- Course weekends Aug and Sept 2026
- Ticket approved Sept 19, 2026
- Working the ticket 19 of 25 pass conditions met, 1 in progress
- Beads By Mar 20, 2028
New to Wood Badge? · Since 1919
What Wood Badge is
Wood Badge is Scouting's advanced leadership course for adult volunteers. It began with the first course at Gilwell Park, England, in September 1919, and Scouting associations around the world have run it ever since.
The course is only the start. Each participant writes a ticket: a short set of personal goals, reviewed and approved by course staff, that puts what the course teaches to work back home. There are 18 months to finish it. My course ran over two weekends at Camp Wakpominee, and this page is my ticket.
Finishing the ticket earns the Wood Badge itself: two wooden beads on a leather thong, worn with the Gilwell neckerchief and its MacLaren tartan patch, and a leather woggle.
Gilwell Park, September 1919: the first Wood Badge course. Inset: what the ticket earns, the beads, Gilwell neckerchief and woggle.
My personal vision of success
Troop 3054 should be able to run well without depending on any one adult, including me. My vision is a troop where the Scouts plan and lead the program, where the committee's job is money, logistics, permits, drivers and paperwork rather than deciding what the Scouts will do, and where every key responsibility has more than one person who knows how to carry it.
That means leaving behind systems, not projects: a recruitment cycle the pack and the troop run together every year, a Patrol Leaders' Council that plans the program the way Scouting America intends, a written record of who holds what and who backs them up, a budget process the committee owns, and one weekend a year where the older Scouts teach the younger ones what this is supposed to feel like. Each of those lives somewhere findable, with a name on it and a date it gets reviewed.
The measure of success is not what I run while I am here. It is what keeps running after I stop.
Status as of Oct 14, 2026
Where each goal stands
Every goal closes the same way: a written process, adopted by recorded committee vote where required, posted to the troop portal with a named maintainer. The bars count only the pass conditions in each goal's approved measurable. Events and milestones that show a process working are listed under each goal but don't count.
Lined up with the council's Pathfinder program. Goals 1 through 4 produce the four plans Twin Rivers Council asks units for: a membership plan (Goal 1), the annual calendar (Goal 2), a succession plan (Goal 3) and a budget (Goal 4).
Coming up
| When | What happens | Status |
|---|---|---|
| By Oct 16 | Advancement gap list for Foundations Weekend. | In progress |
| By Oct 30 | Foundations Weekend schedule and Scout instructors. | Planned |
| By Oct 31 | The PLC reviews the planning procedure after using it for the fourth quarter; its changes go into the posted version. | Planned |
| Nov 18 committee meeting | Approve the Oct 14 minutes; the first Treasurer's report against the new budget. | Scheduled |
| Nov 20-22 | Foundations Weekend at Camp Wakpominee. | Scheduled |
| By Dec 31 | Every backup in the roles matrix confirmed one on one. | Planned |
Goal 1 · due Apr 30, 2027
Joint troop and pack recruiting process
Approved Oct 14Document a repeatable annual recruiting process run jointly by Troop 3054 and Pack 3054, and post it on the recruiting page of the troop portal.
Done when
This goal is complete when a repeatable annual recruiting process is documented and posted on the recruiting page of the Troop 3054 portal, with a named maintainer and an annual review date. Because it is a joint troop and pack plan, that requires it to be drafted and approved by the troop committee and by the pack's key three. Running the fall sign-up and one crossover-season event is how the process gets tested before it is posted.
Pass conditions, from the measurable
| Pass condition | Evidence | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Repeatable annual process documented | "Pack-to-Troop Recruiting Cycle": the path from Lion to First Class, ground rules, the year month by month, who does what, and the numbers to keep. The fall sign-up, peer invitation and the crossover handoff are written in as yearly steps. | Done Oct 2026 |
| Posted on the portal's recruiting page | my.troop3054.org Recruiting page, How it works tab. Both units approved it on Oct 14, so it moves from draft to adopted there. | Posted |
| Annual review date | Every August, before fall recruiting, as set in the Oct 14 motion. | Set: August |
| Named maintainer | The New Member Coordinator, named in the Oct 14 motion. The Webmaster, Committee Chair and Scoutmaster can edit it too. | Named |
| Approved by the troop committee | Approved by recorded vote at the Oct 14 committee meeting, and in the minutes on troop3054.org. View it | Oct 14 |
| Approved by the pack's Key 3 | Given at the Oct 14 committee meeting and recorded in the minutes, well ahead of the Jan 31 date. | Oct 14 |
How the process gets tested
| Milestone | What happened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| National tools in place | Both units' BeAScout pins set with online applications on, and Invitation Manager in use. troop3054.org/cubs and pack3054.org/join only forward to the pack's official my.Scouting application; no page of ours keeps a lead (checked Oct 5). | Done early |
| Fall sign-up | Open house tables, a joint New Scout Night on Sept 21, a 24-post campaign, a welcome email to 49 families, and follow-up on open inquiries. Peer invitation is working too: a friend brought in by a troop Scout joined in October. | Ran fall 2026 |
| Crossover-season step | In the process and planned: the Arrow of Light crossover at Blue & Gold, with troop Scouts running the bridge. | Planned, Mar 15 |
What ran this fall
The path a Scout takes, with this fall's pack numbers (council roster Oct 4, plus families in progress):
- Lion1
- Tiger3 + 3
- Wolf4 + 1
- Bear7 + 3
- Webelos8 + 1
- AOL8
- TroopCrossover
What the fall taught us, now written into the process
- The meeting time and place belong on everything. A parent who has to ask has already started looking for a reason not to come.
- Seven applications sat at "Initiated" in my.Scouting, each on a countdown. Check Application Manager weekly in the fall.
- Answer every inquiry within 24 hours. Three inquiries from August and September were still marked "Opened" in October.
- At the Harvest Festival, troop Scouts taught at almost every station. That is the strongest recruiting picture either unit has.
- Scouts recruit Scouts. In October a troop Scout invited a friend, and the friend joined: the peer invitation the ticket calls for, run by the Scouts themselves.
Artifacts
Feedback this goal answers
Ticket counselor, Sept 2
Use national tools: the BeAScout pin is the join form, and applicants land in Invitation Manager. Invitation Manager is per unit, so use two unit lists and an agreed sharing rhythm.
Done: both pins set, Invitation Manager in use, and one named owner in each unit who backs up the other (the pack and troop New Member Coordinators).
Ticket counselor, Sept 2
Knowledge management: where it lives, who edits, who maintains, what review cadence.
It lives on the portal's Recruiting page. The Webmaster, Committee Chair, Scoutmaster and New Member Coordinator can edit; other leaders can read and copy. It is reviewed every August, before fall recruiting.
The full SMART goal, as approved
- SSpecific
- I will write a repeatable annual recruiting process for the troop and the pack and publish it on the recruiting page of the Troop 3054 portal. It points every family into Scouting America's official join path, both units' BeAScout pins and Invitation Manager, and covers the fall sign-up, peer invitation our Scouts run themselves, and the crossover handoff from Arrow of Light into the troop. Constraint: no page of ours sits in the registration path or stores a lead, so nothing here leaves the units a tool to maintain.
- MMeasurable
- This goal is complete when a repeatable annual recruiting process is documented and posted on the recruiting page of the Troop 3054 portal, with a named maintainer and an annual review date. Because it is a joint troop and pack plan, that requires it to be drafted and approved by the troop committee and by the pack's key three. Running the fall sign-up and one crossover-season event is how the process gets tested before it is posted.
- AAttainable
- Configuring the BeAScout pins and Invitation Manager is setup work inside my.scouting that I can do myself, and the writing is mine. Roadblocks: the pack has its own leadership and calendar and runs on its key three rather than a committee, and pack recruiting pays the troop back at crossover rather than this year. Mitigation is the Pack Minute already standing on our committee agenda as where this gets worked monthly, one named owner per unit, and getting the pack's approval in writing early rather than at the end.
- RRelevant
- A coordinated recruiting effort grows the pack and the troop together, and that protects the youth experience: more Scouts means more patrols, more real leadership jobs, and a program that can run. Membership is committee work and it decides whether either unit exists in ten years. In a district this size the pack is the troop's recruiting engine, so a troop-only plan is a plan to shrink slowly.
- TTimely
- Process drafted by October 31, 2026. Both units' BeAScout pins verified and Invitation Manager in use by November 30, 2026. Fall sign-up run by December 31, 2026. Approved by the troop committee and the pack's key three by January 31, 2027. Crossover-season event run and the process posted to the portal's recruiting page by April 30, 2027.
Promotes membership growth and retention: Yes. Shows a line of sight to the youth: Yes.
Goal 2 · due May 31, 2027
Annual program calendar, built by the PLC
Scout-ledDocument an annual program planning procedure for the Patrol Leaders' Council, and prove it works with a Scout-built program year calendar posted to the troop portal.
Done when
This goal is complete when two things are posted to the Troop 3054 portal: the annual program planning procedure, revised from the PLC's own review of it, and the program year calendar the PLC produces at the annual planning conference using it, with a start time and a location on every event. Changes the Scouts make to that calendar afterward do not undo completion.
Pass conditions, from the measurable
| Pass condition | Evidence | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Planning procedure posted to the portal | Written and posted: the "Planning Meetings (PLC)" section of the troop's app guide covers who writes plans, planning the month (the general idea for each meeting, who's teaching, what to wear and bring, and the rank requirements it covers), the one-line review after every meeting, and which committee position to ask for help. The PLC used it to plan the rest of the year through the fourth quarter, and the troop is now Scout-led. View it | Posted |
| Procedure revised from the PLC's own review | The PLC used the procedure to plan the fourth quarter. Next, it reviews the procedure itself (what worked, what didn't, what to change), and its changes go into the posted version. | By Oct 31 |
| PLC's program-year calendar posted to the portal | The full 2026-27 program year is on the portal calendar, 60 events through June 2027, and on the public calendar at troop3054.org. The PLC has planned through the fourth quarter (October to December), and the rest of the year follows the same procedure. | Posted |
| Start time and location on every event | 58 of the 61 events on the 2026-27 calendar have both. The other three, Blue & Gold and the two Memorial Day events, aren't confirmed yet and get a time and place when they're set; the portal's Program page flags them until then. | 58 of 61 |
Milestones (not pass conditions)
| Milestone | What happened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Handoff agreed with the Scoutmaster | Recorded in the Sept 2 committee minutes, posted on troop3054.org: "The committee affirmed the troop's move to a fully Scout-led model." Adults give feedback rather than plans. | Sept 2 |
| A place for the PLC to plan, in the portal | Plan the month on the Program page, and a Plan card on every meeting and outing: what we're doing, who's teaching (a Scout or leader as point person), what to wear and bring, and the rank requirements it covers. Simplified on Oct 12 so it's an aid rather than extra work: the general idea, not a minute-by-minute schedule. | Live; simplified Oct 12 |
| Procedure drafted; SPL walked through it one on one | Meeting planning is drafted and posted, and the SPL is writing a first meeting plan, for first aid. The annual planning section is next, then the one-on-one walkthrough with the SPL before it reaches the PLC. | By Dec 31 |
| PLC's post-meeting review running | A one-line review after each event, next to the plan. The PLC unticks any rank requirement it didn't get to, so Scouts only get credit for what was taught. Next step: a PLC training night, with Scout sign-ins set up first. | By Feb 28 |
| Annual planning conference | The SPL runs it; the PLC picks the activities and puts a Scout's name on each. The current calendar has 12 events still missing a time or place, the PLC's first calendar task. | Spring 2027 |
What the planning record shows today
The first meeting plan (Oct 5, Trailer Cleanout, Class B) was entered by the Committee Chair as the model. From the training night on, plans are written by the SPL, ASPL, patrol leaders, Troop Guide, Scribe and Quartermaster.
Artifacts
Feedback this goal answers
Course director, Sept 14
For Goal 2, do you plan a feedback cycle with the PLC to iterate and refine the plan and build alignment?
Yes, built into the rhythm: the PLC reviews each meeting right after it happens, so the loop runs every few weeks instead of once a year. The review lives on the same Plan card, and the Program page shows any review still waiting. After the annual conference, the PLC reviews the procedure itself before it is posted.
Ticket counselor, Sept 2
Don't over-delegate to youth. If you leave too much up to the kids they will default to less than is actually required for success.
It isn't a blank page: every plan names what the meeting is for and a Scout or leader as point person, it can tie the meeting to the rank requirements it covers, and the Program page shows adults any meeting that isn't planned yet.
The full SMART goal, as approved
- SSpecific
- I will write a short annual program planning procedure based on Scouting America's annual planning conference materials rather than something I invent, and coach the senior patrol leader through it one on one before it reaches the PLC. The Scoutmaster and I prepare, the senior patrol leader runs the conference, and the PLC picks the activities and puts a Scout's name on each. The PLC reviews each meeting it planned right after that meeting, so the procedure gets tested every few weeks rather than once a year. Constraint: youth-led does not mean unstructured, and the calendar the Scouts produce is a plan, not a contract.
- MMeasurable
- This goal is complete when two things are posted to the Troop 3054 portal: the annual program planning procedure, revised from the PLC's own review of it, and the program year calendar the PLC produces at the annual planning conference using it, with a start time and a location on every event. Changes the Scouts make to that calendar afterward do not undo completion.
- AAttainable
- Writing the procedure is mine. Running the conference is theirs, which is the point. Roadblocks: adults filling silences out of habit, and a PLC that has not planned at this level before. Mitigation is agreeing with the Scoutmaster in advance on exactly what the committee stops doing, walking the senior patrol leader through the procedure beforehand rather than correcting him during the conference, and keeping the ask to a calendar rather than a fully worked plan for every event.
- RRelevant
- The committee had been doing the Scouts' planning for them, which is the patrol method backwards. A troop where the Scouts build the year gets a program they chose and a dozen of them get real practice at planning something and being held to it. This is the change I asked the committee to make for this program year, and it is worth nothing if it depends on me being in the room.
- TTimely
- Handoff agreed with the Scoutmaster by October 31, 2026. Procedure drafted and the senior patrol leader walked through it by December 31, 2026. PLC's post-meeting review running by February 28, 2027. Annual planning conference held, the procedure revised from the PLC's feedback, and both it and the calendar posted to the portal by May 31, 2027.
Promotes membership growth and retention: Yes. Shows a line of sight to the youth: Yes.
Goal 3 · due Jan 31, 2027
Adult roles and responsibilities matrix
Adopted Oct 14Build a matrix of adult roles and responsibilities with named holders and backups, so the troop keeps operating through leadership changes and no single adult holds a job nobody else can do.
Done when
This goal is complete when the roles and responsibilities matrix is posted to the Troop 3054 portal with a named maintainer and adopted by recorded committee vote. Every role and every shared responsibility the committee identifies as single-point carries a named holder, a named backup wherever one has been found, and any remaining gap written down with someone owning the job of closing it. Adoption also sets the review rotation, one or two committee documents a year rather than all of them at once.
Pass conditions, from the measurable
| Pass condition | Evidence | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Matrix posted to the portal | Roles & backups in the portal is the only place people get put on jobs. It feeds the public Get Involved page, so the website can't drift from the record. Holders and backups were entered Oct 14 to match the adopted matrix. | Posted |
| Named maintainer | The Committee Chair, named in the Oct 14 motion. | Oct 14 |
| Adopted by recorded committee vote | Adopted Oct 14, and in the minutes on troop3054.org. View it | Oct 14 |
| A named holder for every role and single-point job | Built from Scouting America's official position list. Every committee and Key 3 seat has a holder except Secretary, which the Committee Chair covers until it's filled, and the portal and the public Get Involved page match the adopted matrix. Shared single-point jobs are listed by role: website and domain, app, calendar, Facebook and BAND (Webmaster); the bank account (Treasurer); records, key files and the committee email list (Secretary); recharter and my.Scouting (Committee Chair). Who holds access and how it transfers, never passwords. | In the portal |
| A named backup wherever one has been found | Eight backups named in the adopted matrix. Each one gets confirmed one on one with the person by the end of December. | 8 named |
| Every remaining gap written down, with an owner | Every open seat and every role without a backup says what is at risk and who is working to close it. Open now: Secretary, and a backup for the Scoutmaster. | Written |
| Review rotation set at adoption | Set in the Oct 14 motion: the roles matrix each September, the budget process each May. | Oct 14 |
Artifacts
The one-page positions summary and the portal's roles matrix name individual volunteers, so they are not shown here. Both are available on request. How to ask
Feedback this goal answers
Course director, Sept 14
Is there a plan to ensure alignment of the position descriptions before releasing it to the leaders?
Yes. Nobody is described in writing without seeing their own entry first. The descriptions start from Scouting America's published duties, so each conversation is "does this match what you actually do." Backups are asked individually, not volunteered into in a meeting, and the committee votes before anything is published.
Two hats come off the Committee Chair when Training Coordinator is handed off: Youth Protection compliance sits with that role in Scouting America's duty list.
The full SMART goal, as approved
- SSpecific
- I will document every key troop role and every shared responsibility that currently lives with one person: committee positions, social media administration, website and domain access, communications, bank account authorization and custody of key files. I will start from Scouting America's published position descriptions rather than my own wording, and confirm each entry one on one with the person holding it before it goes anywhere. Backups are asked individually rather than volunteered into in a meeting. Constraint: no passwords or credentials, only who holds access and how it transfers.
- MMeasurable
- This goal is complete when the roles and responsibilities matrix is posted to the Troop 3054 portal with a named maintainer and adopted by recorded committee vote. Every role and every shared responsibility the committee identifies as single-point carries a named holder, a named backup wherever one has been found, and any remaining gap written down with someone owning the job of closing it. Adoption also sets the review rotation, one or two committee documents a year rather than all of them at once.
- AAttainable
- This is an inventory and a set of conversations, both within my reach as chair, and putting it to a vote is my own agenda, and the committee already votes on items using an abridged Robert's Rules, so adoption is an established practice rather than something new. Roadblocks: people are reluctant to be named as a backup, and some access is held by volunteers who have drifted away. Mitigation is the three-tier volunteer model, where backup is a small defined job rather than an open commitment.
- RRelevant
- The troop currently depends on a handful of adults and I am one of them. A troop that cannot survive my leaving is not a troop I have actually served, and every week lost to an adult handoff going badly is a week of program the Scouts do not get back.
- TTimely
- Matrix drafted by November 30, 2026. Backups identified and confirmed by December 31, 2026. Adopted by recorded committee vote and published to the portal, with the review rotation set, by January 31, 2027.
Promotes membership growth and retention: Yes. Shows a line of sight to the youth: Yes.
Goal 4 · due Feb 28, 2027
Annual budget process
Adopted Oct 14Establish a written annual budget process the committee owns and works from the troop's program calendar.
Done when
Done when a one to two page written budgeting process exists naming when budgeting happens each year and who owns each step, the committee has adopted it by recorded vote in the minutes, and it is published to the portal with a named maintainer and next year's budgeting dates on the committee calendar. Building an actual budget from it is the obvious next step and I intend to do it, but it is not the pass condition here.
Pass conditions, from the measurable
| Pass condition | Evidence | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Written process: when budgeting happens and who owns each step | "How Troop 3054 Builds Its Budget": a calendar from the PLC's April 30 program calendar to the May vote, who supplies each line, how income is estimated, how reserves are used, and how the committee approves it. It sits beside the Financial Controls policy, which requires the annual budget. View it | Written |
| Adopted by recorded committee vote, in the minutes | Adopted Oct 14, and in the minutes on troop3054.org. View it | Oct 14 |
| Published to the portal with a named maintainer | Posted Oct 14 on troop3054.org's Governance page, with the Treasurer as maintainer and a review each May. In the member portal, a Documents page lists it with every other adopted document, its maintainer and its review, and the adopted budget sits on a Finances page that opens with the reader's own PIN. The Treasurer can update it there, and in May can start next year's draft from it. | Oct 14 |
| Next year's budgeting dates on the committee calendar | All five FY 2027-28 dates are on the troop app's calendar for the adults, each linking to the process: the PLC's program calendar (April 30), line amounts to the Treasurer (May 5), the draft to the committee (May 8), the budget vote at the May 12 meeting, and the adopted budget posted (June 30). Every committee meeting also lists its budget items. | Oct 14 |
The process, run once (not a pass condition)
| Milestone | What happened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| First budget built with it | Built in October from the Treasurer's statement: the program calendar sets the expense side and each line has an owner. Built before the process document, so the document describes what actually happened. | Oct 2026 |
| Actuals reconciled with the Treasurer | Every unclear check explained by the Treasurer on Oct 5. One small deposit is still unidentified and is recorded that way. | Oct 5 |
| Budget vote | The 2026-27 budget itself, adopted Oct 14 alongside the process, a month earlier than planned. | Oct 14 |
What the first run showed
Popcorn commission goes to Scout accounts, not the troop, and families pay outing fees directly. Writing it down turned "we don't really have a budget" into a picture the committee could act on. It adopted the budget, draw from reserves and all, and talked through new income: a flat troop fee from fundraisers instead of a cut of Scouts' sales, grants, and bottle returns.
The line-by-line 2026-27 budget, with the Treasurer's actuals beside each estimate, is available on request. How to ask
Feedback this goal answers
Ticket counselor, Sept 2
Goal 4 put the Treasurer in the kill chain. No goal should have another person in it.
The goal was narrowed to the process only. The budget was still built, as the ticket intended, but completion never waited on anyone else's numbers.
Bonus: Twin Rivers Council's Pathfinder program adds 3% to the popcorn commission for units that submit an annual budget, calendar, succession plan and membership plan. Goals 1 through 4 produce all four, and the commission goes to Scout accounts.
The full SMART goal, as approved
- SSpecific
- I will write the troop's annual budgeting process and bring it to the committee for adoption. The process sets when budgeting happens in the year, who supplies which numbers, how the program calendar drives the expense side, how income is estimated, and how the committee approves the result. Constraint: the treasurer's bookkeeping works and is not being replaced, and this goal is the process rather than any one year's numbers, so completing it does not wait on anyone else's schedule.
- MMeasurable
- Done when a one to two page written budgeting process exists naming when budgeting happens each year and who owns each step, the committee has adopted it by recorded vote in the minutes, and it is published to the portal with a named maintainer and next year's budgeting dates on the committee calendar. Building an actual budget from it is the obvious next step and I intend to do it, but it is not the pass condition here.
- AAttainable
- Writing the process and putting it on a committee agenda are both entirely within my control as chair, which is the point of scoping the goal this way rather than around a budget that needs someone else's numbers on my timeline. Roadblocks: incomplete history to describe the estimating step, and a committee unused to voting on financial documents. This goal does not wait on goal 2: the process describes how a program calendar feeds a budget, and the troop has a calendar today. The two documents will co-evolve. Mitigation is writing the process from last year's actuals rather than from theory, and pairing the vote with the policy review already scheduled this fall.
- RRelevant
- A fiscally strong troop is a troop that is ready to support the annual plan. Anything less puts the youth experience at risk and places undue financial burden on families. In the model I asked this committee to adopt, our job is money, logistics and paperwork, and money is first on that list.
- TTimely
- Process drafted by October 31, 2026. Reviewed with the treasurer and presented to the committee by November 30, 2026. Adopted by recorded committee vote and published to the member portal by February 28, 2027.
Promotes membership growth and retention: Yes. Shows a line of sight to the youth: Yes.
Goal 5 · due Dec 31, 2026
Foundations Weekend, coached and documented
Nov 20-22Coach the PLC through the first Troop 3054 Foundations Weekend and document the planning process so future years can repeat it without me.
Done when
This goal is complete when four things are done: the weekend is held, the PLC completes an after-action review, the planning procedure is posted to the Troop 3054 portal, and a placeholder for next year's Foundations Weekend is on the calendar.
Pass conditions, from the measurable
| Pass condition | Evidence | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Weekend held | Troop trip to Camp Wakpominee, Nov 20-22. Scout-taught; adults supervise, drive and cook. | Nov 20-22 |
| PLC after-action review | Added after the weekend. | By Dec 31 |
| Planning procedure posted to the portal | Written from how this year's weekend was planned, so the next PLC can repeat it. | By Dec 31 |
| Next year's weekend on the calendar | A placeholder for Foundations Weekend 2027. | By Dec 31 |
Milestones (not pass conditions)
| Milestone | What happened | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Concept to the PLC; weekend on the calendar | Troop trip to Camp Wakpominee, Nov 20-22, on the live calendar. | Done |
| Advancement gap list | The Scout through First Class requirements each attending Scout still needs, from advancement records. | Oct 16 |
| Program schedule and Scout instructors | Each instructor picks the requirement they teach; Teaching EDGE walk-through at a PLC meeting. | Oct 30 |
Feedback this goal answers
Course director, Sept 14
What do you need to do to ensure that the older Scouts are prepared? Are you comfortable you will get their support?
Three things: Scouts pick their requirement from the gap list rather than being handed one, each instructor gets a coaching session with a merit badge counselor beforehand, and the PLC walks through Teaching EDGE first. For Star Scouts, teaching a Tenderfoot through First Class skill with Teaching EDGE is Life requirement 6, so the weekend is their own advancement too.
This section fills in after the weekend: the schedule, instructor list, after-action review and photos, with no Scout faces shown.
The full SMART goal, as approved
- SSpecific
- I will coach the PLC through developing the first Troop 3054 Foundations Weekend, a Scout-led campout where older Scouts teach the Scout through First Class requirements the attending Scouts still need, picked from our advancement records, and I will document the planning process for future years. Each Scout instructor chooses which requirement to teach rather than being handed one, and we walk through Teaching EDGE at a PLC meeting beforehand. The weekend is the November 20-22, 2026 troop trip to Camp Wakpominee. Constraint: it is Scout-taught. Adults supervise, drive and cook.
- MMeasurable
- This goal is complete when four things are done: the weekend is held, the PLC completes an after-action review, the planning procedure is posted to the Troop 3054 portal, and a placeholder for next year's Foundations Weekend is on the calendar.
- AAttainable
- Working with the senior patrol leader, the assistant senior patrol leader and the Scoutmaster, I have the skills to teach the troop leadership team to run this kind of event and to document the process. The concept has been talked about and the weekend is already on the calendar. Roadblock: I do not yet have individual commitments from the Scouts who would instruct. Mitigation is that Life requirement 6 is teaching another Scout with Teaching EDGE from the Tenderfoot through First Class list, so for our Star Scouts this weekend is their own advancement, and each instructor gets a coaching session with a merit badge counselor beforehand.
- RRelevant
- Reaching First Class in the first year is the strongest predictor of a Scout staying. This gives newer Scouts a concentrated path to it and gives older Scouts a real leadership assignment instead of a title, which serves both ends of the roster in the same weekend.
- TTimely
- Concept presented to the PLC and the site reservation confirmed by September 30, 2026. Advancement gap list built by October 16, 2026. Program schedule and Scout instructor assignments complete by October 30, 2026. Weekend held November 20-22, 2026. After-action review done, planning procedure posted to the portal and next year's placeholder on the calendar by December 31, 2026.
Promotes membership growth and retention: Yes. Shows a line of sight to the youth: Yes.
Where the work lives
Systems built to hold the work
Each goal's process lives somewhere findable, with a name on it and a review date. Three systems hold them. All work on iPhone, Android and PC, and day-to-day content is self-serve for leaders, so none of it depends on one person to keep current.
Member portal · my.troop3054.org
- Program planning: plan the month, one-line reviews, and rank requirements tied to attendance (Goal 2)
- Recruiting page with the joint process and post toolkit (Goal 1)
- Roles & backups, feeding the public site (Goal 3)
- A calendar that feeds the public site and families' phone calendars
- Sign-in by emailed code, no passwords; access follows a person's position
- Youth protection by design: no private messages, and notifications pause overnight
Public sites · troop3054.org and pack3054.org
- The two sites point to each other: "Ages 11 to 17? Visit Troop 3054" and "Visit Pack 3054"
- Every Join path ends at Scouting America's own application
- The pack's leader app updates the pack website and families' calendars with no publishing step
- A Committee & Governance page publishes meeting dates, agendas and minutes
- Drawings instead of photos of children on the pack site
Continuity
- Written handoff guides. The pack site ships with a maintainer's guide for a non-programmer: how pages, the calendar and publishing work.
- Access recorded, not passwords. The roles matrix lists who holds the domain, hosting, bank and records, and how each transfers.
- Still to do: a second portal admin, and a one-page note of where each account lives and who holds it, for both units.
Screens
The portal holds youth information, so it appears here in dated screenshots rather than through reviewer accounts. A live walkthrough is available on request.
Additional work
Built alongside the ticket
None of this is a pass condition, and none of it counts toward the status above. It's what got built next to the five goals since the course began. One tie back to Goal 3: who keeps the troop's books comes straight from the roles matrix, so when the Treasurer or a backup changes there, access to the books changes with it.
Pack 3054's website and leader app
pack3054.org and my.pack3054.org · live Oct 5, 2026
- Nine pages written for Jefferson Elementary families: how Cub Scouts works, the six dens by grade, joining in three steps, a family guide, and who runs the pack.
- Pack leaders keep the calendar in their own app, signing in with an emailed code. The website, families' phone calendars and troop3054.org's pack switch all read from it, so there's nothing to publish.
- Families can filter the calendar by den, and a "Lion or Tiger?" switch shows only the den meetings Lions and Tigers come to. The whole year also prints as a PDF.
- It's a separate app from the troop's, with its own accounts and data, and it runs on Cloudflare's free plan.
- Listed in Google Search Console, with a Google Business Profile, so a parent searching for Cub Scouts in Rotterdam finds it.
The troop's books, in the member portal
my.troop3054.org · Oct 14-15, 2026
- A double-entry ledger: every dollar moves from one account to another, so the books always balance. Nothing is deleted; a mistake is reversed by a matching entry.
- Every Scout has their own account, opened with their last known balance.
- A register for each account that reads like a checkbook, reconciling against the bank statement, and a monthly Treasurer's report that prints for the committee without naming Scouts.
- Popcorn payouts split the commission by what each Scout sold, to the cent, straight into their Scout account. The whole split is reviewed on screen before it is recorded.
- Closing a year locks its entries, and next year's draft budget starts from the adopted one.
- Who sees what follows position. The Treasurer, the Committee Chair and their backups keep the books. The rest of the committee and the Scoutmaster read the budget, and other adult leaders read the popcorn payouts. Scouts and parents see none of it, and it opens only with the reader's own PIN.
- The books export to spreadsheets and to Beancount, an open accounting format, so the records never depend on this app.
More in the portal and on troop3054.org
Sept and Oct 2026
- "Using the Troop App," a public training guide at troop3054.org/app.html. Its screenshots come from a made-up demo troop, so no real Scout appears.
- Sponsors can give online through Zeffy, which doesn't charge the troop fees.
- The public calendar shows event flyers, and its RSVP button signs a family in and lands them on that event.
- Volunteer hours are logged on any event.
- Sign in with Google, next to the emailed code.
Security and privacy
Oct 2026
- Admin tools need a Google sign-in. A PIN or an emailed code still gets a leader into the portal, but not into admin.
- An October audit checked every one of the portal's 30 data routes while signed out. None returns anything without a sign-in.
- Finance records stay out of the weekly admin backup email. The people who keep the books download their own copy.
- More than 550 automated checks cover sign-in, privacy, planning and the finances.
Reviews
How the ticket was shaped
-
Aug 28-30
Wood Badge Weekend 1, Camp Wakpominee.
-
Aug 31
First ticket draft to my ticket counselor: five goals, all pointed at a troop that keeps running without depending on any one adult.
-
Sept 2 · First review
"The ticket is the acorn, not the whole tree." No goal should have another person in its kill chain. Use national tools. Name where each document lives, who maintains it and when it is reviewed. Don't over-delegate to youth. Goal 4 narrowed to the process only.
-
Sept 9 · Second review
"The scoping of this ticket is on point. Ambitious, but not killing yourself." Every measurable became one sentence a cold reader can check; Goal 2 restored its procedure document; Goal 5 was rewritten around coaching the PLC.
-
Sept 14 · Course director's questions
A feedback cycle with the PLC (Goal 2), alignment of position descriptions (Goal 3), and preparing the older Scouts (Goal 5). Answered the same day: "Great insights. Please refine the goals with these and think we are looking good for your ticket." Final ticket sent that afternoon.
-
Sept 19 · Approved
Wood Badge Weekend 2. The council Vice President of Program reviewed the ticket: "vision - i like it," all five goals "like it," and "approved."
-
Oct 2026
Work underway on all five goals.
-
Oct 14 · Committee votes
The committee adopted the roles matrix, the budget process and the 2026-27 budget, and approved the joint recruiting process, with the pack's Key 3 giving their OK the same night. All three votes landed months ahead of the ticket's dates.
Drafting rules the ticket kept
- Roles, not names, in the goal text.
- No goal depends on another person producing work on my timeline, on a second annual cycle, or on another goal's output.
- Recruitment headcount is an outcome, never the pass condition.
- Every Attainable names a real roadblock and its mitigation.
The next cycle
Who runs it next year
The proof of the vision is that each process repeats on its own schedule, with someone other than the Committee Chair named on it.
| Recurring step | Owner | When |
|---|---|---|
| Joint New Scout Night and open house tables | Pack and troop New Member Coordinators | September |
| Foundations Weekend | Senior Patrol Leader and the PLC | November |
| Arrow of Light crossover at Blue & Gold | Cubmaster, with troop Scouts running the bridge | March |
| New Scouts camp with the troop within 30 days of crossing | Scoutmaster and Troop Guide | April |
| Annual planning conference | Senior Patrol Leader | Spring |
| Budget built from the PLC's new calendar | Treasurer | After the conference |
| Recruiting review: last year's numbers, BeAScout pins | Each unit's Key 3 and the troop committee | May |
| Recruiting process review | New Member Coordinator | August |
| Roles matrix review | Committee Chair and the committee | September |
| Budget process review, at the budget vote | Treasurer and the committee | May |
For reviewers
Available on request
Some of the evidence names individual volunteers or families, or shows the troop's accounts, so it is not on this page. Any of it is available to my ticket counselor and course director:
- The line-by-line 2026-27 troop budget, with the Treasurer's actuals
- The adult positions summary and the portal's roles matrix, with names
- A live walkthrough of the member portal
Ask at will@willmau.com.
Scout names and faces are not shown. Screenshots were taken Oct 14, 2026.
Image credits, via Wikimedia Commons: Wood Badge and woggle by Hideyuki Kamon, CC BY-SA 2.0, background removed; MacLaren tartan by SGT141, CC BY-SA 3.0; Wood Badge regalia by Gadget850 and the 1919 Gilwell photo, public domain.