Upcoming Wood Badge changes

[Chris1]

Thanks

[WRW_57]

I was there at the spring pilot course at Philmont, as a student. Here is what I recall:

• B & G + crossover  at Lunch Day 1
• I was told more topics taught by troop guide
• Ticket ideas due Day 2 EOD (9PM), Completed tickets turned in Day 3 EOD, Approved tickets returned Day 4. No other homework or late-nighters.
• Patrol Project was a 7-10 minute on what we got out the course. No PPTs. Day 5 in AM. It took us about 45 minutes to put it together taking and white boarding.
• Students politely challenged the lectures  on occasions for the better.
• 5-hr outdoor segment run by local NYLT grads.
• Newton-car project replaced game of life.
• Nothing terribly stupid or silly. Did not overdue the patrol identity thing like you see from local wood badge grads. No Kudu horn blowing or axe-n-log displays.
• High caliber group of students and nat'l -level instructors
• Only brief movie clips to compliment presentations.
• No mention of folks having to retake the course...not a huge curriculum changes. Perhaps more info on evolution of teams and the  leaderships styles best suited for various stages of development and situations.
• The program kind of assumed you knew about the history of scouting before, as well as the patrol method.
• One, patrol cooked dinner. Chow hall or sack meals rest of time. Slept indoors.
• Plenty of in-class patrol assignments & presentations. No artificially induced "stressing" events. Ton of valuable class participation by students.

The five day straight, out of town,  schedule worked the best for my work calendar. I was also strongly turned off by cliquish nature of my council's wood badge cult, and felt a higher-profile course had to be better than the local options. The added cost was well worth the valuable contacts and friendships I made at BSA-18-2.

Edited August 13, 2018 by WRW_57

[Chris1]

Thanks for the first hand info. Sounds like good changes overall.

The schedule in the gilwell cassette from your course listed the blue and gold banquet as evening on day one.

I have mixed feelings on the Outdoor Experience being limited to just five hours. Rather than 2 overnight. I can see the logistical advantage particularly for those do you use CPAP or have other needs. This no doubt allows more time to be trimmed from the schedule. I do like the use of nylt Youth.

Many will be sad to have the kudu horn and Axe and log go away. I like the ties to tradition and meanings behind them but they really are not crucial and may have gotten too much emphasis in some courses over the years.

I am not sad to have win all you can AKA Game of Life go away. Nor will I miss artificial stress events or extreme Critter rivalries

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[WRW_57]

I think the horn and axe display may have been left out due to weather, and not a formal decision. There was plenty of WB traditions and formality, but the focus was the learning and how to understand the moving parts inside and outside a unit.

No patrol patches, no bead thingies for PLs, no stuffed animals, just patrol flags & yells,  & Tr1 neckerchiefs. Some jokers took our patrol flag and hid it ...after their WB SM conference I believe they regretted doing it. My patrol got to laugh twice on that one.

No talk of geeking out with fellow critters after the course, just how to be more effective scouters when we returned.

The NYLT-youth lead the teamwork games at Camp Rocky Mountain, that each WB patrol participated in.

The absence of camping as a patrol was not missed by anyone. Some patrols had enough friction without having to tent together.

My patrol  consisted of a disaster-response  mgr (ASM), real estate consultant (SM), professional musician (DistCampChair), shipyard quality inspector (ACM), and a NASA flight controller for the ISS (CM). We skipped all the BS and went straight to "norming", got our stuff done efficiently, and had time plenty for laughs.

As taught, the course was about the youth, not me.

Edited August 14, 2018 by WRW_57

[ParkMan]

2 hours ago, WRW_57 said:

I think the horn and axe display may have been left out due to weather, and not a formal decision. There was plenty of WB traditions and formality, but the focus was the learning and how to understand the moving parts inside and outside a unit.

No patrol patches, no bead thingies for PLs, no stuffed animals, just patrol flags & yells,  & Tr1 neckerchiefs. Some jokers took our patrol flag and hid it ...after their WB SM conference I believe they regretted doing it. My patrol got to laugh twice on that one.

No talk of geeking out with fellow critters after the course, just how to be more effective scouters when we returned.

The NYLT-youth lead the teamwork games at Camp Rocky Mountain, that each WB patrol participated in.

The absence of camping as a patrol was not missed by anyone. Some patrols had enough friction without having to tent together.

My patrol  consisted of a disaster-response  mgr (ASM), real estate consultant (SM), professional musician (DistCampChair), shipyard quality inspector (ACM), and a NASA flight controller for the ISS (CM). We skipped all the BS and went straight to "norming", got our stuff done efficiently, and had time plenty for laughs.

As taught, the course was about the youth, not me.

Thanks - sounds like a fantastic course.  I enjoyed mine, but it does make me wish I could attend such a high caliber course!

[TAHAWK]

Venturers have led group-forming games at our local courses since 2005.  Two of those Venturers were the first officially approved NYLT participants..  They both staffed position-specific/iols training at Summer camp last Summer.

[Bowline]

All in all this sounds like positive changes.  Loosing the win all we can game will be both good and bad.  I like the tickets being developed early but I wonder how participants can really have sound ideas that early without coming to to program with ideas in mind.  

[WRW_57]

Some folks in other patrols really struggled with identifying ticket items.

Our troop guide made us come up with five ideas the first afternoon.  We each of us put them on our own white board*, for our other patrol members to  see, and comment on. This allowed for rapid development without angst. As individuals we  brainstormed each others ticket items until everything was baked by Wednesday. We all thought about our items before arriving, so it was just a matter of mapping them a WB dogma. None of the 25 tickets items were the same.

* we got to meet in a training room, with miles of whiteboards.

 

 

[DaBear-c5-324-15]

Jjlash

Hey can you post those gilwell gazzetes I would like to look at them

the link is not working

[MattR]

Welcome to the forum, @DaBear-c5-324-15

[nmfnurse525]

On 7/31/2018 at 10:21 AM, jjlash said:

I sent a couple of folks to the Philmont pilot this spring.  Since they had not been to WB before, they had nothing to compare with.  Between conversations with them and other things Ive seen/read.... We know the Win All You Can is gone.  I had heard that the movie was gone and not replaced.  I had also heard that the patrol project was gone.  And finally, that they were dropping an entire day from the course.

In searching just now to see if I could confirm any of these, I ran across this page which has the Gilwell Gazettes from the Philmont pilot:

http://centennialwoodbadge.com/philmont-scout-ranch-pilot/resources/

Notice right away that there are only 5 gazettes.  Much of the content is the same as we all use but the daily schedules give some insight to what the new course has or doesnt have.  I noticed some new/different presentation names.  I especially noticed one called "Patrol Leadership Quest" on D4 and "Patrol Leadership Quest Presentations" on D5.  Has the patrol project been replaced with something more like NYLT's quest?

 

I wish I could see these Gazettes. I am hopeful to be involved in the new course in 2020. I saw these a week ago in another place but can no longer access them. If you can send it would be appreciated

[RememberSchiff]

@nmfnurse525  welcome to scouter.com

[nmfnurse525]

On 8/31/2018 at 3:25 PM, DaBear-c5-324-15 said:

Jjlash

Hey can you post those gilwell gazzetes I would like to look at them

the link is not working

 

On 8/31/2018 at 3:25 PM, DaBear-c5-324-15 said:

Jjlash

Hey can you post those gilwell gazzetes I would like to look at them

the link is not working

 

[nmfnurse525]

I could not open either and if someone can I would like to view Gazettes.

Thanks

 

[RememberSchiff]

I have the same problem. The link http://centennialwoodbadge.com  cannot be reached. Which could mean the address is bad or server down or ...