Sunday, June 7, 2015

What is she doing???

Since agreeing to participate in Wood Badge after being (insert your favorite form of coercion here), I started to get a constant question from people outside the "Gilwell World".  It came in one form or another but it always amounted to "What on EARTH are you doing!?!?!?!?!"

In order to better understand the rest of the posts on Working My Ticket, you have to understand what Wood Badge is and what I have done so you can figure out what I'm doing.

Wood Badge is a premier training course in the Boy Scouting world. It's taught worldwide in a variety of countries after beginning in Gilwell Park in 1919.  One commits to a 6 day long training that includes camping, hiking, class work, and metric TON of fun.  You had no idea you were still allowed to have this good of a time after you had children! ;)

After completing your training at Gilwell (all Wood Badge courses are held at Gilwell, no matter what the sign might say as you enter the camp!) you begin doing what is called "working your ticket", a custom that dates back to military service in England prior to them paying for you to come home from war.  You would try to find jobs closer to home as your career came to an end to subsidize the cost of your trip back.  This as called "working your ticket". 

After we leave Gilwell (or can one truly leave?) we begin to work our ticket, a list of 5 goals designed to benefit our scouting units, the world around us, and ourselves as we continue our adventure at home.  This blog will focus (at first) on me "working my ticket".  4 of my 5 tickets will be shared with you along with photos of them being completed giving you a glimpse into "the world after Wood Badge". 

I promise to share as much as I can and be as honest with all of you as possible as I go through the process of finishing my ticket and finally get my Wood Badge beads.  Where this blog will go after?  Unknown.....

Someday, perhaps, I'll get to be a "good 'ol staffer too" and have the chance to invite others to share their ticket workings on this blog.

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