This page is a point-by-point review of what I did to complete my Woodbadge ticket, the final albatross given to me by Scouting which I am very relieved to have finished. Should the work below fall short or not suffice, such is the way of things.
Basics
Name: Terry Robinson
My Scouting Position: District Activities Chair
The team that will benefit from my leadership – Playwicki District
My vision of success and related plan of action: A district where Scouts can easily acquire and instructors can easily offer knowledge and skills through the merit badge program. /s Pat Wax, 10/11/09
Ticket Items
Ticket Item #1
Goal: Review and update the district’s merit badge instructor roster. Verify contact information and status in Scouting.
Deliverables: Merit badge roster before clean-up –Pre-Cleanup Counselor List
Final roster after clean-up – Post Clean-up Counselor List
Verification from AnnaMarie of participation in update – AnnaMarieVerification
Notes: Completing this was a bear. There were 250 unique names to contact, way more than I anticipated, and through the network units for which I commission and people I know through the OA I may have initially hit a quarter. Email info isn’t stored in Scoutnet so many phone calls were placed. About half way through this, I found out the the counsel office was repeating this task in an effort verify that leaders had received Youth Protection Training and they had the resources to send out a postcard mailing, largely obviating my efforts. We trimmed about 60 names but these were largely leaders who’d fallen away. One area where I made significant help was registering OSR staff members as merit badge instructors which more than counterbalanced those lost.
Ticket Item #2
Goal: Provide training to Scoutmasters as to how to find merit badge counselors and include merit badges in troop program.
Deliverables: Powerpoint Presentation – RT-10-01MeritBadgesatMeetings
Powerpoint Presenter’s Notes – 2009-11RoundtablePresentation
Attendance Roster – 2010signinattendance
Notes: 24 Scouters from 10 units attended the presentation and while each was courteous and said “nice training” etc, on pressing, I don’t feel I was able to sway many people that there were a goodly number of merit badges that made sense in a unit setting. Some unit leaders were also disturbed to find out they didn’t have the power to block kids from completing merit badges or to retest them which was disappointing. I wonder how many kids I instructed at summer camp had their badge dream stymied by a pushy leader. Maybe I’m just getting defensive.
Ticket Item #3
Goal: Provide training to merit badge instructors on keeping records, verifying completion of pre-requisites, and dealing with difficult Scouts.
Deliverables: University of Scouting Presentation – UOS_Megatraining
University of Scouting Outline – UoS_Megatraining_Handout
Roundtable Presentation – RT-2011-12Counselorbrushup
Roundtable Outline – RT-2011-12Counselorbrushup
Notes: I originally wanted to offer the above training at University of Scouting but despite the efforts of both myself and Dawn Macomber, this session never made it onto the schedule. I then asked to present it to the OSR staff, but was rebuffed by the Program Director who seemed to think I was somehow looking to take control of staff again (I was previous the Assistant Camp Director). So, to fulfill the ticket item I modified the presentation greatly and offered a merit badge instructor brush-up course before our December roundtable. I got a total attendance of five and received no substantive feedback.
Ticket Item #4
Goal: Create Merit Badge Counselor quick-registration setup to provide a single resource for non-Scouters to register as merit badge counselors and provide this tool to district units.
Deliverables: Counselor Quickstart Pamphlet – CounselorQuickstartPamphlet
Bucks County Council Guide for Merit Badge Counselors – BucksCountyCouncilGuideforMeritBadgeCounselors
Notes: I produced these in March after speaking with AnnaMarie Pepper about what steps people most often failed to complete. They are now present in the District Roundtable boxes and I will be producing some fancy color ones for the Council Office. I really wish the office had a high-volume color printer. This is the item that received much more positive uptake than I anticipated and was delighted to find it wasn’t a throw-away item as most roundtable folder entries are.
Ticket Item #5 (the Widowmaker)
Goal: Create video presentations for three Eagle-required badges (Environmental Science, First Aid, and Citizenship in the World) so visually impaired and learning disabled Scouts may receive instruction outside of a classroom setting.
Deliverables: Citizenship in the World Video Pile
Environmental Science Video Pile
First Aid Merit Badge Video Pile
Notes: I over-committed on this item and it proved to be what pushed me to the edge, time-wise. I thought there would be more pre-existing content from which to drawn for Cit World and Envi Sci but there was little so I largely took my instructor notes from Summer Camp and re-did them as podcasts. First Aid had the resource level I was looking for but sifting through videos was terribly tedious as sometimes sources changed and I had to recheck most of these. Had I the choice to redo this, I would have dumped Envi Sci for Personal Management.