nolesrule

You could easily relocate those caps to change the emphasis to support the opposing point of view.

You've archived your archiving book?

"So...What's a Toby tree? " More to the point, what's snow?

My patrol was a mix of 2 Cub Scout committee members, 1 Boy Scout committee member, 1 SM, 3 ASMs and myself, a UC. Believe me, so much of what is taught at Wood Badge can be used just as easily by those in non direct-contact positions. I had my concerns going in because as a commissioner we're even further removed from units than committee members, but by the time we were two hours in on the first day, I was convinced my initial concerns were unfounded.

I much prefer magnetic name tags for all the reasons stated, but the permanent pin holes in my shirt means my pin name tags always line up right on the first try. :-)

" If I recall the syllabus correctly, "dens" graduate into "patrols" the second morning." Our crossover was at lunch (B&G) of the first day. Without giving away too much, the focus of the course formatting (program-wise, not training-wise) is essentially one month in the life of a Boy Scout troop compressed into the remaining 5 and a fraction days. I concur with those that recommend having some time under your belt. In order to get the most out of Wood Badge, you will need to have a vision for where you want yourself and your unit to be within the scope of the BSA program. Until you have a solid understanding of where you are currently, it can be difficult to identify what you will need in order to carry out the application phase of Wood Badge affectionately known as "The Ticket". Just an observation from someone who just completed the training portion of Wood badge last week after having served as a Unit Commissioner for the past 4.5 years.

In Florida we keep our pools outside. As for the bleach, that's the key to invisibility. The more we consume, the less visible we become and eventually we will be able to sneak around unnoticed (my apologies, I just finished reading H.G. Welles' "The Invisible Man")

Hope he didn't mean "entrails". It'd be a shame to see all those Wood Badge critter carcasses all over the place.

"I think it was last year that one of the major patch collecting sites stated that lodge names were going to be replaced by council names, since national no longer uses lodge numbers. Lots of upset scouters. " Did you see what he came up with this year about new requirements for Vigil to make it fair?

You have to be active for 6 months while a Life Scout. I would guess that if he was active while he held his POR, he was active for at least 6 months since his Life Board of Review. There's nothing in the wording of the requirement specifying it has to be the most recent 6 months or any other 6 months. So if he's still registered with the troop, he's still eligible to work on advancements. I was a Life Scout for slightly more than 5 years. I completed the Active requirement for Eagle and got it signed off in my handbook book 4.5 years before my Eagle Board of Review.

The Pop Tart is nothing more than an at-home fast-food-style pocket pie.

Tonight after our Passover seder, I was talking with my dad (who was an ASM back when I was a Scout), about some of my experiences. Specifically, with some of the games we did on Day 4. People who know me extremely well tend to have this perception of me that I tend to find the easy way when it comes to situations. What I discovered about myself in this conversation with my dad is that I'm actually an outside-the-box thinker. Once I know the goal and the rules/parameters/restrictions, the first thing I do is think about what isn't covered by those limitations, look at the tools available, and try to find the simplest way to complete a task. So it seems I did learn something about myself through Wood Badge. I'd love to talk about the games and what my specific thought processes were, but just like I suggested the games be spaced more apart so that there would be no inter-patrol peeking, I also don't want to give away anything here to someone who hasn't been through it. The true purpose of the games is how the group dynamic deals with the challenge at hand, not coming up with any particular solution. Reading about an easy way to do something on an Internet posting defeats that purpose.

I really didn't intend for this thread to get sidetracked by that one comment. John, I am ready to work my ticket. I have begun formulating my plans. I wrote 8 tickets items. While I will report to TG Bruce when I have completed 5 (and I'm sure we'll talk often in the interim), I don't plan on dropping the other 3 just because I don't need to do them. Without getting into the specifics of my items... Some of my items are self improvement in my position as a UC. Some things will make me a better resource to the specific units I serve, as well as other units within the council. Some things will help prepare my units for upcoming changes. Another item will be to teach units how to learn more about their non-Scouter parents and leverage that knowledge to improve their program. I lumped some of the items together for these descriptions. Yes, there is a diversity item mixed in there, but you may not realize it from the way I worded things here. For now, I'm keeping the precise contents of my ticket between myself and my ticket counselor (and anyone on staff who reviewed my write-up).

I don't hold the ad-lib against the staff in any way. Your Day 3 presentation was quite clear on the subject. I just wanted to make sure my comment on it made it on paper. Having not attended either of the Chaplain's Aide meetings, I'm really not familiar with the process of whether there was any staff guidance beyond your presentation since I wasn't involved. I never looked through the CA Notebook. I also don't know if the program for the service was reviewed by staff, but if it was, perhaps a gentle reminder to stick to the program might be in order... or maybe a sledgehammer over the head. :-) I thought the published service was very nice, and I especially thought that the meditation that Douglas wrote was spiritual and beautiful and well-tailored to the five patrols.

Based on my two minutes of presentation time, I bet I didn't make the cut. There were a couple reasons that my two minutes fell a little flatter than I would have liked, some internal, some external.

"Back to Gilwell" was my shower song for at least the first week after I came back from my first weekend. Couldn't get it out of my head.

The two items I would have addeded aren't anything earth-shattering. The first was that I was a bit uncomfortable with the undocumented addition to the Interfaith Service. I'm sure you are aware of what I'm referring referring to. The second was that I think the games area during Day 4 should have been spread out a little more. While we did have some trouble with the Left, Right game (can't remember what it's called), if you noticed, the Bobwhite Patrol tended to think outside the box on some of the other ones. Something I noticed was that a couple of the patrols that followed us in rotation were watching some of our outside-the-box solutions and implementing them immediately, rather than working through their own process. Of course, if that was one of the intended effects, then feel free to ignore this comment. :-) One thing I forgot to mention in my first post was the Venturing youth that worked with the staff. They were fantastic. Josh, who was assigned to our patrol was a great fit for us. His personality was a perfect match for our sense of humor, and he really rolled with it. Also, during the conservation project, we were paired up with the Bear Patrol for the last half hour and we got a chance to chat with Julia, their Venturer, while doing the last of our air potato search and removal. She was very mature and really gave us a demonstration of why co-ed Venturing is a fantastic idea. One other note about our conservation project... We found a couple of "artifacts" mixed in with some of the brush. A Mountain Dew bottle with an older-style label containing what we hope was a couple ounces of vintage beverage. We also found a Coca Cola can from the pull-tab era (for some perspective, the modern ring-top was introduced in 1975, a year before I was born). Based on the can design and a little Internet research, I have determined that the can was from some time between 1971 and 1975.

Note: I'm referring to this weekend as Days 4-6 as they are in the syllabus. Days 1-3 were a month ago in the other thread. :-) First off, I'm happy to say the weather felt like it it was 20 degrees warmer. I didn't need a jacket the entire weekend, which was great because everything was outdoors until around lunchtime of the final day. From there, everything was indoors, which was a good thing because a bit of a thunderstorm rolled in and didn't stop until long after the course came to an end. It turns out our patrol was only able to meet just the one time between the two weekends, and even then one of our members was unable to attend. We accomplished a lot during that meeting, and the rest of our collaboration occurred via email. Our arrival on Day 4 began with hiking our gear from the parking lot to the patrol campsites. While our sites were not the oft-recommended 300 feet apart, I think the members of all patrols did an excellent job of respecting the other patrols' sites and not entering unless receiving permission. Once again, the training sessions on Day 4 and the morning of Day 5 provided us with valuable information and tools that we will be able to use to help us complete our tickets and even with life beyond scouting. As our wise TG Bruce reminded us twice, most people have to pay thousands of dollars for this type course, but not only did we get it for $175 or whatever the cost was), it didn't just end with a "Here's your completion certificate, buh-bye". The ticket ensures that we will go out and use what we have learned. Day 5 was also the day of our group presentations. As I said earlier, we only met in person the one time in between. We each wrote our own segments individually and submitted them to one person in our patrol who assembled it into the final electronic presentation (we also created a supplemental tri-fold brochure for the Council to use to promote the activities we discussed in our presentation). Considering we never did a single rehearsal as a group, I thought we did ok. For those of you reading this who might have been scoring us, yes, I spoke a bit on the fast side, because as the 7th presenter of 8, I was trying to make up some time so we would get it done in the 20 minutes allotted (our introduction ran a little longer than expected). I think that one thing we all learned from the experience is that putting a presentation together to get all the important information across in the allotted time can be a difficult task. Our patrol was the first to present, and as we were returning from lunch to begin our setup, TG Bruce informed us that all 8 in our patrol had completed writing our tickets. I think that helped relax us all a bit before the presentation, knowing that as soon as our 20 minutes was over, the pressure was off and we could just relax and have fun. And then it wasn't long after the final presentation that we were on our own until the Gilwell Field Assembly for Day 6. During that downtime on Day 5, rather than having individual patrol campfires and cracker barrel, we decided to use one of the nearby fire rings and to have an all-patrols fire and "potluck" cracker barrel. Sure, it wasn't by the book, but I'd say that it was an excellent opportunity to spend time getting to know the people outside of our own patrols. We sang songs, had some laughs, and came up with the idea to "sneak" over to where the staff was and seranade them with "Back to Gilwell". We noticed there was a box of tissues being passed around by the staff. We also developed a plan for a slightly more amusing entry march to the Gilwell Field Assembly for Day 6 which paid homage to the movie Stripes. Day 6 started wit the rush to tear down camp to beat out the coming thunderstorms, and ended on an emotional note, as we all knew things were coming to a close. Honestly, I'm still feeling the emotion, and I'm not sure if what I've written has come across as clearly as I would have liked because of it. I do wish I would have been able to wait a day or so before submitting the course assessment form. I know they want things to be fresh in your mind, but honestly it wasn't until I sat down to write this 7 hours after leaving that I realized there were a couple additional items I would have liked to put on mine that just didn't pop into my mind at the time for one reason or another. [Tokala, I'll let you know what they are if you'd like]. As far as Scouting is concerned, taking Wood Badge was the best decision I've made since deciding to get involved again nearly 5 years ago. I'll start working my ticket as soon as I get up tomorrow. The next 2 paragraphs are the Oscars speech and is only included because the Course Director also is on this forum... I really do want to thank Tokala for putting together such a fantastic staff for SR-1022. A couple of them I knew beforehand, most I'd never met before. But it was obvious that every one of them has a passion for Wood Badge, passing along both the knowledge and the camraderie that comes with taking the course... and also the requisite sense of humor. Your choice for SPL was top notch, a great leader to set such a wonderful example for the rest of us throughout the course. She kept us under control when she needed to, but also showed a lot of patience and understanding when things didn't go perfectly. I'm also glad that you chose to include our Council's "Wood Badge Mama" on staff and that we were allowed to play Scouts in her backyard for a couple of weekends. I've said it before and I'll say it again, Troop Guide Bruce was phenomenal. I'm so glad he was our guide. I'm sure the other guides did just as a good a job with their patrols, but as far as the SR-1022 Bobwhites are concerned, he's the best. :-P I look forward to working with him as my Ticket Counselor for the next 18 (or less) months.

Today was a rather emotional day for participants and staff. I'll need some time to organize my thoughts. I'll spin off a separate thread when I have it all written up and ready to post. John, TG Bruce was our sole point of contact with staff during the intersession period (other than what Tokala has posted here in this thread and the fact that one member of our patrol is the son of one of the other TGs for the course... and I don't think they avoided each other for 4 weeks). TG Bruce did his role well (for a Beaver). Our patrol formed quickly on that first day 30 days ago and he enabled us early on.

My project was fairly small in scale. At first glance, you'd think it might have only taken 50-60 hours. But it topped 120. I don't remember the exact figure. People often tend to only look at the execution phase of the project, but don't forget the design and engineering phase, also known as planning. If the scout is actually developing and leading the project rather than someone handing him one (like what tends to happen with parks projects), there will be significant hours put into that as well. I built shiva benches from wood for use in the Jewish community during the shiva period after funerals (most funeral homes would provide what were no more than cardboard boxes to serve the purpose). Doesn't seem like much. Cut some wood, drill/screw/glue together and sand/finish the pieces. Well, I ended up meeting with funeral homes as well as the ritual committee at my synagogue, did the design work myself, went back to them to get it approved (required 1 or 2 revisions), negotiated which organization would be the receiver/caretaker to ensure they would be used regularly and not just shoved in the back of a closet, solicited funds and finally procured the materials. In all, I met with close to a dozen people (and my mother was always there to drive me around (I was too young to drive).

As long as the vintage item does not conflict with your current registration, I don't see the problem. Heck, on one of my uniforms, I have the OA flap from when I went through my Ordeal over 20 years ago (same council, same lodge as current registration).

Weekend 2 starts tomorrow morning. Time to finish packing. We developed a commemorative Bobwhites patrol "temporary patch" , but unfortunately we didn't come up with the idea in time to have them ready for this weekend. Looking forward to begin working my ticket on Monday. I was looking at our District newsletter and it appears that a College of Commissioner Science course day is being held in mid-May, and on a date that doesn't conflict with anything (that I am aware of). So hopefully by the end of May I'll have 2 ticket items completed. I'll write up my thoughts on the second weekend when I get back. It might be a few days, since Passover starts Monday night, and I'm not sure how much free time I'll have until after the second seder.

Congratulations. I get to start working my ticket on Monday. Our second weekend starts tomorrow morning.

Venturers must complete requirements for merit badges for certain recognitions, but that doesn't mean they earn the merit badge. Merit badges are part of Boy Scout advancement, not Venturing. The only Venturers who can earn any Boy Scout advancements under the auspices of the Venturing Crew are those who are already First Class. Anyone not at that advancement milestone can only earn advancements (ranks and merit badges) through a Boy Scout troop. As far as I know, females still cannot register as a youth in a Boy Scout troop.

The first thing that popped into my head when reading about this subject was something from my Wood Badge program 3 weeks ago (Bobwhites!)... and yes I know it can be learned elsewhere, but that's where I learned it. All rank requirements are essentially S.M.A.R.T. goals. By the SM adding to the requirement in this way, he puts the advancement fate of a scout into the hands of someone who has no vested interest in the scout's advancement or in scouting. This no longer makes it an Achievable goal, as it takes the power to complete the requirement away from the scout.