Excited about Woodbadge!

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

Signed up for Woodbadge together with two other scouter friends from our pack. The course director is a commissioner who was formerly den leader and current pack parent, so I expect this to deepen existing friendships as well as build new ones. Can't wait to go. Just need to get that part C done and get a new tetanus shot...

[SSScout]

Hoot, hoot, hoot....

Get your tent set up in your back yard.  Make sure the mice haven't got to it, it has all the ropes, stakes, RAINFLY  (we had one new Scouter show up with a "new" tent he just bought at a yard sale,  "oh, is that why it has all that nice ventilating screening on top!" ), it is still RAINPROOF, and you remember how to set it up.  New boots, broken in?  Gear check list checked?  Questions answered?  Uni complete?  Comfy (!) camp chair ready?  Pencils sharpened?  Smile and singing voice ready?

See you on the trail ! 

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

Thanks for the reminder about stakes - I'll need the Texas summer tent the weekend before for a pack campout, so the gear and list check will be quite complete (I'll do the campout laundry and immediately re-pack it all, I figure), but we ended up leaving a lot of stakes behind last time we used it because I let the cub scouts use it as a hangout tent to get them some bonus practice with setting up and taking down a tent without adult help. They were less diligent in remembering the stakes it turned out! I need to replace them or I'll be sorry if there's any wind.

Boots are broken in already. Camp chair is ready. Practicing scales and reminiscing over old scout songs now...

See you on the trail!

[qwazse]

You’re right. Networking is one of the great benefits.

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

On 9/22/2024 at 1:39 PM, qwazse said:

Networking is one of the great benefits.

I found my people! Now I can reach out to people in the area to talk about scouting instead of the Internet. I came here to connect with other scouters in the time that I have - the in between times and late nights. Now I can text people I know personally instead.

I quite enjoyed WB, and would recommend. The brief format made it a great reminder of things I already knew, I learned a few new things, but above all I got plugged into engaged scouters nearby.

[OaklandAndy]

I finished mine last fall, one of the better trainings that I've been to so far. Volunteering dynamics became a LOT easier once I networked with other leaders and focused in on what I needed to do to be a better leader for our scouts, volunteers, and parents. 

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

Exactly! Adding to my satisfaction is that two of my fellow leaders went at the same time, so now we're working on improving how our unit runs at the same time. By the time our tickets are finished, we will have significantly improved operational efficiency and have incorporated all the new adventure requirements into the operations in a scalable, repeatable way.

And now when we need something, we have contacts at council as well as other units. Much better situation to be volunteering from.

[Eagledad]

9 hours ago, AwakeEnergyScouter said:

Exactly! Adding to my satisfaction is that two of my fellow leaders went at the same time, so now we're working on improving how our unit runs at the same time. By the time our tickets are finished, we will have significantly improved operational efficiency and have incorporated all the new adventure requirements into the operations in a scalable, repeatable way.

And now when we need something, we have contacts at council as well as other units. Much better situation to be volunteering from.

 

What are your Ticket Items?

Barry

[Double Eagle]

Since Eagledad brought up the ticket items, I'd like to see them too.  I've been troop guide and ASPL for WB, so learner's course makes it 3 WB courses in 3 different councils.  Ticket writing was the worst part for troop guides and participants.  One course wanted them to cure cancer and save BSA in every way.  I'm not a fan of the dancing, so glad to see it went away.  Critter pride is not emphasized as much either, but always an Eagle and honorary Fox (red dog).   

[C7Scouter]

It has been interesting to see the changes through the years.  As with anything, some of the changes have been great and others raise the eyebrows of some.  The one constant though is the ticket.  I cringe when I hear courses that have had a very tough time developing ticket items.  It can really cause undue stress for participants that is just not warranted.  When I was allowed to steer the boat  in 2021, I made sure that the TG's and an assigned senior staffer were the approvers.  I only asked for two questions to be answered before sign off.  First, does the goal have a positive and direct impact on our youth?  Second, is the participant happy with the goal?  Turned out that buy in was better, overall ticket completion was high as well.  The second weekend was much more enjoyable for the participants since they could focus on their patrol and not worry as much about writing ticket items.

[Eagledad]

I asked because I believe when done correctly, the ticket experience has the most impact for the participants. I agree tickets can get out of control and add very little growth to the scouter’s scouting career.

I also was given ticket items approval responsibility and was able to counsel participants and TGs to simpler Ticket Items that enhanced their volunteer experience more directly. I was glad to help and counsel any participant who felt stress with their tickets. The experience really should be fun and something that add excitement. Many folks aren’t creative and struggle with Ticket Items, so I had enjoyable discussions with them to learn about their goals for scouting and then we discussed simple ideas for growing towards their goals.

One new SM was struggling with his role for PLC meetings, so he created a ticket item to visit and observe PLC meetings of 5 other troops. One CM  was also the Webelos leader and Tiger leader. So we created a Ticket item to recruit a Tiger and Webelos leader so she could focus on what she wanted to do, Cubmaster. I know sounds obvious to many that she should have done that in the first place, but things often happen that complicate our lives in such a way we done see it happening. Then suddenly we are overwhelmed and the fun is gone. When the fun is gone, scouts suffer the most. Most scouts leave because of boredom.

Many districts use WB ticket items to source event leaders like camporees, which often lead to inexperienced adults planning complicated events that give scouts a terrible experience. I didn’t approve any event planning unless the participants could prove they had previous successful experience, and it would be a fun growing experience for their future scouting career.

Scouting is supposed to be fun and the WB ticket items experience should be a highlight of growing as a Scout Leader.

I had motto for both the scouts and adults; If it’s not fun, change it.

Barry

Edited February 3 by Eagledad

[SSScout]

A couple of things come to mind. 

I have been thru WB as participant and staff (twice that). As staff, I did not do any ticket approval, I was  an "assistant" to others.  One thing I never heard of was the cooperation between participants. Has it ever been known for folks to work together for a ticket?  or two?  Does the ticket HAVE to be only an individual, personal thing? Yes, my Patrol (hoot hoot) worked a training project for the WBTroop. 

Secondly, my experience was , to my WBSM et al, unique, in that some of my proposed tickets were  about Cub Scouts, but I was registered as a ASM at the time. I had alot of CS experience, in CSDC and being a CM for a lengthy time.  They liked my ticket proposals, but told me my tickets had to be about my registered position!  This is a rule? yes they said.   They put their  various Scout heads together and spoke to me and PRESTO ! in 48 hours I was registered as a Unit Commissioner. Commissioners can do ANYTHING Scouty! (so they said).  I am muti registered as a ASM, and have worked my way thru the Commish ranks so to speak, and still seem to be doing CS tickets fairly often. 

 

[Eagledad]

It's really up to the Course Leader. I approved several leaders working together.

I wanted the leaders to grow in the area they would be working. I am not sure why you wanted to work with Cubs if your mainly working for scouts. But, I would have been open minded. I did help adult shift their thinking of what they were going to do for the units. You would be amazed at how many adults aren't given expectations for helping their unit. A lot of units are running like well oil machines, so they aren't looking specific volunteers. I often worked with them on tickets to learn how patrol method worked and how adults should work in that format. They really enjoyed it. 

On troop leader had was very limited with his volunteering time time. He was a CEO and spent a lot of time working with teams for development. We came to the conclusion that he would work great on the district committee in planning with his limited time. So we designed his tickets toward working with the committee. There is no doubt he would be running the Committee in a year or two. He had rare skills that every district would want. 

So really the answer the expectation Tickets depends on the WB team. They are all different.

Barry 

[AwakeEnergyScouter]

On 2/3/2025 at 8:57 AM, Double Eagle said:

Ticket writing was the worst part for troop guides and participants.

I actually found it pretty easy, but I also have a professional background as a project manager as well as with running operations and quality control and went into the course clear on why I am a Scouting America leader and how that connects to my personal values and spiritual path. Defining the vision and writing some SMART goals to support it was just codifying my long-term to do list. Helpful to get the prompt, especially since we could sit down and coordinate - I could cut several things off my list because my CC is doing them instead.

As always, I am fulfilling my vows, in the case of Scouting America the Mahayana stage vows being the most relevant. (Bodhisattva and Enlightened Society vows, so to liberate all sentient beings and to always stay in touch with the primordial nature of all sentient beings and build a society based on the view that all beings have indestructible dignity and intrinsic value)

Meeting the dralas - in the case of scouting activities, the land spirits especially - is a key part of discovering sacredness and one's own primordial nature. Your face before your parents were born, as the Zen folks say. There's solid reasons for why BP used the outdoors as a feedback mechanism for development. So in order to connect youth with sacredness, themselves, and the land, our outdoor program needs to be well-executed and easy to operate for a rotation of leaders coming and going.

Based on previous observations of what's worked well and what hasn't, combined with the need to continually welcome parents in as new leaders, I intend to lay the groundwork for a long-term sustainable outdoor program for our pack by:

* Creating a veg-friendly pack cookbook with all the the "hooks" for the new cub scout program requirements that pertain to cooking - met someone at IOLS a few weeks ago who had the exact problem beyond my own that I wanted to solve, namely omni leader with vegan scout whose parents weren't that helpful or experienced with camp cooking so that was a win

* Creating a field manual for running our hiking club, including the necessary modifications to meet all the new required hiking adventure requirements as well as provisions for at least occasionally completing the related ones like Math on the Trail and Tech on the Trail (currently I am running the whole thing, but will have to transition it to someone else during next scouting year or it will die when my cub crosses over)

* Create a field manual for running our campouts that likewise delivers opportunities to earn all the Let's Camp adventures plus Outdoor Adventurer every campout, and is easily adaptable to complete other outdoor adventures (hiking, fishing, Into the Woods, Into the Wild, eating requirement for the personal fitness adventures, etc) that solidifies what parents and cubs appreciate the most about how we do campouts right now while also spreading the organizing burden as widely and fairly as possible

* 5S our camping supplies to make it easy for an adult to make sure we have everything we need for every campout in a way that doesn't require tribal knowledge 

* Go recruit in five completely new places where we've never recruited before to get us out of our recruiting rut and reach people who may not have thought they'd be welcome in Scouting America and/or don't really know what we do

We pack leaders spend so much of our mental energy on campouts on managing the physical that we don't always have the calm to model that connection to the sacred. We need to collectively just get a grip and sort it out so that we can have more transcendental moments with the grass, the touch of the wind, the kisses of the sun, the call of the water, all that. Ultimately, we need to maintain some degree of samadhi ourselves and raise windhorse fearlessly in order to offer our cubs what they need to develop, and we aren't doing that if we're running around like chickens with our heads cut off.

May this be fruitful, may this be of benefit, may this be auspicious, my it be so 🙏🏼

[mrjohns2]

On 2/3/2025 at 11:19 AM, Eagledad said:

I asked because I believe when done correctly, the ticket experience has the most impact for the participants. I agree tickets can get out of control and add very little growth to the scouter’s scouting career.

I also was given ticket items approval responsibility and was able to counsel participants and TGs to simpler Ticket Items that enhanced their volunteer experience more directly. I was glad to help and counsel any participant who felt stress with their tickets. The experience really should be fun and something that add excitement. Many folks aren’t creative and struggle with Ticket Items, so I had enjoyable discussions with them to learn about their goals for scouting and then we discussed simple ideas for growing towards their goals.

I love your philosophy. So many make it super serious and hard to achieve some crazy unarticulated vision of the course director.