JMBadger

After some thought, it seems the DE who handed you the envelope was probably given the envelope with the expectation that he prepare a ceremony, or at least inform your TC that your stuff had arrived and was ready to be presented. Your name on the envelope was to inform the DE who the ceremony was for, not that you were to be simply given the envelope.

If I'd been handed the envelope, I'd have stuffed it in my little satchel and taken it home and forgotten about it (I have a bad habit of doing exactly that) until I had reason to go through it at a later date.

We were the Orgulous Owls.

"Don't mess with us, we are the Owls!

Other patrols throw in the towels!"

Well, it rhymed anyway.

And any time we heard the word "owl" we'd start hooting softly, "hoot? hoot?"

If it weren't for the ticket items, I could see taking WB a week after joining Scouting. But with the ticket, you are committing to 5 significant acts of service to scouting. How are you supposed to commit to anything if you know nothing about it?

It took me a couple years chaperoning at Day Camp before I felt comfortable volunteering to lead a station. This year I'm doing it again as a ticket item and I feel very confident it will go well.

For another ticket item I became a LNT Trainer and gave 3 seminars. I would never have taken the training in the first place if I hadn't had some camping experience.

Even so, I had people suggesting I "chair" some jamboree or something. I've never been to a jamboree...how could I think of chairing one?

I think a prospective WB trainee should first sit down with an experienced wood badger and figure out the 5 ticket items. Once he is comfortable with making that commitment, then go do WB and start working the ticket items.

As it was, all I knew about the ticket was I'd be making some sort of promise to do something. Nobody discussed anything with me about it beforehand. Maybe they didn't want to ruin the experience for me...maybe they were afraid I'd be scared off. But writing the ticket was the toughest thing I did for WB; trying to come up with something I believed I'd be able to accomplish in 18 months, and be "significant" enough to satisfy the people approving the tickets.

First, I'll say I'm experienced tying this knot, and we were not given enough cord for 3 passes. I prefer the look of a 3-pass knot and would certainly have made it so if I'd had enough cord. It wasn't tied for us. We were expected to tie our own.

But that wasn't my question. I wasn't asking about the number of passes, I was asking about the number of bights.

Look at the hole in your woggle. Does the hole have 4 sides or 5? The pins and patches for sale that show a critter in a woggle show a 5-sided hole: that is to say, a 5-bight knot. But the images of the real woggle seem to show a woggle with a 4-sided hole: a 4-bight knot.

Is there an "official" woggle, and is it 4- or 5- bight?

Is the official Wood Badge Woggle 4-bight or 5-bight?

I learned to tie a turk's head knot 30+ years ago following the directions straight out of Boy's Life Magazine. It was a 5-bight turk's head. I proudly tied them with 3 passes for everyone in my troop.

Fast-forward to Sept. '09, and I tied my Wood Badge trainee's woggle as a 5-bight turk's head. I didn't bother with the provided directions since I didn't need them.

I purchased a couple of Critter/woggle patches and hat pins, and the knot that circles the critter has 5-bights.

http://quartermasterstore.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=Wood+Badge+Hat+Pins

One of my fellow Owls complained that he must be doing something wrong because every time he tried to tie one (using the provided directions) he got a 4-bight knot. I pulled out my folder and found the same directions sure enough, a 4-bight woggle.

I've examined the WB woggles on other sites and it "looks" like they are 4-bight.

So is the "official" woggle 4-bights? Or is there no official woggle, it just happens to be the one that the seller knows how to make is 4 bight? When I complete my ticket, would I be allowed to make my own 5-bight official woggle and have it presented to me?

This is the sort of thing that keeps me awake at night (and my wife calling me an idiot).

Badger

I've attended the COR Leader specific training, if that's what you mean. And at today's Blue and Gold Banquet I met our Council Executive who informed me of the extra meetings and responsibilities that exist for me at the district and council level.

Thanks for the training link. I'm not much of a note taker (can't write and listen at the same time) so being able to print this stuff is great.

My name is Michael Badger. I am the new Chartered Organization Representative for our units. How I got here is quite a ride.

Almost 5 years ago, my first-grade son comes home with a Cub Scout application. I told my wife no way. She promptly signed him up. I told her at that time I wanted nothing to do with scouting.

Near the end of my son's Wolf year, I overheard the Cub Master talking about BALOO, and if they didn't have "someone" trained, the boys couldn't go camping. I volunteered. He had me fill in the personal info on an application. Later I found out he'd made me the Assistant CM.

Later, the CM up and quit and I became the CM, and not a very good one. When another parent wanted to be CM, I figured I was done. The WL quit. Just so happened my BALOO included OWL, so I got handed the WL job.

In 2009 I heard about this thing called wood badge, "Premiere Adult Leader Training." I knew I desperately needed some kind of training, so I signed up. All my Leader specific training had been done in a single seminar and I didn't feel specifically trained to do anything.

Halfway between the two weekends, The American Legion Post Commander calls me and asks me to take over the COR position. I thought "TICKET ITEM!"

So I completed the first part of the course (C-14-09, Owl patrol) and my wife says to me, "I thought you wanted nothing to do with Scouting?" My ticket is going well, and my son just earned his Arrow of Light and crossed over to the troop.

Looks like I will be involved for some years to come.

I took the course last September (C-14-09) and 360 self-assessment was not required to be a ticket item.

To order WB stuff, you might try here:

http://www.sbuk.org.uk/info.centre/catalog.php?cat=190