Wood Badge Training - Bastrop, TX - Part 1

Wood Badge is Scouting’s premier training course - aimed at adult Scout leaders. Lord Baden-Powell (the founder of Scouting) designed the course in 1919 so that Scouters could learn, in as practical a way possible, the skills and methods of Scouting.  The idea is to improve the skills and perspective of Scout leaders, to in-turn enhance the experience for the boys.

As the course is a “hands-on” experience, course attendees are divided into patrols (much like boys are), and all of the patrols form a troop.  The entire troop lives in the outdoors for the duration of the event. For me, that included two three-day sessions, with a break in between.  The crazy thing is that during my “break”, I participated in a week-long high adventure trip (see previous blog post).  You’ll hear no complaints, as all of it was a gloriously positive experience.

The course itself was a unique combination of leadership training, organizational behavior learning, problem-solving, team-building, and most importantly - FUN. The course ran non-stop...by design.  It's an intense training experience forcing us to work together, to organize and develop enthusiasm and team spirit, to accomplish the tasks and challenges given to us.

There's another part to this story.  I've been dreaming of taking the Wood Badge training for several years.  I finally had a calling/job in the Church that allowed me to justify the time and expense.  I also found myself with a lot of extra time, being in-between jobs at the moment.  You could call it a tender mercy of the Lord that I finally had the time to fulfill a dream like this.  The dream actually started almost thirty years ago.  My father was actively involved in Scouting and attended Wood Badge with his closest friends.  I remember some fantastic stories, and even know most of his patrol members.  Here's a pic from their experience - Dad is holding the flag ; )

That experience inspired me to some day do the very same thing.  That day is NOW!

I arrived at our nearest Scout Camp - Lost Pines - located in nearby Bastrop, Texas.  The weather was unusually cold by Texas standards.  In fact, until the trip to Philmont the following week, it was the coldest camping I had ever experienced.  More on that later.  Lost Pines is located near a Texas institution called Buc-ee's.  That's a whole other post - but I was able to secure a delicious soda that would get me through the first day:

As mentioned, we work through the Scouting patrol method, so I was placed with fellow Scouters in the Fox Patrol.  Everyone is assigned a patrol named after one of 8 "critters".  Once you become part of the Fox Patrol, it will stay with you for the rest of your life.  Ask any Wood Badge participant what their "critter" is - and they'll be happy to tell you.  Here's a picture of us when the temperatures finally became warmer:

This is an extraordinary group of people.  I can't say enough good things about these individuals.  They're dedication to the betterment of Scouting is admirable.  There was a spirit of togetherness and cooperation that permeated all that we did.  I consider these folks to be life-long friends, after the great experiences we had.  I know that all Wood Badge training isn't like this, but I was sure lucky that my patrol was this good.

Most of Wood Badge is spent outdoors.  Because the temperatures were quite chilly, and the wind made it difficult to hear presentations, they moved much of the activities indoors.  We spent a great deal of time listening to some great presentations, and then acting on the information:

The volunteers who ran the course were outstanding.  Each one put hundreds of hours into preparation.  It's an honor to be a member of Wood Badge staff, but the time requirements are quite steep.  I appreciated it all...

Each day, we would gather for a flag ceremony.  The entire troop would gather at Gilwell Field.  This was the name of the original location of the Wood Badge training, stretching all the way back to 1919.  Gilwell Park is located in the UK.  Each Wood Badge course recreates Gilwell Field for the duration of the experience.  We organized by patrol, and you can see the heavy jackets that folks were wearing:

That's me in the grey coat

The next exercise was to tie our very own neckerchief slide, or "woggle" from paracord.  This is how it's supposed to look:

It took me several tries, before I finally figured it out.  It was a very good object lesson in helping the entire team reach an objective:

We spent the afternoon working on presentations with our "patrol guide".  She spent a lot of time trying to guide us, and then get out of the way.  Exactly like we're supposed to do with our own Scouts:

That night, we had a giant campfire.  It was brutally cold that night, but the full moon was out, just hanging above the lake that sat in front of us.  This picture below shows our course director, dressed as Lord Baden-Powell - the founder of Scouting.  To say that he was cold is an understatement.  I have a new and profound respect for this director, after he delivered his presentation in authentic costume...teeth chattering away:

We spent that evening shivering in our tents.  Nobody was prepared for how cold it became - simply because Texas just never gets this cold.  The temperatures dropped into the low 20s.  I had never been so cold in all my life.  I wore my complete uniform to bed, and even wore my jacket the entire night.  Forget pajamas! Even most of the old-timers indicated that it was pretty darn cold.  Again, you have to remember that this is Texas - our blood has thinned out quite a bit here ; )  It was cold enough that we earned the Polar Bear Patch:

This is awarded to any Scout or Scouter who endures camping in chilly temperatures.  We definitely earned it that night.

Day two was exciting.  This was the day that I would serve as Patrol Leader.  We started with the familiar flag ceremony:

Then, I was sworn in as the Patrol Leader.  I loved leading this awesome Fox Patrol - they made it really easy:

As the sun was finally shining, we held a few activities outdoors.  We participated in some team games:

We alternated with classroom instruction, and then took what we learned in those segments and immediately put them to use in follow-up activities.

This game was really fun - they gave the Patrol Leaders two different leadership styles, and we couldn't tell anyone what we were doing.  The object of the game was to get pieces of candy into a coffee can - and you got more points for the distance that you threw from.  Teams can come up with crazy methods, as long as you stay within a small set of rules.  This reinforced what I knew about motivating teams:

In the afternoon, we had a REALLY fun activity. We built small rocket ships that were propelled on water and air pressure.  We were able to design our own rockets, and worked well as a team:

This is me, trying to document as much of the experience as possible.  the photo I took is right below ; )

The big test was how high your rocket flew.  The launch mechanism wasn't terrible sophisticated, but I sure want to build one for my own ; )

Later that night, we held a series of game shows.  Most of it was based on the things that we learned earlier in the day.  My team elected me to represent the group:

Yeah..that big blur is me...cheering another team on ; )

The next day, we held an interfaith service, to reinforce the fact that duty to God is an important part of the Scouting core beliefs.  We saw multiple ways to include all faiths into this type of service.

Afterwards, it was back to work.  We had another learning session, which was followed by a skit that we had to put together in about 5 minutes.  We did pretty good - you would never have know that it was created on-the-spot.

Towards the end of that last day, we each had to meet with our Patrol Guide and talk about a really important part of Wood Badge.  When you leave the six days of instruction, you need to set five big project goals.  This would be the equivalent of an Eagle Scout service project.  Each of these goals are called tickets - and they need to benefit your local Scouting units in some way.  I had a plan for my tickets and presented them that day:

You have up to 18 months to complete your tickets.  I plan to do mine in 3 - so that I can be finished before our family might have to move from Austin.  I have some extra time, so it's a good opportunity to focus on these goals.

That's it for the first weekend of Wood Badge.  The next blog will showcase some of the amazing projects and artwork that was completed during the "break" in-between sessions.

Thanks for reading!