Upcoming Training Dates

The skills sessions presented in Introduction to Outdoor Leader Skills closely

follow the Boy Scout Handbook and are meant to serve as an adult training

outline. By using these skills sessions in conjunction with the Boy Scout Handbook,

trainers can be sure new leaders are proficient in the basic outdoor skills through

First Class rank. Each skills session references specific chapters in the handbook.

Hands-on participation makes the best learning tool, so participants should leave

the training experience knowing they can show their Scouts how to accomplish

outdoor skills while fulfilling rank requirements. Back home, we want leaders

to feel comfortable working with and instructing their Scouts. From pitching a

tent to starting a cooking fire, they should feel confident in helping their youth

leaders plan and carry out their own unit campouts and exciting troop programs

using these skills. With that comes great satisfaction.

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What is Wood Badge?

Wood Badge is a training course for Scouters which finally results in their receiving a certificate, a small neckerchief, a leather slide, and two small wooden beads on a leather thong. Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of Scouting, directed the first course in 1919 and gave each of the participants one of the beads which he had captured from the African chieftain Dinizulu. Thus did the course name develop, for its symbol was literally a badge of wood.

Wood Badge is, further, Scouting's premier training course. Baden-Powell designed it so that Scouters could learn, in as practical a way possible, the skills and methods of Scouting. It is first and foremost, learning by doing. The members of the course are formed into patrols and these into a troop. The entire troop lives in the out-of-doors for a week, camping, cooking their own meals, and practicing Scout skills.

The uniqueness of Scouting is the patrol method. The use of the natural gang of six or eight boys who elect their own leader and plan and carry out many of their own activities is a democracy in microcosm. Here young men learn the give and take of working with people as they must surely do all their lives. Here, too, they are given leadership and learning opportunities which prepare them for their future roles as citizens. It is for this reason that it is so crucial that all adults understand thoroughly the patrol method.

See Registration Form at bottom pf page or in the Forms and Flyers Section.