Gulf Coast Council Presents:

Wood Badge 2025

Weekend 1:
Blue Horizon Lodge
Friday, January 17 - Monday, January 20, 2025

Weekend 2:
Camp Euchee
Saturday, February 15 - Sunday, February 16. 2025
 

All registered adult Scouters from Cub Scouting, Scouts BSA, Venturing, and Sea Scouts over age 18, who meet the following eligibility requirements may attend Wood Badge:

• Have completed the basic training courses for their Scouting position.
• Have completed the outdoor skills training programs appropriate for their Scouting positions.
• Be capable of functioning safely in an outdoor environment.
• A BSA Annual Health and Medical Record (Parts A, B, C) is required.

Attend all sessions. There are no make-up opportunities. Wood Badge is spread across two weekends, If an attendee has to miss any of the sessions, they will be dropped from the course and asked to return to attend the entire program.

Wood Badge is an advanced, national leadership course open only to Scouting volunteers and professionals.

What do we see on course?
We do many things on course, like:

• Listening
• Managing conflict
• Leading change
• Stages of team development
• Coaching & Mentoring
• Leadership for different stages
• Servant leadership
• Project planning

And more!

These come to you in presentations, games, discussions, activities, and other methods.

Why do you want to go?
You want to participate in a Wood Badge course because of things you will learn and do. Here are some of the benefits:

Stronger units. You will make your Scouting unit — and your sons' and daughters' units — stronger.
What and why of Scouting. You will have a deeper understanding of what Scouting is and why we do it.
Experience. You will learn and experience things that will stay with you in Scouting and the rest of your life.
Fun. You will have fun and you will meet interesting people.
Other groups. You will make your other groups, like work, church, even family, stronger.

How would you like to attend a training that takes you far beyond your Basic Leader Training? Would you like to build your skills in communication, conflict management and teaching methods? How about a leadership course that rivals many corporate level trainings?

Wood Badge is here for you. This is not a Troop leader training but is designed for Cub Scouts, Scouts BSA, and Venturing leaders. This course will help you better understand how all the Scouting programs tie together. It will provide you with many useful leadership tools to help enable our youth to have the best possible Scouting experience.

Tickets
Have you heard of "The Ticket" and wondered what it is? The ticket is a group of five goals you set for yourself to do after course, to improve your unit. You learn more about this on the course.

Purpose of Wood Badge
The purpose of Wood Badge is to develop skilled leaders who can strengthen Scouting units in achieving the mission of the Boy Scouts of America.

When we accomplish the mission of Scouting, we do it in the units. Therefore, the short form of the purpose is, the purpose of Wood Badge is to strengthen units.

Although the course is different today, what Baden-Powell said in 1919 still applies:

One of the purposes of Wood Badge training is to get Scouters to think about the practice of Scouting, to meet together, to exchange experiences, and to live together in the spirit of the Scout Oath.