The Third Bead

[NeilLup]

Hello Vicki,

 

I'm sorry if I came across as "high and mighty"; I will tend to do that on occasion.

 

I am not a member of the Wood Badge Task Force but I do know that group and believe that I understand how they wish to proceed.

 

There had been a lot of local variation that had crept up in Wood Badge since the previous course (LD Wood Badge) had been created. In many cases, it was things being added locally and in many of those cases, it changed the tenor and intent of the course.

 

So when 21st Century Wood Badge came out, a number of things were intentionally taken out to make sure that the problems of local variations and changes in course tenor, intent and focus did not happen. Also, the Task Force was put under extremely strict guidelines about how much time preparation for the course and conducting the course could take. The idea was to limit the time requirements for staff and for participants.

 

One thing that was removed, for example, was the Gilwell pennants. There used to be a daily inspection and a pennant awarded to each patrol who met a daily standard. Under the 21CWB, it was the plan that evaluation should be self-evaluation, so an evaluation by the staff was out of place. But the result was that the Gilwell pennants were dropped.

 

Another example is the 30 day precourse meeting. That used to happen and be very useful for preparing the participants. However, that is one of the items dropped because of the extremely strict time limits.

 

In many cases on some of these items, local Course Directors would say "We like what we were doing before and we will keep doing it." That would eliminate some of the benefits of the new changes and reinstitute some of the local variations. So now, new Course Directors are required to pledge that they will follow the guidelines as outlined in the course guide and admin guide. I know for a fact that permanent patrol leaders are a part of the older course which are removed from 21st Century WB.

 

Is this "high and mighty?" Difficult for me to judge, so I'll have to leave that up to you. I hope not. Is it a degree of standardization and regimentation very different from almost everything else in Scouting? Yes it is. Is that appropriate? Again, each of us probably has their own opinion.

 

I do hope that all of us are here for the youth and the fun.

 

Best wishes,

[Vicki]

Neil, reasonable explanations are always in order. Sweeping generalizations are not. That's what got to me and I appreciate the apology. I very often come across as kinda anal-retentive - whoops.

 

Be that as it may, I know and appreciate the intent of 21CWB. It has opened up opportunity for a lot of folks who otherwise would not have been included. My intent was simply to respond to EPs post concerning the selection process and provide my basis for that knowledge as it is done in my council, not to get into a discussion of how my council and others are "doing it wrong". In fact, when I wrote that post I knew that that element was not part of the National syllabus, but it was absolutely essential to the post. As I said in my earlier e-mail to Eamonn, that isn't within my purview.

 

Vicki

[Eamonn]

I know that I tend to be a bit of a stick in the mud when it comes to training.

I do try and ask that others stick to the syllabus.

I have witnessed what can happen when people try to do their own thing. At times they can be very good, but as a rule it takes away from something that has to be left out because they added something.

The old Boy Scout course was a very good course and I still use some of the material with the Petty Officers in the Ship.

Sadly over time, so many Scoutmasters and Staffs came up with add ons that no two courses were ever the same.

At times the stuff that was added over-shadowed the course.

There were of course some SM's who did follow the syllabi's. but some got out of hand.

I think NeilLup, was one of the presenters when I attended the CD Conference (The one where the King of Sweden looked in for lunch -Whatever year that was 2002?)

We all pledged to follow the guide.

My big thing was that I knew I was going to evaluate the course and the material, I knew if I had gone ahead and done my own thing, I wouldn't be evaluating the BSA course, I'd be looking at Eamonn's course. This wasn't going to do anything to help improve the course.

Because of the nature of the beast, changes take time. I have not followed all the changes, mainly because I know that I'm no longer involved.

Still I have to admit that I find it a little sad when I hear that the old add ons are starting to find their way back.

Of course the participants don't know what is in the syllabus.

Eamonn.

 

[alpineer]

To the original poster I've found that if you are an invaluable assett to the council and or district and ask if you can be on Wood Badge staff the chances are greatly increased of you getting to staff a course.

As far as some of the old course finding it's way into the new course I've seen it happen and it wasn't intentional. Things get so busy during the course that old course people can make mistakes.