Re: Explorer Woodbadge
(no name) ((no email))
Fri, 23 Aug 1996 04:52:25 -0500
Hi Dave and Kathie!
Kathie, how did John Wolfgang looked?? The last time I saw him, the stresses
of working in Maryland at NASA has been tearing him down a bit!! I'm glad
you had a great time!
Dave, Kathie (and John) is RIGHT about the existance of "Exploring Wood Badge"
since the contemporary Exploring program in 1971. There HAS BEEN four
Exploring TRAINER Wood Badge courses, one in which I attended and another
one in which I served on staff for, previous to the current Exploring Leader
Advanced Seminar (which looks, and acts just like Wood Badge except it doesn't
FEEL like Wood Badge) and the Western Region's Exploring Leadership Institute
(ELI), which is everything an Exploring Wood Badge course SHOULD be (and is,
for those participants) except the beads.
But no "EXPLORER WOOD BADGE" courses since 1971. The EAS and ELI courses
ARE the "Exploring equals" to the Cub Scout Trainers' Wood Badge course
and the Boy/Varsity Leader Wood Badge courses, except for the recognition.
(Kathie, did John talk about some sort of recognition piece for attendance
at EAS?)
You're also correct in your reference from the "History of Wood Badge", Dave.
Prior to 1971, we DID INDEED have "Exploring Wood Badge" courses in several
Councils, however the courses were NOT geared to today's youth but rather the
youth of the 50s and early 60s that craved excitement in the out-of-doors
moreso than in the communities at large.
> Like the
>other courses, the Explorer Wood Badge was organized along the lines of
>the program in which it was training. The course director was the
>Advisor and his right-hand man was the senior crew leader. The learners
>were divided into "crews" with traditional names of American mountain
>men such as Kit Carson, Jim Bridger, William Clark, and Daniel Boone.
In the Explorer Trainer courses, there were eight "key explorers" in which
the crew names were taken from. Later on, those names were replaced with
descriptive names to better "fit the Wood Badge song" (it's easier to sing
"I used to be a frontiersman...." than "I used to be a Carson" *giggle*)
> The Explorer Wood Badge was an appropriate training experience when
>Exploring was outdoor oriented and organized around camping
>experiences-an advanced form of Scouting. By 1958 or 1959, however,,
>the Boy Scouts of America had introduced a less-outdoor-oriented program
>to match more closely the needs and desires of modern high school-age
>young people. Explorer Wood Badges were then phased out since Advisors
>still involved in an outdoor post could achieve similar training in a
>Boy Scout Wood Badge Course."
This was a serious typo...the dates should be "1968 or 69", since many Councils
still offered Exploring Wood Badge up until 1971. The Old Kentucky Home
Council's calendar for 1971 stated "Explorer Wood Badge" at their small
training facility in southern Jefferson County (Louisville) Kentucky called Camp
Horine during the summer of 1971. The Middle Tennessee Council held a joint
Boy and Exploring Leaders' Wood Badge course in the summers of 1970 and 1971
at Boxwell Scout Reservation (still a new place back then!).
>The theoretical questions used for Explorer Wood
>Badge in Appendix D are very similar to the Boy Scout Wood Badge
>questions in the same appendix. They are geared to running a post, not
>training other adults.
The older courses were geared to Advisors and their Associates providing
leadership for a outdoor Exploring program. The more recent courses were
geared as the Philmont conference is now, to provide train-the-trainer support
so Exploring leaders like Kathie (and Jim Jr. last year!) can return to their
Councils and Regional Areas and share the knowledge and serve as principle
trainers/coaches for basic, advanced and supplemental Exploring courses.
Because the Boy Scout Program Division refused to "give an centimeter" on
the idea of having an Exploring version, even though we have now went through
four National Directors of Program with "how it would work successfully in
Peoria" and some rather encouraging numbers on how successful such a training
sequence would be, the words "Exploring" and "Wood Badge" are not being
presently connective. Hopefully, now that we seem to be getting more energy
each and every year (I understand the number of participants this year was up
over the last couple of years, Kathie!), perhaps we should ONCE AGAIN
look at the possibility that such a WOOD BADGE -producing course could bring
to the young adult division of the BSA.
Settummanque!
----------------------------------this post came from
---------------------------------------
MAJ Mike L. Walton (Settummanque, the blackeagle)
Deputy Public Affairs Officer, 21st Theater Army Area Command
"everything I say is "on the record"; speaking ONLY for myself unless indicated"
personal inquiries, contact me via blkeagle@midwest.net or kyblkeagle@aol.com
professional inquiries, contact me via aerpak@taccom.kaiserslautern.army.mil
http://www.vhm.com/~uscardnl/
---------------------FORWARD in service to youth and the
nation----------------------
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City | 
