Visits from District or Council

[cubbingcarol]

Just curious, how often has a District or Council exec. come to any function (whether invited or just showed up) of your Pack or Troop?

 

Do they come to your Blue and Gold's if invited?

 

I'll tell you about ours after I hear from others.

 

Carol

[Eamonn]

Our Scout Exec. was complaining that he never gets an invite to Eagle Scout COH.

In the District we have 22 packs, nearly all invite the key3 to their B&G. They nearly all have these in February so it just isn't possible to get to all of them. We have four districts so the Scout Exec is really pressed.

Most Scout Execs. Are happy to leave the unit activities in the hands of the District Executive.

During my Cubmaster days we invited the Scout Exec and the District Key3 and the Unit Commissioner. We expected the Unit Commissioner to attend. We also invited the FOS guy to come and do his stuff -We knew that he would be there.

Eamonn.

[Bob White]

We train the district and council volunteers to NEVER show up at a unit meeting uninvited.

[cubbingcarol]

But how many times in the last 2 years have you seen anyone from council or district at one of your functions (invited or just showed up)?

[Bob White]

As far as I know we have only invited other District or Council members to two events and they came to both. There are two parents in the unit on the District Committee and we are pretty much always there so I guess its not that big of a deal to us. I have gone years as a leader with only seeing District members at our Eagle Courts of Honor. I never invited them to anything else. Never saw the need.

 

[Eamonn]

Bob does bring up a very good point when he says the need.

It is far more important that a representative of the Chartering Organization is invited than the guys from the District or Council.

I as Bob says,only visit units that invite me. If I ever on the very rare occasion do need to pop in to see a leader. I always apologize for doing so and do not want any sort of a fuss made. I admit that I do pay attention t what is going on and at times have been known to mention it. When I was District Commissioner, I might say to the Unit Commissioner, that I'd looked in at such and such a unit and everything was going well and give him a pat on the back or I might say that I'd looked in and was shocked that something wasn't going very well and ask him to see if he could help.

If you invite me to a B&G, I munch away and unless the Cubmaster has asked me to do or say something I'm happy just munching. There are a lot of troops that never invite me to anything and I have never been to anything.

The important person for a unit is the Unit Commissioner, he ought to know what is happening and why it is happening. During the fall a lot of Scouts from the district are busy with soccer, football, band. If I were to look in and see the poor attendance I if I wasn't aware of this might think something is wrong.

The DE or the Scout Exec. really can't do very much to help a unit, so them attending or not attending a function is of little or no consequence. They can of course thank the leaders and give the Scouts a pat on the back, but in most cases the Scouts have no idea what these people do. Some Scouts may not even now who they are.

Please don't ever think that these guys are special, they aren't. They are working to support your unit at a different level. Your unit is important to them and please believe me they do know what is going on. The unit Commissioner is reporting to the District Commissioner, who reports to the Key3 and the Council Commissioner, who reports to the Council key3. Everyone wants to see each and every unit do well. I get reports on every unit once a month and if things are not going well, I get weekly reports at our weekly key3 meetings.Some people do phone the DE if they have a problem. I have told our DE to ask them to call the Unit Commissioner. A DE can do a lot of harm trying to take care of things over the phone and this isn't her or his job.

The delivery of the program is in your hands. You were selected to lead the Den. You should be working to ensure that the Den you serve is getting the best program ever. The DE along with the Commissioner staff are at the monthly round-table meetings. If you feel that there is something happening in the pack that needs attention, you have the Pack Committee and a Unit Commissioner, if that isn't working the District Commissioner is the guy to call.

Eamonn.

[acco40]

Well since my wife and I are both district volunteers and my youngest son has made 100% of every service, troop meeting, camping outing, fundraiser, etc. I'd say that a district volunteer has shown up for every single unit function for the past three years. However, something tells me that is not the answer or scenario you were looking to analyze.

 

Our unit commissioner has attended every "formal" invite we have extended to him. I say formal because is have told him he has an open invitition to come visit any troop or committee meeting he would like. Generally, we don't invite DEs to COHs. We do run into the DE and other district volunteers at summer camp, camporees, etc.

 

I do remember a few years ago I invited the DE to our B&G. However, the B&G was in mid-Febraury along with many other Blue & Golds and he did not attend. I assume it was because of a scheduling conflict but did not ask why (that would have been rude IMO).

 

 

[EagleInKY]

We always invite our DE to our B&G. I think we've had two attend over the past 7 years. One, however, happened to attend the year we had Prime Rib donated by a local steakhouse. He talked about it for years!

 

The troop often invites our DE to our COHs or other events. He's shown up at a couple of COHs. Of course, one was to do FOS. He says he's going to go camping with us sometime. I told him he was welcome any time.

[OldGreyEagle]

Oh Heck, our Council Exective comes to plenty of the troops Courts of Honor, Committee meetings, Troop Meetings, Camp outs and has spent the past 3 summer camps with us.(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

[ScoutNut]

In the last 2 years the DE and others from council have come to all of our Troops's Eagle COH's (approx 4).

 

We invite the District Key 3 to the Pack's B&G every year. The DE came once, about 3 years ago.

 

District FOS and Summer Camp Chairs come to the Troop and Pack meetings they are invited to speak at.

 

I am planning to ask our District Cub Day Camp Chair (who is also RdTbl Chair) to come to a Pack meeting after the 1st of the year to get the Cubs phyched about "Knights of the Not-So-Round Table".

 

Our DE has said that he would be happy to attend our roundups and do classroom talks if we wanted him to. We may take him up on the classroom talks next year.

 

I don't believe anyone from council has ever dropped in unannounced to any Troop or Pack activity.

 

 

[fotoscout]

Our FOS and Camp Promotions people are usually district or Council Scouters, and we do see them yearly. Now the camp person is me. Beyond that we never see anyone, not even our UC.

 

Our CM has that ignorant attitude that anyone with silver loops is a spy. Maybe that's why he doesn't get in the way when I do things to better our operation. Getting back to the question, we don't invite the DE or SE or even the UC to events. I just told you why. Our UC is a no show kind of guy anyway.

 

As BW said, they are trained to not show up uninvited, so if you are looking for someone to just pop in on you, you might have a long wait.

 

Even if you invite them, they are typically very busy and don't have time to fulfill all the requests that they get.

 

On the flip side, as a UC I have an open invitation with two of my packs, if they don't see me every few months they call and ask where I was.

 

A B&G with Prime Rib from the local steakhouse!! can I come to your B&G??????

 

[EagleInKY]

Foto - It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. I had a neighbor who was co-owner of a steakhouse. He was having a banner year. I asked if he could give us a good deal on some meat and chicken. He said he could do better. 80 Prime Ribs and 40 BBQ Chicen Breasts. It was something to behold. I still remember our DE enjoying his Prime Rib and laughing about how he was afraid he was going to get another Fried Chicken dinner. I guess he had been to several B&Gs and that was all that was ever served.(This message has been edited by EagleInKY)

[fotoscout]

Aww shucks..............

 

(hope I spelled that right)

[Proud Eagle]

Lets see, the OA Chapter Adviser comes to our meetings about once every month or so. I know him quite well, as did our former SM. It also happens that he lives across the street from the place our troop meets. He is the SM of another troop in town. He doesn't wear his Adviser patch, nor does he wear silver loops, even though he could. (Actually, I am not certain anyone has told him he could if he wanted. Probably haven't told him he is on the district camping committee either. Maybe I should mention that next time.)

 

Other than that, the District Commish showed up around recharter time two years ago without being invited or having called ahead. He then went on to chew out the SM (in front of parents and youth) about the recharter not being turned in by the district deadline. The SM of coarse was furious, but managed to keep himself under control, and informed him our recharter wasn't due yet, but that it would be in on time. Turns out the district had decided all recharters needed to be in at least a month before the normal deadline, and then as usual didn't bother to communicate this new policy.

 

Oh well, the District Commish means well.

 

As to Eagle COH, we usually have the DAC in attendance, but then he is also our COR, so that is expected.

 

I did go to one COH for a friend of mine (he had asked me to be the MC) and no one at all with any district or council position was in attenance. In fact, I was the closest thing to such a person we had, since I was a member of the LEC.

 

Oh, I guess we used to, and still do, have youth OA officers at our meetings on a regular basis. I got that trend started, and some of the current Scouts have continued it.

[Joni4TA]

Actually I think it's pretty cool when a Dist. person comes to our events or meetings. It's rare I realize this, but sometimes it's a first come, first serve basis. If I invite the DE to something, and his schedule permits, he'll usually come. Most of the time he seems like he is so swamped with stuff that he never gets to leave his office!