In early February, Boy Scout leader and unit commissioner Jim Robertson of Falcon reached the highest level of training in scouting: the Wood Badge program. With that, Robertson earned the coveted Wood Badge beads.Lord Baden-Powell, the founder of the Boy Scouts, developed the Wood Badge program, which started in 1919. Baden-Powell gave the participants wooden beads from an African chieftain named Dinizulu.Will Bishop, the 2011 course director for the Wood Badge program for the Pikes Peak Council Boy Scouts of America, said the goal of the program is to ìimprove the adult leaderís capabilities so they can improve the program for the young people.îThe Wood Badge program involves two parts: a six-day course, broken up into two long weekends; and a ìticket,î which is a written set of goals aimed at improving the leader and his or her scouting position, Bishop said. The ticket portion of the program must be completed within 18 months of the start of the program, he said.ìThe course involves a troop of six to eight adult leaders all working together,î Bishop said. ìThe first weekend is mainly classroom training and team-building exercises. They plan their campout for the second weekend.îDuring the second weekend, participants focus on outdoor conservation, outdoor exercises, team-building exercises and learning to live and cooperate in the outdoors, he said.The Pikes Peak Council Wood Badge program took place in April and May 2011 at Camp Alexander near Lake George, Colo.Robertson, one of 52 participants, said it was an eye-opening experience for him. ìWe learned a lot of lessons and brought back a lot of lessons that we tend to forget about,î Robertson said. While there, they had one major hurdle to jump over. ìOne of our members decided to quit midstream, which wasn’t a huge deal, but she was the person who was supposed to take care of all the food,î he said. ìShe had all the money to buy the food so we had to try to get the money back.îRobertson said another challenge for him was to step back and let others handle things. ìI’m retired military and we have a let’s-just-get-it-done attitude,î he said. ìThere was drama, there always is, but we learned how to deal with it.îAfter completing the six-day course, Robertson focused on his ticket. ìI had five goals on my ticket that I had to do that would benefit my position as unit commissioner,î he said. ìFour of the goals focused on the Religious Emblems program the Boy Scouts use.î The Religious Emblems program of the Boy Scouts encourages the Scouts to become stronger in their faith.Robertson conducted small, roundtable-like classes to complete those four goals. Three classes were 10 to 15 minutes, he said, and the last was 50 minutes. ìI was also required to do a diversity ticket, which was my fifth goal, and mine was about ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) in scouting,î he said.ìI chose ADHD because my son was diagnosed with ADHD as a junior in high school. As a Scout leader, I’ve also had some of my Scouts have ADHD. My ticket was to inform the Scout leaders, if they didn’t have the knowledge of it, that this is what ADHD is, this is where we think it comes from and this is how to deal with it.îRobertson finished his ticket in January 2012. Bishop said he felt Robertson gained confidence as a Scout leader after completing the program. ìJim was already very active in our High Plains district, and the Wood Badge program has made him more active and confident in what he’s doing to help us build our program up,î Bishop said.ìI would definitely recommend the course,î Robertson said. ìIt reinvigorates you. It’s a big commitment. The most important thing is that it’s geared toward helping our youth.î
