A Global Perspective     (To top)

The next time you see a dedicated or proficient adult Cub Scout or Boy Scout leader in uniform, look for two wooden beads on a leather thong. It's worn around a person's neck. The Wood Badge beads represent a person who has committed him or herself to a higher level of performance -- in life as well as his or her Scouting roles. The beads are an internationally recognized mark of a leader.

There are lots of leadership programs, but few have the global effect of Wood Badge. It was started by Lord Baden-Powell as a means to train adult Scout leaders for his popular scouting program for boys in Great Britian. Wood Badge is now active in every country on the planet where a Boy Scout organization exists. These leadership programs are constantly reviewed to be sure each is as effective as possible.

Requirements for (the old) Wood Badge     (To top)

My interest has been primarily in the Boy Scout Wood Badge program, but there is a separate and equally fine program for Cub Scout leaders. Requirements for Boy Scout Wood Badge training are quite simple. You must be a registered adult Scouter, associated with a Boy Scout troop. You need to have watched the Fast Start training video and completed the adult leader basic training course. You, of course, need to apply for and take one of the scheduled training courses; some are week-long courses (as was my training), others are a series of weekends. You'll also need the permission of the Wood Badge course director, and you need some personal reason for undertaking this advanced level of training. There is a requirement for hundreds of hours of voluntarism. You will pay a personal price to earn your Wood Badge beads, and the price to be paid is different for each person.

Before and during the course, you'll prepare your Ticket, usually a personalized set of nine goals. Each goal has something to do with your personal growth or activities with or for Scouting. You are required to complete all nine sometime between six and 24 months following the completion of your practical coursework.

It's hard to explain how two little wooden beads can bring such joy and happiness to women and men who have earned them. I'm sure it has everything to do with pushing ourselves for personal growth and dedicating ourselves to the service of others. Such work brings real change to this world and to the lives of us who have paid the price for those two little beads!

Eleven Skills of Leadership     (To top)

Here is an outline of the eleven skills as taken from my notes...

•    1. Communicating
• Meaningful experiences worksheet
• Personal impressions of Patrol member
• Putting experiences into words
• Explaining our impressions to Patrol
•    2. Knowing and Using Resources of the Group
• Work together: tripod -- honey, ants, tree
• Development of idea
• 60 seconds with card, work out the task
• Identify and overcome communications roadblocks
• Exercise in thinking
• Blockings: leader-imparter, follower-implementer
• Response may have nothing to do with what's being said
• Be tuned to the feedback
• No communication if no feedback
•    3. Understanding the Characteristics and Needs of the Group
• Wheel sheet with Patrol leader
• Types of needs that motivate people
• Food, water, shelter
• Safety, security
• Belonging
• Recognition
• Self-fulfillment
• Confidence vs uncertainty of ability
•    4. Representing the Group
• PLs only- planning the banquet
• Conversation between PL and Patrol Guide
• Attitudes back and forth
• Interaction with PLC and Patrol
• Talking Patrol into doing what PLC wanted
• Being comfortable- the order in which people were PL
•    5. Setting the Example
• The most important, the most difficult
• (see all the ways in notes)
• Keep a positive attitude
• If you're not motivated, Fake It!
• "Good morning! It's a great day for Scouting fun and adventure!"
• Baden-Powell: you are always being snap-shotted by your boys.
• If you don't give your best effort, how can you expect the Scout to give his best?
•    6. Effective Teaching
• We set objectives
• Trainee is tested
• Trainee is taught
• Trainee practices
• We check
• A Scout that needs to know is motivated
•    7. Planning
• Consider the task
• Consider resources
• Consider alternatives
• Write final plan
• Put plan into action
• Evaluate
• All centered on reaching decisions
• KISMIF - keep it secret, make it fail
• PPPPP - prior planning prevents poor performance
• Barnum: "Where everyone thinks the same, No one thinks very much."
•    8. Evaluating
• Did the job get done?
• Was it done right?
• Was it done on time?
• Did everyone take part?
• Did they enjoy themselves?
• Do they want more?
•    9. Controlling the Group
• Bergamont the sheep dog and the sheep
• Observing
• Instructing
• Helping
• Inspecting
• Reacting
• Setting the example
• Sometimes it's best to stand back and watch.
•    10. Sharing Leadership
• Telling
• Persuading
• Delegating
• Consulting
• Joining
•    11. Counseling
• Stop, look, and listen
• Understand
• Summarize
• Facts
• Eagle preparation
• No advice!
• Keep them talking
• FLOATS: fun, listening, opportunity, attention, talking, skip advice

Reflections on Gilwell Field     (To top)

After returning home from the week-long instructional phase of Wood Badge training, I wrote a letter to my fellow Beaver Patrol participants about our training experience...

At that moment, I had a Vision, and a voice spoke to my mind... "Weeping Beaver". It was to be my Indian name, given to me by my Native American spirit guide. This was an answer to prayer -- a request that, somehow, I would receive a Native American name. I began to think about these words and why this name... The beaver is my personal totem, the four-legged brother I hold in highest honor. And it was my Wood Badge patrol name. Throughout this past week, I had cried for a vision many times, asking for help in determining the direction I should go with my life. And many tears of emotional release had flowed. Most nights that week I got only three or four hours of sleep (staying up to work on my Ticket), and the effect on me was as close to a Vision Quest as I have ever experienced.

This all climaxed on Gilwell Field, at the end of our final assembly. As we turned to leave, my spirit guide touched my mind with a single thought: Weeping Beaver... "W.B."... Wood Badge. Here was a gift, imbued with responsibility and a challenge to perpetually honor and remember this awesome experience.

Later, I learned that in the Lakota language, Weeping Beaver is Capa (the beaver) Ceya (to cry, weep).... Capa Ceya is spoken "chop'pah chay'yah".

Lessons in Wood Badge Ideals     (To top)

What value leadership and the character ethic? Here is a true story about parents and children. You must decide... What value leadership and the character ethic?

A portion of my Wood Badge Ticket was to start a Boy Scout troop and be its first scoutmaster. I used Wood Badge principles, the examples set by my parents and Scoutmaster George Clark, and success experiences with many other Scouters. Against all odds and delays, the troop started successfully. Ten months later, the parents voted me out as scoutmaster and installed their choice. It was their will, and I silently bowed out. No one else associated with this troop was Wood Badge trained, and no one else was empowered with my vision for the troop. The people who became the troop's leaders endorsed the personality ethic. They felt justified in usurping something that others had created and using for their own purposes.

Now, let's move to the present. It's been many years since I left the troop. The troop still functions and has regular activities and has the same parents as its leaders. I recently learned that two of the Scouts from the troop have become illigitimate fathers.

I know the parents of these boys. These are two-parent families where both adults have worked hard to create stability. They are couples who honor and love their families. This has to be a disappointment to all four adults--their sons' futures now compromised and restricted by acts of passion, and their lives made more difficult.

What caused these situations? Was it encouraged by the personality ethic that preaches immediate gratification and "If it feels good, do it!"? Was it encouraged by Scout leaders who march to the same banner?

If I had been allowed to continue with this troop, and to provide the leadership I felt appropriate, would these boys' lives have developed differently? Would I have prevented this? Would it have made any difference? Who knows? To me, this is a real-life example that distinguishes the differences between ethics of personality and character.

It is to me a wonderful justification for the Wood Badge program. By helping adults to become better leaders and more introspective people, Wood Badge strengthens our societal foundations. It helps young boys become (single) young men. It helps adults understand their role in the transformation.

Back to Gilwell     (To top)

Gilwell refers to Gilwell Park in Sewardstonebury, Epping Forest near Chingford, England -- outside London. This is the location of the first Wood Badge training course, held September 8-19, 1919, by Lord Robert Baden-Powell, founder of the Scouting movement. The graduates of this course were the first Wood Badgers (Gilwellians).

There's a catchy little tune that we learned during Wood Badge training. We were seated by patrols and arranged alphabetically by patrol names. I am, of course, a Beaver. A Staffer would begin the tune singing "I used to be a Beaver..." and we would take over from there. We Beavers would sing our stanza, and everyone would sing the refrain. Then the next patrol would sing theirs. Is it strange that -- after all these years -- I still identify myself as part of the Beaver Patrol? We learned after the course that we were part of an international patrol, a part of all Beaver Patrols that have ever taken Wood Badge. And every time I hear that catchy little tune, I'm taken back to that camp in Ohio where Wood Badge training was going on...