Where to Begin?

[Apache Bob]

I agree with BW and Eagle92.

This unit may have some program going but is it the Scouting program or one that a "unit leader" dreamed up.

Is the unit reconized by BSA. Was the charter completed and turned in?

This is your son's unit. Sign up as CC and start getting some things done correctly for the kids. I have heard for years about the leaders who do not think trained is needed. They are the ones who learn the most when they take the training.

Go for it.

[CNYScouter]

 

I have been asking myself a lot of the questions everyone has posted.

It is just frustrating that it seems that all the units near me are off doing there own thing.

 

I want to keep my son in a Pack within the school district but our schedule conflicts with too many activities with the other Packs.

 

I think in every unit I have been with there has been a least one Leader who has the you dont need training attitude.

The first Troop my son was with both the SM and CC had this attitude and it has been well over 10 years since some one from this Troop has had SM training.

Heck, this SM is also the Boy Scout Roundtable Commissioner and he wanted to eliminate all training (such as NLE or YPT) from Roundtable.

 

I know that if I am the Tiger DL I can make the program fun and at least keep the Den following the BSA program.

As this is the 3rd time through the Cub program I have a pretty good idea on what to do.

 

I have to say that I have been a CC before and wasnt very good at it.

But I have had lot more experience and training since then (Wood Badge for one) and have a lot more tools to use now.

Also if I take on the CC role, I will pretty much be the Tiger DL (or spending a good deal of time training them) as I have been through it before.

I have to say the thing I dont like doing as the CC is the recharter and with the mess the recharter is in I dont know if I it is something I want to take on.

The Pack at the school my son attends folded years ago and I dont know the parents and my son doesnt know any of the cubs.

My older kids know some of the older brother and sisters of the cubs

 

I also just realized that when I went to the council office to sign my son up for Cub Camp the registrar had no record of this Pack.

I now know why, with no charter in they have been dropped as an active unit.

 

This is similar to the Pack my sons was in.

A control freak did everything and wanted no help.

I think the thing that concerns me most is that this group is assuming everything will work itself out and flow as smoothly as before.

With all the new and untrained leaders I dont see things working out this way.

 

I didnt even ask about Tour permits. I just assumed it was like every other unit I have been involved in and they didnt do them.

The only tour permits that have been turned in with any other unit I have been in have been the ones I filled out.

 

I think this really shows the state of the District.

The recharter was due in Feb.

The new Pack leadership had no idea this hadnt been done and it took until August before anyone contacted him.

 

I sent an e-mail to the DC and asked him to contact me about this situation and if he could send me contact info for the UC.

Its been 4 days and I havent heard from him yet.

 

I also contacted a UC in this District I know from training staff. I let him know what the situation is and asked if he could bring this up at the next commissioners meeting.

 

 

 

 

[Lisabob]

OK CNY, let's assume that you'll end up as the CC but not the TDL.

 

Since you mention that you've been a CC in the past and it wasn't your cup of tea, it seems worth looking more closely at the good, bad, and ugly sides of this position this time around.

 

So what are your resources:

1) Wood Badge skills related to developing a shared vision/mission for the unit, conflict management, and leadership, which maybe you didn't have the last time around;

 

2) Wood Badge contacts (did you take WB in your home council?) - the day you accept this position as CC, start emailing and calling those folks from your WB class and your WB association (if you have one) whom you admire, tell them you're taking on a personal challenge to hold a position you struggled with last time, and start asking for specific types of support. Maybe one of them can become the unit UC. Maybe one of them has a boy scout troop that will provide a den chief for a wolf or bear den (forget the Webelos unless/until the WDL either wakes up or leaves). Maybe somebody can be an informal mentor for your new Cubmaster. Maybe you just need somebody to have a weekly/monthly venting coffee(beer? stronger??) session with. Maybe somebody could offer one or more great, sure-fire ADULT committee exercises to build a sense of teamwork here.

 

3) School contacts, church contacts, etc. Your son's school doesn't have a pack anymore, fine. But are you really telling me that neither you nor your spouse know any of the parents of other 1st grade boys though? Your son didn't have any friends last year in kindergarten? Nobody came over to the house for play dates? No neighbor kids whose dads you've talked with out in the driveway? Call up the most with-it moms and dads of some of those kids your son plays with, and get them to commit to joining the same pack as you. Tell them you can all car-pool. Sell scouting to them personally and then once they're hooked but good, start relying on them to become your Tiger den leaders. Don't rely on the pack to sell them; bring them in the door right along with you. That gives you a core of people you already know you can rely on.

 

4) New parents you don't know yet, who join the pack this fall. Sure, many of them won't know a darn thing about cub scouts. But with you there to welcome and guide them, that won't last long and you might have a whole group of new, dynamic, positive-thinking leaders. Recruit hard for Tigers and Wolves, where you have no "stuck in their ways" types of leaders to deal with. Get them started strong and on the right path and let them take off. Just because your son is a Tiger does NOT NOT NOT mean you have to end up as Tiger DL. What you do need, though, is to help locate and start a new Tiger DL who can do a good job so that you won't feel burdened or guilty about not doing it yourself.

 

5) District training options (if they exist). You're a Wood Badger, start pulling those strings. Get the best trainer in the district to come to your pack and deliver some kind of training at a committee meeting. Include the DLs. I know they're not part of the committee but now isn't the time to worry about that - all training is good training when in the situation you describe.

 

If there is no training team or they're all truly awful, you can at least give each and every leader multiple opportunities, reminders, and (eventually) kudos for making use of all the online training they can get their keyboards on, including YPT. For that matter, push YPT to every single PARENT in the pack (not just leaders), who will most likely then become allies in pushing your leaders to at least do that training.

 

Plain and simple, give new leaders every reason to get trained right away, and many will do it. Give older leaders a little push plus indirect pressure from others (parents) and several more will go along with the group. Make it so easy, so natural, so obvious for them that it becomes hard to say no. Some will still avoid it but they'll be outnumbered and dis-empowered.

 

5) Your new Cubmaster. Invite him out for coffee or over for dinner or whatever. Take the time to talk honestly (BUT POSITIVELY) with him about what cubbing can be, what he hopes to see happen with the pack, why he agreed to be the CM, and just a couple of ideas you have for how to help him. See if you can work as a team. If so then that WDL is going to find himself with no power.

 

Whatever you do, frame it in a positive way. If you can keep it positive, if you can build allies, and if you can recruit new folks who are willing to try it the BSA way first then you can have a solid pack pretty quickly, given the dearth of existing "leadership."

 

If you can't maintain a (mostly) positive approach then I submit that you will be miserable, cub scouting will become a burden, and your son won't enjoy it much either. Not to mention that your spouse will probably get sick of the constant drama and angst. If that's the reality of the situation then my advice is very simple: don't bother with this pack and go find a different one even if it means going outside the school district.

[Vicki]

CNY wrote, "I have to say the thing I dont like doing as the CC is the recharter and with the mess the recharter is in I dont know if I it is something I want to take on."

 

CNY, as someone who has reconstructed the administrative side of two businesses and two churches (and I mean places where they didn't have their corporate documents, the financial statements were a mess, and accounting "systems" were nonexistent) I can sympathize with your feeling here. But this is the easy part, believe it or not. Once you have a copy of the old charter and the district knows you're working on it, you take a deep breath and proceed to fill in the blanks. Don't look at the big picture at this point, just talk to the administrative person at the district that knows what they're doing (usually NOT the professional, may even be the person answering the phone) and break it down into baby steps. This is in their best interest too, they certainly don't want to lose a unit.

 

The hard part is on the people side. But even here, once you've talked to everybody you need new applications from (explaining carefully and over and over again that you're just here to make sure the groundwork is laid correctly) you'll know some people a lot better. The ones who get you what you need the fastest, who you only had to ask once, start cultivating.

 

And, please take this in the intended spirit of helpfulness from afar, don't get so wrapped up in this that you lose sight of your Tiger. This isn't nearly as important as those Tigers. If you truly look in the mirror and think you won't be able to prioritize between the two, then I wouldn't do the CC job.

 

Just a couple of thoughts, good luck, KISMIF,

Vicki