Coordinated District Meeting?

[dewASM]

I am a new Scoutmaster for a new troop. Was an ASM for about 18 months before this Just want you all to know I'm relatively new.

 

I just received this month's council newsletter and it lists a "Coordinated District Meeting" for both September and October.

I have never seen that title used before. Is that the official title of what is called a Roundtable? No roundtables are listed for either month?

 

Also, in the past Roundtables have always been held on Thursday nights which is when both the old and new troop meets. Tried to change but other Scout commitments preclude that. So I wondered, do other councils rotate the nights for Roundtable? Seems a good way to be sure no one is excluded because it is on Troop meeting night.

 

thanks

dew

[emb021]

Roundtables are still called Roundtables.

 

No idea what this "coordinated district meeting" is. Have you tried contacting your DC or DE? In one council I work with they have a "council coordinated meeting", which is a meeting of all council committee chairs, district chairs, etc. This CDM sounds like that, but most councils call it a 'district meeting'. Its just for the DChair, DE, DComm, and district chairs.

 

Rotating meetings is a good way to ensure that people will miss them, as they will forget what day they are meeting. Its best to be consistant on the dates (1st Monday, 2nd & 4th Thursday, etc). None of the councils I have been involved with has had rotating roundtables. Always on the same night.

 

Keep in mind its one night a month. Put a ASM in charge and go, or send an ASM in your place.

 

[scoutldr]

Roundtables here are always the 2nd Tuesday and OA is always the 1st Tuesday. Troop calendars have to adjust to that. That's why, when the PLC has its annual planning session, the District/Council Calendars need to be on the table so plans can be made around those events.

 

Never heard of a Coordinated District Mtg. I would guess it's all the District Committees coming together in one room.

[John-in-KC]

In our District, everything a Direct Contact Leader needs is available at Roundtable, 1st Thursday of the month:

 

- OA chapter meets concurrently.

- Advamcement Operating Committee runs:

-- Eagle Leadership Service Project Review

-- Merit Badge Counselor training

- Training Operating Committee runs:

-- YP

-- This is Scouting

 

The idea is simple: Minimize the time a direct contact leader needs to spend running around.

[ScoutNut]

To me it sounds like a sort of District Committee meeting, however I would give your council a call and ask.

 

Rotating Roundtable nights is a bad idea. To hard to plan around and no one will remember when they are.

 

A much better solution is to rotate who goes from your unit. Switch off between the SM and the CC. That way both the Troop meetings, and the Roundtable meetings, are always covered.

 

 

[GKlose]

Just a couple of quick data points:

 

Our district does the rotating roundtable nights. Started last year, based on a suggestion. Seems like half the troops in the district meet on Tuesdays, and half meet on Thursdays. So the R/T commissioner is rotating Tuesdays and Thursdays. Our troop meets on Mondays, so I regularly drop in on roundtables. This isn't scientific, but it seems like I pretty much see the same faces all the time.

 

Second item: at our district committee meeting this last week, the district commissioner told us that by request of the unit commissioners in our district, he'd like to schedule a combined commissioner and district committee meeting for next month. I think it's a good idea. It may take longer than usual for us to get through an agenda, but I think it would help to have everyone together every now and then. Maybe that's what a coordinated district meeting is.

 

Or perhaps it is all district committees in your council meeting at once. I've requested, from my DE and Ass't. SE, to get in contact with others that serve the same function as me (membership) to talk about the possibility of arranging a meeting or workshop. Quarterly would be great, but I'd be happy if we could meet once and see how well it goes.

 

Guy

 

 

[ntrog8r]

No idea whaat the title means; just call your council office and ask - they should know.

 

Rotating Roundtables? Hmm, sounds interesting. Of course Roundtable Staff would have rotating schedules, regular attendees would have rotating schedules, the meeting place would now have a rotating schedule, etc. If it made the Roundtable available to more Scouters then it might be worth working through the issues.

 

When I was SM we had the same issue. I just asked the CC to attend. On nights with specific info (popcorn) we sent the appropriate MC as well.

 

Of course the one thing I've seen that spikes Roundtable attendance is not the schedule but making it worth going to. Planned out, with prepared leaders/presenters that keep it interesting, fun, and informative Roundtables always seem to increase attendance over the boring, poorly planned and executed Roundtables.

 

A good Roundtable program seems to open many people's schedules.

[Eamonn]

Not sure!

However I think this is a meeting where all the units in the District along with the District Committee members get to meet with the Council Key 3.

We have done this in the past with varying results!

A couple of times the Council Key 3 met with the District Key 3 and we came up with an agenda, the meeting ended with a time for questions and answers. This seemed to work.

Other times the Council Key just came gave a little speech and asked for any questions or concerns.

Sadly this just became a Beat-up on the Council Key 3 meeting, where nothing of any real good came out of it.

Eamonn.

[CalicoPenn]

Let me see if I have this right - approx half of a district meets on Tuesday nights, the other half on Thursday nights (with a few outliers) and the solution is to rotate the Roundtable between Tuesday and Thursday nights?

 

I speak only for myself but wouldn't the simplest solution be to change the Roundtable meeting to Wednesday nights?

[GKlose]

Hey, I'd never propose such heresy! :-)

 

It doesn't make sense to me either -- so I'm wondering if the "it's on Tuesday" or the "it's on Thursday" dodge was because of some other underlying problem with the roundtable.

 

Another strange problem is that roundtable attendance seems to mirror district camporee attendance. I tend to see the same faces all the time.

 

Guy

[John-in-KC]

Wednesday night is midweek worship and choir practice in many churches...

[sherminator505]

Perhaps by "coordinated" they mean District Committee AND Commissioners? One can only guess.