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Does anyone have experience with recruiting outgoing Scoutmasters or Cubmasters as Unit Commissioners? How'd they do? I think their recent experience with the program would make them better candidates than non-scouters or 'retired' scouters. Joe IHS

Howdy! I'm a new Unit Commissioner in a district with 66 units and 4 UC's. Boy, a 16.5:1 ratio! Recently at Commissioner Basic Training I was the only attendee out of three districts who provided trainers. Obviously the Commissioner Staff in none of these district's is growing or interested in training for their existing staff. Does anyone have any ideas for attracting and retaining district level volunteers such as Commissioners? What strategies have/not worked in your district's and what caliber of people did you attract? IHS Joe

How opportune are Cubmaster Randy's remarks... I attended the Commissioner Basic Training this past weekend. It was an interesting 7 hours where 8 trainers representing 3 districts presented the material from the Commissioner Basic Training manual. For a couple of months I've been studying all of the official BSA Commissioner materials (inclusing the CBT) so this training was not exactly new in all respects, but there were a few things that the books didn't tell me. Eight trainers and 1 Commissioner trainee. Yep, no one else showed-up from any district. There was one other trainee of sorts, but he wasn't a Commissioner. I understand it's not my responsibility to select and recruit Commissioners but I'm going to talk with my ADC and DC about giving them a hand. In our district we have 4 Unit Commissioners for 66 units and yes, I'm including myself. Apparently our neighboring districts are slightly better off but without any attendees it's hard to heap praise on them. At any rate, I'm very thankful for everyone's comments and encouragement. I'm going to try to put into practice the several pearls of wisdom that were shared. It's now clear to me that my age will probably not be the Achilles heel when dealing with units. It's more than likely going to be a sense of astonishment that our district does actually have UC's who perform unit visitations. Thanks in no small part to Cubmaster Randy's comments on enlisting Commissioners I'm spinning this off into a new thread regarding ideas for selecting, recruiting and retaining Commissioners. If anyone has any further comments on 'Younger (than average?) Unit Commissioner just starting out' I'd of course appreciate them. IHS Joe

Howdy Folks. I'm a new UC with 5 years experience as a scouter. In this time I've served my son's Pack in numerous ways and leadership positions (see my profile). I decided to transition to UC work when I stepped down as CM this spring. At 35, I'm the youngest commissioner in our district by at least 15-20 years. I've taken all the cub leadership training available and have always been a regular RT attendee. Like many of you, I've also spent a small fortune on the official BSA printed materials. In one week I'll be attending my Commissioner training and in the fall I'm signed-up for wood badge (employer paid no less!). I'm going to start attending boy scout leadership training asap. I'm engaged and self motivated - I love the scouting program and learning as much as I can about it. HOWEVER, I'm concerned my age will result in a perceived lack of experience that will handicap me when dealing with unit scouters. Has anyone had any experiences AS or WITH a younger UC? Also, how do you convince units you're not the district spy? IHS Joe