Ticket resources

[babybear4747]

I will be taking Wood Badge this summer and as part of my ticket I am thinking about developing a troop handbook. Anyone out there have copies of their handbooks that I can use as reference material? I would be willing to pay for postage and any copying costs.Just send me a PM or e-mail me at babybear4747@msn.com

 

[Eamonn]

I'm not sure what you mean by a Troop Handbook?

We have a really good Scout Handbook, which I think covers just about everything a Scout needs to know.

I can't help but think your trying to reinvent the wheel -But maybe that's just me?

I strongly urge you to slow down take the course, use the things that you get from the course to write your ticket. Going with fixed ideas and ready made ticket items will take away from the reason you are there.

Eamonn.

[orennoah]

I, too, am unclear on what you mean by "Troop handbook." However, you might wish to take a lot of one of my ticket items, a manual for our "adult patrol," known as the "Grumps."

 

It's at http://www.scouttroop14.org/PDFs/grumpmanual.PDF.

 

- Oren

WE3-41-03

Bear

WE3-41-05

QM

[SueM]

Are you thinking about a troop operations type handbook?? A friend of mind did something similar for a ticket item for his troop and it's very nice. What he did was to take each "event" that might happen in a troop (camping trip, fundraiser, summer camp, etc.) and made a binder showing the boys -exactly- what needed to be done by printing out the forms, giving instructions on what needed to be done when etc. It actually came out very nice...Is This what you have in mind??

 

sue m.

[John-in-KC]

What Eamonn said.

 

There will be time enough to formulate concepts for a ticket. Many of mine came together during the interregnum between weekend one and weekend two (of course, we had a patrol meeting virtually every week!).

 

Enjoy the coming time.

 

[flmomscoutw3]

I just finished my Wood Badge course (SR-779) and I don't see how having an idea for part of your ticket will distract from the experience. I was more distracted during the two weeks between because I had to come up with "just one more item"! Our Troop has a "handbook" that has been revised recently. It is maybe 10-15 pages and deals with issues at the Troop level. It did not reinvent the wheel, but tried to clear up some of the items that are left up to the Troop descretion. I would suggest you not go to deeply into the items. Apparently our Troop at one time had a 50 +/+ page handbook that was "crazy" to quote a few of the adults who were around then. If you would like a copy I'd be glad to send you one. I'm not sure of the process of sending names and addresses but I'm sure we can figure it out. Just let me know, YiS

[tcherven]

At my pre-course meeting, they specifically requested that we not create our ticket items before the first weekend. The course instructors said they would be covering ticket items in detail and after that we could work on them.

 

They did say, however, that we could be thinking about different ideas that might work. I have started a list of different ideas that I would like to accomplish, but I'm going to wait until I get into the first weekend before I try and define how my ticket items will work.

[eagle-pete]

There are those who remember when what happened in Wood Badge was a closely guarded secret (you know who you are). This has changed. No one is told to keep Wood Badge a secret any longer However.

 

This is one of the few (and I mean extremely few) examples I can think of to support the notion that the Wood Badge course content should be kept somewhat confidential.

 

Now, before you all start flaming (getting out flame retardant uniform), let me first say that on the whole, I am not opposed to sharing course content with those who have not yet participated in Wood Badge. There is nothing secret at all about what we do.

 

However, this is one instance where some prudence might be in order. As many of us know who have been through the course, the experiences, environment, progression of the course, and friendships developed all contribute to how a participant begins to formulate their ticket. And, I might add, some soul searching may occur during this time as well.

 

I whole heartedly agree with Eamonn regarding coming to the course with pre-conceived ideas. Although I realize it may not be possible to eliminate all pre-conceived ideas, this should be avoided whenever possible.

 

I must assume that babybear got information from a participant about how the ticket is created, but it appears they were not provided with good advice. Unfortunately, whoever gave babybear this information did this future participant a disservice.

 

Wood Badge has been developed over many years. Lets leave it up to the Course Director and staff to present this material properly.

 

When we share our enthusiasm, enjoyment, and love for Wood Badge let's also use the wisdom which we gained from our experience. I would urge caution when sharing specifics about the processes of writing tickets. Instead of telling babybear all about writing tickets, it might have been better to simply say something like - "Go! Experience Wood Badge! You will have a GREAT time!", rather than to present part of the course out of context.

 

When I am asked questions about Wood Badge I try to answer these questions as clearly as I can without spoiling the experience for someone. After all, they should be able to have as wonderful an experience as I was able to have.

 

Eagle Pete

[flmomscoutw3]

All Babybear asked about was Troop Handbooks. There was no question about how to "write his ticket" and I did not see any offered. As far as where did he get that info, it can be had from many differnt web sites that deal with Wood Badge. Or maybe Babybear has a scouter in his troop who recently went thru Wood Bagdge and come back and talked about doing " fill in the blank " as part of his ticket. I have been around several other scouters who have come back and done much for our Troop as part of their ticket before I had the chance to go to WB. If your an active scouter it's hard not to hear about someones ticket. Babybear, when you get to Wood Badge time will be devoted to the actual writing of the ticket items. We had one member of our patrol who did not know anything about this "ticket thing" as he called it. At the end of our second weekend we were reflecting as a patrol and that was his biggest gripe. He felt that most others had more time to give it consideration. I think that those of us who had an understanding that something was expected had a better time. We were less focused on the ticket idea itself, and could devote time to dicussing ideas amoung ourselves and learning how to write up our ticket items. I had some ideas that totally changed after speaking to my Troop Guide and to the other scouters in my patrol and spending a weekend listening to our presenters. (Then I made a call to our DE about one idea and he got me going in a totally different direction! REALLY stretching myself.) "Be Prepared" to change ideas too!

Have a great time, fellowship with other like minded people and come away with great ideas!Yis flmom...

 

[Eamonn]

A couple of things.

I didn't offer any help with a Troop Handbook, because I don't think they are needed.

Most of the ones I've seen tend to be Rule Books and many of the rules are not in line with the way things should be done.

I did ask what sort of Handbook? But so far babybear4747 has not explained what this guide is.

Sometime back I asked in these Forums if the Ticket should be taken out of the course?

At times I feel the "Ticket Thing" becomes bigger than the course.

Since then I have read a lot of what people have posted and a good many have said how much they have got from the "Ticket Thing".

I was pleased to hear that some changes had been made to the course and that the Diversity Presentation had been moved to an earlier spot.

Most courses take about a month or more from start to end. I really feel that if a participant has a grasp on his / her Vision and Mission the task of coming up with the goals is not that hard.

There is a lot of work that needs to be done in the time between the weekends, but the Troop Guides and the Staff and the other participants are all great resources.

The key is making sure that everyone has a good understanding of what their vision and mission is.

Just about everybody in the forum could in a very few minutes type up a set of goals that could be used a Ticket items, but these goals would just be busy work, they are not necessarily going to the right fit for someone else's vision and mission.

I still use the ticket idea a lot.

I like the idea of taking the time to see where we are (Evaluation) Think about where we are going and where we want to be. When I'm very honest with myself I can see the areas that need to be worked on.

Sometimes this is stuff that is all down to me. Things that I'm not doing a very good job with.

Sometimes it's coming up with specific goals. These might have to do with membership, advancement, money.

Of course there isn't any Ticket Counselor, but very often I'll share these with the youth leaders and if need be change them or tweak them a little, if I'm very lucky they will buy into these and we share the ownership.

When the time we or I have set is up, it's time to start over.

Eamonn

 

 

[SueM]

I am currently -trying- to use the ticket "idea" with my other adult leaders in the troop who have not been through WB. They are telling me that they want "more say" in how the troop is run, but at this moment in time I still need to control the reins because they're not quite onboard with the vision I have to get the troop back to a BLT. I listen to their ideas but sometimes they run counter to where we need to go...other times they don't though so I do try to incorporate them. So what I have asked them is to look at the troop and pick one area where they think we need to improve things and develop a personal goal to work toward in that area. So far though, no one has come up with anything. I realize though that as a team, we're just in the Forming stage so it will take time for them to see where I'm going.

 

sue m.

[Eagledad]

What a wonderful post SueM. I think that is a fantastic idea and I wished I thought of something similar when I was trying to mentor the adults toward our Troop vision.

 

Something else you can do while you are guiding them in this process is refer them to books, articles and documents that support the mission and vision you keep talking about. You add integrity to yourself and the program because they learn the vision is not all your creation, it is a vision generally held by the scouting community as a whole, at least by those who set their program to a higher standard anyway.

 

One other thing, there is a risk of putting yourself on a pedestal when you take on the role of mentor. Remember God ask us to walk humbly beside him. There can be a fine line between mentoring and an ego trip. Watch your pace and make sure that you walk with your team, not above them.

 

I like this idea so much SueM, Im tempted to go find a troop that needs a new SM. Thinkingthinking. Nope, the temptation went away. I guess I will just watch from the sidelines.

 

Good luck and please let us know how it goes.

 

I love this scouting stuff.

 

Barry

 

[SueM]

Barry,

 

Thanks! I'm not on an ego trip with things..I fully understand that it needs to be a team effort with the other adults. However, there are times when I have adults just step in and tell the boys things that are both contrary to troop progress AND possibly go against BSA policy, so I do need to watch things. When I get a new adult into the Troop, I kind of let them hang back for a while to see what area interests them the most and then put them into the position of where they can best follow that interest and make an impact in the troop. Most of them have now been through training but we all know well that sometimes that does not exactly mean that they are fully on board with understanding what a BLT really is. For example, we are just to the point of where the boys are starting to be able to plan meetings..and we had just held a PLC for the first time in several years and I brought in the Troop Program Resources book to the boys to try to explain to them how if they just came up with the themes, that the whole months' meetings were already planned out for them easily, etc. So at this same time, one of my ASM's was also coming into the idea of lack of planning so we also planned an adult meeting a couple of weeks later. As he started to discuss this, I tried to show him where I was headed with the boys and using the Troop Program Feature books, etc...though he is trained, he had never SEEN it! Many times we are more on the same brainwave then they THINK we are and I accept that I am partially to blame with that as sometimes I am not able to explain things as clearly as I'd like. There are times though when I feel like there is an undertone that they are not quite sure that I know what I'm talking about. As a female SM it's sometimes hard to feel like I get the same respect that a man might get in the position...especially if there are adults who undermine that respect with the boys.

 

sue

[Eagledad]

Oh I understand. I didn't think you were on any kind of Ego trip; my warning is more to watch out for any kind of appearance of it. It is not hard to come off appearing that it is SueM's troop and sues vision.

 

Our troop just had its 20th anniversary. The present SM had all the past Scoutmasters give a brief writ up about their experience in the Troop that was included in the Troop Banquet program. As he read these writ ups coming in from the SMs, he found out that basically everything I was trying to teach the adults while I was Scoutmaster was started by the SM before me. He did not realize that we were working on the same Vision and so he apologized for all the times he called the Troop, Barry's troop.

 

Maybe the fault was mine in that I didnt talk more about the history of the vision, Aims, methods, and boy run. But I was struggling to just get the adults to understand it all while at the same time trying to make it all work. I try hard to be a humble person and was hurt when my friends whispered behind my back that this was Barrys Troop. Guardian of the Vision may be a noble task, but there is a reason why knights wore armer.

 

Again, good luck. I really like your approach.

 

Barry

 

[orennoah]

Eagledad:

 

Don't be hurt when anyone calls your troop, "Barry's Troop." Take it as a compliment and open acknowledgement that, even though it's a boy led troop, YOU are the one responsible for it.

 

Of course, us SMs must share our vision and share the vision of the BSA with our other adult leaders and, especially, with the youth leaders. A Boy Scout troop is very much a team.

 

However, we should guard against losing sight of the fact that the SM is the one charged with making sure everything (and everybody) is working as it should.

 

Hang in there!

 

Your fellow Scoutmaster,

 

- Oren