What is trained?

[SR540Beaver 116]

I wish this forum had avatars like some of the others. Someone could use a picture of Eeyor from Winnie the Pooh as their avatar.

[Bob White 20]

My son's troop pays $100 for each adult who attends WB and Scout that attents JLT.

 

[Eamonn 61]

Most of the people that attended NE-IV-153, paid their own way. Wagion Lodge gave a full scholarship to one OA member. While no one was looking we found some money that had been donated many years back for training and had never been used.

Not sure what help the participants got from their units. Back when I was a Cubmaster I managed to get the Pack Committee to pay for all training. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but four leaders from that pack took Wood Badge.$800.00 was a little much so they only got half.

Eamonn

[Laurie 10]

Eeyore--do you mean me? I hope not, and if I've sounded whiney or Eeyorish, my apologies as that was not my intent.

 

Anyway...Bob and Eamonn, thanks. Our council is wonderful with training as most is free. $175 for six full days and all that is provided is certainly not expensive, but not everyone can easily pay that either. What surprised me is asking a unit to make that sort of financial commitment. I like how the troop you mention, Bob, has a set amount that it contributes. That should help prevent what Eamonn ran into--ouch, that added up! JLT--that would be a neat thing for a troop to pay for. This leads to another question: do you fundraise for this purpose? I'm intrigued by this idea of working training costs into a budget--maybe in part because I'm drafting a budget for next year and it's on my mind

 

[Bob White 20]

We follow a program called "the Ideal Year of Scouting". First you determine your program, then you calculate the cost of delivering the program, and finally you fundraise to meet those expenses. That way you are not caught by surprise and run out of funds before the end of the program year, or spend all your time fundraising and having a surplus of money but no time to spend it, or a plan on how to spend it.

 

Training is just one program needs we calculate in at the beginning of the program year.

[SR540Beaver 116]

Laurie,

 

No, not you. I was speaking of the "negative" one who finds it necessary to find the wrong in just about everything.

[Laurie 10]

SR540Beaver: thanks for clarifying

[Eamonn 61]

I thought it was me!!

I was looking at the E.

Eamonn

[NeilLup 13]

Hello Laurie,

 

A couple of Wood Badges ago, we had a woman show up the first weekend. She mentioned that both she and her husband were leaders and they both wanted to go but the coin came up tails, so she got to go first

 

When I ran a course recently, I budgeted some scholarship money into the course. My deal with the host council was that we would not deny anyone who truly could not afford it. If we then took so many below full fee that the course ran into the red, they council would not complain. Fortunately, we did OK financially.

 

One of our council VPs has agreed to provide scholarship money to any person of color who wants to go and needs help. He is one of the most eminent African American attorneys in the US.

 

As far as what is considered "trained", when I get there, I'll let you know. I still have more to learn.

 

There is always debate and discussion on what should be required. The idea is to require/recommend as much training as is reasonable balanced by what people realistically will do. If you look at what was required 40 years ago, it was much more than now. Not because people need training any less now but because they simply won't do it. So if the "required" training is considered too much, too demanding and requiring too much time, the result will not be that more people get training but rather fewer because the potential trainees don't even try.

 

So completing basic training now is:

 

Fast Start

New Leader Essentials

Position Specific Training (including Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills for SMs and ASMs)

 

Is Wood Badge a really good idea? I think so. Is it required? No because that was considered to be too much to require. Is a person who has been to Wood Badge able to be a better BSA leader than one who has not been? I strongly believe so. But, as was written above, if you send a monkey to training, you get back a trained monkey.

[LovetoCamp 9]

"One of our council VPs has agreed to provide scholarship money to any person of color who wants to go and needs help. He is one of the most eminent African American attorneys in the US."

 

This summer, I am paying for other people's kids to go to: 2 NRA Rifle Shooting Camps, 1 kid to Council JLT, and 1 Summer Camp.

 

I never thought to lay on a requirement that these kids be White, Protestant kids of Celtic, Pict, and Saxon descent. Why wouldn't this rich lawyer lend a hand to all the poor kids who need a hand? Sniff, Sniff, oooooohh fails the smell test.

 

[NeilLup 13]

Hello Trail Pounder,

 

It may well fail your smell test and if so, so be it. However, you can give your money for whatever you choose and so can this individual. I am not stating that he would not provide scholarship money for other leaders. Rather, as we attempt to improve Scouting in the urban environment, we very commonly hear about the expense of uniforms, training, camping etc. Like it or not, agree or not, we do hear about it continually.

 

So this individual said that when Wood Badge is concerned, concerning urban Scouters in our council, he simply did not want to hear about cost as an excuse. He would provide the money for anyone who wanted to participate and truly could not afford it.

 

This person strongly believes in what Scouting did for him as a black man growing up and has said "Whenever I scratch the surface of a successful black man, I find Scouting." He wants to do everything that he can to bring the values of Scouting to the next generation of African American men who, he believes, badly need it.

 

With respect, Trail Pounder, if you disagree with this man's values, I have to say that is just too bad.

[LovetoCamp 9]

I disagree with racism. This is racism. When he lays on a race requirement for Wood Badge Scholarship it is wrong. To make scholarships available to his council, fine. To his district, fine. To Scoutreach, fine. To make it available only to blacks, that's wrong wrong wrong. C'mon, you know this ain't right.

[Fat Old Guy 11]

TP, come on, get into the 21st century.

 

It would be racist for a white man to earmark money for only white Scouter and really, really bad if he said he'd only give money to white men. However, it is perfectly okay for a black man to not give money to whites or for a woman to say, "this money is only for women."

[dsteele 20]

I think the donor's wishes rule. If I wanted to give scholarships to only left-handers with money from my pocket, I would want it honored. I don't consider it racism. It's helping our one's own.

[LovetoCamp 9]

c'mon Uncle, This ain't about advancing scouting for southpaws. It's about picking recipients of scholarship dough based on nothing but Race. Are there no poor whites in Boston who could benfit the community and scouting by attending Wood Badge? Did this attorney never have a poor white Bostonian as a SM, ASM, Camp Staffer, or Merit Badge Counselor? To go public with an announcement that he will pay only for people of color is racist and is wrong. The scholarship should go to any needy Scouter let say serving in the District covering the D Street area.