Should Committee Members take WB?

[BadenP]

moosetracker

Once again you seem to have trouble either reading or comprehending other posts. I stated very clearly that if a committee person wanted to take WB they should. I followed up with stating that in my opinion WB would not necessarily make them a better committee members because the traing has a very different focus, and that WB requires a lot of time and expense to fully complete.

[Eagledad]

>>I stated very clearly that if a committee person wanted to take WB they should. I followed up with stating that in my opinion WB would not necessarily make them a better committee members because the traing has a very different focus.

[moosetracker]

Eagledad thank-you, It is important for the committee to be well trained. But wouldnt you agree that SM & ASM should have WB also to help with their communication and team building of the youth members?

The required training for a committee member is a start, but insufficient.

Scoutmaster Specific Important for SM & ASM yes, but important for committee members also.. This is where the true BSA program is defined especially for the troop meetings. How can you make good policy guides if you dont know the goal of scouting. What BSA policies are in Black and White, and which ones you can alter for your units specific needs? The SM may come to the committee meeting, if the committee is untrained you have 2 outcomes. The SM runs the committee, or the committee doesnt understand the problems of the SM and makes policies that do not help him.

Outdoor training Important for SM, ASM yes, but important for anyone wanting to go on the events. If all Adults on an event know the safety rules they can keep the youth and others on the event safe by practicing the rules themselves, in guiding a youth so the youth is safe, and by stepping in to advert a potential disaster if they see a youth not following the safety rules. Important to Committee members who dont go on events so that they can make sound policy that insures the safety of the unit and again so that they understand better the challenges facing the SM.

Woodbadge This is communication, teamwork and management. Good for everyone. I just dont see where it would not be.

What if you need to replace an SM or ASM? Wouldnt it be great if your candidates from the committee were already on their way to being fully trained to do the job?

Knowledge is Power. The more trained you are the more you can make sure the program is the best that it can be. I love a well trained unit.. It keeps opinionated people like me from making the program my way or the highway because all the other well trained adults in my unit are just as opinionated as me and they will keep me in my place. I love the challenge.

 

[Eagledad]

>>What if you need to replace an SM or ASM? Wouldnt it be great if your candidates from the committee were already on their way to being fully trained to do the job?

[moosetracker]

I will have to take your word for it.

 

The old WB was around, but I was personnally not ready to take WB until the new WB came out. So I don't have anything to compare the new WB with.

[BadenP]

Two peas in a pod and both wrong. Listen committee folks need better training in what and how a committee functions and what it supposed to do, and stats show most of them never get any training because there really isn't a good training program for them. WB requires a lot of time and money during and after the course, and the content really is of little benefit to committee members functions. With volunteers time and money being in short supply these days WB is hardly the best use of either for committee members, unless they have aspirations to become a SM or CA someday, and most of them do not.

 

So Barry and moose, I say again if a committee member fully understands the committment and still wants WB then fine let them take it, however don't try to tell them it will make them better committee members, it just is not true. You two sound like you are trying to relive your youth scouting experiences or lack of youth scouting experiences as adults, and I just bet your uniforms are just covered with all kinds of patches and knots that proves it.

[Eagledad]

>>however don't try to tell them it will make them better committee members, it just is not true.

[nolesrule]

BadenP, I'm not sure what WB21C course you took, but the one I took would be beneficial to all Scouters regardless of the position. It's not about program (or even which program). It's about leadership, team building, communication, vision, goal-setting, project management.

[moosetracker]

Nope, not one knot.. I thought about it while helping other adult leaders earn theirs, but truely it was not worth the time or effort. I do have a sprinkling of mentor pins given to me by not my son, but other Eagle scouts our family took an interest in helping by either becoming thier scouting parents because they lacked parent involvement, or by being their trail-to-eagle guide.

 

Those mean more to me then any knot ever would, so please think before you attack them with more negativity. It would be like personally attacking my son to me. But, yes I do take pride in them.

 

My husband has scouting history, I never did until my son joined. So is it lack of scouting experience?? BINGO.. The shell shock of what horrors my husband and I put my son through in that first troop due to our lack of scouting experience will haunt me all of my days. The way he manipulated the minds of the adults into thinking he was building the strongest and best scouts. After that, the need to protect the youth of my unit is now my driving force for pushing training for all adult leaders.

 

Do I push Woodbadge? No.. Not even to SM or ASM, seems while in the position they are already committing too much personal time to scouting to add to it WB training. But, I definately do push the other training, and I welcome anyone who wants to commit to Woodbadge training. But, yes it is expensive and time consuming.. So no, you don't push it..

 

But go back to the original question. The original poster, he WANTS to take woodbadge. We disagree in the fact the Communication & teambuilding and organizational management skill help everyone in the troop. But, I doubt a person looking for a reason to go, because he really wants to go, will think the expierience worthless.

 

And maybe you Council has on it's informational form for WB a disclaimer to be helpful to anyone not in an SM or ASM position. But, boy my Council's informational Flyer does not.

 

Here is a direct quote.

"

The leadership skills one learns in Wood Badge are not only applicable to Scouting, but also to the growth of the individual and the roles in life they fill, professionally and at home.

 

To the Scout Leader, Wood Badge often makes the difference between offering a mere form of entertainment or providing a program which will have a profound influence on the lives of boys and girls.

 

To all Scouters, the Wood Badge experience teaches those skills of leadership and management that enable us to become truly effective in our work with others.

"

[John-in-KC]

Moosetracker,

 

BadenP does not speak for all of us by any means. Go for it, and have fun doing it!

[BadenP]

I never said she should not take WB John, don't put words in my mouth either. This started out as a general question about committee members and WB, for some reason you decided to make it personal, and no I never claimed to speak for anyone other than myself, unlike yourself.

[Lisabob]

I share the opinion of lots of other posters who say that WB can help you - regardless of your scouting position - to do a better job as a scouter. The more you understand about the purpose, structure, and function of scouting, the better able you will be to support scouting in whatever position you currently hold. Not to mention the obvious scouter networking benefits.

 

I don't know very many WB'ers who would say otherwise, but all are entitled to their opinions. Have fun with it, moose tracker, when you get to a point where you can do it.

 

 

[jhankins]

I really have to chuckle at the opinion that committee members don't benefit from WB21C. Committees have to be high-performance teams too!

 

The better the conflict management, communication, and leadership skills among the committee, the better off the entire troop is.

[moosetracker]

Thanks for everyones support.. But, in all fairness I did by mistake start the bitter feud between BadenP and myself. He hit a nerve in me and I unfairly said something that got his dander up.. I have been trying to apologize ever since, while defending my stance, but I guess I really ticked him off.

 

I love this discussion, but if BadenP, would again please accept my appology for my first comment, I would love to get this back onto an intellectual debate rather then anyone feeling they are personnally being attacked.

 

I think we have already frightened off Nike, who was the original poster with BadenP & my bickering..

 

BadenP: I will agree with you that WB can not be pushed onto anyone. It is only for those who wish to go that extra mile.. It does cost money and it does cost time.

 

But I disagree that WB or the programs designed for SM & ASM are not benificial to the committee.

 

I will agree with you that the program designed for the Committee is insufficent as it is. If they did design a great training program giving committee members what they need, they would not have to go to the SM specific program for the information they need to run the committee, they would not have to sit through things not so beneficial to pull this information, and their program could be supplimented for important information designed specifically for them. But, with out this program designed, I still say get it where you can, and currently that is in the program designed for the SM.

 

That is the best compromise I can make to try again, to bury the hatchet with you. It's up to you to accept it or not.

[acco40]

Should Committee Members take WB? Absolutely not. They may get the mistaken idea that they are important, said the Scoutmaster.

 

Our troop put in rules that anyone who was going to go on events with the boys needed to have ALL the training that a SM & ASM need. I find this so humorous because the SM is about the only position that DOES NOT NEED ANY TYPE OF TRAINING TO TAKE THE BOYS ON OUTINGS! So what you are stating is that the parents and committee members should take youth protection?