Just What is WoodBadge "supposed" to be...

[OldGreyEagle]

OK, so many this is overkill on WoodBadge topics, then again, maybe not. Perhaps if we explored what think think/thought Woodbadge is, we may understand perceptions about it.

 

I understood WoodBadge to be training for scouters in all aspects of scouting. As applicable to an Asst Cubmaster, Crew Advisor and District Commissioner et al.

 

What do you think WoodBadge is?

[GernBlansten]

I've always viewed WB as the analogous of an Eagle rank. The highest achievement an adult can make in scouting without being nominated (IE Silver Beaver, etc.).

Because of that, I think WB should be Boy Scout specific. It should require the participant to master the skills and leadership expected of an Eagle scout. It should provide the gold standard on BSA methods and goals. A graduate should be as competent and skilled as any 16 year old Eagle candidate in not only scout craft but leadership.

 

But its just my opinion. I haven't attended the course and I don't plan to. I'm sure those who have already taken WB will have a different one.

[Crew21_Adv]

OGE, Fellow Scouters, Fellow Wood Badgers and Fellow Staffers,

 

 

Greetings!

 

I have my own opinion about Wood Badge. Hopefully most agree with it.

 

It is difficult to see a patrol in a troop maneuver thru the year, much less to watch a patrol get thru meal prep, cooking, and KP without arguing and fighting. Equally, it is difficult for adults to go to work, and perform as a team player every day at work.

 

Our (one hour a month) Troop Committee meetings run smoothly, for 11 months out of the year. But just one month a year, we do hit a road block and maybe a small discussion on various routes in the agenda. Thank goodness, we haven't had a complete break down over minor difference. So teamwork, planning, following a plan, leadership(and followership) all these are difficult skills to develop.

 

 

I say Wood Badge is a course to learn how to communicate, effectively plan and execute those plans.

 

When I attempt to sell Wood Badge at Scouting events. I ask, "Does your Committee communicate? Does your Troop have an annual Plan? Does your PLC and Committee carry out your annual Plan? and Are you Scouts advancing?"

 

If the say yes to all of those answers, I ask them to join the Scouting Training Team. If they kinda wince, and say "sort of", I tell them to enroll in Wood Badge, right away!

 

Bottom Line.

My perspective of Wood Badge is; Communication, Planning and Execution.

 

All the Scouting skills and games with a purpose are just the conduit to deliver those vital tools.

 

 

Scouting Forever and Venture On!

Crew21 Adv

[purcelce]

The current WB course is good overall.

 

The leadership training should be the main focus.

OGE and Glern summed up my feeling to the tee.

 

 

[evmori]

Gern,

 

I would agree.

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

[purcelce]

update to my last post:

 

WB should NOT be Boy Scout specific....there are Cub Scouts, Venturing, Varsity Leaders, and District people that attend the course.

 

Mastering camping skills should be done at Scoutmaster Specific training...and I have taught SM Outdoor leader training.

 

[local1400]

I am not and don't plan to be WB trained. My perceptions of WBers was burned into my brain 21 years ago, and it won't change. I do however think the training emphasis should be placed on the Scouts, and not every adult in the troop. After all, aren't we preparing boys?

[GernBlansten]

What is WB supposed to be? Training adults to lead adults or training adults to lead the youth? It seems to me that each requires a different method and expertise.

 

The reason I think it should be boy scout centric is that if mastering leadership training of the youth is the goal, boy scouts is where we do that.

 

Venture scouters should be able to apply what they glean from WB to their scouts, but is leadership really the goal of venturing like it is in Boy Scouts?

 

We don't really train cub scouts to be leaders. So if WB is designed to train adults to train youth, I'm not sure it applies to that program.

 

 

[Beavah]

Yah, this discussion sorta brings us around to what da entire progression of BSA training should be, eh? In that sense, I'm sorta with Gern. It would be nice to have a "capstone" training and recognition for each program (Cubs, Boy Scouts, Varsity, Venturing, District/Council), which reflected our stamp of approval and "highest level" of formal training. Much like the youth capstone awards of AOL, Eagle, and Silver.

 

Seems silly to believe havin' only one capstone award to cover 'em all makes any sense, when we all recognize that the skills required for each program are so different. Almost as silly as believin' that one weekend is sufficient to teach anybody outdoor leadership skills.

 

What WB does best now is create social contacts and get people fired up. That's about all da various fad "management theory seminars" that WB is patterned after succeed at. And that's a fine thing, eh? It's good to have social contacts, and it's good to be inspired. Mostly, I don't think the management stuff itself has much impact on troops. It may introduce an idea here and there, but such ideas area as likely to be misapplied as not.

 

Beavah

 

 

 

[Kudu]

 

Wood Badge should not be Boy Scout specific, it should be Patrol Leader specific!

 

Anyone in Wood Badge (staff or participant) caught using strictly forbidden words such as "Leadership," "Communication," "Planning," "Execution," "Venture," "Cub," "Committee," "District," or any other term covered in the separate "Catered Management for the 21st Century" course must for each offence visit in strict silence all of the Wood Badge Patrol sites to wash their dishes while wearing a sign reading: "Warning: Patrol Method Parasite."

 

Beads are earned one at a time. One Bead for the "Practical Course." The second Bead upon completion of the one and only "Ticket" which for everyone (especially Commissioners and BSA professionals) is to take the Wood Badge Practical Course back to a local Boy Scout Troop (your own if you are a Scouter or Committee Person) and conduct the exact same course (on the Troop level called "Intensive Training in the Green Bar Patrol") with the Troop's Patrol Leaders.

 

Wood Badge Participants who need an impressive letter for their place of employment will have mailed directly to their employers a video file of them making their Patrol Flags, chanting their Patrol Yells, and getting their knees dirty around campfires as they learn the outdoor Scoutcraft skills necessary to successfully complete the course.

 

Wood Badge for the 22nd Century (Practical Course).

 

I) How to run a Patrol Meeting by actually running Patrol Meetings:

 

(a) Simple Opening Ceremony, Call and Yell Contest, Patrol Flag Contest, Instruction Games, Election of Members (the Patrol Leader must already be a holder of the Wood Badge working for his third Bead), Work Session, Handicraft Project, Recreational Games, Simple Closing Ceremony.

 

II) How to run a Patrol Hike by actually running a Patrol Hike (planned in a Patrol Meeting):

 

(a) Assembly; (b) Outbound Journey: 1. Hiking Technique, 2. Activities; © At Destination: Scout Skills, Instruction Games, Rest Period Recreation Games; (d) Return Journey.

 

III) How to run a Patrol Campout by actually running a Patrol Campout (at a Boy Scout Camp):

 

First Day: (a) Assembly; (b) Outbound Journey; © Camp Making; (d) Evening Activities: 1. Supper, 2. Game Period, 3. Camp Fire The two-Bead Patrol Leader finishes by asking the Patrol Leaders in training if they are ready to reaffirm their Patrol Leader's Promise now that they have received the highest form of BSA training: Patrol Leader Training. The Patrol Flag is brought into the campfire circle, and the leaders in training pledge themselves to the Patrol Leader's Promise, reciting the pledge after the Patrol Leader. This is followed immediately by Taps. It is of greatest importance to the success this whole leaders' training that this last period be of great dignity and sincerity. It is the challenge to the new Patrol Leaders and the keynote of their Troops' future work. Second Day: (e) Morning and Noon Activities: 1. Breakfast, 2. Scoutcraft Activities, 3. Noon Meal, 4. Rest Period; (f) Breaking Camp; (g) Return Journey

 

For the the details of how to conduct "Wood Badge for the 22nd Century" without waiting for the old-fashioned 21st century types to catch up, see:

 

http://inquiry.net/patrol/green_bar/index.htm

 

Kudu

 

 

[LongHaul]

Anyone that is familiar with the current Leadership/Team Building seminar training will tell you it is designed to be delivered to the group not individual members of a group. Corporations don't send one person to this training and intend for them to come back and implement it in their business. For this type of training to work at the unit level we would need groups from each unit to take this training. If we could get groups of adults in each unit to be willing to pony up the cash and the time to take this training we would not need the training because these people would already be working as a team after position specific training.

When a person furthers their education and goes for a Masters Degree would they be taking team building and leadership training or would they be looking to hone and develop their knowledge within their specialty? I think this new course should be given it's own name and be presented as the PHD level, if you will, and put back the outdoor, program centered, Boy Scout or Cub Scout(yes there was a WB for Cub Scouts at one time) based refinement of basic skills course. Basic training should be followed by Advanced training in your program area. We need an Advanced Outdoor Program and Leadership Skills course. We need the old WB and the new WB not one or the other because they focus on different aspects of the program.

LH

 Old Course Participant

[Eamonn]

I'm not sure!!

We have what we have!!

One might ask: What is a cookie supposed to be?

Lots of different cookies, everyone has a favorite! But even when you get two people to agree on the same cookie, they might decide they like it the way they like it!!

I have attended the English Course, the Cub Scouter course (Trainer) the old Boy Scout Course and the 21st Century Course.

All were very different.

However some things remained the same.

Mainly:

I had fun.

I went with an open mind and learned a lot.

I met some really great people.

I enjoyed spending time doing what I enjoy.

 

I don't see any training course as being the be all and end all of all training.

It (Wood Badge) when all is said and done is a course!!

Everyone who attends has their own agenda and some sort of expectation of what they hope to get out of the course.

If they went expecting chocolate chip cookies and only got raisin oatmeal, they are not going to be happy.

The course I took in England over 30 years ago (Ouch!!) was in some ways like Kudu has mentioned and maybe what GernBlansten might like.

Maybe because I was so very young!! I got caught up in the activities and a lot of the true meaning was lost on me.

The "Old" Boy Scout (BSA) course wasn't a bad course. I still use and go over the 11 Leadership Skills with the Scouts in the Ship. Sadly over the years the course had been abused so much by so many people, that at times it was hard to know what was the course and what was an add on -Even the add ons had been added too!!

The new course is a good course.

It isn't the old course and maybe a name change would have been a good idea?

If someone goes with a closed mind thinking that they are not going to get anything from it! That's what they are going to get -Nothing!!

Is there a need for more and maybe better practical training's?

They are out there. Philmont offers a lot of really great training's. Sadly for many of us getting there is a chore. Hopefully Councils will see if there is a need and try to fix any problems that there might be. Sadly I kinda think filling practical courses might be a hard sell.

Times have changed a lot since I first attended Wood Badge.

I'm at the tail end of the Baby Boomers or maybe at the front end of The Joneses?

People who attend the courses offered today were educated differently than I was, they expect all the high tech stuff that wasn't even dreamed of back then.

Maybe we did have a Vision and a Mission, but just didn't know it?

The Forming Storming Norming Performing model of group development was unheard of for many of us.

Sadly at times the norm for group development was often intimidation and bullying.

Wood Badge is supposed to offer people who attend tools that they can take back and use to make the job they do a little better and maybe a little easier?

But at the end of the course it's their choice if they want to use the tools or not.

Eamonn.

 

[Its Me]

You all have much stronger opinions on what Wood badge is and is not than I do.

 

It is training for adults leaders who are implementing a youth group program. Nothing more or less. The training tries to help adults deliver a better program to the youths.

 

I have seen first hand the very ideal scoutmaster many speak of. We were in a troop where the scoutmasters skills were extremely impressive. There wasn't a knot, plant on insect that he couldn't identify. Yet he couldn't delivery the program. He couldn't teach. He couldn't stop just showing off skills he knew. His campout plans were boring. His troop meetings were boring. He lost whole patrols for three years in a row as soon as they completed first class.

 

Our first cub-master was the opposite. She was never a boy scout but the program worked very well under her stewardship. Her pack meetings and campouts were fun. She was fun to be around. She recruited leaders very well. She communicated very well. I have no idea if she knew a square lashing from a diagonal lashing. It didn't matter. She delivered a great program and the kids thrived under her.

 

 

(This message has been edited by Its Me)

[local1400]

Its Me-- you can't compare leaders of two different programs. As far as the Scoutmaster who has "boring campouts and meetings", it should've been the boys running the program, THEIR program. You sometimes have to let them fail, learn from their mistakes, so long as you are right there to teach them the correct way to do things. Maybe this is getting off topic a little (but then again, what thread doesn't?), but I don't see the need to attend WB when I have many years of actual Scouting experience in a boy-run troop to draw from.

[John-in-KC]

For E and others here who have been Course Directors:

 

Is not the very term "Wood Badge" controlled by World Scout Movement vice any one national Scout Association?

 

Does the WOSM have any input or approval to any one nation's WB class?

 

After all, the beads and the taupe necker are not peculiar to the US, but are international in nature?

 

Please help... I'm confused!