My council's wood badge training recently came to a close, and I'm proud to say that I was a part of it. A handful of Venture youth scattered across the council, myself included, spent the last 3 days of Wood Badge in one of the patrols (go Bears!), helping to explain such things as the fundamentals of a leave-no-trace campsite, as well as running a problem solving round robin as one of the training modules. I must admit, I didn't know what to expect going into it, but I came out of it with a good experience and a fun weekend to talk about for quite a while. Venture Crew 1 (of course, the number 1;)) even made their own flag to accompany the other patrols' flags-- we became the Mad Cows, with a very 'enthusiastic,' very constipated-sounding "Moo000ooo" as our cheer.

 

All in all, a good weekend. I don't know if involving Venture youth in the Wood Badge training is a standard thing or not, but I don't think it would hurt the program in any way. Actually, I think everyone there last weekend quite enjoyed it, and to be honest, being a girl who just happens to be in Ventures, it taught me a few things about how the Boy Scout program runs.

 

*shrug* No real point to this post... just thought I'd share.

"I don't know if involving Venture youth in the Wood Badge training is a standard thing or not, but I don't think it would hurt the program in any way."

 

Hi CampfireFairy

Yes, using Venturing scouts is a part of the Wood Badge for the 21st Century training syllabus. I am very happy to hear you enjoyed your experience. The Ventureres who have staffed or courses have had similar responses. You should be very proud for being selected for such an important responsibility. I am sure you represented your program very well.

 

Bob White

We had Venture Scouts participate in part of the instruciton during my Wood Badge course too. In fact most of them were from my crew.

 

It added greatly to the course. We all learned something. In fact I think that the program could benefit from using older Boy Scouts in a similar manner.

 

Some in our course had never seen Venture Scouts before. And the Venture Scouts saw for themselves, their adult leaders being trained.

 

Sometimes Scouters learn as much if not more from Scouts that from other Scouters....