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Applying Wood Badge related skills


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A poster in another thread was looking of info on recruitment and said "One of the things I was not trained in was recruiting new youth for the troop. Woodbadge, taken prior to "21st century" did not address it.

 

I think this is an important point to understand about the difference between the lessons of Basic Training and Wood Badge Training.

 

Basic Training is activity related. It deals with specific situations common to all unit operations for a person in the position that the training is for.

 

Wood Badge is conceptual training. It provides leadership concepts which can be applied to any situation in which the person functions in a leadership role.

 

Not only did the previous Wood Badge not deal with recruitment neither does the current version. Some recruitement is covered in basic traing.

 

What Wood Badge does is give you the tools needed address any leadership situation including recruitment.

 

Using the posters experience; in the previous version of Wood Badge you would employ the skills "Evaluating", "Communications", "Knowing and Using your Resources", "Knowing the Needs and Characteristics of the Group", "Sharing Leadership", "Planning" and the "Styles of Leadership", to plan and employ a recruitment strategy.

 

Do not expect Wood Badge leadership training to address specific functions of any unit or any task. It teaches leadership skills and concepts which you can then incorporate into your approach to leadership tasks.

 

 

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Ahhh, but Bob....

 

The classroom period of the course brings together Scouters with an array of experience and training. The informal conversations, outside the realm of the curriculum (or, in the case of "SCOUTING JEOPARDY", within the curriculum) help students and staff find and hone best practices.

 

The whole is often more than the sum of the defined curriculum. Frankly, as I've stated elsewhere, the leadership pysch of WB was a review of well-plowed ground. The FRIENDSHIPS and NETWORKS forged at the course were worth far more of the course cost than the basic curriculum.

 

I used to be an Owl...

C-40-05

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I have no idea how your post relates to the topic?

Scouting Jeopardy has nothing to do with honing best practices.

 

You do not need to go to Wood Badge to have informal conversations with other scouters. You can go to Roundtables or any number of scouting activities for that.

 

Wood Badge is only a review if you have received that same information before. The vast majority of participants never have. Nor did they under the previus WB syllabus.

 

None of that has anything to do with the fact Wood Badge teaches leadership skills and does not cover specific activities. Neither WB course covered recruitment, but both taught skills that let you take any leadership task, including recruitment, and address the issue using the skills learned at WB.

 

 

 

 

(This message has been edited by Bob White)

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I got it the 1st time, John.

 

I took the "old" course. Loved it! Learned tons! Made me a better Scouter! Didn't learn a stitch about recruiting nor was it ever discussed in the course. But it was discussed among the members of my patrol & the other participants of the course. Everyone picked up some great ideas for recruitment & also some things not to do when recruiting.

 

Is that what this thread is about?

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

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"Not only did the previous Wood Badge not deal with recruitment neither does the current version. Some recruitment is covered in basic training."

I'll agree that as far as I can remember (Hey I'm losing little gray cells all the time!) That in the old course there never was a session on Recruitment.

But..

Even in my now advanced years, I clearly remember thinking that if one more person told me to "Check Your Resources !" I was going to give him a thump!!

I remember someone taking the time to explain what Resources were, along with some ideas where they might be found.

 

A big part of any training is milking ideas from the people at the training.

Even at the 21st Century course at meal times the staff eat their meals with the participants. (Least-ways they did when I was CD!) This was done by design to help facilitate this type of discussion.

A lot of the Tickets I have seen from both courses have had something to do with recruitment. But just about every Ticket I have ever wrote has at sometime in some way been run up the flag pole with the other Patrol members and we have jawed about it before taking it to be approved, where it was once again looked at and maybe given a little tweak.

 

Back in 2000 I paid to attend the Delivering Commissioner Service Conference at PTC. I drove to Philmont. Had a wonderful time and learned a lot. The guys leading the presentation were from a Council 100 or so miles down the road.

I kept in contact with them and learned as much from them once I got home as I did while I was at Philmont.

Each and every person I meet I now see as being a resource. A Training type environment especially Wood Badge does tend to help/make people open up and become more willing to share their ideas and how they do things.

We do learn a lot from each other if we are willing to be open to ideas that might not always be in line with our own.

Heck I've learned a lot from just being in this forum!!

No course is ever going to be able to cover each and every situation and topic.

The 21st Century Course isn't a bad course. A lot of the skills /tools do help us look at what we are doing and where we want to go.

I feel sure that if our friend from the other thread were to sit down and think about his Vision and his Mission and then write his own Ticket (list of SMART goals) He would soon be on his way to fixing the problem that he now faces. Of course he might need to use a lot of the stuff that is in the course, which if he hasn't taken it? Might be a problem.

The answer is in the course!! It might just take some time to see it /find it!

But even if he goes back and looks at the 11 Leadership Skills and the material from the pre-21st Century Course, I'm sure he will find something in there which could help. - No of course it's not listed under the heading "Recruitment" but many of the skills will help.

Eamonn.

 

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No Ed, That's not what the thread was about.

 

Eamonn got it in his last few sentences.

The answer is in the course!! It might just take some time to see it /find it! But even if he goes back and looks at the 11 Leadership Skills and the material from the pre-21st Century Course, I'm sure he will find something in there which could help. - No of course it's not listed under the heading "Recruitment" but many of the skills will help.

 

Wood Badge teaches skills that can be applied to any leadership situation rather than teaching the specific situation.

(This message has been edited by Bob White)

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Wait a minute! Didn't your initial post refer to recruiting not being taught at Wood Badge? And I think we all agreed it isn't nor ever was. And John brought up the point of the interchange of ideas with other Scouters was worth it's weight in gold and I tend to agree! I would not have meet most of those people if I never attended Wood Badge! And the exchange of ideas is just as important as what was taught!

 

So the initial post was more of a statement than a discussion topic! Got it now!

 

Ed Mori

1 Peter 4:10

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The thread was starting a discussion on how Wood Badge Skills can be applied to a variety of leadership tasks. And that the difference between WB and basic training is that basic training is task oriented and WB is about leadership concepts.

 

The ability to network with other scouters is not uniques to WB, it is true of any group training. It has nothing to do with "Applying Wood Badge Related Skills" ergo the title of the thread and the subject of the opening post.

 

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Moderators,

The topic of the discussion thread is a valid one, and is relevant to the forum section it is posted in. The opening post is relative to the title. The information was accurate and the tone friendly and helpful.

 

Would it be possible to see the thread moderated so that the topic can be continued? Perhaps no one is interested in the topic but perhaps some are and it would be far more likely that someone else would participate if the Monty Python Players could inhabit a more appropriate thread, and the attempts to change the topic could be minimized.

 

I appreciate your help.

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Bob, I know you already know this, but it bears repeating:

 

On the Internet, just as in real life, threads (read: conversations) have a way of taking on a life of their own. You can start a conversation, but once its out there, you can no more control it than nail jello to a wall.

 

Life is much less stressful when you pick your battles and learn that those things beyond your control are not worth worrying about.

 

Just my 2

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