If only we knew

[Eamonn]

I was reading something the other day and seen that the Scout Executive, who was Scout Executive when I came over to the USA had passed away. I think it must have been in the Northeaster, the quarterly newspaper that the Northeast Region sends out. He passed away several months ago. There is only a couple of people in the Council Service Center who were around when he was Scout Executive. He had retired a long time back and moved away from the area. I did send his widow a card. Had I known earlier I would have passed the hat and done something more.

While there are people I know that just love to complain and who by always complaining at times don't get taken seriously. There are some that never say a word until it's too late.

I receive al sorts of reports from our Council Service Center, I do read and study them. Some of these reports do at time send up a red flag. If I look at the Advancement Report and see a Troop that shows little or no advancement. I want to know why? I also think to myself that the reasons could be: Membership, if there a fewer Scouts there are fewer advancements. Program, or leadership. There are of course times when everything is fine and dandy and the Troop has been busy doing something else. Or the Scoutmaster has a case full of blue cards that he hasn't handed in.

I normally would call the District Commissioner and ask him to find out from the Unit Commissioner what was happening. We at present don't have a District Commissioner so the Assistant District Commissioners will be the people that will get the call.

Membership Reports are tough. While they do show unit growth, they don't tell me what is really happening in the unit.

The problem is that once a boy is registered he is on the charter till the unit recharters.

In some other threads some have said that this is somehow cheating?? But I pay my annual dues to the club and am a member of the club for a year. It doesn't matter if I set foot in the place, they will count me as a member.

I have seen packs where a Den leader has quit and all the Cub Scouts leave, but they will still show up on the membership report. Then if they recruit more Cub Scouts, I think they are doing well.

Unit Commissioners are the eyes and ears of the District. They should be telling what is really happening in the unit.

When I was District Commissioner, I asked that if the UC wasn't able to attend one of the monthly Commissioners meetings, that they mail me a copy of the visitation report/Commissioner worksheet. We also used a color to see what we needed to be doing. Green was everything is fine and dandy. Yellow was the unit needed help and Red was the Unit had big problems and if we didn't do something fast it might close.

Sad to say the District Commissioner that we replaced wasn't keeping an eye on the Unit Commissioners and we had units that didn't have a Commissioner or they had one that wasn't doing anything.

The District really does want to help and support the Units and the Unit leaders. We invite COR's to attend the District Committee meetings. I have an agenda item that is for their reports. If they have a concern we want to help, we also minute what they report so if they do have something it isn't going to get lost, it will be there next month.

I have tried really hard not to ask Unit Leaders to serve on the District Committee. I think that they should be working with the unit.

There are of course times when nothing we do works!! I don't have lists of people who are waiting to be leaders!! We can help a unit set up a Nominating Committee.

I like to think that everyone in the District knows me and hope that I'm not that hard to talk to. But still things go wrong. I wish people would just pick up the phone and let me know. Or let someone know before things get so bad that it's even too late to pass the hat.

Eamonn

 

[SeattlePioneer]

Wow, Eamonn. I don't know how District Chairs manage. You have a universe of things you can pay attention to, but limited resources to deal with the situations.

 

That seems to demand that you make hard decisions about what you make a priority. You are also highly dependent on getting volunteers to do things for you. That tends to be the nature of volunteer organizations ---a world of good things you might do, and limited resources you must husband and use in a wise and thrifty manner.

 

Just a guess, but if you are worrying a lot about membership, you probably need a Membership Committee Chair. If you are worrying a lot about advancement, you probably need an Advancement Committee Chair. And of Course you know you need a District Commissioner.

 

Of course, FINDING good people to fill those positions is hard. The DE for my District pitched me on becoming Membership Chair last fall. I looked at the Council literature and saw the responsibilities involved and said, "No Thanks!" Really, did I have STUPID written on my forehead?

 

That didn't do any good though. A month ago at the District recognition dinner, my name was listed as Membership Committee chair on the program! (I'm studying up on the DE's recruiting techniques so I can use them myself).

 

Anyway, I've been considering how to find new volunteers at the district level, and to form a functioning Membership Commmittee in particular (so I don't wind up doing all the work).

 

Since I'm not about to try to do EVERYTHING a Membership Chair is supposed to do in the literature, I'm starting out by aiming to organize an effective recruiting effort by Cub Scout Packs this fall.

 

Just tonight I began hitting up some Scouters I know, plus some suggested by the DE (he's GREAT at volunteering the unsuspecting!) for help. My aim is to find 5-6 defacto Assistant Membership Committee members each of whom will be responsible for contacting six or so Cub Packs. They will contact the Cub Pack leaders and sell them on the idea of finding suitable people to organize their own Pack recruiting effort.

 

We will then have 1-2 meetings to train those Pack Level Membership Commmittee Members in how to plan an effective Pack recruiting effort and execute a good Scout night and Cub invitational effort to recruit new Cub Scouts. As I imagine it, the first meeting (perhaps at a Roundtable) would talk about how to plan the recruiting effort, while the second meeting (which the Council will help organize) will be about how to do the Scout night and recruting efforts themselves.

 

Anyone carrying out these tasks effectively automatically gets put on my District Membership Committee, which should develope greater experience in doing the tasks over time, and good people can be identified and channeled into other leadership positions where they are needed. Perhaps over time we will be able to do more Membership related tasks, and do them with greater expertise.

 

Our DE is great, but he is overwhelmed and really can't do more than a bare bones job of recruiting. We might be able to do a better job, and relieve him to do other things.

 

And believe me, this isn't easy for me to do. I'm highly introverted by nature, and it's HARD for me to call up people I don't know WELL and ask them for help ---and I'm LOUSY at associating and remembering names and faces. The world tends to be populated by people I don't know and don't recognize unless I work with people quite a bit. Those are big handicaps.

 

I figure if I'm lucky, I'll fall on my face and they'll HAVE to find someone else!

 

If you have vacant positions you can't otherwise fill, perhaps it's worthwhile to find a good person and ask them to start off by doing one part of the job well. An Advancement Committee Chair who offers training to Cub Pack Advancement chairs might be able to get some of those people to help staff an effective District level advancement committee, drawing more people in to work for the District.

 

Perhaps your Training Committee should emphasize methods by which units can convert uninvolved parents into active volunteers. This past weekend, the Cub Pack I'm UC for had a Pack Overnight and awards ceremony ---the premier activity for the year. We scheduled a Parent Meeting in between 5-6 PM when parents could hardly avoid attending. A District Trainer came in and gave an expert pitch on why parents needed to volunteer to help the Pack, something the existing Pack Committee didn't have the guts to do. The result ----several new parents agreed to serve. I wanted to follow that up by calling parents again and hitting them up again, but the Cubmaster thought that would be too tough.

 

In short, I think you need to focus on important issues which might arguably lead to bringing in more resources to your District. Putting out fires thither and yon will merely tend to dissipate your strength and energy. Try to think of the things which promise to bring new volunteers into units and the District.

 

I'm no Xpert at this ---I'm green as grass. But I have been thinking about how to leverage my limited time and energy so there is a chance I'll produce meaningful results. Maybe there is something in this mess of a post you'll find useful --- I hope so.

 

 

 

Seattle Pioneer

Rambling and rambling

 

 

[Lynda J]

One thing I have done for years is camperships in a persons name. I do one each year in NoArk Girl Scout Council in my parents name. But this year Idid one in our council. Our district advancement chair passed away suddenly. The family didn't want flowers. I gave a campership in his name.

His wife was very pleased. Scouting was his life.

[ASM59]

Eamonn,

 

You've sparked my curiosity. I knew all these positions existed withing the Council & District, but I never questioned their roll with individual units.

 

I have worked with our Scout Troop for more than 4 years now, and prior to that, I was on the committee of our local Pack and a Den Leader for 3 years. Up until last year, I didn't even know who our District Commissioner or Unit Commissioner was.

 

I think I need to review these positions and the roll that they have so we can make use them as resources should we need to in the future.

 

Time to pull out the books again; maybe go to training again...

 

ASM59