Hello, and Welcome to the Staff of Wood Badge Course C-27-10!

You are receiving this email because you have agreed to be on Staff. Thanks very much! The dates for the course are March 12-14, 2010, and April 9-11, 2010. The course runs from 8:00 AM on Friday to 5:00 PM on Sunday each weekend. As Staff, we will probably need to be there Thursday evening to make sure all is in readiness. As staff, the fee for this course is $80. Please bring this fee to our first meeting in December, as this is the fee that will pay for staff food in January and February!

Let me introduce the (for want of a better word) command team. If every you have a question, ask one of these people, and they will find an answer for you.

I (Joe Benz) am the Course Director, and the final responsibility for running a successful course is mine. Of course I can not do this by myself, so I have a few people (all of you!) whom are more competent than me to help me do the job. A few specific people whose job is help me (gently) see the error of my ways and get me back on track are:
Carol Alpsteg, the backup course director
Traci Raber, the Staff Advisor (professional scouter),
Tyson Coble, the Senior Patrol Leader
Randy Gunn, the Mentor to the Course Director.

Any of these people can answer any questions you might have. When in doubt, give me a call on my cell phone at 308-293-9256. I'll be glad to take your call, and get you an answer.

I am also writing to provide you with some staff development dates. These dates are very important, and help us to come together as a team, and to learn the material that we must present to the participants. There will be three of these, and it is extremely important that all the staff are present. Here are the dates, times, and places.

Sunday, December 13th, 1 PM to 7 PM at the Council Service Center in Grand Island.
Friday, January 29, 7 PM to Sunday,  January 31, 5 PM at Camp Augustine in Grand Island.
Friday, February 19, 7 PM to Sunday February 21, 5 PM at Camp Augustine

We will have very full schedule for each of these days, and high on the priority list is having a great time while learning a lot.

I have attached a staff list, please check it over and let me know if all your information is correct. I don't have critter information for a lot of you, please provide that on the 13th (if not before). Notice that the staff assignments are tentative, except for a few (thanks Butch!). On the 13th, we will make final staffing assignments, and start preparing for the day our course starts.

On a final note, we need to have a minimum of 30 participants 30 days prior to the course starting date. That "drop dead" date is February 6th. So Recruit, Recruit, Recruit! If we each recruit two participants, we will have more than enough for a successful course.

Yours in Scouting
Joe Benz
Course Director, C-27-10