StormingBuffalo

Of the members of my patrol, 5 of the 6 had our beading ceremony during a district roundtable. That's where the largest number of scouters attended, and since we wanted to be beaded together, it was the best solution. Since I was district recruiting chair at the time, it was particularly special to me.

FYI, the 6th member of our patrol was the district executive, who received his beads at roundtable shortly before taking a higher position in scouting in another state. The roundtable location really worked for us.

Wood Badge may also be included in a portfoilio of prior learning that is evaluated for credit. Many institutions have a process to award credit for prior learning in addition to CLEP and Dantes testing. Some of the same schools will also help prospective students put together portfolios which include the kinds of things they have learned and in what ways that prior learning relates to the college's courses or academic programs.

It's always a good idea to check these things out with your local college or university -- you might be surprised how many credits you might earn for the things you've already experienced!

Actually, I paid for Wood Badge from my office budget, as professional development. That was specifically suggested by our course director, and no one ever questioned it. In addition, I do believe my taking the course had a positive impact on the workplace, so it was an appropriate use of my professional development money.

On another matter addressed in this thread, I do agree that if the unit pays the fee for Wood Badge, there should be some kind of benefit to the unit. Having said that, I would hope that part of the participant's ticket (or much of it) would be of direct benefit the unit.

I generally wear the beads whenever I wear the uniform shirt, and only wear the full regalia of Wood Badge neckerchief, beads and woggle for special occasions, such as a Court of Honor, Wood Badge functions, or to my son's Arrow of Light ceremony last weekend (had to get that proud dad thing in there.) I was always taught to follow this protocol, and it was the system followed by all the staff of my course, since most were in my council and I saw them frequently. In my current council, many scouters wear the beads and woggle with troop neckerchiefs, and many still have their patrol emblem on their right sleeves. Mine came off after the course, and I only expect to use it again if my son joins a buffalo patrol in boy scouts.

If you look at the scouters in your units, how many of them (us) are wearing the uniform incorrectly? I say this because I wear a wood badge lapel pin on the collar of my shirt. Mind you, it's a small one, but it's still not kosher on the uniform. On the other hand, a little customization couldn't hurt....

Reading through this thread is perhaps one reason why I haven't ever added the trained strip to my uniform. With the potential for moving through several positions over the years (but not enough to completely wear out the uniform), it would be "on again, then off again," and probably do more to damage the uniform than it's worth.

Of course, someone is probably going to tell me that I absolutely need to wear the trained strip once I am trained....

Lisabob mentioned a number of things that I remember from my course, which was C-16-3, the same year and same region as her course. Our patrol was probably the only one with not only one, but two Cub scouters in the group. I found it rather amusing that the three boy scouters (our sixth member was our district Executive) didnt know the Cub Scout Promise, or much at all about cub scouts. Our knowledge also helped us win the trivia game. But my advantage went away within a couple of hours, and then I was much more the novice.

I really enjoyed the films. We watched October Sky all the way through, but watched only snippets of Remember the Titans, though I was motivated enough to watch our copy when I returned home.

I generally found the topics very useful, even though like many of you, I have attended management and leadership training, and I am also a higher education consultant. Perhaps I enjoyed it because I found it interesting to see how the same concepts applied to scouting, especially to the more boy-led activities present in boy scouting versus cub scouting. So while much of it was review, the way the concepts were applied kept me interested and engaged.

We also had only two Venture adult leaders in our course. Also, the staff advisor for the course was a Venture DE. But we also had a Venture Crew participate in the course for a day and a half with some of the team building activities, and they even won the spirit stick for part of the day. Since the Black Swamp Area Council has been pushing Venturing for the past few years to keep the boys involved, this was a wise move, and helpful for those of us who were new and only remembered Exploring from our youth.

In terms of the staff, I found myself getting very annoyed with my SPL, as he was playing the drill sergeant leader to the extreme. Since he is a retired state trooper (I can just see him saying 55 means 55) this is probably natural. Our troop guide was good, though I think the party line question of Where can you get that information got old really quickly. One thing that was really positive for me were the other course participants. There wasnt a great deal of rivalry going on, though we wanted to drown out other patrols yells, and when anyone needed help, he or she got it. I remember during our remote overnight, the Beavers cooked a bit too much, and walked around to other patrols sharing some of their great cooked apples. We did the same with some of our breakfast food with the Antelopes. And this was par for the course for C-16-03. Whether that is part of the networking or not, it certainly made the entire practical course experience meaningful for me.

Of course, well organized and boy led aren't mutualy exclusive, either. I've attended three trooop meetings in the last month, as Unit Commissioner for two, and with my Webelos II son for the other. Both meetings were boy led, though one even more than the other, yet there is no question that there is significant adult involvement, especially behind the scenes. A good troop committee and other adults are working during meetings as well (and in between meetings too), yet it is the decision making and cooperative work by the boys which the adults are there to support, not supplant.

A really good boy led troop with supportive adults is a wonder to see.

Emily,

Clearly, splitting the den was the right things to do, and the Cubmaster and Committee Chair (I served as Chair for 3 years) should have been involved early on in recruiting den leaders. Another person who could have provided support was the Unit commissioner. While he or she does not run the unit, the commissioner can offer suggestions to the Cubmaster or Chartered Org. Rep. and if the Unit Commissioner is present as support when the Cubmaster and Committee Chair announce the den split, there is greater weight and gravity given to the decision. In a way, it's like when parents tell their kids something, it doesn't sink in, but when a peer says it, all of the sudden, it becomes the only right thing to do.

In one of your early messages, you mentioned the importance of setting the right tone in the beginning, especially with Tigers. When I became the Tiger coach (that's a story in itself) all five boys and parents split many of the responsibilities via a sign-in sheet. When we all moved to Wolves, I never told them that the rules about adult partners hadn't changed, meaning they expected to accompany their boys, bring snacks or drinks, or help run the activity we had planned based on the Wolf program. Perhaps that was less than honest, though I assert that it has given all the boys a richer program, and kept the families deeply involved in the den and pack from the beginning.

I must agree with Carol. While I understand the convenience factor to meet near homes for those who are home schooled, I view scouting as a means of helping young people interact positively with people from all kinds of backgrounds and interests. In some ways, having separate dens for home schooled versus public school kids seems to defeat this purpose. In effect, there seem to be two packs meeting already, in terms of where the boys are meeting and gathering for den meetings.

Again, just my opinion, though I think all the boys can benefit from a total immersion scouting experience, which could include boys from public schools, parochial schools and schools "around the kitchen table."

My apologies to our female scouters. It is somewhat disconcerting that when women moved into more and more leadership positions in scouting, the makers of scouting attire didn't seem to notice that men's bodies and women's bodies are different! Of all the women in my previous council, only one felt good about the fit and her appearance in the standard green slacks. Tailors are okay, but add an awful lot of expense, especially when you are effectively re-sewing and redesigning the pants from scratch to make them fit.

Are they still making the cullotes for women scouters? For non-Wood Badge activities, that would seem to be a good alternative since they were tailored for women in the first place.

Ill try to make this short, as some points have already been made by others. It is my opinion that requiring someone to give up their beads and take the new course to qualify to serve on the staff again will certainly be seen as insulting, however well-intentioned it is. Putting together a weekend experience for graduates of the older Wood Badge programs that parallels the new course objectives and activities would seem a worthwhile compromise. If a potential staffer from the old course didnt want to invest the time in learning the new course procedures and how tickets are currently structured, so be it. If, on the other hand, they chose to learn the new approach scouting is taking (and doesnt every training experience evolve over time?) then you have a staff member with an even broader experience in Wood Badge, and a strong demonstrated commitment to the current program. In other words, everybody wins.

In addition, when you take into account the fact that there are only a few years worth of eligible potential staff members who have otherwise taken or served on the staff of the 21st Century course, I wonder if were throwing out the baby with the bathwater.

StormingBuffalo

C-16-03

Reading through the thread again has emphasized for me the importance of training for staffers, especially the troop guides, and the importance of communication to important parties, be they troop guides, ASMs, etc. Ensuring that all staffers for a Wood Badge course are highly trained in all the areas the course covers (including communication) should be a given. Having said that, I am confident that the staff was very well prepared for my course, which was evident with all of them. There were a couple of staffers, however, who while competent, just are not very nice people. And unfortunately, no amount of training can change that unless the staff member acknowledges what might be a basic personality shortcoming, and decides to make a change.

In the case of Indy_Owl, she has decided to join a staff so she can continue the good things Wood Badge represents, while fixing up those parts that were lacking in her course. Now that is an approach that perhaps all of us should take!

Eagle309

Glad you had such a good weekend. It's not always so hectic, though our SPL seemed to relish going over items so quickly in patrol meetings, that the stress level just seemed to rise with the minutes.

I'm also glad you're a Buffalo!

Good luck as you continue your mountaintop experience.

F. J.

C-16-03

Thanks, ACCO 440

I was reading the previous pages of this post, and not taking it too well. What concerned me was being worried about what year certain things were taken out of the handbook, and focusing less on the values scouting is supposed to teach.

Whether scouts are as scouty or not is a matter of conjecture. I would offer that if we use the patrol method properly, scouts will have to become scouty. Sometimes a good adult leader needs to know that to help a group move forward, they either have to act, or perhaps completely remove themselves from the action.

In addition, scouts may gravitate toward different activites now than in the past (all of which can still teach the central values of the program, but still have fun. One of the central idea of scouting is for it to be fun. To paraphrase Baden-Powell if you're in scouting and it's not fun -- you're not doing it right!

Our course was in the two weekend format, separated by five weeks for our patrol meetings. I can't imagine taking an entire week for training, if for no other reason than losing five days versus two days of vacation from work. I would love to serve on the staff of Wood Badge in the future, and I also couldn't take off the full week (at least, not easily) as well as the addition days on the front and back of the week necessary for staff members.

As the parent of two young children, it's my choice not to lose a week of vacation that would be just family time, but again, people have different family situations, and I can also imagine if our children were already gone, my wife might relish the time to herself!

We are the Storming Buffalo patrol from Course C-16-03. We had two yells: The first simply involves stomping the feet repeatedly (or, if walking, slapping the thighs) while saying

Stormiiiiiiiiing Buffalo!

Our favorite, and the one that earned the most titters was

We're there --- when the chips are down. BUFFALO!

And you really did have to watch where you would step around our site - you can thank my kids and I who picked up a large buffalo chip (I shellacked it repeatedly over 5 weeks) and placed it a reasonable distance from our patrol site. It was a great conversation piece.

Storming Buffalo

C-16-03

F. J.

You've already heard some great responses. When I attended Wood Badge, I felt intimidated because the vast majority of the participants were in boy scouting, versus cub scouting or venturing. As a cub scouter, I didn't feel I could "compete" with some of these people who had been with the program for 10 years. However, as we began our program as cub scouts, I found that the boy scouters didn't know the cub promise, and that my experience with cub scouts offered my patrol a perspective that others simply didn't have.

Understand that you offer a perspective or other gifts that other people don't have and could use, and be open to seeing the gifts others offer as well. That's the kind of attitude that will serve you well at Wood Badge.

Staying "loose" is some other good advice you've received. There seem to be some little mind games going on that I wasn't fond of, but we were able to get past that, partially with a little subtle sarcasm and I got through it.

I would be interested in reading your reflections after your first weekend.

Good luck!

Storming Buffalo

C-16-03

I can only tell you about our experience. Five out of patrol members were beaded together. The original idea was to have the ceremony at a boy scout campins event at which the troop served by three of our patrol members (the committee chair and two committee members). This fell through, so we held it during our roundtable, which is where the most scouters gather at any single time other than summer camp. Having only attended three ceremonies, I can tell you that we had cards, one for each point of the scout law that assembled wood badgers would read, in addition to a very large axe and log, as well as twelve candles. The symbols of wood badge were explained during the ceremony, each of us was beaded (usually by our ticket counselors, and we received out certificates. I was solemn, but not overly so, and special because we were in front of our peers (and my six year old daughter attended too!)

Any ceremony gives the proper respect to the program, and focuses on wood badge and those receiving their tickets, is a good one.

Storming Buffalo

C-16-03

Congrats on earning your beads -- and I'm sure you earned them. I hope you had a true mountaintop experience!

I used to be a Buffalo....