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Guess what- it is changing my life.

The best way I can describe Wood Badge is this:

The position-specific training offered by BSA will teach you how to do the scouting program. Wood Badge will help you discover why you do the scouting program, then challenge you to apply it to everything in your life.

One problem I’ve come across when trying to write about the course is that I don’t want to cover too much. Wood Badge should be experienced without too much prior knowledge about the specifics. Plus, I think the course is different for everyone, even different for two participants in the same course. So if you are looking for a play by play of the whole weekend, you’ll have to find it elsewhere.

So why did this course have such an impact? I was wondering about this during the first weekend. The class material was what I expected, covering things like the stages of team development or leadership behaviors. It was material I had seen before in other training in the corporate world, but it was different this time. I was having a blast and everything clicked. I didn’t really understand why. Somewhere in the middle of the second day it made sense: when you take those tools and couple them with the values that built the scouting movement, you have something truly powerful. It removes the abstractness of the tools without a direction and replaces it with an internal road map that resonates with what drives you.

The people make the course. The dedication of the staff was apparent from day one and the members of my patrol will be counted as friends until the day I die. The members of Troop 1 in W5-61-11-1 are a collection of different talents and experiences with which I am proud to be associated. All of the people associated with our course are true believers in scouting. They are the kinds of people that are involved not just because their kid is in scouts but those that have drank the kool-aide and want to deliver the promise of scouting to as many of our youth as possible.

The Patrol Project

Each patrol is assigned a project to present during the second weekend. The only requirement is that it is relevant to all levels scouting (Cubs, Boy Scouts, Varsity, and Venturing). Every patrol took it on differently, covering everything from recruiting and retention to flag etiquette and outdoor safety. The presentations were as unique as the personalities in the patrols. Our patrol researched and presented resources to help scout leaders with special needs scouts. There is a ton of really great information out there!

What about that whole ticket thing?

The Wood Badge “ticket” finds it’s origin in the workings of the British Army in the era of Lord Robert Baden-Powell. During that time, the Army would ship you off to which ever part of the British Empire they needed you, but when your service was finished you had to pay for passage home. As a result, as the soldier’s term was nearing completion, they would seek postings closer and closer to home to minimize their personal cost. This process was called “Working your Ticket” and is where Wood Badge gets the phrase.

For Wood Badge, the ticket is a five part agreement between you and your Troop Guide. This agreement puts into action the things you were taught during the course. Within the next 18 months, you work on things that will help you fulfill your own vision for things that are important to you.

My ticket:

• Conduct a “Science and Engineering of the Pinewood Derby” class: work with the Webelos with my pack to earn the Scientist or Engineer Activity Badge, then use their help to conduct a station-based event on the Science and Engineering of Pinewood for other packs within the District, focusing on smaller and lower income packs.
• Attend the Philmont Training Center’s “Strictly for Cubmasters” course: attend the course with my family and bring back ideas and implement them within my own pack.
• Develop a sustainable Den Chief Program with the local Troops: develop a relationship with the local troops to bring in Den Chiefs, including a time line for Den Leaders to request help and for training and recognition for the Den Chiefs.
• Develop a “Parent Handbook” for the Pack: Draft a booklet (approved by the Pack Committee) to hand out at Join Night and other recruiting events that would explain some of the most common questions about our pack and Cub Scouting in general.
• Join the District Cub Scout Roundtable Staff: Assist Valley District’s CS Roundtable Commissioner and teach a minimum of five Cub Scout specific breakout sessions.

So is it worth the time and expense to attend? It was for me, and I suspect it would be for most. Will it change your life? I suspect so, no matter where you are now. If nothing else it will challenge you to be better. A better Scouter, a better employee/boss, a better parent and a better spouse.

Anyone looking to attend, here is my advice: attend with an open mind and be ready to have fun with it. If you go in with your arms crossed expecting it to be a terrible experience, I suspect it will be. If you realize the great people you are surrounded with and the fun you are about to have, I suspect that is what you’ll find.

Through work I have had classes in situational leadership, project management, the seven habits class, and other related topics.

Does that mean I know it all? No. Will I learn something even if they cover similar material? Of course!

I have seen Wood Badge described as “getting a PhD in leadership skills“. As someone that spent four years getting a PhD in something else, I’m pretty sure that would be over-selling the course. I have also seen it described as “the ultimate in Scouter Leadership Training”. I am rather suspect of that claim as well. If that was true, why would there be a need for things like the Philmont Leadership Challenge? I think it would fall more to an “advanced” training, something you take after you are a trained leader (know what you need to do) and have bought in to what scouting offers youth. It isn’t a capstone, it is a stepping stone.

Will attending Wood Badge make me a better Scouter? No, but I think it will provide access to the tools that might. Do you have to go to Wood Badge to be a good Scouter? No, I don’t imagine that you do. But I think there are things to be learned here, just like any other training.

What do I expect to get out of Wood Badge? I plan to have a great time with like-minded Scouters that have a passion for the promise of scouting. I plan to learn skills that will make me a more effective leader within the pack, within my district, at work and at home. I think the introspection will help me sharpen the focus on things that are important to me. I also thing everyone is different and no two Wood Badge experiences are exactly the same.

Many people have described their experience as “life changing”. That I totally believe. If you go in with an open mind and heart, and really want to learn and embrace the methods, it very well could change your life. I’ll let you know how it works out for me.

I think that having people run the den for only a year or two actually helps keep it interesting for the boys. Everyone approaches it with a different style, and the boys are fantastic at adapting. Even though it has been different, it hasn’t been any less fun.

I’m not sure how the leadership will end up for the Webelos den years, but I’m sure it will be great! We have an awesome group of families that all have stepped up to help out.

Most of the other scout stuff for days 42-44 were preparations for the Wood Badge course this weekend. Well, that and arranging for a porta potty to be at our next pack meeting (outdoors in a park with no bathrooms).

I spent a lot of time on days 40 and 41 going through some of the things that have migrated from the pack’s storage unit into my garage. I hope to get things organized so we know what we have and where it’s at.

When I wasn’t doing that, I took my family snowshoeing in Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a fun short trip that took about two hours, but really gave the kids a chance to try out snowshoes for the first time. From a scout-related standpoint, I got to hear my 8 year old son explain to his sister why we wear layers. I guess he has been paying attention.

So I’m not sure that joining a gym really fits the requirements of “doing something for scouting”, but it will help me as I continue to work with scouts of all ages. As the Cub Scouts become Boy Scouts and head out on more challenging adventures, I want to be there with them. Not holding them back, but helping them out.

Besides, being a Cubmaster can be tiring work sometimes:

Then a few things happened. I found out:

• we had a couple of Arrow of Light awards to give out, and a Boy Scout Troop was going to be on hand for the crossover.
• there was one of our newer scouts was to be awarded his Bobcat badge.
• one Webelos Den was to be awarded their rank badge.
• the other Webelos Den was to be awarded thier Whittling Chip.

So in my never-ending quest to make the awards portion of our pack meetings more interesting, I figured we should incorporate all of these presentations into the game show theme. This is what we ended up with.

Our gathering activity was a bag of straws, a roll of tape, and a small paper flag with the den number on it for each den. The goal was to see who could make the tallest free standing flag pole before the meeting started. It was fun and had everyone engaged. Turns out “free standing” was the tricky part for most of them.

First, we called up the “Grand-Prize Winners” (the two Webelos II scouts that missed the Blue and Gold). We talked about the Arrow of Light award and what it means. I presented them with their career arrows as the “grand prize” then told them we were playing “Let’s Make a Deal”. We had a Door #1 and a Door #2 (really just PVC pipe frames with shower curtains on them). Behind one was the boys from the Troop, ready to welcome them to Boy Scouts. Behind the other was a Tiger Den Leader and a couple of his Tigers, ready to help them start over in Cub Scouts. The two boys hemmed and hawed for a minute then chose the right door. So I had no choice but to let them go off to Boy Scouts.





Next up was our “New Contestant” who had earned his Bobcat. I talked about his own journey to the Arrow of Light, and how he was taking the first steps on that trail tonight. Then I explaned that our new contestant was here for “Wheel of Fortune”, but ours was even better. It was a “Wheel of Scouting”, and he earned the right to take a spin of the wheel to see what adventure awaits. Our wheel was this one:





After he spun the wheel I told him he was a winner, and as a bonus he would get to do all the things on the wheel as a Cub Scout.





The next contestants were the “Returning Champions”: one of our Webelos I dens. They figured out what game they were playing when I had their parents each grab a painted pizza box with a number (1-12) on it and gather on the stage. Deal or No Deal was a played by calling up each scout, having them pick a number (and possibly trade it for another box that I had when the “banker” called). Inside each box was one point of the Scout Law, and they had to say what that word meant to a scout. After it was over their parent pinned on the new rank badge.





The last group of awards was to the other Webelos I den for their whittling chip. Instead of being contestants, they were the life-line call for the Assistant Cubmaster who was playing “Who Wants To Carry a Pocketknife”. It was a series of questions around knife safety. Then we decided the prizes (patches) would go to the life-line, since they answered them for the contestant.





All this brought us to the actual program part of the pack meeting, our orignial game of “Are You Smarter Than a Cub Scout?” Each den answered four multiple choice questions as a group, then the parents answered one. The game heavily favored the scouts (by design) since they answered four questions for every one the parents got to answer, totalling 32 to 8. The parent questions were also quite a bit harder (we really didn’t want them to win). The questions and answers were projected on the screen via computer, and sound effects were provided for right or wrong as well as the 20 second time limit per question. The Committee Chair and the two Assistant Cubmasters were at the judges’ table, complete with white wigs and a gavel. They hammed it up while determining the correctness of the answer. In the end, the scouts won 22-5 and everyone was given a roll of Smarties to celebrate.

We closed it out with a Cubmaster’s minute on how we were having fun and learning at the same time, and how that fit in with the idea of a “Game With A Purpose“. Then the flag ceremony, and we sent everyone home. 90 minutes start to finish.

The feedback from parents has been awesome! Everyone had a great time, and the parents as well as the scouts were engaged for the whole meeting. The e-mails and conversations have all been extremely positive, and I think we have set a new bar for the next few years. Plus, it was a great time putting it all together! Make no mistake, I got to be the MC for the night, but there were lots of people that put in many hours of work to pull this off. Both Assistant Cubmasters and our two Webmasters were instrumental in getting this off the ground.




I would like to solve the puzzle, Pat.


Next month is a campfire pack meeting at a local park. Guess we better get started on the preparations!