Anorther New Critter
Carol Breuer (CBreuer@VINES.COLOSTATE.EDU)
Fri, 30 Aug 1996 08:49:20 MDT
I appreciate Ron Fox sharing his thoughts about the first weekend of his Wood
Badge experience. (And I always like to welcome another Eagle to the flock.)
I would also like to add a comment to his.
>Another poster here commented that he was separated from everyone
>he knew in his course. That may well have been deliberate, but
>the intent likely is that this way you will have the benefit of
>diverse points of view that you would not otherwise have. The
>same thing has happened to me, and I definitely think it is for
>the best.
As a staffer I have come to realize how difficult it is to assign
participants so that all the patrols have the opportunity to work together
well. Some things can be measured, such as the skills on the personal
resource questionaire, years of experience, positions held, even education
and occupation can give some clues. But other factors, such as personality
types, definitely play an important part, but those are not so easily
measured. A good patrol needs a balance in skills, and a good mix of
personalities. In the four courses I have been privileged to staff I have
seen patrols that click from the start, others that take till midweek to to
gel, and a few that never quite make it.
Our council is large geographicly and includes large urban areas and some
quite sparse rural areas. If we did a weekend course with patrol meetings
between, we would have to assign patrols differently to minimize travel time,
than we do with our weeklong course. We feel it is important to get that
diversity of experience and ideas that Ron referred to, so we generally split
up those from the same district, and if needed, from the same town within the
district. On that same idea the women participants are split up evenly
between the patrols, and the same with out-of-council participants. Along
with that, we try to get a balance in skills and experience, and get input
from the rest of the staff where we can. Not an easy task at all!
But sometimes what looks good on paper doesn't always work that well in
reality. It takes PEOPLE making the effort to work together and learn
together and help one another that really makes the patrol successful. When
the six to eight individuals in the patrol who start off as strangers and
become a working team of brother/sister Scouters, we really see the patrol
method working at its best. If, through our Wood Badge experience, we can
help the scouts in our troops to really use the patrol method, where they
work and learn together and help each other, the Scouting program will be
much more effective.
Sorry to ramble on so.
YiS,
Carol Breuer, Fort Collins, CO
Asst. District Commissioner, Longs Peak Council
. . . I used to be an eagle, NC-155
Terry Howerton Sakima Group, Inc. SCOUTER Magazine Kansas City |
