The Best Single training event you have participated in...

[John-in-KC]

Of all your BSA training to date you've been in as a participant...

 

What was the best single program?

 

Why?

 

I'll give my own answer someplace down the trail.

[TheScout]

National Camping School.

 

Instructors were top notch. All participants wanted to learn and gave a great deal about scouting. All around great atmosphere.

[BrentAllen]

By far, the best was Wood Badge. Many reasons why.

 

The course was loaded with material, activities and fun! We changed venues (patrol site vs. TLA) often, and the presenters also changed, which kept everything fresh. In the entire week, I don't think I ever got bored. There wasn't much down time at all. In fact, I don't think I got to bed before midnight once, and we weren't up just wasting time or relaxing.

 

The course lasted more than one day or one weekend. We had time to really get into the course work and discuss it with our patrol mates. As has been mentioned here many times before, I probably learned as much from the members of my patrol as I did from the course material.

 

The course was presented very professionaly, meaning it was polished, well rehearsed. It was very evident that the staff had put in a tremendous amount of time in preparing to deliver the course. They not only knew the course material inside and out, they lived and breathed it. They were passionate about it.

 

I was a CM at the time, and seeing and participating in the Boy Scout model brought back tons of memories from my old Scout days. It was like being back at Summer Camp again! We got to be Boy Scouts, for a whole week! It was a lot of work, but it was a ton of fun!!

 

We came away with workable knowledge, and a project through which to apply and test that knowledge. It wasn't the typical course where you attend, take some notes, maybe take a test, and receive a training card. You had to take what you had learned and apply it to your position in Scouting. It took me about 15 months to complete everything, and I could see real results from the effort. The course was very rewarding, in many different ways.

[Gold Winger]

The old Scoutmastership Fundamentals which in my district took about seven weeks and included patrol meetings outside of class. Gave me a solid understanding of how a troop was supposed to operate.

[kb6jra]

"Boy Scout Skills for Scoutmasters" 1983 Philmont Scout Ranch...

 

#1, because it was at Philmont, the holy grail of BSA, and

#2, This was the first long term training I'd ever taken and the experience of bonding with other like minded scouters while in an immersion environment was irreplaceable. Being a 22 year old "kid" at the time gave me a certain skew on the subject. I was able to beat the heck out of the "old timers", some as old as 40 , at scoutcraft, and I learned a lot from them in terms of dealing with youth from an adult perspective...

 

Wow, this takes me back. I'm going to dig up all of my old stuff from those days and reminisce. Thanks for reminding me...

 

[BeaverIII]

The old Scoutmastership Fundamentals. As a newly minted troop committee member in 1995 it let me see how the Boy Scout program works and I met some top notch Scouters (staff and participants)who I am still close to today.

 

BeaverIII

[Bob White]

Three-way Tie

Cornerstone Training 1975

met some incredible Scouters and got stoked about being a Scouting volunteer

 

1st Wood Badge Course 1980

Incredible staff, learned a ton.

 

1st Train the Tainer Course 1981

Great people, met folks I still am pals with today.(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[Trevorum]

COPE facilitator training, hands down. COPE is the most fun a Scouter can have, short of High Adventure!

[scoutldr]

BSA Lifeguard, circa 1990, before they watered it down. It was physically challenging and I was amazed at how the skills came back (I was a Red Cross WSI at age 18). The instructor's attitude was tough and no nonsense and there were no "social graduations"...you either could demonstrate the skill or not. Lives could depend on it.

[John-in-KC]

Like Scoutldr, BSA lifeguard.

 

Unlike him... 2003.

 

The pool staff at Camp Lone Star, H Roe Bartle Scout Reservation, didn't cut anybody any slack. I found the course challenging. I found the standards maintained. The trainer was a subject matter expert, not winging it! The trainer also had been taught how to train and develop skills in others.

 

 

[goodscout]

Woodbadge, really gave me the boy led experience by how the SPL ran things.

 

Best Beavers

[fgoodwin]

My own WB course experience was a very close second, but I think my best training experience as a participant was "Training Cub Scout Leaders" at PTC, summer of '04. The combination of wonderful instructors and motivated classmates was outstanding.

 

And of course, its hard to beat the experience of Philmont, even for those of us at PTC who didn't spend our nights in the mountains on the trail.

[milwscout580]

I haven't been through many trainging courses, because I'm only 19, but so far, my favorite training course has to be the Order of the Arrow National Leadership seminar. I just went through it last weekend. It was a great experience, and just like other people I knew had said, it can be used outside of scouting. It is more of a workplace leadership training, with examples geared toward the OA and Scouting.