[RonF]

"... and a good old Eagle, too" C-19-96
"I used to be a Staffer ...." C-31-02

I was a Troop Guide at the latter Course; it was our Council's first "Wood Badge of the 21st Century" course. A bit of a change, certainly, and there was some grumbling from the old guard. I never minded the old instructional methods of occasionally putting you in a trick bag and letting you figure your way out; that's real life, isn't it? But not everyone responded well to that, and the additional emphasis on management (and consequent de-emphasis on outdoor skills) is probably necessary and useful. But what that means is that we as leaders need to identify those Scouters who lack outdoor skills and get them trained up to speed on them.

[SandRat]

An easy variant is to have the candidate sit on the ground and put a big tarp over them so all edges touch the ground. Then tell the candidate that they have something on that they don't need and to remove it and hand it to the instructor. You'd be surprised at how long it sometimes takes before they realize that the unneeded item is the tarp.

[ghostcat]

I was a little disappointed with wood-badge 2000. I felt that it was too much desk time not enough outdoor time. While it is important to learn leadership skills I feel we need to reemphasize the outdoor skills. I'm an adviser in the Order of the Arrow and it is amazing how few people have decent outdoor skills, both youth and adult.

[ghostcat]

Wood-Badge W7-591-4-04
Vigil 2000