The Outdoor Code

As an American, I will do my best to--
Be clean in my outdoor manners,
Be careful with fire,
Be considerate in the outdoors, and be
conservation-minded.
___________________________________________

The version of the Outdoor Code above first appeared in 5th Edition of the Boy Scout Handbook in 1948 and is considered to be the first wilderness code of conduct embraced by the Boy Scouts of America. By the early 70s, each of the four principles acquired further codicils and was usually written as below:

___________________________________________

As an American, I will do my best to--
BE CLEAN IN MY OUTDOOR MANNERS--I will treat the outdoors as a heritage to be improved for our greater enjoyment. I will keep my trash and garbage out of America's waters, fields. woods. and roadways.
BE CAREFUL WITH FIRE--I will prevent wildfire. I will build my fire in a safe place and be sure it is out before I leave.
BE CONSIDERATE IN THE OUTDOORS--I will treat public and private property with respect. I will remember that use of the outdoors is a privilege I can lose by abuse.
BE CONSERVATION MINDED--I will learn how to practice good conservation of soil, waters, forests, minerals, grasslands, and wildlife; and I will urge others to do the same. I will use sportsmanlike methods in all my outdoor activities.
__________________________________________

The Outdoor Code formed the roots of a more comprehensive wilderness code developed in the late 1970s and 1980s by the National Parks Service, United States Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management called Leave No Trace (LNT) to teach their visitors how to have a minimal impact on the land. After a pilot program in the 1980s with BSA and the High Unitas Wilderness Area, BSA endorsed the teaching of LNT principles in all levels of its Scouting programs. Today, Leave No Trace principles are a part of Cub Scout, Boy Scout, Venture and Adult Leader training. Conservation project planning and Leave No Trace camping are an important part of the 21st century Wood Badge curriculum.

--WB Scribbler

Snapshot of John Morgenstern, Wood Badge Photographer

Our official WB NE 3-188 Photographer, John Morgenstern, recently donated a little now-half-century old booklet to our Boy Scout Museum, Ideas and Stories for the Scoutmaster's Minute, published by the Boy Scouts of America in 1956. I mention John by name, by the way, because he is one old-school photographer now on a mad rush to use up his remaining stock of 35 mm Kodachrome film before the local drugstore refuses to develop it anymore. If you have a Scouting event that needs photographing within a 50 mile radius of his home (provided he still has film), he's your man.

Actually, John is a seasoned Scouter with more than 40 years of Scouting as a Scoutmaster, Jamboree contingent leader and Wood Badge staffer whose first experience with a camera was with a Brownie Hawkeye at the age of 15 on a campout. He has photographed Scouts at Jamborees, Council Dinners, Wood Badge courses and other Scouting events but now the technology has passed him by. John says "I will quit taking pictures when the film...or when I (whichever is sooner) run out." The snapshot and SLR cameras have served him well over the years but he refuses to go digital.

John's booklet consists of 67 stories or short vignettes "gathered and tested" by the veteran Scouter Victor Reinholz, mostly based on the principals of the Scout Oath or the tenants of the Scout Law. Author Reinholz suggests that the reader, "... find an idea that suits your needs, but do not just read them to your boys. Take the idea and express it in your own words." Good advise, we think.

A little "kitchen chemistry" illustrates several of the stories; a glass of water, a few pebbles, and a piece of carbide show the efflorescent quality, the inside difference, of a Scout who shows The Stuff a Fellow's Made of. The use of potassium permanganate crystals to turn water black in A Scout Is Obedient to show what happens when you keep bad company might raise the collective eyebrows of parents and Homeland Security today. A Scout is Clean begins with "Have a lump of coal and as many of its by-products as you can, such as moth balls, perfume, phonograph records, bleach, plastics, nylon, lead pencil, aspirin, sulfa, saccharine, creosote" to equate a lump of dirty coal and its useful by-products with the refining process of living the Scout code. "When we have the courage to stand up for what is right, to be clean, only then do we begin to really amount to something," the Ol' Scoutmaster said.

Are these little stories dated, not relevant to Scouting today? Yes, of course, and no. True, they don't mention the trappings of today's technology like hi def television, cell phones and John's bugaboo, digital cameras, or deal with the myriad of society's ills that plague our youth today. But they do serve as an important reminder that the principles of the Scout Oath and Law remain true, that the qualities of character, fitness and citizenship development in young boys are as important today as they were to Scoutmasters like John Morgenstern 50 years ago.

Thanks, John, for The Scoutmaster's Minute and a snapshot of Scouting a half century ago! We can't wait another minute to see what develops in the next hundred years!

--WB Scribbler

Working Your Ticket

The phrase 'working your ticket' comes from a story attributed to Baden-Powell: Upon completion of a British soldier's service in India, he had to pay the cost of his ticket home. The most affordable way for a soldier to return was to engineer a progression of assignments that were successively closer to home.

Part of the transformative power of the Wood Badge experience is the effective use of metaphor and tradition to reach both heart and mind. In most Scout associations, "working your ticket" is the cumulation of Wood Badge training. Participants apply themselves and their new knowledge and skills to the completion of items designed to strengthen the individual's leadership and the home unit's organizational resilience in a project or "ticket". The ticket consists of specific goals that must be accomplished within a specified time, often 18 months due to the large amount of work involved. Effective tickets require much planning and are approved by the Wood Badge course staff before the course phase ends. Upon completion of the ticket, a participant is said to have earned his way back to Gilwell.

--Wood Badge: Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Attitude

"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact on life of attitude. Attitude, to me, is more important than the facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think, or say, or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company, a school, or a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past nor can we change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one thing we have, and that is our attitude – I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it."

-- Dr. Charles Swindoll

This popular commentary provides cause for reflection on why we do what we do, creating our own destiny by our own choices in how we react to our circumstances. Dr. Charles Swindoll has been quoted at Wood Badge training courses held at Henderson Scout Reservation at least since 1998; it was my privilege to recite it once again at our NE-III-188 Staff Dinner.

"The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude." --William James

--WB Scribbler

Origins of the Wood Badge Beads

The origin of the Wood Badge beads is a necklace once worn by Dinizulu, a Zulu chief. Baden-Powell was on a military campaign in Zululand, now part of South Africa. He pursued Dinizulu for some time but never managed to catch up with him. Baden-Powell is said to have found the necklace when he came to Dinizulu's deserted mountain stronghold. The necklace, 12 feet long, consisted of more than 1000 acacia wooden beads. Such necklaces were known as iziqu in Zulu.

Actually, it is doubtful that the beads ever belonged to Dinizulu. B-P's letters and diaries of the time record him removing beads from a dead African girl, with no mention of Dinizulu. Over time, the so-called "history" of the beads has changed to suit the intended audience. After the Second World War the origins of the 'Wood Badge' started to cause embarrassment. To have stolen a Zulu ruler's property was thought underhanded and unpleasant, as was the idea of the founder of a worldwide multiracial brotherhood fighting against Africans. So it became policy within the Movement to claim that Baden-Powell had been given the necklace by Dinizulu. 'This Change,' wrote the Deputy Chief Scout in 1959, 'was made first in The Gilwell Book and gradually in all our literature' Other "official" biographers of Baden-Powell, such as William Hillcourt, repeat uncritically B-P's 1919 story (in which Hillcourt only implies that the beads "must" have been Dinizulu's)

Much later, Baden-Powell looked for a distinctive award for the participants in the first Gilwell course. He constructed the first Wood Badge using two beads from Dinizulu's necklace, and threaded them onto a leather thong given to him by an elderly African in Mafeking.

--WB Scribbler

Closing Comments from the Course Director

Excerpts from Course Director Ed Dibble's Closing Address, Sunday, September 20, 2009:

"Congratulations participants of NE-III-188. The Wood Badge emblem is now complete, all the pieces are in place. The same is true of our Wood Badge course--the sessions are over, the challenges have been met, the hopes for meaningful experiences have been fulfilled. Take what you have learned here and make it your own. Carry this knowledge with you wherever you go. Use it to strengthen Scouting and to make this a better world."

So, now participants, work your ticket with all of your might, the rewards are yours to enjoy. Not beads of wood...but the Good Lord saying you've been "important in the life of a boy."

--WB Scribbler

Scoutmaster's Minute: The Nails in the Barn Door

The story is told of a young boy with a terrible temper. He lived on a farm and when mad, would throw rocks at the farm animals and do other terrible things. 'Strapping' him didn't reduce the boy's temper and his father decided that perhaps another lesson was in order.

He gave the boy a hammer and a bucket of nails and told him, "Whenever you lose your temper, I want you to drive a nail into the barn door." The first few days were somewhat noisy around the farm as the nails were being pounded in on a regular basis. As the dayspassed, however, the boy found it was easier to control his temper than to drive nails into the heavy door. Fewer and fewer nails were being driven, and the boy's father began to smile.

The day finally came when the boy said to his father, "I have not driven one nail in the door today." "Good," said the father. Each day that you can hold your temper and not get mad, I want you to remove one of the nails you've already driven. "Now, each day, you could hear the squeak of nails being withdrawn from the door. The process was reversed and as the days passed, more and more nails disappeared from the barn door and went back into the bucket. Eventually, the day came when the boy came to the father and said, "I have learned to control my temper so well that there are no more nails in the barn door, nor will I ever have to drive a nail there again." He added, "But father, the door is full of holes and it looks terrible."

The father smiled and told his son, "There is the lesson to be learned. Once you said something bad, did something bad, behaved in such a way that you felt the need to drive that nail, the deed was done. Even when you removed the nail, the scar was left. That's how it is with life. We say things, do things, and behave toward others in a way that wounds them. No matter how hard we try; no matter what we do, we have left a scar on that person forever. As you go through life, son, remember the lesson of the nails in the barn door."

--as told by Bill Babbage, NEIII-188

There is a wonderful quotation that applies to Bill's story. “Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits; they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.” Like the 'nails' story itself, these words have been attributed to several authors as well as ‘anonymous’ and ‘unknown.’ The author matters little; the message is what counts. It belongs on barn doors everywhere…from the farm to the schoolhouse, to the town hall, to the state house, to the doors of Congress, and, most assuredly, on the doors of every Scouter who aspires to be "important in the life of a boy."

--WB Scribbler

Great Qualities of Real Leaders

Standing for what you believe in, regardless of the odds against you, and pressure that tears at your resistance...MEANS COURAGE. Stopping at nothing, and doing what's in your heart, you know is right...MEANS DETERMINATION. Keeping a smile on your face, when inside you feel like dying, for the sake of supporting others...MEANS STRENGTH. Helping a friend in need, no matter the time and effort, to the best of your ability...MEANS LOYALTY. Doing more than is expected, to make another's life more bearable, without uttering a single complaint...MEANS COMPASSION.

THESE ARE ALL GREAT QUALITIES OF REAL LEADERS!

--WB Scribbler

Another Reason to Use Bearproof Containers While Camping

Wood Badgers, beware of rogue bears! Cartoon used by permission of Chad Carpenter, cartoonist.

Another African Proverb for a "Scouter's Own" Service

Sihlahla saziwa ngezithelo zaso.
A tree is known by its fruit.
--Zulu (South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland)

Once traveling in South Africa with a Zulu-speaking companion, I commented on the hugh cactus “trees” along side the dusty road. “They seem similar to the Prickly Pear Cactus of my own southwestern deserts; are they good to eat? ” Oh, yes, these are the good kind!,” she said, and then quoted me the proverb above. A “good” cactus tree is known by the sweet and juicy red fruit it produces when fully ripe. Some cactus fruits, though, are full of promise on the outside but once you get beyond the spiny skin, their flesh is pale, pulpy, decidedly unappealing. Some people are like that, she said, all “promise” on the outside but of little substance where it counts.

A person's success is shown by his deeds. A person can talk, and talk, and talk convincingly. A person may be an orator, or a bragger, and those listening to him may believe him for a while. But, if there are no deeds to go with the talking, he may as well have kept quiet. One's story will be validated only by one's deeds. Some people are good at talking, but what they have done or are doing is the real proof. This Zulu proverb emphasizes that a person is successful because of their actions, not just by their words.

My African friends can tell a bad prickly pear tree by the fruit the tree produces. You can try to tell people that this cactus tree is a good one all you want, but the fruit will tell the truth. So it is with us. You can claim you love the people all day long, but if you do not show it by being there for them, physically, emotionally, monetarily, or otherwise, then guess what? You do not. Your words mean nothing. Your deeds make all the difference!

--WB Scribbler

"You Can't Dream Your Way Out of Coalwood, Homer."

The original group of Rocket Boys consisted of six boys, all of whom had grown up together. All their fathers worked in and around the mines, as had their fathers and their grandfathers. The number was reduced to four in the movie October Sky for dramatic purposes. The boys all built forts, attended dances, went to church, and chased the same girls together. They had all been Boys Scouts in the same troop. Like everything else in town, the coal company probably sponsored the troop. Homer Hickam gave the commencement address at West Virginia University in the spring of 1999. He urged graduates to develop a passion in their lives. To illustrate the importance of perseverance, he recited a line by Miss Riley from the movie: “You can’t dream your way out of Coalwood, Homer.”

“It isn’t always the smartest person who gains their dreams,” he said. It’s the people who roll up their sleeves and are willing to sweat a little who ultimately succeed. It’s simply one of those axioms of life that must be recognized. Perseverance equals success.” Hickman noted that he could not have fulfilled his passion without planning. “Planning requires an organized mind. If you don’t have one, you’ve got to out and build yourself one."

--21st Century Wood Badge Syllabus, October Sky Trivia and Tidbits

Scoutmaster's Minute: World Scouting and Religion

Scouts from many nations meet, usually every four years, in a world jamboree. At these gatherings as many as 50,000 Scouts set up camp, demonstrate woodcraft skills, and work for better international understanding. The first world jamboree was held in England in 1920. National jamborees are held between the international events. These attract over 30,000 Scouts.

As of 9/31/08 there were more than 28 million Scouts, young people and adults, male and female, in 216 countries and territories.

· There are 155 countries with internationally recognized national Scout Organizations.
· There are 26 territories where Scouting exists as overseas branches of member Scout Organizations.
· There are 35 countries where Scouting exists but where there is no National Scout Organization that is yet a member of WOSM.
· There are 6 countries where Scouting does not exist. (Andorra, People's Republic of China, Cuba, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Lao People's Democratic Republic and Myanmar)

The top 10 countries in number of Scouts are:
Indonesia 8,909,435 88% Muslim
United States 6,239,435 78% Christian
India 2,138,015 81% Hindu
Philippines 1,956,131 92% Christian
Thailand 1,305,027 95% Buddhist
Bangladesh 908,435 83% Muslim
Pakistan 526,403 97% Muslim
United Kingdom 498,888 72% Christian
Republic of Korea 252,157 26% Christian/26% Buddhist
Japan 220,223 84% Buddhist

From this chart it can be easily seen that Scouting is a movement for all major religions. Worldwide the Scouting movement is 33% Christian, 20% Muslim, 13% Hindu, and 6% Buddhist. In the 10 countries above, Scouting is 40% Muslim, 29% Christian, 8% Hindu, and 6% Buddhist. So, it appears that Scouting reflects rather well the major religions of the world.

--WB Scribbler

African Proverb for "Scouter's Own" Service, Wood Badge NE III 188

Se ke oa bula molomo oa noha ho bona meno a eona
“Do not open the mouth of a snake to see its teeth.”
(Do not put yourself in a dangerous place.)

--Sesotho (Lesotho and South Africa) Proverb

In a dangerous world, we need God’s help—not only for protection from outside dangers, but also from our own wrong choices. While I was visiting an elementary school in the Pela-tsoeu Valley of Lesotho, a small black snake slithered out from behind the blackboard, immediately clearing the schoolhouse of screaming children. “Come outside, Ntate, for the snake will surely bite you!” insisted my friend, the headmaster. I hesitated a little, wanting to see if the snake had fangs like the venomous snakes I was familiar with in America. “Ntate, Ntate, come out”, cried the children from the courtyard, “do not put yourself in danger!”

This proverb has taken on a new, urgent meaning in the context of contemporary Africa. Lesotho has the third highest HIV rate in the world; the impact on individuals, families and the whole nation is being felt as adults become too sick to work, and children orphaned to AIDS are left to run households. Considering that more than half Lesotho’s population lives in remote areas in poverty, declining productivity as a result of HIV/AIDS remains a stark threat to the overall survival of the country. Many of my young Basotho friends have already seen the mouth of this dangerous “snake” firsthand.

--WB Scribbler

The First (American) Wood Badge Scoutmaster

As the Boy Scout program matured in the USA, it became apparent that Baden Powell’s Wood Badge program could provide valuable training to American Scoutmasters. To familiarize the United States with Wood Badge, John Skinner Wilson, Gilwell Park Camp Chief, came from England in 1936 to provide a Rover Scout Wood Badge Course for BSA at New Jersey's Mortimer L. Schiff Scout Reservation.

Bill Hillcourt was a member of the Burnham Patrol on that course. Four days later, Bill became the Staff Troop Leader and "Dog's (Senior Patrol Leader) for a second course qualifying him to receive his Beads in 1939, and be appointed BSA’s national Deputy Camp Chief. After a hiatus during World War II, Wood Badge Training was re-awakened to become a permanent part of the American Scouting scene. Hillcourt was one of four national Staffers--BSA's first Deputy Camp Chief, and by then, also the national Director of Scoutcraft. These four national Professional Staffers decided from the start that two BSA Wood Badge courses would be run in 1948: the first, at Schiff Scout Reservation with Scouters mostly from the Northeast, as a proving ground for this training, and the second in early December, at Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico, to fine-tune the program to become the standard of Wood Badge training in America. William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt was the Scoutmaster for both.

At Philmont, the course started tenuously with Professional Scouters pitted against Volunteer Scouters. SM Bill Hillcourt regrouped his Staff and broke an impasse. Patrol spirit then soared, the participants overcame the obstacles of high altitude, physical and mental fatigue, slow and difficult supply deliveries, poor communications with the Philmont Ranch base camp, and bad weather with rain, sleet, snow, and cold!

It was unquestionably a "mountaintop" experience but the tired Scouters returned home with new enthusiastic feelings for Scouting familiar to all Wood Badge participants today.
____________________________________________________________________________________

You can learn a lot more about William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt, Scoutmaster to the World at www.scouter.com.
--WB Scribbler

Wood Badge Song, Back to Gilwell, Happy Land

Back to Gilwell, happy land; I'm going to work my ticket
if I can.

I used to be a beaver, and a good old beaver too;
But now I've finished beavering, I don't know what to do.
I'm growing old and feeble and I can beaver no more;
So I'm going to work my ticket if I can.
Back To Gilwell, happy land; I'm going to work my ticket if I can.

Beavers, Bobwhites, Eagles, Foxes, Owls, Bears, Buffaloes, Antelopes, Ravens, Crows, Wolves, Hawks, Carsons, Bridgers, Clarks, Boones, and Staffers, too!)

Back To Gilwell, happy land; I'm going to work my ticket if I can.
He used to be a staffer, and a good old staffer too.
But now he's finished staffing, we know what we must do.
His staffing days are over, and he can staff no more.
So we're going to work his ticket if we can.
Back to Gilwell, number one; we're going to work his ticket 'till it's done.

The last verse is called the Burnham Patrol Verse. This verse is dedicated to the memory of Green Bar Bill Hillcourt. It was written and introduced at Wood Badge course NE-IV-64 held at the Hawk Mountain Scout Reservation in 1993 by the Course Scoutmaster, Earl P. Moyer, a Clark.

The cartoon is by Sal Sepulveda, Jr.

Working Your Ticket

The phrase 'working your ticket' comes from a story attributed to Baden-Powell: Upon completion of a British soldier's service in India, he had to pay the cost of his ticket home. The most affordable way for a soldier to return was to engineer a progression of assignments that were successively closer to home.

Part of the transformative power of the Wood Badge experience is the effective use of metaphor and tradition to reach both heart and mind. In most Scout associations, "working your ticket" is the cumulation of Wood Badge training. Participants apply themselves and their new knowledge and skills to the completion of items designed to strengthen the individual's leadership and the home unit's organizational resilience in a project or "ticket". The ticket consists of specific goals that must be accomplished within a specified time, often 18 months due to the large amount of work involved. Effective tickets require much planning and are approved by the Wood Badge course staff before the course phase ends. Upon completion of the ticket, a participant is said to have earned his way back to Gilwell.

--WB Scribbler

The Kudu Horn and Scouting

"The kudu is a species of antelope which ranges from South Africa to Ethiopia. A kudu bull may stand over five feet high and is colored from a reddish gray to almost blue. In addition to the beast's reputable sense of hearing, its keen sight, sense of smell, the great speed make it a difficult animal to capture."

Frederick Selous, in his classic work, A Hunter's Wanderings in Africa, 1881, described the kudu as "perhaps the handsomest antelope in the world."

Following a tradition stretching back more than 85 years, the troop is often called to assembly with the traditional sound of the kudu horn at many Wood Badge courses and Junior Leader Training Conferences .

It may seem strange that the horn of an African antelope, a type used by the Matabele as a war horn in the 19th century, should call Scouts and Scouters together in America and in many countries around the world. But it was just such a horn that roused the first Scouts ever called together. In the summer of 1907, Baden-Powell held his first experimental camp on Brownsea Island in Poole Harbor. Retrieved from his African trophies, the kudu horn entered Scout service.

William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt, one of Baden-Powell's best biographers, records the first use of the kudu horn this way:

"The day began at 6 a.m. when Baden-Powell roused the camp with the weird notes from the long, spiral horn of the African koodoo -- the war horn he had picked up on his expedition into the Somabula Forest during the 1896 Matabele Campaign."

"As a colonel in southern Africa during 1896, Baden-Powell commanded a flying column in the Matabele Campaign. It was on a raid down the Shangani River that he first heard the kudu horn. He had been puzzled by the speed with which alarms were spread amongst the Matabeles, until one day he realized that they were using a war horn of great carrying power. A code was used. As soon as the enemy was sighted, the alarm was sounded on the kudu -- taken up right and left -- and, thus, carried many miles in a very short space of time.

"When he assembled the first Scouts at Brownsea, Baden-Powell remembered the kudu horn he had brought back with him from the Matabele Wars, and used it too add a touch of adventure and fun to the camp.

"After Brownsea Island the kudu horn was returned to B-P's home and was silent for 12 years, while the movement it had announced was fashioned and spread throughout the world. Then, in 1919, Baden-Powell entrusted the horn to Gilwell Park for use in the first scoutmaster training courses."

Wood Badge NE-III-188 Staff Roster

Ed Dibble, Scoutmaster/Course Director, Otschodela Council-393; Ex. Board, Council Commissioner Harry (Bud) Dorr, Ass't Director, Revolutionary Trails Council, Council Training Chairman
Ralph Miller, Jr, Staff Advisor, Otschodela Council-393; Sr. District Executive
Tom Davis, Mentor, Otschodela Council-393; Ass't Council Commissioner
Randy Gibbon, Ass't Scoutmaster-Physical Arrangements, Otschodela Council-393; Ex. Board
Bill McDonald, Ass't Scoutmaster-Program, Twin Rivers Council Advisory Board
Nancy Langenegger, Ass't Scoutmaster-Troop Guides, Revolutionary Trails-; District Advancement Committee
Nadine Harrison, Sr. Patrol Leader, Otschodela Council-393; Unit Commissioner
Lois Love, Ass't Sr. Patrol Leader, Medical Officer, Five Rivers-375; Dist. Commissioner Venturers Patt Svoboda, Scribe, Otschodela Council-393; Ass't District Commissioner
Donald Tuttle, Ass't Scribe-Blog Scribbler, Otschodela Council-393 Vice President
Wayne Fink, Quartermaster, Otschodela Council-393; Scoutmaster
Donna Rowe, Ass't Quartermaster, Otschodelas Council-393; Member-At-Large
Wayne Christiansen, NYLT Instructor, Twin Rivers Council; Scoutmaster
Rick Bamberger, Troop Guide, Otschodela Council-393; Ex. Board
Steve DeHart, Troop Guide, Revolutionary Trails Council; Ass't Scoutmaster
Amy White, Troop Guide, Otschodela Council-393; Ass't Scoutmaster
William Babbage, Troop Guide, Twin Rivers Council; Ass't Scoutmaster
Jane Bamberger, Troop Guide, Otschodela Council-393; Committee Member

Paychecks of the Wood Badge Kind

So I'm standing in line at the local supermarket yesterday, and this elderly gentleman (well into his 80s at least) shuffles up behind me with a walker and a caregiver following him. Appears to be a stroke victim - his right side isn't working well, and when I say hello, he's got some severe aphasia issues. Quite frankly, it was a monument to his determination that he was even on his feet and not in a wheelchair.

He looks at my shirt with the Wood Badge logo on it, spends a few seconds focusing and thinking, and finally breaks out in a smile and slowly says "I know that... badge... It..means you... do....... important work... for the future.."

'Nuff said. (Valdis Kletnieks to Scouts-L, Aug. 12, 2009)

A Place Called Gilwell...

Every two years Scouters gather on a little patch of grass and sun, usually at a Scout camp somewhere, and embark on the adventure that is Wood Badge.

Another Wood Badge writer I admire has said "It is a place that connects us to the past, present and future of Scouting. For when you stand on Gilwell, you stand where hundreds have stood before and where tens of thousands stand across the world."

To those who choose to join us on this trail, you step onto the field as the future of the program. On day 6 when you leave, you will depart but never really be gone, for then your mark will be there, and your path and your legacy will be the blazes on the trail for others to follow.

You stand now on the edge of a pool of calm water where even the smallest stone can have an effect. This is the change you can make, the difference you can be.

But nothing will happen without taking action. So, take up the stone.

You've got to throw the stone to get the pool to ripple.

Join us for the adventure, the moment, the premiere Scouting event that is Wood Badge, at the place that will be forever yours to call, Gilwell.

BP's "Powellful" Moments

The World Scout Symbol

In Scouting's early years, critics accused Baden-Powell of trying to turn boys into soldiers, referring the Scout symbol as evidence of 'a spear head, the emblem of battle and bloodshed'.

The Founder quickly replied,"The crest is the fleur-de-lis', a lily, the emblem of peace and purity."

In truth, he had chosen the sign for the North Point as Scouting's emblem. A symbol 'universally shown on maps, charts, and compass cards', because "it points in the right direction (and upwards), turning neither to the right nor left, since these lead backwards again..."

Lady Baden-Powell later added, "It shows the true way to go."

B.-P. explained the origins of this sign: In the Middle Ages, mariner Flavio Gioja designed it to make the seaman's compass more reliable. In Italian, North was 'Tramontana'. Gioja used a capital 'T' to mark it, and in deference to King Charles of Naples, whose crest was the fleur-de-lis, combined the letter with that emblem.
To explain the meaning of the Scout emblem, B.-P. said,"The two stars on the two side arms stand for the two eyes of the Wolf Cub having been opened before he became a Scout...

The three points of the fleur-de-lis remind the Scout of the three points of the Scout Promise..."

In the World Scout emblem,the fleur-de-lis is surrounded by a circle of rope tied with a reef knot (square knot) to symbolize the strength and unity of the world brotherhood of Scouting: "Even as one cannot undo a reef knot (known as a square knot in the US), no matter how hard one pulls on it, so as it expands, the movement remains united."

The three tips of the fleur-de-lis represent the three main parts of the Scout promise: duty to God, obedience to the Scout Law, and service to others. The two five-point stars stand for truth and knowledge, and the 10 points on both stars remind us of the 10 points of the Scout law. The ring holding the emblem together represents the bond of brotherhood. The symbol is white on a royal purple background, colors B.P. chose because, in heraldry, white stands for purity and purple for leadership and helping others.

Since Scouting began, over 200 million Scouts have worn the Scout symbol, making it one of the more highly recognized emblems in the world.

--WB Scribbler