do it all one more time, but that isn't how things go. I made my mistakes and have hopefully learned from them, you have to go out there and make your mistakes and learn from them. This learning is what makes us what we are and who we are. I do hope that like me you find someone who is willing to take you under his or her wing and be there for you.

Now you need to get that Ticket done and serve the Scouts in your area.

Good Luck.

Eamonn.

 

[BeaverNEIV152]

Course NE-IV-152 was held at Sinoquipe Scout Reservation in late May early June of 2004. Sinoquipe is part of the Mason-Dixon Council which is a very small part of Maryland and PA. I beleive our course was suppost to be earlier, but there were some staffing problems and it got put on hold and when we were given our course number it would have been right before 153, but we didn't hold the course till later.

[NIscouter]

I just finished my second week end of Wood Badge, C-11-05. The overall experience was great for me. Of course, the bug-a-boo of the Win All You Can game bit us too. Our patrol, the mighty Eagles, looked at it as a ethical and moral reflection of life from the start. We got in the middle of a number of misunderstandings with the patrols we were working between rounds. Before the last round, we were "up" big time, but we were accussed of going back on our word and "cheating". We told all in the last consultation we would take a dive the last round. We did and "lost" the game big time. We did this as we came to the realization that being considered trustworthy and good to your word was more important than winning any game, even if you had done no intentional wrong. This game to me is like life. Society keeps pushing you to "Win All You Can" in a material sense without considering your moral and ethical values. One thing that I thought would help would be a little more discussion of using the scout law as the frame of reference to interpret your "actions" in the "game". This was done by our staffers but did not seem to sink in to all. Maybe the long day took its' toll!

 

For me, the importance of a strong patrol identity was a major message. Most moving moment for me was at the end of the course, after all the participants were dismissed from Gilwell Field and had started to the cars. The staff lined up to do the final flag lowering ceremony. Without prompting, all of the remaining Wood Badgers near Gilwell Field stopped and came to attention for the entire flag ceremony.(This message has been edited by NIscouter)

[gavvin]

I completed the practical course a couple of weeks ago.

 

Some impressions:

 

I was tremendously impressed with every single staffer on the course. They were knowledgeable, open-minded, enthusiastic, and put in an amount of effort that I would have found amazing in a paid staff, let alone a group of volunteers. I could not imagine a better group to present the course.

 

The sheer volume of information that is thrown at you is overwhelming, even for those who have had some sort of management training. One person commented that it was like trying to drink from a firehose. I am not sure if all courses are like mine, but we were kept busy from 6am to 11 pm. In our "free" time, we worked on writing our tickets, planning presentations, adorning our flag pole, and working on our patrol flag. It left very little time for actual rest. The only thing I can realistically compare it to is Army basic training. Not as physically demanding, but I had the same sense of weariness after each weekend.

 

October sky - great movie. Could have been shown at a better time. We were released at 1830 Sunday evening of the first weekend. A lot of people felt that the movie was a waste of time and that they could have been released almost 2 hours earlier.

 

Game of Life - I have read a lot of negative comments on this in this thread. Perhaps it is all in the presentation. Our patrol felt that this was one of the highlights of the weekend. The message given after the game really hit home and was very powerful. Maybe we just felt this way because we managed to "win" the game by figuring out what was required.

 

Our Patrol - our patrol (Antelopes!) came together and never really experienced the decline in moral shown in the high performance teams model. We all pitched in and everybody's talents were utilized in the best way. We never had any conflicts due to ego. We were quite a diverse group with two women, two cubbers, two older scouters, a committee member, and one who started the course without a unit (was moving from one unit to another due to a major conflict). we are scattered over a hundread mile long area, so we will not be able to get together as frequently as other patrols do after the course, but we are maintaining contact and encouraging each other on tickets.

 

The Troop - I know Wood Badge is organized around the patrol method and you are supposed to grow very close to the people in your patrol. Our entire troop grew close in a way I am told is unusual on a Wood Badge course. When we were left alon on the last night, most of the patrols had one large campfire that we came together at. When we marched to Gilwell for the final time, it was as a troop singing The Song with a new verse, "I used to be a candidate". It was our way of showing unity as a troop instead of a collection of patrols. Our SM and SPL were moved to tears and I was told later that such a thing had not happened before in our council Wood Bage courses to the anyone's knowledge.

 

My overall impression of the course is a good one and I will encourage all the leaders I work with to make time to take it (My wife is going in January). I am looking forward to getting my beads and coming back in the future to staff a course and make it as good for the next group as it was for me.

 

Gavvin

 

A good old Antelope too

[chipmunk]

I had posted earlier of a bad experience a friend of mine had at the fist session we attended together. Unfortunately he did not return because of this.

 

It did not happen directly to me so I tried to put it behind me and go on. Was I ever glad I did. In the end, it was truly a life changing experience. There is a bond between my fellow Antelope patrol members that I would not have believed could have formed in such a short time with such a divers group. I have had lots of management and team building training in my professional life but nothing made the impression this did. I attribute this mostly to the intensity of the program. It was like drinking from a fire hose but later I was amazed at what I retained. It also force a bond between participants that has to be experienced to truly understand.

 

My fellow scout leaders, my co worker and my wife now think I am a little nuts. I walk around singing some song about some far-off land, refer to myself as a hoofed African animal and keep asking if what we are doing is SMART. I hope it never wares off.

 

I am more relaxed and confident in my Scouting and work leadership and it shows. Since returning from the last weekend I launched into my first ticket item with passion, and in addition have recruited 3 more adult leaders into our pack and we have everyone excited about what is coming up next.

 

If you have not gone to Wood Badge dont wait. Sign up today.

 

Loping along, one ticket down and 4 to go

 

[Aardvark]

Leaving Gilwell for the last time was very moving for me.

 

All the Staff had spaced themselves along the trail leading to the parking lot. All Saluting as we past by. I returned the Salute as I walked on by.

 

Maybe it's because of the 20 years I spent in the Military, but that touched me in a deep down spot. I had tears of Pride in my eyes. Pride that my Fellow Scouters Respected me and my Fellow Wood Badgers for the committment we had made.

 

That memory will stand along with my Ordeal Night and induction to the OA (and many others from Scouting!)

[JollyMon]

The last afternoon of the second weekend was among the toughest I've ever been through emotionally. The leader who presented "Leaving Your Legacy" is a well respected Scouter in our council whose son (an Eagle Scout) had been killed in a car accident a couple of weeks before our first weekend. This was the first time that he had spoken publicly about his son and the legacy that he had left behind as only a young man not yet out of college. I can only begin to imagine the courage it took to give that presentation under the circumstances.

 

Our last assembly in Gilwell Field was the best run assembly I have ever participated in. Our Scoutmaster hit the right note at the right time. The staff lined up and shook our hands as we left. It was one of my best experiences in Scouting thus far.

 

Can the course be better? Sure. One size does not fit all. But on the whole, I loved every minute of it. And I loved every bit of the ribbing I got for being a proud and noble Bobwhite (even the humming of the Partridge Family theme song as we went by).

 

I can't wait to earn my beads and have a chance to be on a future course staff.

 

You guys are great. Thanks to all.

 

Gil

 

[ehcalum]

SR-679 ended yesterday evening. I 'd have to say that the pratical weekend was more fulfilling than the 1st weekend. While I did learn some, alot of the course was a review of stuff that I had already known either from other scouting training or workplace training. Our staff was great and full of characters, both comical and serious. Was also nice that a Staffer and a Bobwhite were also members of my alma mater (I attened an out of council WB). I liked they way movie clips were integrated into the presentations, really gave a good all around feel to the material.

 

Jeopardy was a blast, we Antelopes scored the councils highest score ever and we all stunk The Game of Life. The problem solving games were great, how do you balance 48 nails ontop of a nail head anyways?

 

Our closing was an emotional one. We marched in patrol coloums, shouting WB related cadence, and left after all the staff shook are hands, then lined up in rankes and saluted as we left (by nature of being an Antelope, yours truly was the last patrol member to leave Gilwell Field).

 

I think the course could use some revamping of the material: eg high performance teams, they were just overly technical like sitting through and engineering siminar.

 

Will be working on my ticket and have a goal of completing it by April 06!