SueM

I just got back from staffing weekend 1 of our council course and what the Buffalo patrol came up with was "Yaba Daba Doo!" in honor of Fred Flintstone being a member of the Order of Water Buffalo. At the last course they used Tatonka.

I have heard many times that there was a saying in the "old" (pre-WB-21Century) "It will be revealed to you at the proper time". IOW, they did not WANT participants to know too much about the course ahead of time and things were kind of deliberately held back from participants. Now, as staffers, we are told to answer questions from potential participants openly but without giving out too much information, as "discovery" is still something that the participants need to go through...it's part of the fun of going through the course IMO. I certainly discuss what the ticket is about and advise potential participants to think about possible ticket items pre-course. I went into my course fairly prepared as far as ideas for ticket items..but still had to rethink many of them..but it was a help I think to have that information about the ticket before the course.

sue

We started a Wood Badge Association in our council about 5 years ago and we (the association) plan and hold our own reunions. We are basically an independant group, though we do have council staff advisors on our BOD and all our funds do go through the council channels. We raise our own funds through dues, memorabilia sales and other fund raisers. We get no financial help from the council...but provide the council with program support in any way we can. For example one of the projects we've done is to build collaspable bridges for cub scout packs to use for crossovers..one for each district in the council. We also provide scholarship help to people who want to attend WB or Powderhorn, who may not be able to afford the fees. We've also provided cracker barrels for summer camp staff, etc.

Anyway..when it comes to reunions, we generally just have a member find a place that we can use for free..perhaps a church or fire hall or the like and then we plan from there. The last one we did was a spaghetti dinner on a Sunday afternoon, where we just charged a minimal fee for dinner to cover the costs of food and also invited the families to participate so that we would not take away from family time too much and they could have a better understanding of what WB is all about. We had a great turnout and had a really good time. As far as I know, we have no issues with liability or insurance and have not had to do any kind of waivers for any of these events.

It may take a bit of a fight to get your council to agree to it, but it sounds like forming your own formal WBA might be what you need to do. It took us a while to "convince" our council that it was a worthwhile thing.

Sue M.

A little background....A local AF Scouting friend of mine is currently stationed at one of Saddam's former Palaces in Iraq. There are so many scouters over there that they have set up a local council for them, so that they can go out into the community and bring scouting to the local kids. Anyway, I received this message a couple of days ago and thought I'd pass this along here...the goal is to collect soccer balls. If anyone is interested in doing this maybe on a troop wide or as a community event, let me know and I will supply you with a contact name and number, which I did not want to post here.

Sue M.

"ACST Classmates,Hope all is well! Lookin' for some help with the program below we're"kicking off" (see attached charts). It's PA & SJA approved so widestdissemination is possible. Pls send to friends/orgs back home as yourtime allows. Thanks!Maj Chaudhary--------------------------------BLUF: Request your help getting the word out on a program we are kickingoff. The program is called OPERATION SOCCER BALL(See attached PPT). BACKGROUND: Improved security conditions in the battlespace provides atremendous opportunity to build bridges at the point-of-effect. Today,the point-of-effect is the Iraqi people, and how our service membersrelate to them. - I had the chance to play soccer with some Iraqi kids a week ago at aclinic. I have to say there were significant communicationbarriers...UNTIL THE SOCCER BALL SHOWED UP, and we were able to have alittle "kick around." No translator needed, we were instant friends.Soccer was our common language and the kids all went home with smiles. REQUESTED ACTION: We need your help building bridges with the Iraqipeople--send us a soccer ball; one, five or twenty--if you could see thelasting effect it had on them, you'd send a 1000!! Address is in theattached PPT. As we celebrate the 60th Anniv of the Berlin Airlift,you'll see that Operation Soccer Ball continues the legacy of the "CandyBomber,"and the message of hope. - Can you pass this around? Its got PA & SJA's stamp so widestdissemination is possible through DOD/civilian channels back in CONUS.We're looking for max participation from back home. Schools, scoutingtroops, etc. Anybody that wants to donate. Thanks for your time!"

KC53,

This is my home council camp and I just got back from Week 1 on Saturday. This was our second year at the camp and I know most of the staff, but to answer your question...I was impressed with the MB instructors that my boys had for various MB's as they were thorough and just did not accept "I did that in school!" as a verification for requirements (as sometimes happens). They held to requirements pretty well from what I could see and expected high standards of work.

Our Nighthawk program leader is really good! She had something like 140 boys in the program last week and they had a great time! The 2009 leaders guide will be available in the not too distant future.

The camp is still in the formation stages though and may be experimenting with different programs along the way, but they do offer the CHASE program which takes scouts out for real sailing and we have a nice COPE/Climbing program too for older boys. There are also some good waterfront programs but they are very restricted in numbers so a very early registration in those programs is suggested!

Sue M.

Beaverlll,

Thanks! How did you find your experience a SA-TG as opposed to being a TG??? I think it's going to be difficult for me to have to somewhat step back from things and just watch..I'm the kind who wants to somewhat help -too- much!..in the sense that if I see something that needs to be done, or isn't being done, that I jump in and do it myself..It's how I was brought up - that if you see something that needs to be done, you don't wait for someone to tell you to do it! So..stay tuned!! We're having our first short staff meeting next week, so I'm sure I'll have a better idea of things and start trying to develop the mindset that I'll need more.

SueM

Love it Brent!!

sue

John,

Thanks..I appreciate the advice. It sort of makes sense..but in our council, we don't use slides, etc. Each TG makes their own personalized presentation, though they are presented and reviewed by the staff during the staff development days to make sure that they are complete. We were advised a bit as to things like limit the bullets on a page..number of words in the bullets, things like that.

suem

I have acted as a MB counselor to my own son for several MB's along the way, including a couple of Eagle required that I worked on with the troop as a group. Since I am also the SM, the I felt that I needed to avoid any illusion of "conflict of interest", so what I did was to have other adults in the troop review the worksheets for any work that my son did outside of a group effort to get their opinion as to whether or not he had met the requirements. I did the same thing for his Eagle project..took it to several other adults to review and had one of them sign off on it. When I did his Eagle SM's conference, I also had a couple of adults there to witness it too and encouraged them to ask questions themselves if they had any that they felt I might have missed. I did not want anyone to be able to "question" whether I had given him any "special treatment"...as I do have those types in my troop! But I did these things on my own..not as a troop "bylaw" or anything.

SueM

John,

Thanks! I was honored and totally shocked that I was asked to step up and do this, as I was only signed on as a TG at first and then he reshuffled the staff a bit. I'm not sure I was the best candidate..but the CD said that he had confidence that I could do it, so how could I not give it a try!! Luckily, I know all the troop guides pretty well already, so I have a pretty good idea of how they do things and their committment level. We haven't started the staff development yet..but will soon so any advice or suggestions for me are welcomed!

SueM

I don't know if anyone has seen any of these yet..but a friend sent me this link to some videos on youtube and I thought you'd all enjoy them too...especially "The Ticket from Hell" and "Telling Secrets of Wood Badge"

SueM

Beaver SR-605

TG- SR-741

ASM for TG's SR-881

In my troop, it hasn't been too hard to get the boys to be the Chaplain's Aide because they feel it's the POR where they have to do the least work!!

Another question I would like to throw out is, of those troops who DO have CA's...how many of those boys actually have or are working on their religious emblem, as one of the "requirements" for the POR say they should? I know that in our case, we probably have not had one who even earned it in Cubs. However, we only rarely have the training available for the boys for the most part...and the council can't even tell us where to find someone who can do the training for the boys.

SueM

Argyle,

To answer your question...No, the basic leaders training is NOT the same as the NLE! The NLE covers subjects that are more along the lines of how and where to get help, the organization of scouting, etc. and is the same course for both Cubs and Boy Scouts. The Basic leaders training is then leader -specific- ...teaching them the things that they need to know to run a troop.

sue m.

TG has final say although if they or the participant have any questions or issues, all the staff is there to help in anyway they can.

Sue M.

Haven't posted here in ages but

I used to be a Beaver

Sue M.

E,

Right..they have to have 30 -paid- participants, 30 days before the course. (It's the same "rule" with the NYLT too) And with my course..we were only at about 20 participants a week before that deadline and we were not sure that it was going to be a go up until that 30 day mark, when we got the notification that we had 32 participants! On the course last year then, we sweated it out again! We had lots of interest and even paid people, but they started dropping out for various reasons as the date approached for the course, so it was really close again and down to the wire. I think we ended up with 34 participants.

sue m.

Ok..that answered a question that I had from Summer Camp...My boys on the High Adventure side of camp were told they'd earned the "Water Sports" MB and I could not figure out what it was! I thought maybe they just misprinted it and meant Water Skiing, and couldn't find any references for Water Sports!

Sue M.

Eamonn,

Don't give up hope yet..if it's like it is in our area, we hold our breath every time a course is offered and what I have seen both when I took the course in 2004 and when I staffed it last year (we only do it every 2 years due to having a hard time filling slots!) is that we're still not at that magic "30" number at 40 days out and then in that critical last week to 10 days, we start getting the applications in. Like everything else these days..it seems that people just wait until the last minute because they don't see the need to commit early!

Sue M.

Yes, 2006 was the last year in which if you had not been on staff for a WB-21st course, that you could do it without having to put your beads aside and go through the course again. This is the National Policy. I know with the course I helped staff last year, there was an all out effort to include as many old staffers as possible in the staff roster, so that they could avoid having to go through the new course in the future.

Sue M.

Bayport Scout Reservation in Jamaica, VA.

sue m.

I just got back from Summer Camp on Sunday at our brand NEW council camp!! This was the first summer camp that I have been able to get to since taking over as SM and I had a GREAT time! The camp is not totally finished yet so we were the first week and "guinea pigs" for everything, but that was kind of neat...being able to really able to give input into how things could be improved from the start.

There was a lot for leaders to do in our brand new Leaders lounge..equipped with AC and Wi-Fi!! We had a "Leader's Challenge" throughout the week which kept us busy..including an "Iron Gut" cookoff (which I won the appetizer category and one of my other leaders took the dessert category) and also a Chess Tournament in which 2 of my leaders were the finalists so we couldn't lose!

The boys had a great time..and I was very proud of their progress. They came home with lots of hard earned MB'S and by the end of the week, the boys I had in camp were really coming together as a team and solving problems. The boys on the high adventure side of camp also did well, though the Canoe Quest boys ran into issues because the water levels were too low to do some things. We had an "interesting" evening of escorting a skunk who was in and out of tents, out of our camp site!

In a couple of years, the camp is going to be awesome though. We have a full high and low COPE course, the CHASE boats..a climbing tower..the canoe and waterfront programs, in addition to the regular program. Things are still a little confused at times, but still have a lot to offer! I got lots of needed exercise and met lots of wonderful new scouters! What could be better!!

Sue M.

At the course I was a TG on last summer, we had a running "duck" gag with the SPL on the 2nd weekend. It started with one of the staffer's having a duck call, which he would blow and then yell "DUCK!!" and we all would duck! The SPL would then look to see what we were ducking from and not see anything. By the 2nd or 3rd time, he started ducking too...just in case. Even the participants started ducking when we'd yell "DUCK!!" At this point then, one of the staffers brought a bunch of rubber ducks and small stuffed ducks and we'd throw them at the SPL. Then on the last morning, we took all the ducks and lined them up into a patrol, complete with a patrol flag, for morning inspection. It was too cute!

Now..when I went through my own course, they did fingernail inspections where all the staffers...male and female alike showed up with painted fingernails. They also checked for bloodshot eyes too!

sue M.

You know how busy we beavers always are..

I used to be a Beaver

SR-605

Joe,

I have -5- sets of brothers in my troop of about 24 boys!! One of those family's have 3 alone..with one more to come in a year!! Luckily, most of them do not want to be in the same patrol with their brothers..which is something I kind of encourage so that each boy has an equal chance to work independantly in a patrol. I've only had one real issue where things carried over and we asked the older one to take a break from meetings for a while until he could come back and act like a scout. He is a major disclipline problem to start with though too.

sue m.

>Seen in another thread that my good pal Beaver had a birthday >last week (Many happy returns.)I think he said he hit the big >50.

>I hit it 18 months back. Received a few cards telling me I was >over the hill!!

>I must be! But it's a lot easier coasting down the darn hill >than it was peddling up it -Wheee!

>Ea.

LOL!! Not to interupt the song but you know how us old foggies are..we have to talk while we can still remember what we were going to say!!!! When I hit that half-century "benchmark" 3 years ago...a couple of friends of mine who live in other states secretly conspired with my best friend here, to have the grim reaper show up at the Scout meeting...complete with bouquet of black balloons!! It was very unexpected and quite memorable. The boys got a real kick out of it too!!

sue m