I have a question about Woodbadge

[1HR_A_WEEK]

Hey CubMon. When I went to WB I saw every shape and size of tent you can imagine. It's really up to you what you take. If all you have is a bigger tent, take it. Just make a few trips from the car.

 

WB isn't a high adventure experience, you don't need to fit everything into a backpack or rough it IMHO. I have severe sleep apnea and needed access to electricity of some kind to run my CPAP machine. It wasn't a problem. I have a bad back so I had a cot and pad in my tent. I was prepared for my needs and knew it would take a few trips to get setup.

 

The second weekend you are with your patrol and setup in a group. You have your own kitchen, food, etc. As a patrol you will decide who is bringing what and will plan accordingly, and as a patrol support and help each other to setup your area.

 

I went through it as a Cub Scout leader too and was fortunate to have boy scout leaders and other cub scout leaders in my patrol. Boy Scouts have different ways of doing things so it was a great experience for me to get to do things with them.

 

[JMHawkins]

acco said " Part of the course is to "be prepared" and for others not to describe in detail what the course will be like."

 

Hmmmm, I'd say that part of being prepared is getting the folks putting on the event to clarify details where needed . Asking "do I need a backpacking tent for this weekend" is a reasonable question. Instructions to "come prepared as if going on a backpacking trip" would be good, though maybe would discourage Cub leaders who might only have the sort of equipment needed for family camping.

 

As an aside, I'm not really keen on the idea of a leadership course that encourages poor transparency. "Don't tell anyone else what we did" isn't exactly a model of responsible leadership.

[jhankins]

I read the syllabus for last year's Wood Badge five times. I've read this year's syllabus twice. No where does it say to instruct participants in keeping secrets.

[nolesrule]

There are some things in the syllabus that are more effective without prior knowledge (IMHO), but knowing what gear to bring has no bearing on those.

[scoutermomks]

I did end up getting clarification from our ACM. She went to Wood Badge last year. She actually told me that my huge tent would be fine but I found a great deal on a 3 man tent and bought it for me and my son to use at pack campouts. It seems that our council has a pretty loose interpretation of "backpack" when it comes to Wood Badge. My ACM said that hardly anyone at her course had a frame pack and they really only had to walk about 5 minutes to get to their campsites.

 

It probably would have helped if we would have had the Wood Badge breakout we were told to expect at the last Roundtable. Instead our awards banquet took up the whole night.