Panic is setting in!!!

[alexsma]

Okay, first weekend just passed and I have spent the past day back in the real world. Sheer panic is starting to set in now that I am home.

 

After one weekend I still don't understand the whole Ticket thing, I am starting to have very large amounts of anxiety about the whole process and starting to feel as though I can't possibly finish this when I still don't have a clue what I am doing.

 

Other patrols found time to write original songs, head down to the scribes type them up and print them out. I still don't know wear or when they found that time; they must not have slept at all this past weekend.

 

Can someone please tell me if these feelings are normal?

 

I really did have a great time this weekend but I don't have a clue how I am going to finish everything and I am starting to wonder what I got myself into.

 

 

[John-in-KC]

WElcome home.

 

First, get a good nights' sleep!!! We know you're tired. Been there, done that.

 

Every Patrol dynamic is different. Ours basically bypassed forming and storming, and went to norming. We dropped back to storming over one young man, and then charged to performing for weekend 2.

 

Now, the ticket is fairly simple:

 

Why is what you want to do important to Scouting, yourself, your units, and/or the greater good? That's your VISION.

 

What are the big things you expect to have to do to meet your vision? Those are your GOALS.

 

How do you break down your goals into bite size, measurable chunks? That's the SMART acronym:

 

Specific

 

Measurable

 

Attainable

 

Relevant

 

Time based

 

PM me with your email addy, I have a format I used to communicate ticket items with my TG.

[theysawyoucomin']

Put your hand back on the railing...

 

climb in off the ledge...

 

There is plenty of time to panic later and you probably will.

 

John will get you through it. There are ticket formats on the web.

The second weekend still has a lot in store. Don't finish your tcket before the next weekend. Just some ideas.

 

Let the course speak to you. Help you unit through the ticket.

 

Right now you are being shaped like a piece of iron in the fire. Some of your molecules is changin', of course you're in distress.

 

P.s. don't wait until 7 days shy of 18 months to finish like I did. That's when you panic.

 

You don't say what patrol you are in.

[Lisabob]

I'll second (third?) what John and uz2bnowl have said. This is pretty normal (about drove me crazy, so I can sympathize - but lots of us do go through it and it works out in the end). Your troop guide is a good person to talk with; they can probably give you some guidance about whether you are heading in the right direction with your ideas for your ticket. But definitely don't panic - you've got some time yet, before you need to have your ticket in working order and you'll get some input as your second weekend approaches.

[alexsma]

Thanks everyone, I am stepping away from the railing.

 

Last night I got together with some others who are also taking wood badge this course they all seem to have their ticket ideas all worked out. So I started to feel the stress that I was still lost.

 

I also started to feel the stress over the first weekend when other patrols found time to write original songs and such. I didn't have time to think straight let alone write a song!

 

This is just a really busy time of year with back to school and getting the program year started up with the pack.

 

I am a member of the Eagle Patrol, looking forward to the second weekend. I am still not sure how we are going to find time to get everything done, including the conservation project that we ended up with.

 

[OldGreyEagle]

When I did Wood Badge, I was lucky enough to be placed in the Bear Patrol. Seeing as I had grown up in Chicago when Sayers and Butkus prowled Wrigley Field (Cubs in the Summer, Bears in the Fall) I had my trusty Bears towel. As soon as I found out I was to be a Bear, I grabbed my towel, folded over the Chicgo on it and placed it on our table, it was the snarling Bear face with the text "Bears" under it. The SPL was filling out a seating chart looked at us and asked what patrol we were, saw the "Flag" and said "Oh, how did you do that so fast?". I took the Bears fight song which has been rattling around in my head for 45 years or so and made it our Patrol Song. We acomplished that in 15 minutes because of serendipity, not because we were an high performing team, sometimes things just work out.

 

Now, in the subject of tickets, that just burns my butt. For something that is talked about incessantly, cannonized in the the Gilwell song and the heart of the Wood Badge experience, it really isnt expressed well as to what it is. As it stands, our Course Director, SPL and Troop Guide all explained ticket items to me, they all meant the same thing, but expresed it differently and just well enough to confuse the heck out of me.

 

Listen to patrol mates and their ideas, to examples that are given and follow them. Dont copy them, but follow their style and content. Dont fret about it, relax and let the ticket items come to you, experience the Zen of Tickets

[John-in-KC]

The first weekend is designed to stress you in time. It's supposed to be an allegory for the lack of knowledge an 11-18 year old has. They can't undo your mind, but they can put it under pressure. Couple that with late summer heat, and ... it happens.

 

We had something like 3 meetings (might even have been 4) between sessions. We definitely worked pieces of the patrol flag, we also worked on developing ticket items.

 

To me, the ticket item is designed to relate you and your skills/interests to Scouting jobs which need doing. If the items you propose do not matter to you, they do not get done, or at best get done with extra effort to overcome your own resistance. OTOH, things you like to do...?... you spend time on them because you are passionate about them. You get more done with less energy than the items you were resistant about!

 

Keep asking questions or venting; it's why we are all here

[alexsma]

Thank you everyone for all your support!

 

Since this is my first year as Pack Committee Chair there are lots of ideas running through my head.

 

One is that our committee had been reduced to just the leaders of the pack and the COR. The outgoing Committee Chair stopped holding monthly meetings. That is something that I really want to reintroduce into the pack. I also have several parents who really want to be involved but dont have the time to commit to a being a den leader.

 

I would really like to get those parents involved in the pack and help to make it stronger so that when my son moves up to Boy Scouts if I decide to move up with him there are parents still there to keep the pack alive.

 

So I guess I need to spell out my goals for the pack and the committee so that I can use those items for my ticket.

 

My patrol had so much trouble getting a date and time setup for just one meeting between weekends I am not sure how much support I will get from my patrol members on ticket items. I have already sent out an email to the members of my patrol but only received back two responses from five other patrol members.

 

I guess the stress of wood badge along with planning a wedding might be a little much. At least I have time after the wedding for working on my ticket.

 

Thanks again, I am sure that I will be back with lots of questions!

 

 

 

[OldGreyEagle]

Hey ask away, remember there are no stupid questions, only stupid people who ask them, wait no, that not it.

 

There are no stupid questions, only stupid people who dont know enough to ask them in an intelligent... no thats not it either,,,

 

anyway, ask away

[eagle-pete]

alexsma

 

In 2 weeks I will be headed up to (what we affectionately call) The Hill. But this time I will be there as a Troop Guide.

 

4 years and 3 months ago I was right where you are now; a Wood Badge participant. I too am in the Eagle Patrol. Like you, I was on a 2-weekend course. And much like you, between weekends, I felt some of the same anxieties trying to take everything in, struggling with writing ticket items, working to get the project finished, working on my part in the Campfire Program, filling out my 360 evaluations, and overall just trying to get everything accomplished. I understand what you are experiencing.

 

Yes, this is normal. You should be feeling somewhat overwhelmed, some information overload, a little uncertain, and some good, healthy trepidation to get your ticket items written. I would be concerned if you werent feeling this way. But you should also be having a great time! There is nothing like Wood Badge. The camaraderie and friendships you are developing will be part of your life for a long time. You should be catching a unique spirit of Scouting. You should be starting to form your own vision of Scouting. You should be starting to look at Scouting from a more goal-oriented perspective.

 

Go to your Troop Guide for assistance on your ticket items. That person is your primary resource. They are trained to provide direction and guidance to you. In fact, that is their primary responsibility on the Wood Badge course.

 

And so in a matter of days I will be back on The Hill assisting participants just like you with their tickets, their vision, and their understanding. I am not sure who is more scared; you or me.

 

Have a GREAT course

 

Yours in Scouting

 

Eagle Pete

[scoutldr]

OGE, we don't use words like "Butkus" on this forum. That should be "Buttockskus"...

[SSScout]

What they said...

 

My only complaint was that I had some great ideas but THEY wouldn't let me ticket'em because they were for CUB SCOUTS (specifically the Day Camp) and I am a registered BOY Scout leader. But it's all good. Even tho I have been the First Assistant Everything Else to the CSDC Director (wife), for the last three years. Sooooo (as my Math teacher would say) fall back, dig in, and save the equipment.And then, because of the range of my tickets, I had to CHANGE my Leader status from ASM to UC! I was fine tuning the last of the tickets at 1pm on the Sunday of the second weekend.

 

That was three months ago. One ticket is almost automatically finishing itself (can't believe it), the others are in various stages of needing attention and soooo I must get off the computer.

 

Trust in the Spirit.

[John-in-KC]

SSScout,

 

IMO, your TG and SM (course director) are full of excremental matter and stinketh.

 

I guess they've forgotten that Cubbing is the seed corn of Boy Scouting.

 

Funny. At the time, I was registered at unit level on the Boy side and at District level (still am there) as a Boy Scout RT staff). Neither my TG nor my SM had any problem with me serving as a Bear Council Resident Camp Commissioner!

 

You can always make your service part of the "lifetime" tickets!!!

[SSScout]

Thankee, John.

 

Is that Shakespeare?

 

Hoot Hoot.

[briantshore]

Look around at your unit, community, district, council, ect. What area''s do you see that are week, understaffed, done the same old stuff year after year, and think " I wonder why this is not done differently" Once you identify the target, figure out what you can do to make it better.

Beaver Patrol

C-45-07

4 Tickets down, and 1 to go