Who is the contact been Troop and Council

[ScouterRob]

Who would usually be the contact person between my troop and the Council/District?

 

We have several scout meeting, but I have never seen anyone from our district or council show up for the meetings. Also I found out the District and Council does not even know where our troop meets. I been going to the Rountables for the district and going to Council meets(when open to all scouters).

 

How would be the best way to resolve this issue?

[Lisabob]

It isn't uncommon for the district or council not to be in attendance at troop meetings, or for them not to know when/where troops meet. The reason for this is that the district and council do not have a hand in running the troop, in choosing troop leadership, in putting together troop programs or activities, etc., and thus there is little cause for the district or council to have a presence at regular troop meetings.

 

Is there something specific you were concerned about, that you were looking to your council to help the troop deal with?

[John-in-KC]

Like Lisa, before we go off and discuss linkages, what's the deeper question? That way, we can point you to the right person, be they on Commissioner Service, the District Committee, or the Professional providing full time support...

 

 

[emb021]

"Who would usually be the contact person between my troop and the Council/District?"

 

There are actually 2 different people.

 

First off, you have the Chartered Organization Rep, who represents the Chartered Org (NOT the Troop [or Pack or Crew]) at the council and district, and is a voting member of same. There is training for this position and certain duties/responsibilities.

 

Secondly, your troop should be assigned a Unit Commissioner. Commissioners are the 'third leg' of scouting, and their main purpose is quality control. Ideally they should be dropping by your unit on a regular basis (once a month or two) to see how things are going, and help ensure you have a quality program. If your adults need training, they will work to help you out. They may also ensure you know what's going on.

 

There is, of course, monthly district Roundtables, which you seem to be aware of.

 

Now, others from the council/district may drop by from time to time, but the only one you should really expect is your Unit Commissioner.

 

 

[Bob White]

Who would be the contact person between the troop and council?

 

There are a few.

 

The very first being your Charter Organization Representative who is a voting member of the district and represents the unit or units of your charter organization to the district and council.

 

The second person would be the Unit Commissioner.

 

The third would be the any registered leader in the unit since they are all free to contact any district/council volunteer or professional for any reason.

 

As for the council not knowing when you meet. The day, time, and location, of your meetings are asked for each year on your your re-chartering forms. If your actual dates are different than those you reported, well that is not the council's fault.

 

As for not being at the meeting, who have you invited and why did they say they would be unable to attend?

 

Why are you concerned about a representative not being a unit meeting?

 

[ScouterRob]

The biggest idea is my troop had no idea about the Scout Jamboree until I came on board. The district we are in are supposed to send Flyers to all SM and my Troop is not even on the list. I had them added. I keep attending the roundtables and find out one thing, and then find out later the district changed the information between roundtables.

 

Example has an event for first weekend of Sept and my entire troop went to find out that is was canceled because noone else was there.

[Bob White]

rdcrisco, assuming you are the scoutmaster howdo you know that the info was not sent to the person who was registered in that position before you and simply ignored?

 

Who have you invited from the council to visit the troop?

[gcnphkr]

 

Ideally they should be dropping by your unit on a regular basis (once a month or two) to see how things are going, and help ensure you have a quality program.

So is this like the 1 hour a week they told me about.

:-)

[Eagle92]

RDCrisco,

From your other post about Varsity Scouting, I am assuming that you are with an LDS unit. Please do not take this as a criticism of LDS units, but from the district and council's perspective the biggest challenge is keeping up with the leadership of the LDS units. That's been my experience as a professional, district training chair, and OA adviser in my current district. The only time that I have encountered an LDS unit that was "in the loop" was when the bishop took an active role on the District Committee. He eventually served as District Chairmen.

 

Just my $.02 on some possible solutions.

1) Get the COR to district committee meetings.

2) Talk with DE, Dis. Chair, and Dist. Comm. about the challenges you are facing.

3) Make sure the leader info is up to date. That was my biggest challenge: finding the current leadership

4) get involved with district activities. Big challenge with the LDS unit in my district as they don't really come to RT, District camporee, or Council Camporee. But that also is another challenge.

 

 

One sec, is your strake within the same boundaries as the district and/or council you are in? It hit me that the LDS unit's strake is mostly in another council. Because the strake pays for summer camp, training, etc they are usually more involved with the other council and not our district. Could this be a possible reason why the district doesn't know about you?

[allangr1024]

I asked this question once, to find that we do not have a unit commissioner assigned to our troop, because our district cannot fill the unit commissioner positions. No one volunteers. We only got visits from the Friends of Scouting guy and the OA guy, when it was the season.

 

I ended up calling the district professional, the District Director, to get stuff. I found that in this case, the squeeky wheel gets the oil. If you never go seek out the help, and keep calling until you get a response, you will not have any.

 

I could use help with recruiting, getting into schools, getting the word out, finding adult volunteers, setting up fund raisers, finding Webelos den leaders to send den chiefs to, finding different camping and hiking opportunities, ect. I had an expectation that council and district people would be there. Boy did I learn the hard way. I have to do all this myself.

 

 

 

[emb021]

I'm going to take a different tack with this issue.

 

First off, I see 2 different issues.

 

The first is that member of your unit don't know what's going on in terms of upcoming events. You said "my troop had no idea about the Scout Jamboree until I came on board". I assume you are speaking of the National Scout Jamboree, and not a local event. A big problem I see with 'communications' with many people is that they are very passive about communications. Unless someone tells them something, they are ignorant about it. They make no effort to find out what's going on. Let's use the NSJ as an example. Members of your unit most certainly should know about it. Jamborees are mentioned in the Scout Handbook. There has been info on the upcoming one in Boys Life (I think) and Scouting magazine. There is certainly info on it at the National website, and National has a whole separate website for it (been up since about May). Most councils now have info on it on their websites and are getting people signed up. Now, while your council might have done a better job of getting info about it to your unit, the members of your unit have little excuse to not know. They should be checking out their council website and council newsletter (whether on-line or paper) for upcoming events. Some districts may also have websites as well. Relaying entirely on the council/district to get you fliers isn't the way to go. People need to be more proactive about stuff like this.

 

The second issue I see is different. You said "I keep attending the roundtables and find out one thing, and then find out later the district changed the information between roundtables." Your district shouldn't be making changes so often. That will just make for problems further on. In most cases an event is planned out 6-12 months in advance. The time/location for such events is not something that can easily or should be easily changed. Once its set, its set. You also mentioned that your unit went to an event and no-one was there. Was the event cancelled? If so, why weren't you contacted? Were you signed up for the event? Many times events need a minimum number of people to happen. They may very well have cancelled the event because NO ONE signed up. If you didn't tell them you were coming, that might have been part of the problem.

 

[Docrwm]

There are several people who are specifically supposed to be liaisons between the District and the Unit (be it Troop, Pack, Team, or Crew):

 

- the paid staff the DE or DD is supposed to have regular contact with all the units in their area

- a Unit Commissioner is ideally supposed to be assigned to every unit. If you look at the Commissioners webpages at BSA you will see that all regions are running around -50% of the needed numbers of Commissioners.

- the COR is the official rep from the CO to the District

- in the absence of a specified UC for your unit there should be a District Commissioner or ADC who is responsible for contact with your unit.

 

As others have said, every adult volunteer can contact any of the District Committee members, District Chair, or District Commissioner staff (all of whom are volunteers like you) or the District Executive of District Director, if you have one, (both of whom are paid staff).

 

The goal, from what I was taught in basic unit commissioner training recently, is to have the UC visit each unit at least once a month. They are primarily there as support and to assist the units in achieving the highest operational levels of quality.(This message has been edited by docrwm)

[scottteng]

It always helps for someone associated with your troop to be in the district loop. Talk someone into being a unit commissioner if those are needed in your area they will not be assigned to you but they will be in the loop.Our district has its own web site thanks to someones wood badge ticket. Info on said site is usually more accurate than council's. Round tables are important to attend that is where this months info is. Things may well indeed be canceled we will cancel scheduled trainings if less than 6 people have let the chairman know they are coming. It does not make sense to have 5 instructors to teach one participant. Don't throw too many stones at the LDS troops remember they are draftees not volunteers like the rest of us. We have two LDS troops in our district and the SM's attend round table regularly. The local bishop must use his good sense in picking them as they have kids involved. Maybe the quality of scouts varies in inverse proportion to your distance from Utah as the real horror stories seem to come from that area.

[fleetfootedfox]

Yeah, when I first became a scout leader, it was a long time before I knew our UC. They didn't seem to do much.

 

You've heard the saying, "You get what you pay for," haven't you? Naturally, few scouters are fortunate enough to be paid for what they do (boy wouldn't I love to be a paid scouter... anybody need one?). Those who are paid probably aren't pulling a high salary for the amount of work they are doing, late hours, weekends, travel, etc.

 

Unfortunately, in the units I serve, few adult leaders go to Roundtables. Of course, most of them were reluctant to sign up as leaders to begin with and don't want to be bothered with extra adult-only meetings.

 

I think truthfully most people don't want to be leaders. Most great leaders have had greatness thrust upon them. Maybe now's your chance.

[Eagle92]

Scott,

Not trying to through stones at all. As you pointed out, LDS leaders are drafted, and with frequent changes in leadership, it can make communication difficult. The one LDS unit that was in the loop, as their bishop was active on the Dis.Comm. kicked butt at district camporees. IMO you need at least a corps of leaders who do not change every year. It just seems as soon as the new leaders get the hang of things, they get replaced.