Lost my Advancement Guy

[AnnLaurelB]

I'm heartbroken. Our Advancement Chair, who's 78, and was the Cubmaster back in the 60's, stepped down (without notice) Monday night after Pack meeting. "I'm retiring," is all he said.

 

Well, he *IS* 78 years old, and he DID just retire from his law practice. But... I think it has more to do with the in-your-face nature of the new CC. She's kind of abrasive.

 

*Sigh* Bear and Webs. Just gotta get the boy through Bear and Webs...

[ScoutNut]

Hopefully your CC will find a replacement Advancement Chair soon so the boys awards don't get overlooked.

[Basementdweller]

 

 

 

 

So is the new CC worth it????

[momof2cubs]

I'm sorry Ann.

 

Basement's question is valid. But it doesn't help your situation right now. Advancement Chair is my position in my pack and I think it's the best one. It's about shopping! YAY!. Ok, I jest somewhat. But it cannot be *too* hard to find someone to do it? At the cub level it's not all that difficult. If you use Packmaster (which you really should), it's all about sending e-mails to the leaders telling them to enter the awards by (enter your deadline each month), then printing the report, and going to the shop. Oh and putting them in envelopes for the boys. And distributing them at pack meetings.

 

Ok...it's more work than I though when you write it all out.

[SSScout]

mmmm... I put it here some... ah! Here tis...

"When you are given lemons, make lemonade... No, that's not the one...

 

"No closed door hasn't included a new window... mmmm, no.

 

"Way will open thru faith... aaahhh, not quite right.

 

"When you come to the fork in the road, take it... nooo.

 

*sigh* Well, I guess one thing you should do is celebrate the man's Scouting career and the (hundreds? thousands?) of boys he has helped along the way. Recognition at the next B&G and /or District award dinner would , I think, be in order. Find some of the (now)old Cubs and Scouts from his history. Has he been awarded the Unit Leader Award? Or the District Award, if appropriate?

After that, I honestly feel that the right person to take the Ad Chair will come along. And sometimes, with a little encouragement, even the CCfH can be brought around to the best use of their talents.

[Basementdweller]

Scouting is about people skills. Next to the CM the CC is the person shaking hands and making the volunteers feel good about the Pack and what they are doing......Paying the volunteers.

 

I am ruff and gruff here but my volunteers are golden. Never treat one of them bad ever.

 

If the CC is running a long time pack member off, I bet it is the first of many folks she will send packing.

 

 

I am not sure about your Pack, but before I recruited an Advancement Chair the entire process was good for most of a Saturday. Trip to the scout shop, signing all the cards, sorting by den and scout.... Finding or creating a ceremony.

 

Hours and hours....definately under appreciated job for sure.

 

 

 

I am curious by this statement

 

"Just gotta get the boy through Bear and Webs..." Care to elaborate?

[Scoutfish]

I'd definantly hold a dinner in his honor at the pack.

 

So you say he just retired from his job? Might be he has had long ago set out plans after he retirted, that he is ready to impliment and maybe he won't be able to perform well enough to be the advancement chair.

 

At his age, he may have just found out about or have just been diagnosed with some medical issues and

this is why he just stepped down without notice and just retire from HIS law firm.

 

I just discovered that one of our ADL's is going on dialysis and getting on a kidney transplant list. I had no idea, never heard her talk about it, and you'd never know by looking at her.

 

I am not going to say anything as she didn't tell me directly on purpose, but I got an unintended message from her by way of a facebook glitch. Apparently, she is not ready to discuss this outside of family, so she also may "suddenly" step down from the pack...and it might just coincidentally happen after a small arguement, or after what someone may percieve as a bad campout, bad meeting, her son not getting an award, etc..

 

Point being, we could make a connectrion that isn't there. Might just be coincidence.

 

BUT...... If this CC is causing this guy to quit, find out wether its bad chemestry, bad communication, or maybe a 78 year old scouter looking at all the yougins ( adults) and just deciding it time for a change of guard.

[Basementdweller]

Scoutfish.....

 

You have met a large number of lifetime and life long scouters by now.

 

Would such a man just quit with out an explanation and leaving the Pack he has been involved with for 50 years with out a replacement???????

 

No he wouldn't.

 

He would find a replacement or service notice when he was retiring from the position so a replacement could be found and trained before he left..

 

something isn't right....(This message has been edited by Basementdweller)

[AnnLaurelB]

Heh. What I meant by "Bears & Webs" is that I've been CM for 1 1/2 years. By the time I get the Tigers I started with bridged to the Troop, I'll have been CM for 4 years (if they bridge at 18 months).

 

If this gal continues in her ... forwardness, shall we say... I might be ready to move up with the boys and help behind the scenes with the Troop, rather than stay in Cub Scouts.

 

It *IS* worth it, to a large degree. We have 37 boys with signed paperwork (up from 13 last year), which is a huge jump for us. So her recruiting worked. And as far as my CM duties being to "Program and Boys", I have free reign, and have been relieved of a lot of the drudgery. So those are good things.

 

On the one hand, I did know that the ADV guy was retiring from law (his son told me a few months ago), but I *am* suspicious that he quit the Pack (without notice) 10 days after a rather ...obnoxious... Committee meeting.

 

If he'd been planning all along to resign, he would have announced it to the Committee, right? But he didn't. He waited 10 days, did our Pack meeting, then told me and the CC he was out, and that was that.

 

On the third hand, he's a grown man. I just don't like to think that he was run off by this gal that *I* essentially brought in as a ringer.

[5yearscouter]

Honestly my gut tells me that the guy was holding on with the pack to see if you could get it going again. and you did. so hes ready to get out. sometimes if you give them warning you are leaving, they seem to put up every kind of roadblock and guildt you into staying. so maybe he's thinking a fast and clean break is his only answer. also at his age, well if he wants to quit, it's his perogative, he doesn't really have to give a reason.

 

Health may be involved and he may not want to get into the details. Our current asst cubmaster is dying of lung cancer and doesn't want everyone to know because they treat him differently, and he wants to go out with real friends, not people faking nice to him because he's dying. kwim?

[Basementdweller]

Well, there is the answer a new CC is worth losing a 50 year pack leader over.

 

 

Possible he saw the the pack take off and knew that maybe his way was not the best.

 

Possible he just was fed up with how he was being treated.

 

Just because she does a good job as CC does not give her the right to treat a single soul poorly.

 

I have never been to a hostile or obnoxious Pack or committee meeting. How does that happen????

[Scoutfish]

Basement, the guy might have been in it for a long time, but the rest of the current memberships hasn't.

 

And no, not everybody will tell you if something is wrong and suddenly comes up..especially if it is a private medical problem or even mortally intensive.

 

Some people will blab about every single issue they have. Others will not tell you if they are on the last week of their 6 months to live.

 

My dad had a bad, bad heart condition. Part of his heart was dead and he was living on borowed time.

 

One day while fishing, he fell over dead. He knew it was imminent, my mom knew too. Myself, my two sisters and nobody else knew.

 

Why? Cause my dad lived his li9fe to the end, and had the same type of relationship with his family and friends to the end instead of having people fawn and worry over him, or having those people worry themselves to no end every time my dad did anything.

 

Having had years to think about what my dad did...I think he did a great thing b y keeping it to himself.

 

No, I am not saying that is what is happening in this case. Might be he thinks the CC is a jerk. Maybe he thinks scouting has changed way too much since he was a youth and couldn't bear the thought of advancing one more kid through a crock of a system. Maybe a DL acted in a way as to cause him to quit.

Maybe he sold his buisness and plans on spending the rest of his life sipping margarittas while watching women in thongs splash in the ocean down in some South American tropical village.

 

Who knows.

 

The thing taht makes me wonder..not determine why he did it..is that it is pretty sudden anbd coincides with his retiring from work.

 

Maybe he's dying, maye he's fixing to go on vcacatuion, maybe he decided that todays society is just a bunch of selfish peiople and he's tird of all the crap.

 

Your guess is as good as mine.

 

But, not everybody reacts the same way as you or I. Not everybody will find and train a replacement.

 

 

[SeattlePioneer]

I like the idea of honoring this long time Scouter at the Blue and Gold Dinner and with an award at the District Recognition dinner.

 

Also, it would be interesting to know why he quit.

[Lisabob]

Thank him for his service. Give him an emeritus position in the pack. Invite him to visit and lend a hand with whatever his favorite activity has been (preferably one that allows him distance from the obnoxious CC). Don't let him become a stranger.

 

On another note, might be time to have a friendly cup of coffee with your new CC. A "we need to work on your people skills" cup of coffee. Not that you'd say it so bluntly, or even bring up this guy's resignation. Being new, as she is, she may not fully appreciate where the other adults who have made the long hard slog to keep the pack together, are at. They may not appreciate her, either, but that's another story for another day.

 

(PS - congrats on your successful recruitment this year)

[AnnLaurelB]

~*UPDATE*~

 

I talked to the Adv guy's son, and he said that Mr.C turned in his company car when he retired, and his wife won't let him drive HER car outside of the city limits.

 

The Scout Store is 25 miles from here. And Mr.C does NOT do the internet -- not at all. He has never even embraced cell phones.

 

So according to his son, that's why he can't do Adv anymore -- he can't go get the Awards.