Beading Ceremony--At Who's Convenience?

[MarkS]

About a month ago I contacted my WB course Troop Guide to set up my Beading Ceremony to be performed at the Court of Honor for the Troop I joined a few weeks ago after my den crossed over at Blue & Gold. The Court of Honor (COH) is next week.

 

The COH provides a unique opportunity to also function as an introduction to the other members (leaders and boys) of the unit I am now serving and to set an example to the primarily untrained leadership of the Pack (who I have already invited) I recently left. You see our district offers basic training just three weeks after the COH and I was hoping that seeing a number of Wood Badgers in attendance might, just might, inspire or motivate the untrained Pack leaders to consider training.

 

Unfortunately, I am told that my course director is not available to perform the Beading Ceremony and they are asking me to postpone my Ceremony. If all I wanted to do was get my beads, this wouldn't be an issue, but I wanted to maximize the Ceremony's potential to set an example to my fellow leaders. I believe this opportunity will be lost if I wait.

 

I am told that any previous WB course director can perform a Beading Ceremony. Is a Beading Ceremony supposed to be done at the convenience of the Wood Badge staff presenting the beads or the recipient?

 

Used to be an Owl...

(OvO)(This message has been edited by MarkS)

[nldscout]

Why must the CD be there anyway? Its not written in stone. Ask him to send the stuff to your WB trained leaders in Troop to present.

[MarkS]

I meant WB Scoutmaster... They say it's tradition...

 

They also want me to consider another venue that would make it more difficult for the guests I've invited to attend. It conflicts with our Troop Committee Mtg too.

 

They're not saying I have to do what they last suggested. I'm just trying to figure out how to respond to the suggestion.(This message has been edited by MarkS)

[jr56]

I had my beads presented by my Coach/Counselor. Ask yours to do it.

[nldscout]

My response would be that I sure wish you could have made it, but it is my option and I have already planned it.

 

I hope you have invited your fellow critters from your WB patrol

[Eamonn]

I was Scoutmaster for a cluster course.

Participants came from six different Councils.

Much as I would have liked to attend the presentation of each and every participants Wood Badge,I knew from the start that it wasn't going to happen.

After the course I returned to doing all the things that I had been doing. In fact because of the course a lot of things needed to be caught up.

There really are no hard and fast rules about the presentation ceremony.

My feeling is that the ceremony belongs to the person who earned the beads.

Sure if someone wanted to know when I was free, I would tell them or if I was told when the ceremony was I would try and see if I could make it. But it really was no big deal if I was there or not.

I happen to think that the Troop Guide plays a bigger role than the CD. But again, these people are in the same boat as you are. They have Scouting and family responsibilities. We live in the real world and it seems the more we get involved, the bigger the demands are on the time we have.

If it is really important to you that the CD is there you will need to change your date.

If it's not a big deal go ahead and have a great time.

Eamonn.

 

 

Eamonn.

[MarkS]

Yep... fellow critters from my WB partol were invited.

[SR540Beaver]

A number of the staff from my course were present at my beading, including the course director. However, it is often is the troop guide who actually presents the bead, woggle, necker and certificate while others do the speaking part. At least that has been my experience at the numerous beadings I've been to. Mine was quite elaborate with 7 of us being beaded from multiple courses. There were many WB staffers present and it was individual troop guides who presented while many other staffers split up the speaking portion. It was done at an adult training session campfire. We were beaded in fromt of the fire while the speakers were somewhere off in the dark. That being said, I've seen a beading at a roundtable where a single staff person did the speaking and presentation all by themself.

 

It is your beading and you can have it where and when you want it. That does not mean that the person you want to do the beading has an obligation to drop everything to be there. They will most likely do their best, but there are no guarantees.

 

I do know that the good folks who promote WB in our council LOVE to have beadings at roundtables and training courses as advertisement to other adults to take WB. But they also respect the fact that many scouters want to do them at B&G's and COH's.

[AwHeck]

I had my beading at a troop COH. Neither my Troop Guide nor our Scoutmaster (CD) were available that night so the CD asked one of the quartermasters from our course to present it since he knew she was from the same part of town... he didn't realize that she was also a member of our troop (and the soon to be installed SM for our troop)

 

Whenever possible the SM and the TG try to be present for the beading but if the participant has completed all the requirements and want to be beaded at a certain time, they'll make it happen.

[MarkS]

We ended up doing what we should have done all along. We worked together to find someone else to fill in.

[acco40]

Just like an Eagle COH, a Wood Badge Ceremony is planned by the recipient. As such, you can have your grandmother present you with your beads, tartan, etc. For myself, I had my Troop Guide, another friend who is a Troop Guide and my wife present some of the items. I think I read somewhere it is preferred that at least one "Wood Badger" is involved in the ceremony. I used to be a Bear ...