Wood Badge Course
C-29-01

The Viking Council Training Committee announces the offering of a Boy Scout Leader Wood Badge course for 2001! 

On-Line Application for C-29-01  
     Note:  Course closed
  
Wood Badge Breakfast Photos 
Contact Wood Badge Staff Here

WOOD BADGE is the advanced training program of Boy Scouting. It is designed especially for Scoutmasters and other leaders directly related to the program of a Boy Scout troop. This is intended to include Assistant Scoutmasters, Members of the Troop Committee, and district volunteers who work with and assist troops.

Wood Badge training has two parts. The first is an outdoor experience where the Scouter lives as a member of a patrol, practices the skills of leadership and Scoutcraft, and learns how these can be used with boys. The second part of Wood Badge is the application of what has been learned. Each participant writes a "ticket," a contract with himself as to how the new skills will be put to work.

The Boy Scout Leader Wood Badge course purpose is to aid experienced Boy Scout troop leaders in providing a quality program that will enable each Scout to grow to his greatest potential.

In 1911, four years after Scouting began in Great Britain, Lord Baden-Powell began training Scouters through a series of lectures. This led to the first Wood Badge training course for Scoutmasters held eight years later at Gilwell Park near London. In 1936, an experimental Wood Badge course was conducted in the United States at the Schiff Scout Reservation. Later, the program was extended to include troop committee members, commissioners, and Explorer leaders.

Experiments began in the late 1960s with a leadership development Wood Badge course emphasizing eleven leadership skills of "competencies." This program was launched in 1972 in support of a major revision of the Boy Scout phase of the program. In 1978, an evaluation of the Boy Scout Leader Wood Badge course revealed a need for greater emphasis on the practical aspects of good troop operation. The course now provides a blend of Scoutcraft skills and practical troop operation, mixed with a variety of leadership exercises. The course is under constant review for possible areas of further refinement.

The Wood Badge course involves leaders in situations likely to be found in a typical Boy Scout troop. The training is applied in a variety of Scoutcraft activities as well as in an in-depth exploration of the role of the adult leader in developing youth through Boy Scouting.

The Boy Scout Leader Wood Badge course at Viking Council is conducted on a series of three weekends with patrol meetings between each session.

The Wood Badge program consists of two parts : practical training and application. The practical leadership experience is given during the three weekends. At the conclusion of those weekends, each participant has a minimum of six months and a maximum of two years following the practical portion to complete the application phase and meet all of the goals that they set for themselves.

A part of the practical training is the development of a "ticket." This ticket is a written agreement to apply the knowledge gained during the course in specific ways in service to Boy Scouting. A "ticket counselor" is appointed from the staff to provide assistance and guidance as the three parts of the ticket are developed.

Each Scouter invited to participate in Boy Scout Leader Wood Badge training must have completed Boy Scout leader basic training, Scoutmastership Fundamentals.

Scouters should complete the council’s course application and submit that application to the Council Service Center as soon as possible.

Upon successful completion of the ticket, the participant is entitled to receive the Wood Badge recognition. This consists of a certificate, the Wood Badge beads (two wooden beads on a leather thong), a tan neckerchief with a swatch of MacLaren tartan, and a leather woggle (neckerchief slide). This is the same recognition traditionally given for Wood Badge and proudly worn by thousands of Scouters around the world!

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