What made your course special?

[John-in-KC]

I used to be patient,

and have goodly patience too.

 

But now I've been a working with adults

I don't know what to do

 

I'm growing old and feeble

and impatient as heck anymore..

 

So I'm gonna work my ticket if I can...

 

There might even be a CD's minute in all this

[sgtron116]

One thing that my course special was the comaraderie of scouters. My patrol was working together by lunch on day one. We went straight from forming to norming.

 

Something that I didn't expect was that I had a really good time, in fact, I can't remember the last time I laughed so much.

 

The other thing that was special was that one of the staff hand made the beads for the staff and for all the participants. We assembled our beads on day six right before the final troop formation. The beads were put in an envelope with our name on it, and will be kept at council till we complete our tickets. That is going to make earning them that much more special.

 

Used to be a Beaver C-17-08

[jethro]

I just finished my second weekend in NE-IV-211. Our course was terrific - dedicated, enthusiastic staffers gave us friendly but firm guidance, and our patrol normed and performed with the best of them (of course we did - we're Beavers!). So it had all the hallmarks of a great, memorable Wood Badge course. I'll never forget it.

 

One thing, though, was truly unique. On day six, as we began singing Back to Gilwell during the closing ceremony, a bald eagle began circling the field. (Our camp is on the Chesapeake, so we're blessed with lots of eagle sightings.) He kept circling as the Beavers and Bobwhites took their turns, and after hearing the Eagles, slowly flew away. It was a magical moment.

 

- Jeff

[elfdream]

Let's see, a bear poked his nose into one of the tents in the campsite just up from us..and it belonged to a woman who was a brand new Pack leader and the campsite down from us sent their lone woman up to ask us for a left handed smoke shifter. We sent her back with the air horn that we had used for our skit.

 

The resort campground a mile away had an all night music festival but all we heard was the bass lines and the drums. We were awakened in the night thinking it was some kind of weird secret WB ceremony that had somehow not leaked out...

 

Then our Troop Guide who happened to work for FEMA got called away by Hurricane IKE and one of our patrol members came down with a blood clot in his arm and had to miss two days but was allowed back by the SM under the condition that his patrol 'catch him up' on what he had missed.

 

But I assume you mean the actual course which I just finished.

 

 

As far as I could tell the staff followed the syllabus down to the letter. They didn't add or subtract anything...and what was important to me was that everyone took the training seriously. There was no 'weak links' among the staff but at the same time they made it 'fun' and it wasn't at all boring. I don't know how they did that but they pulled it off. Good energetic staff members are a must for this kind of thing.

 

I can't pick out 'one' special moment...maybe it was back in the campsite teaching our newly recovered patrol member all of the things we had learned ourselves...or the campfire that we had to hold inside because it rained...or the "Scouts Own' service in our outdoor chapel...it was pretty much all good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[jethro]

elfdream said, "...one of our patrol members came down with a blood clot in his arm and had to miss two days but was allowed back by the SM under the condition that his patrol 'catch him up' on what he had missed."

 

Sorry to hijack your post, elfdream. During our course, one of the participants arrived an hour or two late for the second Friday due to an unavoidable situation at work. He was told that it was national policy that he could NOT receive credit for the course, having missed one presentation. The option to "catch him up" was not available. To his credit, he chose to participate for the rest of the weekend with his patrol, and they (and all of us) were happy to have him.

 

So, for those who might know better than I, is it truly official policy that missing one session means missing out on Wood Badge, or is there an opportunity for this fellow to make up one part of the course?

[elfdream]

All I know is on Saturday of the Second Week-end the SM said that if he didn't make it there by the end of the day he would have to repeat it all again next year.

 

My Husband had to miss part of the first Saturday morning for an unbreakable appointment (court date..no, it wasn't about anything he had done and they allowed him to return but then again he is also a District Exec.

[NeilLup]

Hello Jethro and Elfdream,

 

The answer to your question, Jethro, is "yes."

 

Having said that, there is this line I remember from the Merchant of Venice:

 

"The Quality of Mercy is not strained.

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon place beneath."

 

I know of many, many courses where a participant was not able to make one or more sessions and they were permitted to make up the session with the help of their patrol. It is totally up to the Course Director. If the CD chooses to follow the strict letter of the law, the answer is that missing one session means that the person does not qualify.

 

I do know of a number of people who needed to repeat the practical course because of medical or other problems. We have one person in our course who was able to complete only on his fourth try and then, the second weekend, he was in a wheelchair.

[Eamonn]

"He was told that it was national policy that he could NOT receive credit for the course,"

 

Near the top of my list of pet peeves is this "National Policy" stuff.

Please, please, please the next time someone throws this talk of national policy at you ask to see the black and white!!

The good people at National have a lot better things to do than sitting around trying to write national policy on everything under the sun.

 

We had a young fellow who participated in the course I served as CD for, he had to work on Saturday mornings till noon.

A staff member went over the stuff he had missed. It really wasn't a big deal.

As for this national policy thing -When they do show you where this stuff is coming from. Make sure it is from national.

Ea.

[GMitch]

2 people on our course had to leave for part of one day for unexpected work situations. We weren't sure whether they would get to work their ticket and earn the Wood Badge beads, but both were determined to return and be with their patrols regardless. One of the fellows was in my patrol. We had him record his part of the patrol presentation, and tried to make sure we had information to pass on to him about what he missed. I think some lessons were learned about the true spirit of Gilwell by these guys leaving, their patrols stepping up to make up the difference, and the staff working through it and allowing them to continue.

[Eamonn]

Looking in my copy of the 2002 Administrative Guide. Which I know has been updated and changed so much that I'm not really sure why I keep it!!

I tried looking up Attendance by participants.

I didn't find any section that dealt with this other than in the Acceptance of Invitation (A-9)Which does read:

I understand that attendance at all sessions is mandatory and is required for certification.

I'm not sure if the make up sessions that I allowed the young fellow to take would be viewed as being OK or not?

(My copy of the guide is 18-591.)

 

I still do stand by not allowing people to be buffaloed by this talk of National Policy.

When it seems that this is being used as a tool to keep people in line and seems to be untrue, ask to see the policy and where it came from.

Eamonn.

 

[bkale]

**trying to bring post back to topic**

 

I just finished my second weekend (NE-IV-215). The entire course was a great eye opener and highlighted so many things that I strive for.

 

I would say that the interaction between SPL and CD is HUGE. Our SPL and SM obviously showed a great deal of respect and communication. The CD minutes were very impactful (