I'm 8 months in with 10 months more to go, at the most. My time line has me finishing in 4 more months, but the only Constant in Life is Change, and the Best Laid Plans of Mice and Men Often Go Awry. I'm talking about Wood Badge.
For those that do not know, Wood Badge is the Summit of Adult Leader Training in the Boy Scouts, a course originally designed by Lord Baden-Powell himself and updated over the years to now provide leadership training, team building skills and games, new ways to look at servant leadership and leaving a legacy. Once the practical portion of the course, a six-day experience designed to replicate the first week long summer camp experience of a real Boy Scout, ends then each participant has 18-months to complete their "ticket", five self-set goals within Scouting, usually serving a particular unit or area.
My Wood Badge Course, C3-312-14-1, was held at Beaumont Scout Reservation within the Greater St. Louis Area Council, the premier training Scout Camp in the Council. The course was originally taught at the old Camp Irondale, which was located only about ten miles from where I am now. As the Camping Chairman for our District, the Ozark Trailblazers District, one of my "ticket" items was to organize a STEM-themed Spring Camporee, that ticket is being worked in earnest, leaving only 2 ticket items to finish, but more on them next time. The STEM (for Science Technology Engineering & Mathematics) Camporee will be held at the old Camp Irondale location, quite by happenstance, the location chosen by the Boy Scout Troop asked to Host the event. Coincidences are so neat, much like the old saying was in the military, "stick around long enough and you'll run into everyone again"....my first NCO supervisor from my time in Germany, two years after he left Europe, we ran into each other in line at a makeshift PX in Saudi Arabia; my other NCO supervisor from Germany, I'm walking into a local Wal-Mart and there he was, walking out fifteen years after serving together thousands of miles away. Funny thing is, his family is from Irondale.
Scoutmaster Gene
Baden's Rowdy Beavers
