Wood Badge (Boy Scouts of America)

Wood Badge
Wood Badge beads, woggle and neckerchief
Owner	Boy Scouts of America
Country	United States
Created	1948
Founder	William "Green Bar Bill" Hillcourt
Awarded for	Completion of leadership training

Wood Badge in the United States of America is the highest level of adult Scout leader training available. It was first presented in England by the founder of Scouting, Baden Powell, and he introduced the program into the United States during a visit in 1936. The first course was held at the Mortimer L. Schiff Scout Reservation, but Americans did not fully adopt Wood Badge until 1948. The National BSA Council staff provided direct leadership to the program through 1958, when the increased demand encouraged them to permit local councils to deliver the training.

The program originally focused almost exclusively on Scoutcraft skills, some elements of the Patrol Method, and First Class Boy Scout requirements. In a major cultural shift during the 1970s, Wood Badge was modified to train Scouters in eleven specific leadership competencies. The National Council has updated it several times since then, and during 2001–2002 implemented an overhaul that emphasized a prototypical troop as a method for teaching team leadership and problem-solving skills. The training is delivered through a lecture classroom environment and a short outdoor camping experience. It is a key element of the overall leadership training program.

Francis Gidney, the first camp chief of Gilwell Park, came to the United States in 1922 at the instigation of Walter W. Head, a member of the Boy Scouts of America National Board, and later its President. While Gidney demonstrated some of the Scoutcraft tricks from Gilwell, his ideas did not arouse interest, but were treated as entertainment by the American audience. A number of American Scouters later traveled to England and took the British Wood Badge course. These included assistant director of Volunteer Training Gunnar Berg and assistant director of camping William C. Wessel. Though the national training department approved a "Gillwill Training Camp" to be held at Camp Parsons in 1929 (conducted by John A. Stiles, the Chief Scout Executive of Canada), the prevailing attitude of the Boy Scouts of America was that American men would not set aside eight days from their busy lives to attend the course.