Wood Badge Overview!
Wood Badge is advanced adult leadership training for all adult leaders and volunteers who serve within the Boy Scouts of America. Many Scouters consider Wood Badge training to be the peak or "mountaintop" experience of their Scouting career.
Be one of the first to experience the new and improved curriculum, "Wood Badge for the Next Century"!
Wood Badge has served as a source of training and inspiration for thousands of Cub Scout, Scouts BSA, Venturing, Sea Scout, Council, and Zone Leaders; along with professional staff worldwide. The primary purpose of Wood Badge Training is to strengthen Scouting in local units, zones and the council. In return, Wood Badge participants have had a positive and profound influence on the lives of millions of America's youth by supporting the Mission of Boy Scouts of America to "Prepare young people to make ethical and moral choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law", as well as in their professional and personal lives.
Course Info
The Primary Purpose of the Wood Badge experience is simple - to strengthen Scouting in our units, districts and council; because every Scout deserves a trained leader. It provides dedicated Scouters with the concepts, tools and methods needed to be effective leaders.
Wood Badge creates a structured opportunity to develop and apply critical leadership skills. Leadership is a skill that is used everywhere, on a daily basis. Attending Wood Badge will make your Scouting job easier. Attendees gain an in depth understanding of the skills of leadership.
The skills you learn will help you become a more effective leader in Scouting, your career, your family and your community life. In addition, participants will enjoy the fellowship of learning alongside many other volunteers, and along the way have a great deal of fun.
Upon successful completion of all course requirements, and the completion of your personal "Wood Badge Ticket", each participant will receive a certificate of completion, a Wood Badge tartan neckerchief, a leather woggle, and beads to wear proudly around the neck.
The Wood Badge Tradition
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 in 1919, at Gilwell Park near London.
In 1936, an experimental Wood Badge course was conducted in the United States at the Schiff Scout Reservation at Mendham, New Jersey. Then, in 1948 the first American Wood Badge course was introduced in the United States as advanced training for Boy Scout leaders. Later the program was extended to include Troop committee members, commissioners and Explorer leaders. Experiments began in the late 1960’s with a leadership development Wood Badge course emphasizing 11 leadership skills or "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 Scouts Leader Wood Badge course revealed a need for greater emphasis on the practical aspects of good Troop operation. The result was the development of a course that would provide a blend of Scoutcraft skills and practical Troop operation, mixed with a variety of leadership exercises. In 2001, Wood Badge for the 21st Century was introduced. It was developed for all; Cub Scout, Boy Scout, Venturing, Council, and District Leaders; along with professional staff. The Focus is on leadership skills, not outdoor skills. The first part of a Wood Badge course reflects unit meetings, while the second part of the course uses a Troop camping activity as its delivery method.
Wood Badge 3-49-24 will continue this tradition of teaching adult leaders the skills to lead our youth. Wood Badge is a continuation of a proud past with promotion of new leadership training skills for the future. Across the world, Wood Badge brings together in one dynamic course the men and women who serve as mentors for Cub Scout Packs, Scouts BSA Troops, Venturing Crews and Sea Scout Ships.
As an adult leader or Scouting volunteer, you will benefit greatly from the Wood Badge experience and more importantly, so will your unit and the Scouts you lead.
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