WOOD BADGE COURSE NE-III-188

On Listening and Observation from the Founder

2011-03-17T08:44:00.000-07:00

"If you make listening and observation your occupation you will gain much more than you can by talk.." --Lord Robert Baden-Powell

NE3-188 Ticket Completions

2011-03-16T18:12:00.000-07:00

To All:
We're in the final stretch for Ticket Completions for NE3-188. The following participants are still out- Steve Rothwein, Steve Gerhardt, Ed Kendall, Joe Czeckowski, Heath Dunham, Michael Reckweg, Jason Windsor, John Stewart, Bret Colby. If you're one of these participants Ticket Counselor or know of their status, please let me know and we can either prepare the Beading Recognition items or delete them from our final report. Thank you all for your help and I look forward to seeing you back at Gilwell in the future!

We're on a Journey to Excellence in 2011!

Trey Miller| Senior District Executive

BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
Otschodela Council

UNIT VISITATION TRACKING SYSTEM v.2 Training Video

2010-11-01T09:02:00.000-07:00

Good news!

Both a new, geared to Unit Commissioners, UVTS v.2 training video and the new Council Commissioners Manual have been posted to MyScouting for all to enjoy.

The video can be found at the bottom of the page at http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/Commissioners/UnitVisitTrackingSystem.aspx.

The manual is top left, first on the list of linked pages.

Let me know if you have trouble finding them.

Debbie Walther to Get Beaded

2010-06-12T17:30:00.000-07:00

Please join me for my

Wood Badge Beading Ceremony

Date: Monday, June 21, 2010

Location: Zion Lutheran Church

615 Main Street, Cobleskill

Time: 7:00 pm

Please join us as we celebrate a Court of Honor for Troop 5, Cobleskill. The Beading Ceremony will be at the end of the Court of Honor. Refreshments will be provided following the ceremony.

_________________________________________________________________

Directions from Albany: I-88 West to Cobleskill, exit 22. Turn right at bottom of off-ramp and take a left at the light onto Route 7 West. Zion Lutheran Church is located at 615 Main Street. It will be on the right and across from the Cobleskill Fire Department. The Court of Honor will be held in the basement, the entrance is on the left of the main staircase at ground level.

Directions from Oneonta: I-88 East to Cobleskill, exit 21. Turn right at top of off-ramp, and then turn right onto Route 7 East. Zion Lutheran Church is located at 615 Main Street. It will be on the left and across from the Cobleskill Fire Department. The Court of Honor will be held in the basement, the entrance is on the left of the main staircase at ground level.

Please call me, Debbie Walther, if you have any questions at

518-234-4152. I hope to see you there.

And Good Ol' Beavers, too!

2010-05-06T19:22:00.000-07:00

This 2008 handout photo courtesy of the Wood Buffalo National Park in Northern Alberta shows the world's biggest beaver dam. A Canadian ecologist has discovered the world's biggest beaver dam in a remote area of northern Alberta, using satellite imagery and Google Earth.

Lou Leopold, District Committee Member, Camarillo District, Ventura County Council, who usta be a Beaver himself in W4-57-99, steered us onto a Canadian news report about the "World's Biggest Beaver Dam," proving once again that even old and feeble Beavers can still Beaver some more... The Yahoo News reports that Canadian ecologist Jean Thie has discovered the world's largest beaver dam in a remote area of northern Alberta, an animal-made structure so large it is visible from space. He used satellite imagery and Google Earth software to locate the dam, which is about 2,800 feet long on the southern edge of Wood Buffalo National Park. Read more at:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100505/sc_afp/canadascienceenvironmentanimalbeaver.

Multi-generational (for the beavers, that is) in the making, this dam project has gotta be the world's longest-running Wood Badge ticket, too!

2010-03-10T06:23:00.000-08:00

NE-3-188 Application for Training Recognition

2010-02-26T13:39:00.000-08:00

Attention All NE-3-188 Badgers:

Below is a link for the Application for Training Recognition for all NE-3-188 participants working on their Tickets and for their counselors. When a participant has completed their ticket, please mail this form with the appropriate signatures to the Otschodela Council attn: Trey Miller at PO Box 1356, Oneonta, NY 13820 to schedule their ticket presentation. If you have questions about tickets or need help contact the following WB staffers: in Revolutionary Trails Council, please contact Bud Dorr for assistance in Twin Rivers Council, please contact Bill MacDonald, for assistance and in Otschodela Council, please contact Randy Gibbon. Thank you all for your help and have a great day!

Trey Miller...
Senior District Executive

BOY SCOUTS OF AMERICA
Otschodela Council, BSA
PO Box 1356 Oneonta, NY 13820
607-432-6491
ralph.miller@scouting.org

Frappings of Life Minute

2010-02-13T10:33:00.000-08:00

Required:	2 poles 1 rope for lashing a senior scout and a new scout
Preparation:	Tell the senior scout that you are going to ask him to use a square lashing to hold to poles together so he is prepared.
Script:	I've asked [Eagle] and [Tenderfoot] to help me out for a minute. [Eagle] would you please start a square lashing on these poles? Now, those wrappings look very good to me. They hold the poles close together and lay them out in the right shape. I'm sure they'll hold the poles together just fine. But, stop for a second [Eagle]. [Tenderfoot] would you please wiggle those poles and see how tight the lashing is? Hmmm, the sure have a lot of loose play in them - not as good as they could be. [Eagle], go ahead and add the frapping turns. I was satisfied with the wrapping turns, but this extra effort of adding the frapping is making a difference. The entire lashing is getting tighter, stronger, and more secure. [Tenderfoot], now give those poles a wiggle and see how they hold. Not bad! That extra effort made a much better result. Some of the newer scouts may have thought the lashing was done after the wrapping turns and it was 'good enough'. But, whether in lashing or in life, don't forget the Frapping - that little extra effort that makes what you do the best you can make it. -From the Boy Scout Trail website, http://www.boyscouttrail.com

Baden-Powell's Farewell Message to All Scouts

2010-02-13T10:29:00.000-08:00

Baden-Powell prepared a farewell message to all Scouts to be published after his death.

To All Scouts Everywhere---

Dear Scouts - if you have ever seen the play 'Peter Pan' you will remember how the pirate chief was always making his dying speech because he was afraid that possible, when the time came for him to die, he might not have time to get it off his chest. It is much the same with me, and so, although I am not at this moment dying, I shall be doing so one of these days and I want to send you a parting word of goodbye.

Remember, it is the last time you will ever hear from me, so think it over. I have had a most happy life and I want each one of you to have a happy life too.

I believe that God put us in this jolly world to be happy and enjoy life. Happiness does not come from being rich, nor merely being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy, so that you can be useful and so you can enjoy life when you are a man.

Nature study will show you how full of beautiful and wonderful things God has made the world for you to enjoy. Be contented with what you have got and make the best of it. Look on the bright side of things instead of the gloomy one.

But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn comes to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. 'Be Prepared' in this way, to live happy and to die happy - stick to your Scout Promise always - even after you have ceased to be a boy - and God help you to do it.

Your friend,
Baden-Powell

Joe Jansen's Campfire Essentials

2010-02-04T10:57:00.000-08:00

Since good campfire building skills training has seemingly all but sputtered out in the 21st Century Wood Badge program, the WB Scribbler feels compelled to blog this list of campfire essentials from Scout-Ler Joe Janson. In this centennial year of "New Scouting," we still believe knowing how to build campfires is basic to a good Scout program. Some basic fires are well known. It is less well known that there are essentially an unlimited number of kinds of fires which have a wide range of purposes.

Here's a link with good information to some campfires:

http://www.paddling.net/guidelines/showArticle.html?191

Covered are the teepee fire, the pyramid or platform fire, the parallel fire, the star or Indian fire, and the reflector fire.

Wikipedia has an excellent article on campfires here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campfire

Still other fires are described here:

http://www.campfiredude.com/campfire-lays.shtml

Image results for "campfire types" will be found here:

http://images.google.com/images?hl=en&oq=&q=campfire+types&um=1&ie=UTF-8&ei=qkpqS4yyEsrT8Qbx7aiwBw&sa=X&oi=image_result_group&ct=title&resnum=4&ved=0CBgQsAQwAw

Videos about building campfires appear here:

www.ehow.com and www.youtube.com

Further information on fire types is available here:

http://www.scoutscan.com/campfire.html#L4

A superb resource for fire types, prepared by our own Rick Seymour, is here:

http://www.inquiry.net/OUTDOOR/skills/b-p/wb/fires.htm

There is also great information on the burning qualities of various kinds of wood.

I will mention that coal, where available, is superb for adding to a wood fire for cooking, as coal has a higher heat content than wood. I start wood fires in my furnace every winter and add a small amount of coal to generate more heat.

A site with good illustrations of fire types is available here:

http://www.angelfire.com/ia3/camping/campfire.htm#typesoffires

Another site with information on fire types is here:

http://camping.lovetoknow.com/Types_of_Campfires

and here:

http://mysite.verizon.net/hjlichtman/Resources/ArtOfCampfire/types_of_campfires.htm

Good tips on Dutch Oven cooking are available here:

http://www.free-camping-recipes.com/dutch-oven-campfire-cooking.html

and here:

http://papadutch.home.comcast.net/~papadutch/dutch-oven-cooking-tips.htm

A very good resource to getting information on campfire building from Scouting related publications is available here:

http://meritbadge.org/wiki/index.php/Campfire_Types#Campfire_Types

This barely scratches the surface of what's available. Every Scout patrol should have a deck of cards which reviews the kinds of Scout campfires that will be useful in various situations for easy review. Cards prepared should be coated or laminated so they will hold up in the out of doors. Additionally, they may be put inside a plastic baggy to protect against moisture.

Every real Boy Scout troop will be expert in firebuilding. The links suggested above are a good start to developing this expertise. In addition there are many many other sites on the Internet that provide additional information. Enter "campfire types" in Google and you will see there are thousands of links returned.

--Joe Jansen

Oh, the magic of the campfire!

2010-02-02T10:22:00.000-08:00

"Oh, the magic of the campfire! No unkind feeling long withstands its glow. For men to meet at the same campfire is to come closer, to have better understanding of each other, and to lay the foundations of lasting friendship. "He and I camped together once!" is enough to explain all cordiality between the men most wide apart, and Woodcraft days are days of memories happy, bright and lifelong."

--Two Little Savages, Ernest Thompson Seton, Doubleday, 1903

The Wood Badge Root Beer Song

2010-01-29T14:27:00.000-08:00

Rick Seymour, a frequent poster on Scouts-L, recently passed along the words, with fair warning to young readers, to The Root Beer Song, as found in a new Wood Badge PowerPoint: Teaching the Edge. The PowerPoint is available at: http://www.nylt-ysdc.org/edge.ppt.

"The Root Beer Song"

Dough – The stuff that buys my root beer
Ray – The guy that pours my root beer
Me – The guy that drinks my root beer
Fa – a long way to the john
So – Let’s have another root beer
La – A lotta lotta root beer
Tea – No thanks, I’m having root beer
And that leaves me with no dough, dough, dough, dough (repeat)

"We've had CEOs on our board say they want to send their people to Wood Badge, our adult leader training program, because we use state-of-the-art techniques (Chief Scout Executive Robert Mazzuca).

The WB Scribbler adds this news item to the blogsite without comment, though he is sorely tempted.

Over the Hedge: Wood Badge Critters of Another Sort?

2009-12-22T19:29:00.000-08:00

Created by Michael Fry and T Lewis in 1995, Over the Hedge takes a skewed look at suburban living from the perspective of the animals that lived there first. The panel on October 24, 2009 has Verne, the best-buddy turtle, reminding RJ as he wakes up that he volunteered to help the Scouts, apparently as a unwitting ringtailed "critter-cam." Oo...Right...the Bling!... the WB Scribbler appreciates the opportunity to feature critters of another sort on the blogsite. Oh, Happy [Suburban] Land! Together Verne, RJ, Hammy Squirrel and a slew of other woodland creatures fight to save their wooded wonderland from the evils of encroaching suburbia but end up becoming distracted by wide-screen TVs, discarded fast food containers and the fun of wreaking havoc on the local homeowners' association. Sorta like a Wood Badge Patrol I know...

--WB Scribbler

Wood Smoke: New Wood Badge Patrol Medallions

2009-12-08T17:34:00.000-08:00

The WB Scribbler notes that now available from the Northwest Territorial Mint, Northwest Territorial Mint Wood Badge Patrol Medallions. Each medallion is minted in a bronze alloy with colorful enamel highlights. Wood Badge Patrol Medallions include Antelope, Bear, Beaver, Buffalo, Bobwhite, Eagle, Fox, and Owl. $11 each, they can be ordered directly from the company's website. Mike Maisen, copywriter for the Northwest Territorial Mint, spotted our unsolicited testimonial for their medallions and wrote to tell us about two other items they produce:
· Wood Badge Hiking Medallions: These feature the same Patrol Animals as the Medallions, but made to quickly and easily fix to a Scouter’s Hiking Staff.
· The BSA® 100 Years of Scouting Calendar Medal. This is a great collector’s piece that celebrates Scouting’s Big Birthday.

These are quality items make fine gifts that any Scouter or Wood Badge collector would love to receive. Give Mike a call; I'm sure he would love to take your order!

NWTMint.com ScoutingCoins.com

Toll-Free 800-344-6468 | Direct 253-833-7780 x 1044 | Fax 253-735-2210|Email mikem@nwtmint.com

Wood Smoke: Wood Badge Website Recommended

2009-11-30T09:51:00.000-08:00

The WB Scribbler recommends an excellent site on the history of Wood Badge, Colin "Johnny" Walker's Scouting Milestones. The Wood Badge section includes information on early Wood Badge regalia, including a picture of Baden-Powell's original beads. The origins of the beads, the woggle and scarf is covered, and detailed information on the first Training Course for Scoutmasters held at Gilwell Park in 1919 is included.

Go to: http://www.scoutingmilestones.btinternet.uk/woodbadge.htm. Go check it out, sign his guestbook and leave a comment or two.

The Weather Rock Exposed!

2009-11-28T13:27:00.000-08:00

The Weather Rock is a prop used to make fun of the intricate technology used to create modern weather forecasts, as well as the fact that their accuracy is still not perfect, or even good, in the eyes of some. Often there is a great deal of fanfare pertaining to the proliferation of the notion that the pilfering of the "weather rock" will result in the insurance of terrible consequences. The joke varies, but in all cases there is a large noticeable rock or similar object, often suspended from a tripod, particularly within scout camps or with related activities. A sign next to it states something like:

If rock is wet, it is raining.
If rock is green, it rained a while ago.
If rock is white, it is snowing.
If rock is shaking, there is an earthquake.
If rock is dry, the weather is fair.
If rock is swinging, it's windy.
If rock is warm, the sun is out.
If rock is not visible, it's dark outside.
If rock is under water, there is a flood.
If rock is gone, there is a tornado (Run!!)

The Wood Badge for the 21st Century curriculum makes good weather for the course a direct responsibility of the Weather Patrol. The Weather Patrol uses many different scientific instruments to interpret atmospheric conditions, such as insect chirps, the sweat off a duck's back, divining rods, weather socks from a nearby aerodrome, and of course, the weather rock described above. The Weather Patrol sometimes has to resort to importing canned sunshine from Florida in times of prolonged cold, wet and rainy weather. In times of extreme drought, on the other hand, case loads of Bernard's Dehydrated Water have to be reconstituted.

NASA Sent the Weather Rock to Mars

The WB Scribbler recently learned that NASA sent the weather rock, or at least a version of it, to Mars. The 2007 Phoenix Mars Lander included in its meteorological package a low-tech device called a Telltale. The Telltale is a passive wind indicator developed for the Mars lander and constructed at the Mars Simulation Laboratory at Aarhus University. Here's how NASA describes it: "The Telltale consists of a gallows arm that is mounted on the Meteorological Mast of the Lander. The active element of the instrument is an extremely lightweight Kapton tube hanging on woven Kevlar fiber. A mirror is mounted below the active part to enable better direction information. Images of the instrument will show the deflection of the Telltale due to the wind."

--WB Scribbler thanks Wiki, the Internet Encyclopedia and the NASA Mars Laboratory for the above information and pictures. We promise not to get them wet. The Scribbler wonders where the weather forecasting plaque is mounted on the Lander...

Wood Smoke: 1st Gilwell Park Newsletter #2

2009-11-27T10:14:00.000-08:00

The 1st Gilwell Park Group recently released its second newsletter, now called The Kudu Horn. Their first newsletter called for suggestions for naming the new Gilwell Park Group's newsletter (your WB Scribbler submitted "The Gilwell Park Scrib Sheet" or "The Gilwell Park Gazetteer") but they failed to win out over "The Kudu Horn" suggested by several Wood Badgers from other parts of the world. Whatever it's named, the newsletter is a great read for those interested in the "home" of worldwide Scouting.

American Wood Badgers who have earned their beads are automatically eligible for free membership in the British 1st Gilwell Park Group. All you have to do is go to their website, enter your particulars and the number of the course you completed, and you're signed up! "Kudos" for The Kudu Horn! (Sorry, the WB Scribbler couldn't help himself!) Go to:

http://1stgilwellpark.org.

--WB Scribbler

Cape Gilwell-On-The-Lea

2009-11-17T16:57:00.000-08:00

Official photos from WB Photographer John Morgenstern made available to the WB Scribbler provide a rare window into a little-understood Wood Badge frivolity—the Rocket Competition (Inter-patrol Activity). Before you scroll down, gentle readers, you are warned that some photographs below may not be suitable for way younger, more mature audiences. Despite appearances, no critters were harmed in any launches.

Dihydrogen oxide-fueled rocketry advanced rapidly after the Shuttle Columbia tragedy caused the loss of several of our finest citizen-astronauts. New research into 360-degree recycling of PVC plastics, fluid hydraulics and social implications of critter-labeled inter-group activities, has now brought us to the Wood Badge for the 21^st Century Rocket Competition. Borrowing out-gassing and o-ring bottle-cap technology from the soft-drink industry and applied adhesive research provided by the Duct Tape Institute of America, Wood Badge engineers and erstwhile rocketeers everywhere began rapidly ramping up to launch their streaming two-liters toward the stars.... Oh, Happy Land!

Your WB Scribbler was privileged to be invited to participate in NE-3-188’s launch at Gilwell Field but he almost aborted the mission when it was pointed out he wasn’t suited [up] for the job. Seventy-nine square yards of Tyvek and two rolls of duct tape later, he celebrated the complicated suiting up process by doing a bad imitation of a Smithfield ham-in-a-hardhat in front of Gilwell Hall.

WB Scribbler Suiting Up: "Let's see, one leg goes in this side, the other in the other side... dang, now the zipper's on the back side, ok, the hard hat goes on the top. 10,9...3,2,1. Let'er rip!"

Launch Inspectors Rick Bamberger and the WB Scribbler check the rear exit hole of Tyvek Minnie's (Owl Patrol ? ) rocket for any carbonated waxy buildup before her date with destiny on the launchpad. Two follicle-challenged Launch Controllers (Bud Dorr and Randy Gibbon), throwing caution to the wind, appear in the background without their sun-blocking headgear.

Tom Davis, Emeritus Course Director (NE-3-176), presents the Staffers entry for inspection. (Don't look now, Tom, but I think your substage launch balloon just fizzled!) Members of the Owl Patrol offer up one of their own as a kind of "good luck" token for a successful launch.

Radio telemetry failed to track the Staffers' rocket as it circled the backside of the moon. Upon reentry into the atmosphere, misguided Launch Controllers attempted splashdown in Crumhorn Lake. Unfortunately, their altitude protractor-thingy malfunctioned at the last minute and the rocket came to rest at a higher elevation west of the lake. The Wood Badge Launchtime Band struck up a rousing rendition of The Drifters' 1962 hit "Up On The Roof"...

When this old world starts getting me down,; And people are just too much for me to face—; I climb way up to the top of the stairs; And all my cares just drift right into space ...

WB-NASA Crack Observer Team Conferencing Before Lunch, er, Launch.

Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius

Jimmy Neutron, Boy Genius, of cable, cartoon and movie fame, made a brief personal appearance at Cape Gilwell's-on-the-Lea's Self-Congratulatory Staff Dinner, thanks to Gifted Awards Chairman Tom Davis. Before rocketing off on another adventure, the WB Scribbler was able to get a short interview with the carrot-topped character. Look for our exclusive interview coming to a favorite blog near you soon!

2009-11-16T09:42:00.000-08:00

Wood Badge Staff, NE-3-188

Gilwell Field, Henderson S.R., Sept. 20,2009
[left to right] Bill McDonald, Gloria Gibbon, Nancy Langenegger, Patti Dibble, Ralph [Trey] Miller, Jr., Ed Dibble [(seated], Harry [Bud] Dorr, Rick Bamberger, Tom Davis, Randy Gibbon, Nadine Harrison, Lois Love, Patt Svoboda [proud Scribe], Bill Babbage, Amy White, Steve DeHart, Wayne Christensen,
Jane Bamberger,
Donald Tuttle [WB Scribbler]

Wood Smoke: Wood Badge in the News

2009-11-12T08:25:00.000-08:00

The WB Scribbler notes that nearly 1,200 registered Wood Badgers will be receiving their first e-newsletter from 1st Gilwell Park this week. With the new website now ready, there is now one central place for Wood Badgers from all corners of the world to join together and be members of the largest Scout Group in the world - the 1st Gilwell Park Scout Group. The group is open to anyone who has earned Wood Badge beads, though I gotta warn you, every Wood Badger who joins is challanged to find another 10 and encourage them to register on the website. Go sign up and stop getting your Gilwell Park news secondhand from the WB Scribbler!

Check out their new site at: www.1stgilwellpark.org.

World Friendship Fund

2009-11-08T18:52:00.000-08:00

Through the World Friendship Fund, voluntary contributions of Scouts and leaders are transformed into cooperative projects that help Scouting associations in other countries to strengthen and extend their Scouting programs. The World Friendship Fund gives the youth members of the Boy Scouts of America an opportunity to help fellow Scouts who are in need of their support. It teaches Scouts that Scouting is global. Since the inception of the World Friendship Fund, American Scouts and leaders have voluntarily donated more than $1 million to these self-help activities.

The World Friendship Fund was developed during the closing days of World War II. At that time, there was a great need to rebuild Scouting in those nations that had been wracked by war and were just emerging from the shadows of totalitarianism.

Over the years, this fund has provided Scouts from around the world with Scouting literature, uniforms, summer camp equipment, computers, and other Scouting-related supplies.

Types of projects include providing adult leader training for Scout leaders to attend a Scouting seminar in Geneva, supporting community development projects in Uruguay and Bolivia, providing funds for eastern European nations to help reorganize Scouting, and funding the production of the Russian Scout handbook.

Collections for the World Friendship Fund can be organized during camporees, roundtable meetings, den and pack meetings, summer camping programs, blue and gold banquets, Wood Badge or other leader training, or any other Scout activity.

World Friendship Fund kits and brochures are available through the International Department of the BSA.

The Magic of the Campfire

2009-11-04T17:37:00.000-08:00

--Two Little Savages, Ernest Thompson Seton

On Perserverance

2009-11-04T17:23:00.000-08:00

It Couldn't Be Done

Somebody said that it couldn't be done,
But he with a chuckle replied,
That maybe it couldn't, but he would be one,
Who wouldn't say so till he tried.
So he buckled right in with a trace of a grin,
On his face; if he worried he hid it.
He started to sing, he tackled the thing,
That couldn't be done, and did it.

Somebody scoffed: "Oh you'll never do that;
At least, no one ever has done it."
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat,
And the first thing he knew, he'd begun it.
With the lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
Without any doubting or 'quiddit',
He started to sing as he tackled the thing,
That couldn't be done ... and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
There are thousands to prophesy failure;
There are thousands to point out to you, one by one,
The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start to sing as you tackle the thing,
That cannot be done and you'll do it.

--Edgar A. Guest

--borrowed from Terrie's Roundtable Resources, Gilwell Spirit Webring.
________________________________

Edgar Albert Guest, the People's Poet

Edgar Albert Guest (August 20, 1881, Biringham, England to August 5, 1959, Detroit, Michigan) (aka Eddie Guest) was a prolific American poet who was popular in the first half of the 20th Century and became known as the People’s Poet.

In 1891, Guest came with his family to the United States from England. After he began at the Detroit Free Press as a copy boy and then a reporter, his first poem appeared December 11, 1898. He became a naturalized citizen in 1902. For 40 years, Guest was widely read throughout North America, and his sentimental, optimistic poems were in the same vein as the light verse of Nick Kennedy, who wrote syndicated columns during the same decades.

From his first published work in the Detroit Free Press until his death in 1959, Guest penned some 11,000 poems which were syndicated in some 300 newspapers and collected in more than 20 books, including A Heap o' Livin' (1916) and Just Folks (1917). Guest was made Poet Laureate of Michigan, the only poet to have been awarded the title.

--more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Guest; the WB Scribbler says a book of Guest's poems is the perfect tonic for a cold, gray winter day; his poetry lets you savor a really bad mood in front of a warm fire and come out smilin'!

--WB Scribbler

________________________________

Original Wood Badge Bead on Ebay?

2009-11-01T13:38:00.000-08:00

Patcheller Bruce McCrea spotted a four bead set closing today (Sunday, November 1, 2009) for over $1000. Go to http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=110448720844, scroll down to the large photo and look at the bead that is much smaller than the other three. Bruce says "This could very well be an original Wood Badge bead. The final price certainly reflects that possibility."

Color the WB Scribbler green with envy...

Robert Stephenson Smyth Baden-Powell

2009-10-30T15:34:00.000-07:00

Birth: Feb. 22, 1857
Death: Jan. 8, 1941
Burial: St. Peter's Churchyard
Nyeri, Kenya, Africa

British Army General, Boy Scouts Movement Founder. Born in England, he and his brothers would explore the English countryside, pretending to be sailors, explorers or soldiers. He attended the Charterhouse School, and joined the British Army in 1876, serving in India, Afghanistan,and South Africa (1899 to 1902), he was a Colonel and senior commander of the garrison at Mafeking, when it came under siege for seven months by the Boers. His spirited and successful defense of Mafeking, in spite of disease, famine, and enemy attacks, made him a hero in the eyes of the press and the British public. He was later promoted to Lieutenant General and made Inspector General of Cavalry, and was awarded the title of Lord of Gilwell.

His experiences at Mafeking, in which young teenage boys were made into a "cadet corps" to carry messages, often under fire, thus relieving soldiers to serve at the front lines, convinced him of the worth of young boys in their patriotism and valor. Upon returning to England, he saw that British boys needed more physical training and outdoor experience than they were receiving in the then-existing youth programs, and in 1907, he started the Boy Scout movement. With the help of his sister, Agnes Baden-Powell, he organized the Girl Guides (in many countries, the Girl Scouts) movement two years later. Scouting quickly spread to other nations, and Baden-Powell quickly became influential in setting up scouting movements across the globe, while organizing the International Scouting Council.

He would retire from the Army in 1910, to devote himself to being the "Chief Scout of the World." His original book, "Scouting for Boys," is a combination of his philosophy of life and of his experiences in the Army, and contains many tips about living outdoors that he learned from native tribesmen. Although his book is heavily tailored on his wartime African experiences, Baden-Powell organized the Scouts to be scouts in peacetime, to learn those life skills that would enable teenagers to grow into worthwhile men and women and a credit to their society, no matter what their occupation would become. A bachelor most of his adult life, on October 30, 1912 he married Olave Soames, who shared his work in the Scouting movement, and they were active in World War I; they would have three children. In 1938, he retired to Nyeri, Kenya, where he died in 1941.

His decorations include the Order of Merit, Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Michael and St.George, Knight Commander of the Victorian Order, Knight Commander of the Bath, the title Lord Baden-Powell of Gilwell, and numerous honorary doctorate degrees and foreign awards.
__________________________________

--from a biography by Kit and Morgan Benson at Find-A-Grave Memorial #1271, http://www.findagrave.com.
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The Dean and Chapter of Westminster Abbey offered a place for Baden-Powell, between the graves of the Unknown Warrior and David Livingstone. After careful consideration, the family declined this great honour as not conforming to B-P's expressed wishes. He was buried in the Africa he loved with full military honors accorded to his rank of Lieutenant-General and with a guard of Boy Scouts European, African and Asian. His grave in the tiny cemetery of Nyeri, Kenya, is marked by a simple stone that carries his name and the Boy Scout trail sign for the end of the trail "I have gone home."
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Your WB Scribbler had the privilege of visiting B-P's grave in Nyeri, Kenya in 2005 at the invitation of WOSA officials, after attending a Southern Zone Africa Conference in Masero, Lesotho. It is humbling to walk in the small churchyard there and know you are standing at the grave of the founder of the worldwide Scouting movement, an experience I will never forget. Below is a picture I took of B-P's grave. (Sorry, it's a little fuzzy because it's hard to focus when you are all chocked up...)

--WB Scribbler

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Blog Value Added Saturday, Nov 1, 2009: From Scouts-L member Lorie McGraw comes this graphic of B-P's "gone home" symbol. Click on the address below and download it to your hard drive.
http://www.troop91bsa.org/images/gonehome.gif

America's "other illustrator" brought style, drama, humor to life

2009-10-29T15:40:00.000-07:00

Not exactly held in reverence like Scouting's Norman Rockwell, another artist also became famous for his use of Boy Scouts in his work. Before Norman Rockwell became famous, there was J. C. Leyendecker. Maybe you need to be of a certain age for that statement to ring any bells. But regardless of your personal time frame, you’re likely to be familiar with the warm, wonderful, dramatic or humorous images that graced the covers of the Saturday Evening Post in the first half of the 20^th century.

Many of those images were the work of beloved illustrator Norman Rockwell. However, Leyendecker was there first, and actually there more often. Between 1898 and 1918, he created 48 cover images for Collier’s magazine, and near the turn of the century he produced the first of 322 covers for the Saturday Evening Post, a number that tops Rockwell’s total.

Leyendecker also created elegant advertisements for men’s clothing at a time when dressing for dinner involved far more attention to fashion than today’s “no shirt, no shoes, no service” signs require. His images of cherubic children enjoying Kelloggs’ Corn Flakes were favorites in many American households as well. The popularity of Leyendecker’s illustrations has been attributed to his ability to convey the essence of everyday life through paintings that incorporated high drama, romance and humor.

--contributed by fellow blogger Keith Claussen, October 29, 2009

Impeesa--The Wolf That Never Sleeps

2009-10-24T22:04:00.000-07:00

Baden-Powell was once called M'hlala panzi by the Zulus - he who lies down (to shoot). He earned this nickname by developing a peculiar way of firing a rifle from between his legs while lying on his back.

During the Ashanti expedition he was called Katankye - the man with the big hat.

But his most famous African nickname came from the Matabele: Impeesa - the wolf. It was also translated as `the beast that does not sleep, but walks about at night'. The nickname became famous at Mafeking, where it was translated into English as `The wolf that never sleeps' - a tribute to his reputation as a watchful military scout. At Mafeking, a cannon built during the siege was called `The Wolf' in his honor.

The origin of `Impeesa' is a strange story, however. There are no wolves in Africa, and `Impeesa' means a hyena. It is possible that Baden-Powell misunderstood the word, because to be called a hyena is not a compliment.

But whatever the origins, the nickname of Impeesa, the Wolf, became a great tradition in Scouting, and Baden-Powell used it with pride.

Today, BSA's NYLT youth leadership training is called "Impeesa," in honor of Baden-Powell.

--WB Scribbler

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More Impeesa: The Baden-Powell comic book

The Italian Scout Association CNGEI, in collaboration with the publishing house Lizard of Rome, published a comic book in 2007 based on the life of Robert Baden Powell, the founder of Scouting. The series, titled "Impeesa", has been realised by Ivo Milazzo, one of the greatest comic strip authors of the world. And the storyboard has been written by Paolo Fizzarotti, the editor of the CNGEI magazine "Adulti nello Scautismo" and "Scautismo".

"Impeesa" is not just a biography of Baden-Powell transferred into comics, but an adventures book in which some of the outstanding episodes of B-P's life, before he founded Scouting one hundred years ago, are narrated. CNGEI has intentionally released it in line with the celebration of the centenary of Scouting and the 150th anniversary of B-P's birth.

The international dimension of Scouting has enabled the book to be published already in four languages: Italian, English, French and Spanish and should there be enough requests, the publisher will also translate the book into other languages.

The series is sold all over the world through Scout stores, bookshops and on the Internet.

Order the book on ScoutStore.com

For more information, please contact the publisher on lizarded@tin.it or visit http://www.lizardedizioni.com/ (Italian only).

A Wood Badge Prayer

2009-10-23T20:23:00.000-07:00

Great Spirit, thank you for guiding me to Gilwell.
Thank you for my Animal Spirit Guide [coach counselor]
and for those who share it with me.
Great Spirit, I am Afraid.
As I have climbed your mountain, I have learned Wisdom.
But as I look at my Guides, I ask myself:
Can I ever have the Sincerity of my Troop Guide?
Can I ever have the Ageless Wisdom of the Instructor?
Can I ever have the Fatherly Love of the Scoutmaster?
How can I ever mean as much to others as they mean to me.
As I look down the mountain at those who seek my guidance,
I feel unworthy.
When I look up to the clouds and see the Spirit in the Quartermaster,
I wonder if I can Care so much for so long.
Great Spirit, I will not let my fear cause me to fail.
But I know I will need help.
Grant my heart wings, that I may soar with the Songmaster.
Grant me Charity, that I may wear the caring smile
of the Assistant Scoutmaster.
Grant me Strength, that I may show the confident Leadership
of the Senior Patrol Leader.
Grant me these, Great Spirit, and I will carry this Learning to every
young man who looks up his mountain and to me his Guide.
I will share your Wisdom all of my days,
until I join my Wood Badge Guides again
and we walk with Impessa through the Lea of Gilwell.

--Daniel Flynn, Wood Badge Course C-35-98.
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The WB Scribbler sez: This prayer is a little too treaclely for the Scribbler's tastes, and he can't remember when he last considered the Fatherly Love of his boyhood Scoutmaster...still, Daniel Flynn's efforts are not unappreciated, if only he would share some of his vast Wisdom and explain the last line! I mean, what does "walk with Impessa through the Lea of Gilwell" mean anyway?

A little Googleing yesterday found this: "lea" is a tract of land, especially a grassland or meadow; "Impessa" (here misspelled, the correct spelling is "Impeesa") is Baden-Powell's African nickname for "wolf that never sleeps." So, "walk with Impessa through the Lea of Gilwell" means "walk with Baden-Powell through the meadow of Gilwell." Pretty clever, Daniel Flynn, also pretty obscure and treaclely...

--WB Scribbler

A Short Pome from the WB Scribbler:

2009-10-18T20:43:00.000-07:00

Roses are red
Prunes are purple, kinda
Wood Badgers are as real as
Maple Syruple
Especially if they are not made in
Chin-da.

Discover Your Roots at Gilwell Park

2009-10-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

The first Gilwell Park website is up and running now, so sign up and visit the home of Scouting. The site is for members of the first Gilwell Park Scout Group--the largest Scout group in the world. If you hold the Wood Badge, you are already a member and can sign up now at 1stgilwellpark.org. Register your details at http://1stgilwellpark.org/resources/registration.asp and find out about the history of Gilwell and what Gilwell can offer today. Once you have registered, click on the link to update your profile and share your name and Wood Badge details with others. You will be able to search for other members in the User Directory by name, country, Wood Badge course number, and the year you gained your Wood Badge. Organizers are also looking to add webcam views of Gilwell Park in the next few months, and they would like your opinion, too. Go to http://1stgilwellpark.org/media/GilwellAction.asp and let them know your three top choices. They will let you know when the webcams are in place. They are happy to receive feedback, so email them at 1stgilwellpark@scout.org.uk. If you ever find yourself visiting the UK, add Gilwell Park to your list of places to visit. There is a section dedicated to booking your tour of the site, plus directions and maps on how to get to Gilwell.

The WB Scribbler would like to remind anyone reading this blog that he is an experienced UK traveler, having once matriculated (1974) at the University of London, and later, served on the World Jamboree International Service Team (2007). He offers his services as a tour guide "back to Gilwell," postage-paid, of course! Oh, Happy Land!

--WB Scribbler

Bud's Favoite Rockwell: "The Scoutmaster"

2009-10-15T09:19:00.000-07:00

Bud, this one's for you!

It is no secret that Wood Badge Backup Course Director Harry (Bud) Dorr's favorite Norman Rockwell painting is "The Scoutmaster," an iconic Scouting figure he sometimes equates to Michelangelo's statue of David. (Personally, the WB Scribbler can't see the comparison because he gets thrown off by the fact that David, posed in all his marble family-jeweled glory, is wearing no clothes. The Scribbler's tastes in Scoutmaster heros tend to run more toward the fully-accoutered Fred McMurry in the movie "Follow Me Boys.")

Looking for inspiration for a painting about the all important adult Scoutmaster, Rockwell attended the Third National Scout Jamboree in 1953. The result was this classic work, introduced as a Brown & Biglelow calendar selection in 1956, of a Scoutmaster tending the fire as his charges slept peacefully in their tents. The starry blue of the night sky and the dry rocky soil suggest a remote and secluded location but was more likely a sandy patch of landscape at the National Jamboree.

Here's how one of Rockwell's biographers describes the scene:

"The man, muscular and taunt, stands uniformed but he is not militaristic, a policeman of a hunter; he carries no weapon on his person or badge of office. No threats are presented, yet the man stands watch nonetheless, his modestly ringed hand resting on his hip, his stick raking the coals as a gentle wisp of smoke flutters in the nighttime air. The man's face is directed off-canvas, we know not at what, yet his expression reveals no tension; his gaze seems more inward than outward. By the different colored hair of the boys, we can see that they are not his, yet he watches over them as if they were his own.

The small tripod stands over the fire, lashed together with line whose unravelled ends hang out; these are the knots seemingly tied by the hands of a novice. An aluminum pot hangs off the tripod, a coffee pot rests nearby and rocks and small stumps ring the faint fire; hunger or want is of no concern in this scene. Instead, Rockwell presents an image of quiet calm; of a man standing silently as the entrusted leader of future men."

The Scribbler does admire Rockwell's painting for its technical mastery. The pose of the man looks contemplative, the drape of the uniform and gentle billowing of the neckerchief reveals an artist who fully understands how body, cloth, and atmosphere interact with one another. We also admire this painting for its thematic presentation; even if we knew nothing about the mission and history of the Boy Scouts, we can immediately see that Rockwell is depicting a man dedicated to the boys in his care and that this man is the product of specific values and achievements.

--WB Scribbler (Thanks again, Bud, for the moniker!)
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"The Scoutmaster" is Everywhere

Since 1956, Norman Rockwell's "The Scoutmaster" has appeared on the cover of the 5th Edition of the Scoutmaster's Handbook (1959-1972) (curiously minus the background stars), on Boys' Life covers, and the subject of numerous prints, posters and collectors' plates, ceramic figurines and porcelain statues, camporee patches, and even has appeared on a Liberian stamp. Scoutstuff.org sells a "The Scoutmaster"-themed woven tapestry afghan for $64.99 ; the Honor Bookstore sells a framed giclee print online for $99.95 but the original commemorative print from the Brown & Bigelow edition distributed by BSA in the 1960s and 1970s is still available for around $40.00. The original painting done for the 1956 Brown & Bigelow calendar and owned by the Boy Scouts of America hangs in the National Scout Museum in Irving, Texas.

--WB Scribbler
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Another "The Scoutmaster" Connection

In 2005, the Seattle Mariners' head honcho Howard Lincoln related a story connected to the famous Rockwell painting. Lincoln took time off during that season's spring training to catch up with BSA's National Endowment Art Tour at Chateau Ste. Michelle--where some Norman Rockwell paintings were on display. The most famous of the paintings was "The Scoutmaster," and Lincoln had a personal connection to it. Little Howard's 12-year-old face could be seen clearly in the painting, which has been viewed by millions of people over the years, mostly at the National Scout Museum when it is not on tour.

Rewind back to 1954 at a Boy Scout Jamboree in Irvine, California. Fifty-thousand Scouts were packed over every inch of land. "My scoutmaster Del Anderson told me I was going to be in a Boy Scout calendar along with five other Scouts. We went out and pitched a tent and built a fire in broad daylight. Norman Rockwell was there. He explained the scene was nighttime, a scoutmaster standing by the tent, and we would all be asleep. It was 90 degrees in the shade in the middle of the day." Rockwell took photographs that day, and painting from the pictures, turned day into night, complete with stars.

A year later Lincoln got a letter and $25 from the painter, asking him to sign a release. The calendar came out in 1956. Lincoln, who later became an Eagle Scout and more, is positioned to the immediate right of the campfire. He faced forward because he knew that his mother would not be happy unless his face could be seen.

--from a Puget Sound Business Journal article March 4, 2005.

--WB Scribbler again

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Boy Scouts and the Environment

2009-10-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

In the early 1900s, as the conservation movement grew, two Americans started separate organizations for boys that focused on nature and the environment. Ernest Thompson Seton was the official naturalist for the Canadian province of Manitoba. By 1902, he had moved to Connecticut, and founded a boys' club called Woodcraft Indians to preserve the wilderness knowledge of Native Americans. As a foremost naturalist of his time, Seton spoke before the U.S. congress in 1904 in support of legislation to protect migratory birds.

Daniel Carter Beard was a surveyor and engineer in Cincinnati, Ohio. He moved to New York, where he became an author, commercial artist, and illustrator. Beard wrote a book titled The American Boy's Handy Book, which later became part of the first Boy Scout Handbook published in 1911. In 1905, he founded a boys' club called Sons of Daniel Boone to teach boys about nature, conservation, and outdoorsmanship.

On February 8, 1910 Seton and Beard merged their separate boys' clubs into the Boy Scouts of America. Chicago publisher William D. Boyce founded this new organization.

From its beginnings, the Boy Scouts of America had a strong foundation of woodcraft, nature study, and conservation. Many activities in Scouting come from activities of Native Americans. Many of the principles that Scouts uphold come from the conservation ethics of Seton and Beard. The BSA has taught more than 45 million young environmentalists throughout its history. Currently, with more than 1.5 million active members, the BSA continues to train the youth of America in principles of conservation and environmental science.

Source: Environmental Science Merit Badge pamphlet, #33363A, 1998 edition and the Environmental Science Camp Workbook, 2009 edition, by Donald Tuttle. Also: Wood Badge NE-3-188 Conservation Project Planning Handout #2.

--WB Scribbler

The Buckets:"We Got Cars in Cub Scouts Today!"

2009-10-13T06:04:00.000-07:00

Greg Cravens, cartoonist, offers up a frenetically funny daily snapshot of modern family that often includes a tongue-in-cheek reference to BSA's Cub Scout program. Examining everyday chaos with a healthy sense of humor, Greg often strikes a chord with parents who juggle the many demands and the mild insanity of raising a family today. 'The Buckets' is one of the WB Scribbler's favorites!

Used by permission of the cartoonist and distributor UFS.

Scoutmaster's Minute: Flea Training

2009-10-09T14:51:00.000-07:00

Flea trainers have observed a predicable and strange habit of fleas while training them. Fleas are trained by putting them in a cardboard box with a top on it. The fleas will jump up and hit the top of the box over and over and over again. As you watch them jump and hit the lid, something very interesting becomes obvious. The fleas continue to jump, but they are no longer jumping high enough to hit the top.

When you take off the lid, the fleas continue to jump, but they will not jump out of the box. They won't jump out because they can't jump out. Why? They have conditioned themselves to jump just so high.

Many times, people do the same thing. They restrict themselves and never reach their potential. Just like the fleas, they fail to jump higher, thinking they are doing all they can do.

Far too many people exist in a world of 'what is' rather than giving thought or applying their energies to 'what can be.'

Each week you stand at your meeting and promise to do your best. That means that you should not take someone else's limits as your own, but be ready to jump out of the box when the opportunity presents itself.

From: http://www.scoutscan.com/sm_minutes/flea.html
Adapted from a column by Harvey Mackay and posted by Alan R. Houser (troop24@emf.net) on SCOUTS-L - Dec.24/00

--WB Scribbler

Another Scoutmaster's Minute on Failure

2009-10-09T12:50:00.000-07:00

"You’ve failed many times, although you might not remember. You fell down the first time you tried to walk. You almost drowned the first time you tried to swim, didn’t you? Did you hit the ball the first time you swung a bat? Heavy hitters, the ones who hit the most home runs, also strike out a lot. R. H. Macy failed seven times before his store in New York caught on. English novelist John Creasey received more than 700 rejection slips before he published over 600 books. Babe Ruth struck out 1,330 times, but he also hit 714 home runs."

--WB Scribbler

Scoutmaster's Minute Defined

2009-10-09T12:20:00.000-07:00

The Scoutmaster’s Minute is brief in duration but one of the most important parts of a troop meeting. Occurring at the closing of the meeting, it is the thought that will go home with the boys. It is the time to teach one of the ideals of Scouting. The Scoutmaster’s Minute is the special time when you have the attention of all the boys in the troop, and it is your opportunity to convey a special message of inspiration. Many Scoutmaster’s Minutes are parables, short stories about everyday people and occurrences that illustrate a moral attitude or religious principle. Boys are “visual” thinkers; they relate well to stories that are accompanied by props. Using a postage stamp as a prop, you can suggest that a stamp sticks to its job to get a letter to its destination. The moral is that Scouts should be as determined as a postage stamp to stick to a task until it is completed. The WB Scribbler will include several of his favorite Scoutmaster’s Minutes on this blog for you to use in inspiring Scouts entrusted in your care, but don’t hesitate begin a collection of your own inspirational messages, too.

--WB Scribbler (inspired, not expired, not yet!)

Scoutmaster's Minute: Failure Teaches Success

2009-10-09T11:58:00.000-07:00

"Failure is not a comfortable feeling and more often than not we have it in our lives. But if we can use it to measure what it takes to be successful then failing becomes a tool we can learn from. If we take the time to look at our failures it will teach us what we have to do to be successful. It forces us to self analyze who am I and what I did. Winning is an easy pill to take. Often swallowed rapidly, cherished and we move on. We must use failure as a teaching tool. If we don't take the time to learn from our failures then we have really failed at becoming successful and have gained nothing by failing. So failing teaches us how to be successful."

--website of Troop 174, Elwood, NY (East Northport, NY), Suffolk Co. Council, Rick Martino, SM.

Public Service Announcement: 100 Years of Scouting!

2009-10-05T08:32:00.000-07:00

100 Years of Scouting!
Category:	Boy Scouts of America
Description:	Celebrating 100 Years The Boy Scouts of America's 100th anniversary represents much more than a date on the calendar. It represents an important milestone around which to reintroduce Scouting to America – to celebrate our rich heritage and to reinforce the important role Scouting will play in shaping our country's future. Scouting is as vital and relevant today as it was when our journey began. Help us celebrate! If you are—or were—a Scout, family member of a Scout, BSA volunteer, or just someone who Scouting has positively impacted, you’re invited. There are a number of national opportunities for you to take part in our once-in-a-lifetime celebration.

Contact Info

Website:	http://www.scouting.org/100years/
Office:	BSA National Council
Location:	1325 W. Walnut Hill Lane Irving, TX

African Proverb for "Scouter's Own" Service

2009-10-03T18:35:00.000-07:00

Lepotla-potla le ja poli; lesisitheho le ja khomo.
The “hurry-hurry” person eats goat; the one who takes his time (or hesitates) eats beef.
--Sesotho (Lesotho and South Africa) Proverb

Angora goats are raised throughout the mountains of Lesotho in Southern Africa. Their coats of mohair are a major source of the exquisite wool used in the weaving of Basotho blankets. Sometimes, as a sort of stand-in for cattle, the Basotho do eat the goats. The cow is the animal that the Basotho people prize, love and respect. Cattle are the animals slaughtered on special occasions, the focus of bridal negotiations between families and the chief measure of wealth. The Basotho even have a saying: “Khomo ke banka ea Mosotho” (“A cow is the bank of a Sotho person”).

Thus the goat symbolizes something that is merely economic and rather superficial from a Sotho perspective. The cow symbolizes all that is deeply meaningful about life and family. Goat meat may feed the body, but beef feeds the soul. This proverb (often only the first half is quoted and the rest is taken for granted) is an excellent warning for time-conscious Westerners in time-oblivious Africa. In Lesotho, rift with AIDS, subsistence poverty and early death, life is too short to spend hurrying. Only the person who takes his or her time in life will ever “get to eat the beef,” that is, be deeply satisfied by the truly meaningful things in life. Perhaps we in the West should learn this lesson.

--WB Scribbler

What is Wood Badge?

2009-10-03T17:55:00.000-07:00

Wood Badge is a Scouting leadership program and the related award for adult leaders in the programs of Scout associations around the world. Wood Badge courses aim to make Scouters better leaders by teaching advanced leadership skills, and by creating a bond and commitment to the Scout movement. Courses generally have a combined classroom and practical outdoor-based phase followed by a Wood Badge ticket, also known as the project phase. By "working the ticket", participants put their newly gained experience into practice to attain ticket goals aiding the Scouting movement. The first Wood Badge training was organized by Francis "Skipper" Gidney and lectured at by Robert Baden-Powelll and others at Gilwell Park (United Kingdom) in September 1919. Wood Badge training has since spread across the world with international variations.

On completion of the course, participants are awarded the Wood Badge beads to recognize significant achievement in leadership and direct service to young people. The pair of small wooden beads, one on each end of a leather thong (string), is worn around the neck as part of the Scout uniform. The beads are presented together with a taupe neckerchief bearing a tartan patch of the Maclaren clan, honoring William De Bois Maclaren, who donated the funding to purchase Gilwell Park in 1919. The neckerchief with the braided leather woggle (neckerchief slide) denotes the membership of the 1st Gilwell Scout Group or Gilwell Troop 1. Recipients of the Wood Badge are known as Wood Badgers or Gilwellians.

--from Wikipedia, the Free Enclclopedia

Lord Baden-Powell--on duty to God

2009-10-02T19:04:00.000-07:00

"The Scout, in his promise, undertakes to do his duty to his king and country only in the second place; his first duty is to God. It is with this idea before us and recognizing that God is the one Father of us all, that we Scouts count ourselves a brotherhood despite the difference among us of country, creed, or class. We realize that in addition to the interests of our particular country, there is a higher mission before us, namely the promotion of the Kingdom of God; That is, the rule of Peace and Goodwill on earth. In the Scouts each form of religious is respected and its active practice encouraged and through the spread of our brotherhood in all countries, we have the opportunity in developing the spirit of mutual good will and understanding.

"There is no religious "side" of the movement. The whole of it is based on religion, that is, on the realization and service of God.

"Let us, therefore, in training our Scouts, keep the higher aims in the forefront, not let ourselves get too absorbed in the steps. Don't let the technical outweigh the moral. Field efficiency, back woodsmanship, camping, hiking, Good Turns, jamboree comradeship are all means, not the end. The end is CHARACTER with a purpose.

"Our objective in the Scouting movement is to give such help as we can in bringing about God's Kingdom on earth by including among youth the spirit and the daily practice in their lives of unselfish goodwill and cooperation."

Beating A Dead Horse

2009-10-02T07:58:00.000-07:00

Now here's a Wood Badge ticket item to ponder! I came across this piece about Beating A Dead Horse from ("I-used-to-be-a-lot-of-things, but-I'm-feeling-much-better-now, thank you") fellow blogger Lorie McGraw in my Scouts-L archives that is too good not to pass on. Wood Badgers should get a chuckle! Thanks, Lorie!

______________________________________________

Cherokee tribal wisdom says that when you discover you are riding a dead horse, the best strategy is to dismount. Pretty simple, don't you think? This wisdom dates back at least several hundred years. Modern tribes, however, sometimes feel that ancient wisdom can be improved on or replaced. Listed below are some present-day attempts to deal with the dead horse problem.

1. Buy a stronger whip.
2. Change riders.
3. Say things like, "This is the way we have always ridden this horse."
4. Hire a consultant to provide an outside perspective to the dead horse situation.
5. Arrange to visit other sites to see how they deal with dead horses.
6. Decrease the standards to ride dead horses.
7. Appoint a triage team to revive the dead horse.
8. Create and implement a training plan to increase the riding ability of those tasked to ride dead horses.
9. Create a link between the state of a dead horse and the environment.
10. Pass a resolution declaring that "This horse is not dead."
11. Blame the horse's parents.
12. Harness several dead horses together for increased performance.
13. Provide additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
14. Undertake a long-term study to see if other contractors can ride it cheaper.
15. Simply declare that the horse is "better, faster, and cheaper" while being dead.
16. Declare that "No horse is too dead to beat."
17. Form a quality circle to find uses for dead horses.
18. Revisit the performance requirements for horses.
19. State emphatically that this horse was procured with cost as an independent variable.
20. Promote the dead horse to a supervisory position.
___________________________________________

--WB Scribbler

Scoutmaster's Minute: Conservation Is Important

2009-10-01T17:55:00.000-07:00

Who can tell me what is the greatest food factory in the world?
(Pause for answers.)

The greatest food factory in the world is a leaf. The plant's branches are like an assembly line, bringing supplies to the leaves from the root of the plant. And then something like magic takes place. Do you know what it is? What is the magic ingredient that makes the factory work?

(Pause [again] for answers.)

It's sunlight! With the elements taken from the earth through the roots, the leaf makes food through the power of sunlight. This magical process is called photosynthesis!
(Pause here a long while for emphasis!)*

Did you ever consider that we cannot live without this food factory? That's right! All life, including us, is completely dependent on this factory for our food. Even animals which eat nothing but flesh must feed on others which eat plants for food. You see, the plants on this earth support all the life there is.
(Pause here while this bit of ecology sinks in.)

That's why the Scout's outdoor code tells us we must not hurt plant life. When we carelessly destroy a living plant, such as a tree, we actually kill part of the human and animal life of this world. A good Scout always minds his outdoor manners.

--Ideas and Stories for The Scoutmaster's Minute: Conservation is Important, Boy Scouts of America, pub. 1956.
____________________________________________

*Sorry, but the WB Scribbler feels compelled to add a long pause here not in the original SM Minute because he thinks watching a leaf on a sunny day "work its magic" has gotta be the slowest magic show in the forest. Good conservation practices as defined by the Outdoor Code then was considered simply the wisest use of our God-given natural resources. I think Scouts in the 1950s probably didn't worry too much about the moral consequences of trying out a new Hudson's Bay axe on the nearest pine tree or blazing a trail of botanical mayhem through the woods--at least, I know I didn't back then.

--WB Scribbler

The Outdoor Code

2009-09-27T16:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-27T05:56:00.050-07:00

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

2009-09-26T19:37:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-24T16:17:00.000-07:00

"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

2009-09-24T05:58:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-23T08:12:00.000-07:00

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

Wood Badge, for the Beads, or for the Boys?

2009-09-22T17:05:00.000-07:00

Have you caught the Wood Badge feeling?
Scouting spirit's in the air.
Like woodsmoke rising from a campfire,
You can see it everywhere.

It means more than a badge of wood
That's hanging on a lace;
For your Scouts lives are in your care,
And you must set the pace.

Will you seek to serve our brotherhood
With your minds and with your hands?
A ticket's more than just a good road map
To Gilwell -- it's your plan!

Can you teach and inspire, lead and give
With a friendly and gentle way?
For the men of tomorrow need guidance now
As the youth in our troops today.

Did the course give you a renewed outlook
And motivate you to 'do your best?
The days and the years ahead will prove
If you've truly met the test.

So, work your ticket, with all of your might,
Not beads of wood . . . but the Good Lord saying
You've been "important in the life of a boy." *
__________________________________
Stanley M. Latta
Bowtied Bobwhites
--Gentlemen of Wood Badge and Scouting
SE-583 - October 1992
* excerpt from a Scouting quotation by Forest Witcraft

Scoutmaster's Minute: The Nails in the Barn Door

2009-09-21T16:43:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-17T20:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-17T14:59:00.000-07:00

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

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

2009-09-17T13:16:00.000-07:00

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."

2009-09-17T12:45:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-15T09:26:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-15T07:28:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-14T15:20:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-13T19:39:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-13T10:17:00.000-07:00

--WB Scribbler

The Kudu Horn and Scouting

2009-09-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

"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

2009-09-12T08:05:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-11T22:45:00.000-07:00

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...

2009-09-11T16:52:00.000-07:00

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

2009-09-11T07:27:00.000-07:00

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