Volunteers expect fun and fellowship at a Wood Badge course, but much more awaits. Read on about how this training session helps new-to-Scouting adults lead more successful packs, troops and crews.
NO UMBRELLA-TOPPED drinks served poolside. No quality time with your Kindle. No seaweed body wraps, no room service, no hot-stone massages.
Is Wood Badge a stress-free vacation? No.
But for a vacation that tests your limits, gives meaning to your time spent in Scouting and makes your job as a leader easier, just say yes to Scouting’s pre-eminent training course for adults.
Your deluxe six-day, all-inclusive Wood Badge experience comes with decades of Scouting knowledge, a skilled and helpful staff and a guided tour through the entire Scouting program from Tiger Cubs to Venturing. And the price? Less than a single night costs at that fancy resort with the pool.
Wood Badge is expertly designed to stress you out, tie you in knots and take you on the same emotional roller coaster we put our Scouts on as they advance in the program.
In other words, you might not leave Wood Badge feeling relaxed, but you’re guaranteed to be recharged and ready to tackle any problem your Scouts throw your way. And it just might be the most fun you’ll ever have as a Scout leader.
JOHN STONE STOPS himself just in time.
A split second before shouting something to the entire troop, the Wood Badge Scoutmaster has a better idea. He walks over to Senior Patrol Leader Bill Hemenway, whispers in his ear and takes two large steps backward. Stone smiles as Hemenway clears his throat.
“Troop 1, let’s make this a shortened break and meet back here in 10 minutes,” says the senior patrol leader. “Then we’ll be back on schedule.”
To the uninitiated, Stone’s audible looks like a wasteful extra step. Why couldn’t he just say it himself? But Scouters know. The youth leaders run the program while Scoutmasters like Stone provide backup.
Wood Badge, though, necessitates a temporary and essential exception to that rule. This is an adults-only affair, so grown-ups play all the parts. That’s why Hemenway, whose gray-flecked hair signals he’s no longer a teenager, takes on the role of the troop’s top youth leader.
At various times during Wood Badge, grown men and women impersonate Cub Scouts, Boy Scouts, Venturers, den chiefs, troop guides, assistant patrol leaders, patrol leaders, scribes, chaplain’s aides, quartermasters, assistant senior patrol leaders, assistant Scoutmasters and a very hard-working senior patrol leader and Scoutmaster.
The role-playing means that rather than click-click-clicking through an online training course or paging through a two-dimensional handbook, adults who attend Wood Badge experience Scouting fundamentals by living them.
That’s just what a group of 50 men and women did in August 2012 when they gave up a week’s vacation and several hundred dollars to meet at Philmont Scout Ranch for the Circle Ten Council’s Wood Badge course. To help keep the course accessible to as many Scouters as possible, many councils’ Wood Badge courses take place at local camps. Circle Ten’s annual August course at Philmont distinguished itself as the only Wood Badge offering at the New Mexico paradise — that was, until the Fort Worth, Texas-based Longhorn Council joined the fun.
Taking Wood Badge at Philmont with the rugged Sangre de Cristo Mountains as your neighbor is an extra square of chocolate in your s’mores — awesome, but not essential. In reality, where you take Wood Badge matters little. The traditions, games, classes, activities, leadership lessons and course schedule are the same whether you take it in winter in Wichita or summer in Seattle.
And the less you know going in, the better. Ken Davis, a historian who has served on 30 Wood Badge staffs, says open-minded Scouters learn the most.
“Even if you don’t know much about it,” he says, “going to Wood Badge gives you probably the best preparation — better than any other thing we do — for completely understanding Scouting.”
THE PATROL METHOD, devised by Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell, organizes Scouts into small groups. But when’s the last time you actually worked in a patrol-like group yourself? At your day job, perhaps, or in your own troop all those years ago?
At Wood Badge, participants join patrols of complete strangers, and everyone gets a turn as patrol leader. At first, the process feels forced: You will spend 24 hours a day with these people you just met, and you will like it. But by Day Three or Four, you realize the bonds formed with these Scouters won’t end when the course does. 
A lot of that camaraderie stems from the “we’re all in this together” mindset. Just like our Scouts, Wood Badge participants get too much to do and not enough instructions or time in which to do it. But at the Philmont course, Beaver Patrol member Blake Atkins says this is only fair. “It really helps you appreciate what we put our Scouts through,” he says, “when we’re given just a few minutes to accomplish a complex task.”
That’s intentional, says Dan Zaccara, a Silver Buffalo recipient who was one of the authors of modern Wood Badge. “The way the course is frontloaded for the participants,” he says, “means everything is in their laps in the first two or three days. That puts stress in the system. Stress in the system puts them through all the stages of team development.”
Those stages include forming (a disorganized group coming together), storming (clashing as different ideas get shared), norming (sharing control and compromising) and performing (skill and enthusiasm at their highest).
The concept isn’t a BSA creation. It’s not even a this-century creation. The stage names debuted in 1965, and if your boss shipped you off to a team-development course in the past several decades, you’ve probably heard them.
In fact, you can find most of the leadership lessons taught at Wood Badge in the self-help section of your local bookstore. But those books lack the values of the Scout Oath and Scout Law, and they don’t include Scouting-specific connections that convert abstract leadership lessons into something you can actually use.
Oh, and unlike your office’s awkward team-building outings, everyone at Wood Badge actually wants to be there. Like Nancy Champion, an Owl Patrol member who says she’s having the week of her life at Philmont.
“I’ve worked with great groups and dysfunctional groups,” she says. “I was never able to understand why some worked and some didn’t. Wood Badge really helps me connect the dots.”
THE WOOD BADGE formula started with a master plan (or is it evil plan?) sharpened in 2000 by Zaccara and his colleagues on the Wood Badge task force. They decided to force patrols to that second stage of team development (storming) by adding pressure points. This usually results in a thunderclap of disagreements and frustration among otherwise friendly and courteous Scouters.
During the 2012 Philmont course, most of the storming happens during a critical moment on Day Two. But it could really happen anytime. Consider the ingredients. These adults are thrown into a high-pressure situation in a new location with unfamiliar people and an interrupted sleep schedule. Storming is inevitable.
It sounds sadistic, but there’s a point: Without some storming, you’ll never have a high-performing team. And Wood Badge is a safe environment in which to storm because staff members are trained to recognize this stage and bring in the umbrella if things get out of hand.
“They get into storming fairly quickly,” Zaccara says. “But the last couple of days are purposely lighter so they can digest and really understand what they’ve been through and what they were experiencing. The environment that’s created forces them to live the experience and challenges early.”
On the final day at Philmont, participants gather for a slideshow of photos from the course. These teams, now in the performing stage, settle in at the same patrol tables where they formed, stormed and normed days earlier. As the slideshow reaches its emotional apex, some of the same Scouters hit hardest by storming are the first to reach for the box of tissues. By the final photo, there’s not a dry eye in the place.
The participants have reached their emotional apex, and they’ll take this passion home with them. “This is a course that you can use everywhere else in your life,” Zaccara says. “It makes you a better leader and a better communicator. It’s something you can bring to your church and your family. It makes you think about the things you do, how you do them and why.”
After all, Zaccara says: “Leaders aren’t hatched; they’re trained.”
WORK YOUR TICKET
The Wood Badge story has two chapters.
Chapter 1: The experiential course, which takes place over one six-day week or two three-day weekends and includes leadership classes, games, activities and plenty of meaningful conversations.
Chapter 2: The Wood Badge ticket, a series of five projects (completed after Chapter 1) that benefit a Scouter’s home unit and local community. These ticket items extend the reach of Wood Badge well beyond the six-day course. Fifty participants completing five ticket items each means 250 improvements to Scouting. And that’s just from one course.
WOOD BADGE HISTORY TIMELINE
1919: First Wood Badge course held at Gilwell Park in England
1936: Gilwell Camp Chief John Skinner Wilson conducts Experimental Scout and Rover Wood Badge courses at Schiff Scout Reservation, New Jersey
1948: First official BSA Wood Badge courses held, one at Schiff and one at Philmont. Scouting legend William “Green Bar Bill” Hillcourt serves as Scoutmaster at both nine-day courses
1948-1958: Mostly national courses conducted, all run with oversight of the BSA’s Volunteer Training Division
1953-54: A few councils allowed to hold their own courses, including one in Cincinnati in 1953 and one in Washington, D.C., in 1954
1958-72: Two variations of the course exist: a national one for trainers and a sectional one for Scoutmasters, commissioners and other local Scouters. The courses focus exclusively on Scoutcraft skills, the patrol method and requirements a boy would need to earn First Class
1964: The BSA evaluates leadership skills offered in a junior leader-training course from the Monterey Bay Council, Calif., called White Stag
1967-72: The BSA conducts experimental courses that add leadership skills to Wood Badge
1973-2002: All Boy Scout Wood Badge courses held nationwide move to leadership development format and away from Scoutcraft
1974: First weekend courses held (previous courses take place over consecutive days)
1976: First women attend Boy Scout Wood Badge
1976-1999: Cub Trainer Wood Badge courses held nationwide
1997: Discussions begin to revise Wood Badge and offer one course for all programs
2000: Two pilot Wood Badge for the 21st Century courses held — one at the Florida Sea Base and one at Philmont
2002-today: BSA requires that all courses and councils teach the course
— Courtesy of Ken Davis
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This was the best synopsis of my experience this past Fall in Wood Badge Course C3-114-13. I’ve forwarded this webpage onto my fellow unit leaders for their consideration of the program for themselves. For a video of what this program meant to some of us see: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEnIyQYT3S8
I had the pleasure of being at this Wood Badge course at Philmont in August 2012. . The Circle 10 Council did a fantastic job setting this up. This is a great course to help all Scouters both volunteer and professional to learn leadership skills. I have taken many corporate training courses over the years and none of them come close to being this good. I recommend taking Wood Badge for any adult in Scouting. You can take the course anywhere you would like, your local council, neighboring council or clear accross the country at Philmont, like I did. Just take it, you will be thrilled that you did.
David Carlson
Committee Chairman, Troop 826
Advancement Chairman, Timucua District, Gulf Ridge Council (Tampa, FL)
David, I couldn’t agree with you more! I did not get the opportunity to take it at Philmont but what an experience! It was one of the most challenging, funnest, most personally rewarding experience I have had in not only my Scouting career, but life! The experiences I had going through Wood Badge , the friends I made, and the things I learned will stay with me forever!
I have heard of Philmont, though I have never been there. The main building of one of the two training centers in Sri Lanka is named after Philmont, as it was due to a grant from Boy Scout of America that we were able to put up that building. I did my Wood badge many years ago, some time in the early eighties. This article did bring back many memories of that Wood badge course. What ever the country is, the spirit of the Wood badge is the same , it appears .Thanks for the essay. It was great, though short.
Rohan Wirasekara
Scout Leader
42nd Colombo Scout Group(Royal College)
Former National Programme Commissioner
Sri Lanka
I have been asked to be on staff for C1-286-15, we would like to use the article in our recruitment materials posting on a webpage, reprints, or other means. How can we get permission to use this article?
Thank you.
As long as you’re not using it for commercial purposes and credit the magazine, you may re-print it for Scouting use.
I’m very glad that Bryan was in my course, as I like reading about it again. I’m one of the Foxes in the third photograph.
WB 102 was a great experience and I really can’t recommend it enough. John and Bill and the rest of the staff were great and the learning is second to none. I can also say that going to Wood Badge will save you a lot of time reading business books and its a lot more fun.
Just wanted to say Thank you for the indepth and thought provoking article on Woodbadge. I am still relatively new to Scouting and would like to get more practical experience and training before I do Woodbadge. Do you have any ideas and suggestions?
Dan
Wood Badge is worth five times what I paid. It is the best PD I have ever taken as a teacher, Scouter or geologist. Every Advisor or Scoutmaster should take it!
I had the pleasure of attending the first Woodbadge for the 21st Century held in my council. SR-588 Bobwhite Patrol, without a doubt it was the best training I have attended in my nearly 15 years in Scouting at that time. Saying a leader comes out of the course recharged is an understatement, a leader comes out a new and motivated Scouter! Not only did I have a good time, I made new lifelong friends, not only from my patrol, but from the entire troop. The course is worth every penny and more, if someone has the opportunity to go, by all means make it happen, you will never forget it.
I feel everyone needs to go to Wood badge. If you are new to Scouting or a lifer. The skills I have learned have been useful in my church life and as a parent volunteer in the PTA. I have the great opportunity to staffing this coming fall for the third time and each time I enjoy myself and learn more. Thank for a great article on Wood Badge.
The Woodbadge Adult training program is a ‘life’ changing program for me ! WE 05-55-05.
I love Wood Badge! It is the prime example of applying Scouting’s “game with a purpose” mantra. I learned so much in my course (C-39-09) as a participant, and gained even more as a staff member (C5-198-12). Wood Badge has helped me catch the vision of scouting and recognize that I must be purposeful in everything I do, in and out of the uniform. If you have not yet taken the course, I urge you to go for it, both for yourself and for the many youth and adults you will be better able to influence for good. You will love it!
Thanks for sharing your feedback about Woodbadge. I am still relatively new to Scouting and am thinking about doing Woodbadge. Any thoughts or suggestions?
YIS
Dan
Go and enjoy! There is so much learning and interacting that takes place and at the same time you get to enjoy being a scout. The leadership training that you get from the course can be applied not only to Scouting but to real life also.
I’ve had the pleasure of also staffing two courses and even as a staffer, you learn even more!!
Kevin Warmack C-14-04 – Fox Patrol!!
I took Wood Badge when I was just starting my second year in Scouting as a Den Leader. It was like…wow. I learned so, so much, and not just things that are beneficial for Scouting. It is never too early or too late in your Scouter “career” to take Wood Badge. Going back as a Staffer brought it all together. There’s not secret formula, but once you see how every part interacts with the other parts is a true “ah ha!” moment. So get ye to Wood Badge!!!!
Best experience ever! Go Beaver Patrol! Lots of FUN, Lots of LEARNING, don’t plan to sleep. Just Kidding of course you get to sleep. And remember finish your TICKET!!! (N2-640-12)
I went to Wood Badge C2-265-12 the best thing in Scouts over all. All of staff was wonderful as well and helpful..I have a few health issues and already made up my mind I CAN’T DO THIS How WRONG I WAS. They made every thing I needed to do easy for me. I encourage everyone to go if you are even just thinking about it . Go you will not be let down at all.My group was the last LHAC before it was renamed Woods and Water. They not only challange your mind but your body as well.I was in the Bear Patrol our slogan was GO BEAR OR GO HOME.So you can only guess what others thought I made new friend there and still keep in touch with each of them. So please go to Wood Badge if you get a chance you will not be sorry. I finished my ticket a little early before I expected and it is up and running great. We now have Kindergarten boys ( Lion’s Den) and no more boys leaving my sign up table crying and told you are to young.
“THE PATROL METHOD, devised by Scouting founder Robert Baden-Powell, organizes Scouts into small groups. ”
BP developed the Patrol System which, significantly, did not include Scouts selecting their leaders. The “officer” (Scoutmaster) appointed the leaders. You might be more accurate to say that Bill Hillcourt eventually devised the Patrol Method.
BSA says a “patrol is a small group of . . . friends.” Do you see the difference between adults “organizing” boys and “a small group of friends”? Bill did. BP did. Only footnotes now, but might they have spotted something?
Does it work to train in the Patrol Method almost 100% by example rather than expressly saying what could be said when many (at least) of the participants do not understand what the Patrol Method is?
All they may see is adults running things because their natural tendencies are all in that direction.
We see more “troop method” units all the time even as a greater and greater % of Scouters are Wood Badge trained. If the Patrol Method is our most distinctive method, what does this say in terms of measurable success?
SR-905 Antelope here. While 20 years from now it would be nice if the boys remember the knots, it’s the values we really hope they retain. Woodbadge reinforces that for the adults.
I would not take for my Wood Badge experience. I learned a lot more the following year as a coach counselor because you are bombarded with too much information while going through the course to absorb it all
Mike Jones
Beaver patrol SC 222
I love scouts and have been involved for over 9 years. Woodbadge helped me understand the purpose of scouting and why we use the methods we do. BUT, the majority of MY Woodbadge training was a waste. The good content could have been presented in a half day. The rest of the time seemed to be required so the presenters could have their fun. It’s like the adults who wanted to be scouts got their turn. I’m glad if that’s where you find your identity, but seriously – I’m not looking for purpose in life or some self improvement gig. I’ve matured enough to be past that stage. There should be a Woodbadge basics course for those not interested in committing that much time into playing scouts and want just the understanding. I don’t need games and role playing to grasp the concepts.
One of the things that the course teaches is that everyone has different learning styles. The course helps you to exchange ideas with other Scouters on how to better present Scouting.
Question?
Will wood badge actually be beneficial?
Is the training program more about developing bonds with fellow scouters?
Are there more games and role playing than actual valuable content?
Is the content more about how to think like a scout or crew member or is it actually teaching how to lead/guide scouts or crew members?
I have read up on what the training is about and have ask a few people who have attended what they thought.
After talking with them, I still have questions about what I am supposed to gain from the training. If someone could any or all of my question that would be great.
Yes Wood Badge is very beneficial. You learn so very much about. The role playing and games are very important. They are tools use for you to learn with. They teach you how to be a better Scouter.
Yes, you start off as a Cub Scout and progress up through the levels of Scouting. You learn some much things like Listening to Learn, Communication, Conflict management. You gain a better understanding on how to lead scouts and crew members. An understanding of the various roles an Scouter plays in the lives of the scouts we come in contact with.
But basically with you gain from the training is up to you. A open mind and a willingness to learn new ideas. Your twenty questions that you answer is a start.
What you gain is a whole perspective on leadership and team formation. These are things that will help you not only in Scouting but also in real life. The games and some of the teachings “Listent to Learn”, “Project Planning” “The Stages of Team Building” are all things that we see as adults. For instance, I was a taught the course on “Project Planning”. My basic theme that struck a cord through the participants is that in planning a project, you will not always have success. But the issue is that you learn from your mistakes. How did I get that message accoss? I used a “Wyl E. Coyote” of the Roadrunner cartoons as the focal point (think about it. He would always have the elaborate plans that if executed correctly, would have resulted in a Roadrunner dinner. But his problem was in the execution!!) That is the same thing that we teach the youth and our selves!!
I went to one of the first weekend courses that featured leadership skills in 1972, NCAC. Engineering school didn’t feature leadership skills and that helped much in my work. 45 years and I still work with Scouts.
To answer the question “Why Woodbadge?” because you wouldn’t want your school teachers to not be trained. Woodbadge takes the attendees through every step of Scouting, from Tiger to Venture Scout. The attendees are trained on how to lead and how to work together as a group. Attendees are trained to be better communicators and better leaders. This is truly the premier training course for all adult Scout leaders.
The staff for each Woodbadge course goes through vigorous preparations to ensure that each course is presented in a manner that benefits everyone in the course, attendee or staff.
The fellowship that is gained from this course leads to a tight knit group of people. When called upon, a Woodbadger, regardless of their critter, will help any Scout or adult leader overcome any obstacle.
We don’t do this for the beads, we do this to be better, for ourselves and for your son.
S5-420-13 Owl Patrol
S5-420-15 Troop Guide
My Wood Badge experience was one of the most disorganized messes i have ever been involved in and literally ruined scouting for me. Our guide was terrible and did little to nothing to explain how the ticket writhing process worked and then blew a gasket and started screaming at me when I told him the whole process was a waste of my time. After having my ticket kicked back with little to no explanation as to what was wrong with it 5 times i just told him that the either take it or leave because there was no way on earth i was writing it again, I never did one of my goals. The (2) 3 day weekends at Camp Lanochee were a huge waste of my life that i will never get back and a waste of $200-300 that at the time i could barely afford.
Yeah, pretty close to my experience as well. I’ve only done the first weekend so far, and it’s just rapid-fire powerpoints and yelling. The only thing I learned was how to tie a woggle. Sadly, I looked up the syllabus online, and the staff putting it on is following it to the letter just as the BSA demands it be run, and they had to pay to be staffers for this thing. I can hardly fault them for doing an exemplary job. I’m not looking forward to the second weekend at all, and I’ll likely chuck it all in the trash when I get home. At this point, I’d rather have my $250 back than those beads.
My Wood badge course was SR_420. It was an wonderful and enlightening experience. I was given the privilege of being on Staff for 3 Wood badge courses. You learn so very much. I would encourage every Scouter to take this course
I brought back so much from Wood Badge, I am so glad I took the course. Bobwhite Patrol C-03-09. I highly recommend this course to anyone that has not gone through it, I try to recommend it to the other leaders in our Pack and Troop in our area. Thanks again for a great learning experience and a great program.
I am a Proud FOX from SR-498-2002. So I guess this makes me the old guy in the room. I learned a lot from Wood Badge it is another form of Education just like scouting is meant to be. Have been in for 25 Years now I can honestly say without hesitation that I had a blast.
Ever since I knew what Wood Badge was, I couldn’t wait to go through it. I went through it as a “yute” staff, then as a participant, and now I am going to be a Troop Guide. Each time I have taken away something new. This is something that I am proud to be part of.
You can’t make me go. Oh, already went! And staffed. Darnit.
I attending Wood Badge in 2011 and it was a Scout-life changing experience. Will you learn new things at Wood Badge? Most likely. Yes, you’ve probably taken leadership classes in the past, but Wood Badge will put those challenges in the context of Boy Scouts. The biggest take-away for me was the tremendous amount of networking that took place in the course. This is *the* program that will put you in contact with well-established leaders in your area that are making a difference in Scouting. Whenever I have a question, whenever I need some help, or even if I just want to talk through some ideas with a peer, my Wood Badge class is the place I turn.
And, of course, you’ll drink the kool-aid and come away with both the plan and the passion to make positive changes in your area.
My question ? Why take it twice. I took Woodbadge in 1991 yet the Woodbadgers in my council think that I my Woodbafge course is to old for 21st Century Scouting. I am not retaking Woodbadge just to be on staff for the new Woodbadge.
My Woodbadge was week long with 9 tickets, not 5. My course was excellent and gave a greater knowledge and insight into scouting. As tell my New Woodbadgers in my council I have lot to offer, however your bias on older course Woodbadgers remain dumb.
Let me know what you think?
I did the “old” Wood Badge. The “storming” for my course left me feeling hazed, stressed, miserable, and manipulated. I reported this to the Council Office and said that, if the hazing continued, I would report the course to National. The intention of the Scoutmaster and staff was to expose us to the worst of Scouting to show us how lost the boys can be in a badly-run unit. In my opinion, this was counterproductive at best and cruel at worst. I really regret that I don’t have the positive memories that so many of my friends have.
Hazing has no place in Wood Badge or in Scouting.
Unfortunately, it’s built right into the structure of the Wood Badge program. If you don’t make your Ticket Counselor happy, then your Ticket Counselor can make your life miserable for the next 18 months (unless you quit). They even have a word for it, “feedback”. It’s the verbal tool they beat you with to tell you that whatever you are doing for your ticket, it isn’t good enough.
My own ticket counselor even admitted that their ticket counselor made their life miserable. I immediately nipped that puppy in the bud and notified our course director that I quit. I don’t need a woggle to serve as an adult volunteer, and I don’t need to help perpetuate a system enables one person to have so much power over another.
If you had a wonderful and supportive ticket counselor, then bless you – and them. But that’s not the case for everyone.
Woodbadge has to be positive learning experiences. I attended the old Woodbadge course in 1991 and had very positive learning experience. No hazing, no bullying is needed that is archaic training.
Well, here we take the N5-661-16-1 Wood Badge Course in Guajataka Scout Reservation in San Sebastian, Puerto Rico.
It was incredible the effort that these STAFF made with us. The concept of dinner and lunch of different places, including the costume and decoration, was fantastic. All leadership workshops were very interesting. We discover how to solve and identify problems in our units. We understand how to change attitudes, with a constructive ways to perform the unit operation. We pass the process of been in a Patrol System with people that you don’t met before. We increase our enthusiasm in scouting and create the compromise to serve better. I really enjoy the process and I invite other scouters to pass through this unexpected experience. This is the only activity that you pay to work, serve, learn and enjoy at the same time and when you finish, you want to do it again, crazy haah?! #%
Now I become an Antelope from Majagua District, which enjoy the scouting as I did when I was a kid. Please share with the Bryan on Scouting Magazine, my experience. Thank you.
Cordially,
Nomar Martinez-Ortiz, Associate Advisor Crew 12
Levittown Toa Baja Puerto Rico
I completed my Wood Badge in the mid 70’s in Europe
. My course number was NE-CS2-17. I whole encourage every scout leader to attend Wood Badge training if at all possible.
As a Fox my local council course in 87 was a great connection to my Scout experiece and new adult leadership. I was able to bring elements of links between our Elks sponser and older leaders starting a vigorous and spirited group. My ticket moved our new youth into a strong active outdoor program .Ten of us and a founding Scouter went to Philmont a year after my WB experience.
I was a Cub Scout in 1970s and earned Arrow of Light but never moved on to the Boy Scouts. Fast forward to today, my son just crossed over and joined our local Troop after five terrific years in Cub Scouts. I followed along with him and signed on as an ASM, so Boy Scouts is fairly new to me as well. Just completed first half of Chapter One N2-374-16 and all I can say is WOW. Awesome time spent with awesome people and looking forward to completing Chapter One a month next month and continuing with Chapter Two. First time in my life I regret not continuing with the Boy Scouts four decades ago. I’d highly recommend this course to all adult leaders, esp. if they are new to Scouting or recently becoming involved again as in my case. Article above, while a little dated, is spot on about the course. Thank you.
I found that overviewing the Woodbadge course has helped me visualize,what these members go through during training. The disorganization (first part of assessing the problem), draws members closer together by expressing their critical viewpoints…mostly problems they are experiencing in the real world (work based: time management, product quality and delivery, training of new and groomed employees, meetings with leaders and stakeholders about costs, salary increases, and new position development(personal: time with the family, and this means quality time, not just meet and greet..it is the personal time needed to spend with family that is hardest..are all of my needs met, and so I even know what to do when it is just me in it, have other family members received valuable time with me, and if not, what can I do to make this happen..even if it is a few minutes of my time or a few days..it could make a difference for someone else..I think I brought something to someone’s attention, and if he reads this he will know who he is. The other part of assessing the problem comes from storming..bringing all the problems shared through inductive reasoning, and coming to a resolution..the process of model design..planning which one of these problems are important over others in terms of human as well as business, or work related needs. So sad we live in a society, where time left to be with our children is limited. We need to make sure that the mix between traditional values and modern are still witin our families. We need work time, as well as time with families, if not equally spent, somewhat compromising work with family time. I am guessing, that when the past activities of the four days films were shown in the last day of WB, this is where the years happened…while many WB members thought this was the greatest part of wood badge, the disputes, mixed with disorganization that causes stress, or critical thinking because you must struggle to solve a real problem..like what happens when you are without matches to start a fire to cook your food, and your starving..if it rains, and you need to take cover..together you can build a fortress…I think the falling photo is a good example of fear of falling..but some people are smart enough to know when and how to handle this problem, and know how to make falling with excitment, and happiness. The last part is resolving the problem, and hooray, the resolution! What does it mean when the most important items are addressed? Now it is up to members to apply them in scouts and at home..work and family..What does it mean to spend time with members of a team, after 6 days..and the memories it provides..probably a lifetime..
My husband and I did woodbadge in our council great salt lake council the course was we7-5-590 I was a buffalo my husband was a fix. Buffs rule our wood badge course we were all performing by the second day we skipped the other stages. It was am awesome course.
Just finished weekend two.
Go Owls!!
It was fabulous, some of the best people I’ve ever met. I went out of council due to scheduling issues and the dates worked better, so I made lots of new friends and am so glad to have met them all.
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*****N2-66-18*******
Looking over the 20 questions I am supposed to answer before the first weekend and knowing a little bit of what to expect I am seriously leaning toward pulling out of my course coming up in January. What’s more I don’t expect I will be on our Unit’s recharter this year. I am going all the way and just going to take my kid to meetings and sit there and watch someone else do it from now on.
After the first day of my course, this weekend, I walked up the Course Director during dinner and told him WB was not working for me. I then told the guy leading our group I was going back and packing up my gear and going home. It was NOT fun. Group activities with discussion, reflection, and games is not helpful. I need the information to be presented and some why and how it works. I don’t need to “be a Cub Scout”, etc. It was a miserable day and I don’t regret bugging out at all.
I had the honor of serving on a half-dozen Wood Badge courses, including the first Wood Badge for the 21st Century course our council conducted. There were differences, but both were great courses. I highly recommend any serious Scouter avail himself or herself of the opportunity to take “the PhD of adult leadership training.”