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I have heard it said that there is a six month minimum. However I have yet to see this in any Wood Badge or BSA literature.

So unless some wise and learned Wood Badge staffer can show me where in black and white it states there is a minimum, I'm going with the answer that there is not a minimum.

However having been around Tickets for a very long time I would say:

It's not a race.

Hopefully at the course you and the Troop Guide should have got together and worked on a ticket that is meaningful and should enable you to practice the skills that you learned on the course.

Your ticket should be guided by asking the question "How does my ticket teach young people to make ethical decisions and improve their leadership skills.

Your ticket isn't just a list of the five goals. The ticket should list your personal values, description of your role in Scouting,a statement of your vision of success.

A mission composed of the five significant goals that can be reached within 18 months.

Your vision might not be realized immediately after completing the goals. Meeting the goals is merely a kick-start to a long-term work in progress.

I admit that when I have been asked to serve as a Troop Guide, I do ask the participants that I work with to look for goals that stretch them.

I remember one old time SM who wanted to just build a knot board. The guy could have done this in his sleep. We talked it over and the knot board stayed, but he changed it so that each patrol was going to build a knot board. He was going to work with the SPL and the PLC as to the design and the knot boards would become part of a Troop meeting. He was going to ensure that the PLC could all tie the knots needed and they would teach the Scouts in the Patrols the needed knots.

I had a Lady who sat on our Executive Board on the marketing committee, she had a great idea of making a booklet that each unit would receive showing them how to improve how they went about marketing. She had each chapter as a goal. Again we talked and in the end she made the entire booklet a goal.

Of course each and every Ticket is different and that being true, some people will need the entire 18 months while others might be done a lot quicker.

I know that it's very wrong of me but I often wonder if the guys and girls that are done real fast have really thought about what their vision and what their mission really is?

Eamonn.

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Eamonn,

 

I was the first one done with the ticket in my course, by about 2 weeks, and when I wrote the ticket I thought it would take at least a year to complete. There was some luck involved and things/opportunities came a long to finish faster than anticipated. Also, I took a long time to recover from some surgery and was able to work on my ticket a lot more than others. Having that extra time really helped with the ticket but I'm not sure I would recommend it a method for completion. BTW the injury occurred on a scouting backpacking trip. I'm pretty sure I put enough thought into my vision and mission. Anyway, there are a lot of factors that go into completing the ticket other than how many months it takes to finish.

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In the previous course (Leadership Development, pre 2001), there was a six month minimum.

 

In the current course (21st Century Wood Badge, 2001 and after) there is no minimum.

 

However, just as with 12 year old Eagle Scouts, there is not a competition to see who can get done first. The goal is a reasonable ticket in the time required to complete that reasonable ticket.

 

The shortest time that I know about is 4 months.

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Some years back I participated in a conference about Commissioner Service at Philmont. Her Who Must Be Obeyed and Number One Son were there with me.During the course of the week we became friendly with a young married couple that were also from Pennsylvania.

I was surprised to see them both as participants on a Wood Badge course where I was serving as a Troop Guide. She was a member of the Eagle Patrol and he was a member of the Beaver Patrol, the patrol that I had been assigned too.

The Beavers were by far the first patrol to come together, they were very loud, very boisterous and a very nice group of guys. The Patrol was made up of four very active and well skilled Boy Scouters, one Cub Scouter and my friend from Philmont who was the Council Vice President for Venturing in his council. The Cub Scouter really struggled with writing his ticket. I think in part because he was suffering from information over load. The Boy Scouters, seemed to get it and for the most part took it in their stride. The V-P worked on his for hour after hour (It was a week long course) When he was done it was almost as big as a book. I know I had to read it.

It was very clear that he knew what he needed to do in order to help Venturing grow and prosper in the council where he was from.

Much of his Ticket was about getting reports and writing plans. He wasn't serving at the unit level and was not part of delivering the program to the youth members. Still it was a wonderful ticket. He was done in under six months. I was surprised when I didn't receive an invite to his Wood Badge presentation, within the year. I did receive one eventually. He waited till his wife had completed her ticket, she served as a Cub Scout round-table commissioner.

NeilLup has hit the nail on the head when he says:"The goal is a reasonable ticket in the time required to complete that reasonable ticket."

Eamonn.

 

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