What Does Your District Most Need To Do?

[dkurtenbach]

SP, I'm sure you will have great success -- you will be one of the "key persons" who actually succeed because you understand the importance of getting people to help you early and often.

 

The challenge you have taken on is to take all of the Membership load on yourself, while also trying to build up a committee to pass that load on to, and finding the resources you need to carry out the Membership Committee operations. Those are THREE big jobs.

 

Just as in units, with the division of labor between the unit committee and the unit leadership corps, there is and should be a division of labor in the district: the operating committees, like Membership, and the Commissioner Corps, that do the "boots on the ground" work; and the infrastructure behind them that gather resources and provide support, like the District Officers, the Members at Large of the District Committee, the DC and ADCs, the Nominating Committee, and the DE.

 

While you have the best of intentions, you aren't necessarily doing the district organization a favor over the long term by letting the DE, the District Officers, the District Committee, and the Nominating Committee off the hook. Neglect the support structure, and it won't be there in three or five years when you are ready to move on to something else. By all means continue to recruit and keep your eyes peeled for resources, but doing so should be incidental to your real work. Let the DE and the others do their jobs, so that you can focus on the ONE job you have been given -- bringing youth into Scouting.

 

That said, I suspect that that you have the larger purpose of strengthening the district overall by building a strong Membership

Committee and working outward from there, bringing in new blood. That could work, perhaps. I wish you well in your new endeavor.

 

Dan K

 

 

[SeattlePioneer]

All very good points, Dan --- although it's unsettling to consider just how broad the Membership Committee responsibilities are.

 

When the DE pitched me on the idea of being Membership Committee Chair last fall, I begged off after getting a BSA booklet on the District Membership function!

 

However, the Council has a program to recruit and train Cub Pack Membership Committees to perform recruiting this fall. The DE then sort of slid me in to working on that program, and then said "heck," if you are doing the job, you deserve the title!" of Membership Committee Chair.

 

There seems to be a leap or two of logic in that line of reasoning, but as I said the DE is a master of getting people to do things that need to be done!

 

Anyway, you are right. As I imagine the job, I will be aiming to get my volunteers to the training offered by the Council in doing setting up these Cub Pack Membership Committees. I will then be working with those volunteers to get as many Packs as possible to get volunteers to the training and then support them as they do the recruiting function this fall.

 

After that, I will be aiming to keep my volunteers as a District level membership committee, and to keep those doing recruiting at the Pack level involved in planning recruiting in the spring, and hopefully bringing some of those people into working on the District membership commmittee as well.

 

I've floundered around trying to figure out good recruiting methods, and I figure I'm learning, slowly. If I can help other interested people become succesful more easily and rapidly, I'll be happy. But since it's a relatively specialized function, learning needs to be ongoing, rather than episodic in the fall and spring. Developing and conserving those skills at the District and unit level ---that's my aim.

 

So at this point I'm not worrying about all the tasks listed in the guidebooks for a District Membership Chair. I'm concentrating on what's before me, which I ought to be able to do.

 

Anyway, we'll see.

 

 

Thanks again for your encouragement.

 

 

 

Seattle Pioneer

[dkurtenbach]

SP, sounds like you are on top of it!!!

 

Dan K