Counselor-approved... really done!

My ticket Counselor Joe sent out the email today to our woodbadge course announcing that I'm done.  Here is what he sent:

----- Forwarded Message -----  

 Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2013 7:46 AM

Subject: Here comes another Mighty Mighty Bobwhite!

Let’s give a big WOO-HOO to Brian Colton for completing his ticket!

Brian’s vision was to get his Scouts more involved in the community, and also to help the parents become more involved as well.  An ambitious vision indeed, but look how successful he was!

Brian got his pack out on a number of hikes, getting his unit more aware of the outdoors.  He wanted to become a pack trainer, and quickly realized that becoming the pack’s Committee Chair would help others become trained leaders.  He used his Woodbadge training to improve on his pack’s annual campout and was successful in gaining new volunteers to assist him.

Brian led his pack in 3 service projects – at Camp Bullowa, he taught his pack how giving back to a camp that gives so much is an important piece of Scouting.  His pack also gave back to his community by helping the Sloatsburg Ambulance clean up after a renovation, and they participated in an Earth Day cleanup to practice Leave No Trace principles.

His diversity goal was really cool, and opened the eyes of his Scouts to the worldwide Scouting community.  Brian’s den became pen pals with a British Cub Scout den, and they are learning of the similarities and differences in our Scouting world.

And the best part is you can see his ticket in action on his blog at http://sloatsburgbobwhite.blogspot.com!

Look for Brian’s beading at Rockland’s September Roundtable.

Joe Mahoney

TG N7 374-12 Bobwhite Patrol

NE VII-18 Bear Patrol

ASM Troop 40

Here is the write-up I sent to him.  It's a summary of my ticket goals.

Going goal-for-goal, here is my completed wood badge ticket goals.

Goal 1:

This was my hiking goal.  My goal was to get out and do at least 4 hikes with the pack (1 a month), as a way of getting the scouts more active and a way to get me more active, and hope to make this a regular occurence.  (I've been much more physically active, but the weight hasn't come off - i just like to eat too much!)  This was accomplished well before the January 2014 deadline.  As part of my ticket, my wife and I did some research on local hikes by going hiking to find cub appropriate hikes,  and got some help from Bear Den Leader Billy Mincey in leading a hike.  I definitely used my skills in planning and listening and communicating on this one.  Hike #1 was part of our trip to Hudson Highlands in March - the scouts hiked the property learning about maple syruping in the snow.  Hike #2 was a strenuous hike up to Claudius Smith's den in Harriman State Park in early April.   In retrospect, this hike was a bit too strenuous for some, which lead to a lower attendance, i think, for the next hike.  This was a lesson learned that the trail should have been further examined for appropriateness for our pack.  Hike #3 was an easy flat hike in Kakiat Park in Montebello in May.  This was a fun hike, but we only had a few scouts attend, many missed a great time, as we met up with a family on the trail with a dog and got to play fetch with him as he ran into the river to retrieve!  We also had lunch and played games there.  Hike #4 was hiking around Bullowa as part of our pack camp out.  We hiked over from Paden Lodge to the A field and back.  Again, i listened to my pack for feedback so it would be appropriate for them - instead of the more difficult hike I had planned, we took an easier way over, always have a backup plan!  I had planned to do some hikes thru Sloatsburg and Tuxedo and these will be scheduled for next year.

For Goal #2, my goal was to become the pack trainer.  I took the pack trainer online course and completed this goal pretty quickly.  However, as I examined this goal, i decided that I also need to train the parents, so with the help of fellow Woodbadger Dan Mochon of Troop 40, he shared his parent information guide with me and I modified it to fit our pack's needs.  This book will be modified and given out as a smaller version to prospective parents at our recruitment events, and the larger version will be made available to existing parents as it covers a wide variety of topics and is quite comprehensive - again, taking feedback on the book from my cub master Benny Mulvaney.  By working on this goal, it became obvious to me that becoming not only the pack trainer but the pack committee chair was a complementary position and a way to enhance this goal - we are a small pack with a handful of leaders, and when our committee chair moved on, I stepped into the role and took all that training too.  I am making the other leaders aware of all upcoming leader/scout training, and will make sure we are up to date in YPT in all positions.  I have assigned out our popcorn Kernel position for 2013-14 and hope to recruit more parents for leadership roles next year.

Goal #3 was my community service goal.  This goal was not only met but we did extra service!  We modified the ticket a bit and scaled down the service to bullowa so it was more appropriate for the cub scouts.  I met with Camp Ranger Joe Langdon who asked that the cubs stack wood at the new Paden cabin (there are many downed logs due to Hurricane Sandy).  I incorporated the Boy Scouts into this one too as they were with us camping, so both units get credit for the service, as we filled up the wood holder to the top.  We also did service in our community as the pack performed clean-up service at the Sloatsburg Ambulance building in February, cleaning up leftover construction sheetrock and related materials used for an Eagle Scout project - again, we worked with Troop 46 on this one.  I met with Sloatsburg Ambulance Chief Matt Gannon and Scoutmaster Tom Lorentz to coordinate our involvement, order pizza for the scouts (it has to be fun!) and get a tour of the ambulances and facility.  And we performed service to the state park by doing an earth-day cleanup at the Claudius Smith's Den area - coordinating with Bear Den Leader Billy Mincey who created a lesson teaching the kids Leave No Trace as well as taking only pictures and leaving only memories - Billy and I also coordinated the kids earning the Leave No Trace award which we finished up at the pack campout by doing a poster.  All these projects are documented on my ticket blog.

Goal #4 involved using wood badge planning skills and better planning to execute a better pack campout for our unit.  In the previous year, it was really just me and Billy Mincey running the campout.  This year i created a campout committee so we could get more voices in the mix.  We met twice (once to brainstorm/plan, took a few weeks in between to do research and email back and forth until we set an agenda and firmed up ideas - kind of like the weeks in between the wood badge weekends!).  I again used listening/communicating skills, team building/assigning of roles, and we followed the stages of team development as we really gelled as a workgroup at the end.   I set up an email distribution list so we could communicate easily.  I recruited 3 other parents (just like i planned to!) for my committee and again involved troop 46 leaders and scouts in my ticket as we invited the Boy Scouts to participate.  As i read thru what i wrote last year about my plan, we did exactly what I planned!  It really is amazing to see it all come together.  The Webelos 1 boys were particularly helpful in cooking and being leaders on the trip. 

Goal #5, my diversity goal,  was the hardest, in that I had the least amount of control of the goal.  The project involved "twinning" with a British cub scout den, so my boys could learn about their way of scouting which differs slightly with young "Beaver" scouts leading into Cub Scouts over there.  There was much delay as I waited to receive permission to send the letters, then another lengthy delay after we sent them to receive any letters back.  The letters will be handed out at our final pack meeting.  I would like to continue the communication by having a skype session and encouraging the scouts to write back again, and/or doing email and phone calls.  I am hoping that this starts a legacy of getting to know a british boy and growing up thru scouts together and meeting up at World Jamboree one day!   I did get to know their leader, Nicola, as we also exchanged letters.

Wood Badge was a life changing experience.  When I started the first weekend, i thought it was two weekends and that was it, boy was I surprised with the 5 weeks of work in between, the service project, presentation, campfire and ticket planning!  When I started the course, I knew next to nothing about boy scouts, as I was a cub scout leader and a relatively new one.  Meeting people in this course got me involved with two different troops and another cub scout pack that I made great friends with, got me more involved with my pack which I'm now leading as Committee Chair, and helped my management skills at work too.  I met 5 other kidred Bobwhites that will be linked with me forever and an amazing ticket counselor and patrol guide.