If you were the National Commissioner...........

[Scout Commish]

Commissioner Service appears to be on the upswing. Change is usually an evolution, not a revolution. If you read the last couple of Commissioner Newsletters, you will find many improvements outlined. Our National Commissioner has been busy.

 

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/522-975_09_SpringSummerP2.pdf

 

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/pdf/522-975_FallWinter09_web.pdf

 

These include:

 

An increasing focus on unit visits and the gradually improving UTVS.

 

A volunteer driven national support staff for Commissioners.

 

Increased communication. These support staff folks even have email addresses so that you can let them know your ideas and opinions.

 

Improved Philmont Courses including a Council Commissioner course. Hopefully they are also improving the level of instructors.

 

Appointments of Area and Region Commissioners to put an increased focus on Commissioners.

 

An increased emphasis on Council Commissioners leading the commissioner staff.

 

Increase pride in being a Commissioner. It is a little thing but the new centennial Commissioner position patch is a great example of this.

 

 

Now if you were the National Commissioner, what else would you do? Here are some ideas to chew on.

 

Emphasize boys not units as a goal for the professional staff. Most Commissioners would rather see a successful pack of 30 boys instead of 2 packs of 15 boys with mixed dens. One reason that we have membership issues is that we lose boys when these weak packs fold.

 

Who cares if we have a 3-1 ratio if the Commissioners are not making visits? It is time for a new ratio that is based on the average number of visits per Commissioner. To improve this ratio, the DC would need to add more functioning Commissioners, get rid of paper Commissioners, or increase the number of visits that the Commissioners are making.

 

Teach the DE in PDL that a good functioning Commissioner Staff can make their life easier. Teach them to remain in the background and utilize the Commissioner staff to answer everyday unit leader questions. Maybe this new support staff can outline what professionals need to know about Commissioners.

 

There needs to be a registration for older scouters. Go back to the Scouters reserve. This can become the pool to pull from for FOS, Camporee staffs, etc instead of asking the Commissioner staffs to do everything.

 

Add a Commissioner position to Wood Badge Staff that can only be filled by someone that has had Commissioner Training.

 

Make visits with the CORs or institution heads part of the Commissioner service plan.

 

Add Commissioner support to the initial training for leaders.

 

Better use of the Commissioner service plan

 

How can a Commissioner get to know a unit if they visit only every third month. Increase to 2 visits per month per Commissioner.

 

Roundtables need help. Create a Council annual service plan for Roundtable Commissioners. Have an ACC for Roundtables.

 

Lets not hear more war stories. Do you have any concrete ideas that you would implement if you were the National Commissioner?

 

[BadenP]

Hey Commish

 

Nice ideas but in reality they are little more than pipe dreams, why, because the fact is almost all districts in the BSA have just a handful of UC's to serve all their units. You can't increase unit visits when you don't have enough bodies to even make one visit per year. The commisioner position is an important position but receives little respect from the units and most of them are so poorly trained they are of little assistance to units in crisis. Having the commisioner staff to "dictate to the DE to learn to stay in the background", cows will be dancing on the moon before that ever happens, lol.

 

In my experience the few volunteers who do become commissioners are former unit leaders who have aged out of their unit positions but still want to remain active in scouting and they are few in number. The perception by most unit leaders has been and still is that commissioners are nothing more than council spies and want nothing to do with them.

 

So until you can make the commissioner position a desireable one and attract enough volunteers to have an effective well trained commisioner force, which has not happened in all these years, all of those ideas National has put on paper will never see the light of day. National has once again put the cart before the horse, not directly dealing with the crisis of not enough commissioners to telling the few they do have how to work even harder.

 

Sometimes I wonder if there is anybody left at National that really understands what has been happening to scouting in the real world instead of living in their own little reality.

[Oak Tree]

Scout Commish,

 

Thanks for asking. The position of National Commissioner is so far removed from what I do on a daily basis that it can be hard to put myself into that mindset, but Ill give it a try.

 

First off, lets think about what we want to have happen down at the unit level. What do the units want? In my case, we didnt have a unit commissioner for the first four years of our pack, the time that you might have thought we would need it most. We didnt need one then, and dont really need one now for either the troop or the pack. But would we appreciate help? Sure. Id be looking for a helpful volunteer who can serve as a contact point with the council office.

 

Other groups may need more specific help to resolve problems, or to learn about what resources are available. I think a unit commissioner should come bearing gifts as often as possible. A new book, or some contact information, or some awards for the adult leaders, or a tutorial on how to do internet rechartering, or maybe even ice cream. The last thing we need is a person from outside the unit coming in and telling units how things should be done. Maybe they could talk about how theyve seen other units do things that could be useful.

 

What would happen at the district or council level? Why do they want commissioners in the first place? I think you want to clarify the mission of the unit commissioners. Its a pretty vague assignment to say help units succeed.

 

So what could the national commissioner do to increase more helpfulness from the unit commissioners?

 

First some comments on your specific ideas:An increasing focus on unit visits and the gradually improving UTVS. More visits are fine, as long as there is some value to the visits. I dont know what an increased focus means, though. Isnt this what they are supposed to do now? How will you encourage more? (and other than Utility Terrain Vehicles, I have no idea what UTVS is)

A volunteer driven national support staff for Commissioners. Sounds ok. Be interesting to see how much use it gets. I dont know how big of a need this is for commissioners.

Increased communication. These support staff folks even have email addresses so that you can let them know your ideas and opinions. Yes, this would be a welcome change. Right now it seems very difficult to find out how to talk to someone at National. This may be by intention, as they dont want to hear about every unit level problem, but when you do want to get in touch with someone, it would be good to know how.

Improved Philmont Courses including a Council Commissioner course. Hopefully they are also improving the level of instructors. Seems like a reasonable thing for the top echelon. Pretty far removed from the unit level.

Appointments of Area and Region Commissioners to put an increased focus on Commissioners. What would the area and region commissioners do to increase the focus?

An increased emphasis on Council Commissioners leading the commissioner staff. Again, I'm not sure what this emphasis looks like.

Increase pride in being a Commissioner. It is a little thing but the new centennial Commissioner position patch is a great example of this. Again, increasing pride is great, but its not specific. How is that being done?

Then you ask Now if you were the National Commissioner, what else would you do? Here are some ideas to chew on. Emphasize boys not units as a goal for the professional staff. Most Commissioners would rather see a successful pack of 30 boys instead of 2 packs of 15 boys with mixed dens. One reason that we have membership issues is that we lose boys when these weak packs fold. Ok, this is definitely true. Units are focused on succeeding, not on creating new units. A unit commissioners goal, it would seem almost by definition, would be to help an existing unit. This may not align with the DEs goal, though. Youd want the DE to have the same goal as the commissioner staff, ideally.

Who cares if we have a 3-1 ratio if the Commissioners are not making visits? It is time for a new ratio that is based on the average number of visits per Commissioner. To improve this ratio, the DC would need to add more functioning Commissioners, get rid of paper Commissioners, or increase the number of visits that the Commissioners are making. Sure, more visits are fine. But this simple step of adding more commissioners is often the crux of the problem.

Teach the DE in PDL that a good functioning Commissioner Staff can make their life easier. Teach them to remain in the background and utilize the Commissioner staff to answer everyday unit leader questions. Maybe this new support staff can outline what professionals need to know about Commissioners. Again, this sounds great. Absolutely true that a DE can utilize the commissioners to do many parts of his job. But first they need to be there.

There needs to be a registration for older scouters. Go back to the Scouters reserve. This can become the pool to pull from for FOS, Camporee staffs, etc instead of asking the Commissioner staffs to do everything. Its almost like a commissioner-at-large. Seems like a reasonable idea ease people in and then maybe theyll also be willing to step up as a commissioner.

Add a Commissioner position to Wood Badge Staff that can only be filled by someone that has had Commissioner Training. Not sure what value this really has I think that youd want to give the person something to do. Increasing the visibility of the position is ok.

Make visits with the CORs or institution heads part of the Commissioner service plan. I think this is largely a waste of time. If units/CORs want a good relationship, they probably already have one. If they dont want to be too involved, Im not sure that this visit would help. Id at least ask the unit leader if he or she thinks a COR visit would be useful.

Add Commissioner support to the initial training for leaders. I wouldnt do this. So many other things to cover.

Better use of the Commissioner service plan I dont even know what this is?

How can a Commissioner get to know a unit if they visit only every third month. Increase to 2 visits per month per Commissioner. If a commissioner visited once every three months, that would be way above average.

Roundtables need help. Create a Council annual service plan for Roundtable Commissioners. Have an ACC for Roundtables. This seems like a whole separate topic.

Lets not hear more war stories. Do you have any concrete ideas that you would implement if you were the National Commissioner?I would focus on making the commissioner job fun and respected and useful, and on recruiting more of them. I think Id start with a survey of district commissioners. Ask them why they have trouble recruiting commissioners. How many do they have, how often do they visit units, etc. Ask them what theyd like to see unit commissioners do. Ask them what they personally like about being a commissioner.

 

I think Id revamp the mission to focus more on helping units. Get them to do more of things that both the commissioners and the units want to do. Right now the job description is so vague and the return on your volunteer time is not readily apparent, and its hard to recruit commissioners. I think you really need to focus on those issues before all of the other items, although some of them could be a bit of a help.

 

At our last University of Scouting, we had a course on how to make the most of your unit commissioner. Four people signed up. The average class was more like twenty or thirty, Id guess. Units just dont see the value, and since people dont see the value in the position, I think thats partly why they dont volunteer for it.

 

Before you focus on increasing the visits, ask yourself, Why do we want to increase visits? Unit commissioners can be nice guys/gals, and helpful and all, but from what Ive seen, if the entire commissioner corps disappeared one day, I dont think most units would be affected. I know mine wouldnt. Until you fix that problem, its hard to see what else would help.

 

[DeanRx]

I'm realatively new to the scouting as an adult leader role... 3 years in and 1.5 as Cubmaster. We HAD a District Commish, and now its been taken over by one of the folks that used to help run the RT's.

 

The one thing that really sticks out to me in my short time as adult leader is this...

 

THE GOALS OF THE DISTRICT COMMISSIONER ARE OFTEN AT ODDS WITH THE GOALS OF THE DISTRICT EXECUTIVE. Plain and simple.

 

From what I know, the Dist. Commish is a volunteer (read that as NOT PAID) position that has the task of supporting / enhancing existing units by promoting training, helping with struggling units, developing best practices to share at RT's, etc....

 

The DE on the other hand is a professional scouter (read that as GETS PAID TO SCOUT). Their focus is usually not so much on existing units, but on the establishment of new units (i.e. grow the numbers) and in funding the district / council (i.e. seperate people from their money via FOS, corp donations, etc...)

 

The job of the National Commissioner IMHO should be to make sure that the roles of the council and district commissioner's are given equal weight as the professional scouter's roles are given. You get above unit level and its all about increasing numbers and increasing funding. Somebody needs to be acting in the interest of the hundreds of volunteers that give of their time to BSA at the unit and district level.... that to me is the main, if not ONLY focus of the National Commissioner.

 

National (heck council for that matter) always seems to wonder WHY their is such distain towards the professional scouters from the volunteers... well, most the time its because a good number of the vols don't see anyone from National looking out for the unit's best interest. I've personally seen multiple occasions when council and higher strickly looks out for itself, not the units.

 

We need a volunteer voice at the national level - that SHOULD be the role of the commissioner.

[Eamonn]

"Lets not hear more war stories. Do you have any concrete ideas that you would implement if you were the National Commissioner?"

Back home in the UK we didn't have DE's.

Scouting was very much more volunteer led.

Most District Chairmen tended to be very much in the background. More or less a nice name to have on the letterhead.

This meant that the District Commissioner was the Kahuna.

I'd never heard of a Unit Commissioner before coming to the USA.

The District Commissioner worked with the Assistant District Commissioners, namely ADC Cub Scouts, Scouts and Venture Scouts.

These people were not supposed to be members of any one unit!

They acted as EMT's for units having problems and good will ambassadors for everyone else.

I think BadenP makes a lot of good and valid points.

Unit Service as we might like to see it, just isn't going to work. We just don't seem to have the manpower.

Adding more Chiefs at the front end seems to me to a waste of time.

The fellow who serves as Council Commissioner, for the Council I'm in is a very nice fellow. At one time a very long time ago he was a very good SM. He has served for about 20 years. He rarely misses a board meeting. He has a hard time even getting he 4 District Commissioners to attend a meeting. A few years back it was mentioned that we didn't have enough Assistant Council Commissioners, so he appointed a few. I think we have an ACC Training, a ACC Camping and maybe a few others. These guys are not part of the Council Committees (Training and so on.) So other than a title? I have no idea what they do or are supposed to do?

The main goal of the Council Commissioner seems to be keeping the guys at the Regional and National level happy.

Back when I was a District Commissioner, I was at times; shall we say prodded? To make sure that on paper we had enough names on paper so as to look like Commissioner Service was alive and well.

At the Area level (Area Committee)Where of course the only thing the Committee sees in reports, everything is about numbers. Somehow it seems that Commissioners are supposed to be involved with membership.

While of course healthy units will retain members and Commissioner Service when and where available will help with this, but for the most part membership and things that pertain to membership are left to the District and Council Membership Committees.

 

Given the chance and the right leadership District Committees can do a good job. Or if they are not working? These committees can be fixed.

They can involve groups of people who come from outside of scouting. Many Districts have people who are experts or specialize in certain areas. (Training, Camping, Finance, Membership.) These people are good at what they do and given the chance do a good job. They don't want to be Commissioners. Many see the training's offered to Commissioners as being a waste of their time and way out of date.

As for ideas that I'd would implement if I were the National Commissioner?

Insist that DE's meet with the Executive Officer of each CO every year and the COR for each unit. A report from this meeting be given to the District Commissioner.

Units that are fine and dandy could be left alone.

Units that need help? Should receive a visit or maybe visits from the Assistant District Commissioner, who would report what help the unit needs to the District Committee and the District Committee would come up with a plan of action for that unit. This plan would be in writing and shared with the COR of the unit.

I'd also take a long hard look at the training's that we now have in place for Commissioners and see what could be done to bring them out of the dark ages.

Maybe it's time to take a long hard look at how we go about rechartering? It seems that no one is really following the way it is supposed to be done. Commissioners seem to waste a lot of time trying to get these charters in on time. So why not have a handful of volunteers who would manage rechartering. When I was a District Commissioner I had one ADC who I asked to take care of rechartering. It works!

As things are right now everything is about numbers.

Numbers are of course easy to report and do give a good idea of what is going on. But we need to look for some way of evaluating the program that is offered to the kids we serve.

I'm not sure how to go about this. Lord knows we don't need any more little boxes that just need checked off by unit leaders.

Maybe before the DE meets with the CO he or she should get a report from the District Commissioner that outlines the program that has been offered? Things like how many camping trips, Den size, advancement.

There has to be a move that makes the CO more involved in what is going on in the units that they are supposed to be involved with.

RE: " . Most Commissioners would rather see a successful pack of 30 boys instead of 2 packs of 15 boys with mixed dens. One reason that we have membership issues is that we lose boys when these weak packs fold."

I don't know what mixed Dens are?

But especially in Cub Scouting, Packs seem to really go through the peaks and valley thing depending on who the adults are in that Pack at that time. Being as the adults only are around for a very little while, we need to take a long hard look at the CO not the Pack.

Most of us know that a Pack Chartered by the Friends of Pack 123 is not going to around for very long after the Friends of Pack 123 go their own ways. Where as the Church that has chartered a Pack for the last 50 years is more than lightly going to around for the next 50 years. Sometimes we just have to wait until the leadership that is in place today moves on and the next group moves in.

We might not like to admit it, but Commissioner Service doesn't do very much to improve the program that our kids receive. It could do a lot to help the relationships that we are supposed to have with our chartered partners, helping build strong foundations for the future.

My main goal if I were the National Commissioner would be to try and get away from the "Us and Them". Make the CO's aware that the unit that meets in the basement each week really is part of their organization.

Eamonn.

 

 

 

 

 

[shortridge]

This may be a bit off-topic, but IMHO, part of the "commissioner issue" is that the entire commissioner system is, by and large, a foreign thing compared to the other organizational systems we're used to.

 

From school to college to work, we're used to a top-down organization. Principal-teachers-students, president-professors-students, sports team owner-GM-coach-players, CEO-managers-worker bees. The idea of student troubleshooters or team EMTs is just not something we're used to. So few of us know how to relate to such people - and even fewer people know how to effectively operate in those positions, since they're without any real authority.

[Twocubdad]

Following on to shortridge's comments, are there any commissioner functions which don't very nicely fit into the existing committee structure? Recharter to membership, Roundtable to Training, Quality Units to Program.

 

We have a very large district and each of these subcommittees seem to do their jobs fairly efficiently with a handful of people. Membership committee has only a couple people on it, although they will recruit volunteers ad hoc to on Roundup nights. Of course, membership has a huge amount of help from the professionals, but so do the commissioners when it comes to recharter.

 

A full complement of commissioners would be about 40 people for our district. That's nuts. In 10 years between the troop and pack, we've never had a functioning commissioner. Yet we keep getting hit up to recommend our unit volunteers to be commisioners. My current commissioner is a like that. He went through all the commissioner training and was bored to death with the job of a unit commissioner. He does boards of review for the troop now.

 

My suggestion would be to dissolve the commissioner corps, but that will never fly. So instead I would parcel-out it's functions to the district and council committee. To avoid the politics of totally disbanding commissioners, I would make them a sub-set of the district committee and give task them with visiting every unit a couple times a year (which could be done with 4-5 guys in an average sized district) and for maintaining rescue teams which would get help struggling units. But I mean really help -- roll up their sleeves and run den meeting, it that's what's needed -- not the arms-length advice commissioners are trained to provide now.

[desertrat77]

Best thing to do is admit that most UCs are names on a roster, and announce a roster purge.

 

Too many UCs just come to the monthly UC meeting, and rehash the same old district and council intrigues. Unit level scouting gets scant attention.

 

UC rosters need fresh blood. And I fully understand how UCs can get bored, or how potential UCs might avoid signing up.

 

Team with NESA. They are finding Eagles every where...some are just the right folks to roll up their sleeves and help some units.

 

 

[AvidSM]

If I were the National Commissioner, I would tell every Commissioner to choose QUALITY over QUANTITY.

 

Council and Distirct Commissioners - make sure that every Unit Commissioner is qualified for the position and that they are doing their job. Make sure every needed scouter with the experience and qualifications who wants the job, has it.

 

Unit Commissioners - don't worry about how many boys are in a unit, make sure that the unit leaders are trained, motivated and informed. Physically check up on these leaders to make sure that they are doing their jobs. Make these leaders accountable.

[BadenP]

"check up on those leaders make sure they are doing their jobs, make them accountable."

 

Sorry Avid but commissioners do not have that kind of authority, and even if they did the first time they tried to enforce it would be the last time they would ever be allowed back to that units meetings. A commissioner is first and foremost a resource of information to a unit, a neutral sounding board during conflicts within a unit, and a source of encouragement to leaders when it seems everything is going wrong. What I really hate to see is a commish trying to be one of the kids, or conducting a uniform inspection and criticizing some kids for not being in proper uniform acting like some kind of authoritarian over them, both scenarios put the commish in a very bad light. A commissioner is never there to run the unit rather they guide the unit leaders into being successful leaders.

[AvidSM]

According to the Commissioner Fieldbook for Unit Service, Chapter 9 - How to Remove a Volunteer, a leader can be replaced if all else fails. A Unit Commissioner can help the head of the chartered organization or the unit committee make the change.

 

I would look upon a leader who does not want one of my TRUSTED Unit Commissioners to visit them as being a poor team player or having bad chemistry -both valid reasons for replacement.

 

So, yes a Unit Commissioner does have that authority. If a unit leader is just not working out, after all the coaching, suggesting and friendly counciling from a Unit Commissioner, he can be removed - especially if that unit is losing boys like crazy.

 

I don't know if it would ever come to that. But to say that a Unit Commissioner does not have that kind of authority is marginalizing the position - which some of the posts here have done, off topic.

 

The strength of a District Commissioner's staff comes from it's volunteer scouters, not the paid professionals. A Council's real focus is on the numbers: number of units, membership and dollars. They care about the program, but leave the job to the Commissioners to oversee and fix the problems in the units. The Commissioners need to know that that is their job and leave the numbers to the professionals. Hence, Quality over Quantity.

 

Quality Unit Commissioners visit their units. Quality District Commissioners recruit enough Unit Commissioners for all the units in the distict. Quality Units get visits and benefit from their relationship with their Unit Commissioner.

 

Since it is left up to the Commissioners to care about the program, some are not motivated, and therefore not QUALIFIED to do it. This leads to leaders not knowing or caring about who their Unit Commissioner is. This leads to people saying that Commissioners have no power and the position is not needed in scouting.

 

The Commissioner position is as old as scouting. When scouting started it was the Commissioners that oversaw all the units, on their own. The professionals came later and the Commissioners are still on their own.

 

[Oak Tree]

AvidSM,

 

A leader can definitely be removed, and it's even described in the literature, but the removal is not done by the unit commissioner. You say the commissioner can help to have the IH make the change. But that's true of anyone - a parent, the CC, the COR - anyone can tell the IH that a leader should be removed. The commissioner has no more authority than they do.

 

The BSA itself would have only a couple of options for removing a leader. They can revoke his membership in BSA. Or they can go to the IH and say, "Remove him as a leader or we will revoke your charter." The commissioner does not have either of those powers.

 

But beyond that, this just isn't how BSA is set up. You could make an argument that this type of hierarchy might make sense as being something we're all familiar with, but it is definitely not in line with the chartering system.

 

From BSA, here are the roles a commissioner plays:The commissioner is a friend of the unit. Of all their roles, this one is the most important. It springs from the attitude, "I care, I am here to help,what can I do for you?" Caring is the ingredient that makes commissioner service successful. He or she is an advocate of unit needs. A commissioner who makes himself known and accepted now will be called on in future times of trouble.

 

The commissioner is a representative. The average unit leader is totally occupied in working with kids. Some have little if any contact with the Boy Scouts of America other than a commissioner's visit to their meeting. To them, the commissioner may be the BSA. The commissioner helps represent the ideals, the principles, and the policies of the Scouting movement.

 

The commissioner is a unit "doctor." In their role as "doctor," they know that prevention is better than a cure, so they try to see that their units make good "health practices" a way of life. When problems arise, and they will even in the best unit, they act quickly. They observe symptoms, diagnose the real ailment, prescribe a remedy, and follow up on the patient.

 

The commissioner is a teacher. As a commissioner, they will have a wonderful opportunity to participate in the growth of unit leaders by sharing knowledge with them. They teach not just in an academic environment, but where it counts mostas an immediate response to a need to know. That is the best adult learning situation since the lesson is instantly reinforced by practical application of the new knowledge.

 

The commissioner is a counselor. As a Scouting counselor, they will help units solve their own problems. Counseling is the best role when unit leaders don't recognize a problem and where solutions are not clear-cut. Everyone needs counseling from time to time, even experienced leaders.Now the only one of these that comes close to what you describe is doctor. And yes, I'm sure that there are extreme circumstances where a majority of people in the unit might welcome the help of a commissioner in getting rid of a unit leader.

 

But in general, the attitude you take with "I would look upon a leader who does not want one of my TRUSTED Unit Commissioners to visit them as being a poor team player or having bad chemistry -both valid reasons for replacement. does not sound at all like being a friend of the unit. Just because you trust the unit commissioner doesn't automatically mean the unit should. Trust is earned. And the idea that the commissioner is there to Physically check up on these leaders to make sure that they are doing their jobs. Make these leaders accountable. is pretty much bound to make the commissioner unwelcome. The unit leader may have a very good working relationship with the IH. The idea that you're going to go to the IH and tell him or her to remove the unit leader because he or she doesn't want a visit from the unit commissioner just sounds ludicrous to me.

 

 

[BadenP]

Avid

As well intentioned as you might be your last post is just not true, as Oak Tree has explained so eloquently. Commissioners are not BSA police, and have no direct authority over any unit whatsoever. Commissioners who act the way you prescribe are in for a very hostile, bumpy, and short trip as a commissioner.

[rkfrance]

If I were the National Commissioner...

 

I've met Tico Perez. He is as real and sincere as he sounds in his podcasts.

 

I think he's really trying to compliment and expand on the philosophy of Bob Mazzuca in bringing the BSA fully into the next 100 years. As Scout Commish pointed out, you can now contact almost anyone up the Commissioner chain. My Council Commissioner and I made this suggestion to him in February. It's in place now.

 

He listens and responds. He's out many weekends making appearances and speaking to volunteers and professionals throughout the country about the tremendous things we're doing (note I said "we're doing") and what we can expect.

 

A few months ago, I couldn't find useful, current information. I was frustrated. I contacted Tico's office as he'd invited me to do when I met him. The next day I had a reply from his office with a forward to Scott Sorrels, the National Commissioner Service Chairman. We exchanged emails and he asked if it would be alright if he called me. We discussed ideas for about a half hour. Much of what I asked him is now in place or coming.

 

Be careful what you wish for...

 

Now, I'd like to go to one website, publication or other resource and find out what's going on and what we can expect down the road. There are so many changes coming so fast now. I look through no less than 10-12 different websites and publications each week to try stay on top of what's happening. The National

Commissioner and his staff are making things happen. They are updating and implementing changes daily. All to better SERVE the youth, volunteers and professionals that are the BSA.

 

While the units might not directly see this yet, the changes are happening. While it may be a matter of months or even years before we realize the changes, they are happening.

 

Commissioner service is changing. I don't know what it's changing into, but from my vantage, it's more current and relative. Hopefully this translates into better things for all our units, volunteers and youth. I guess we'll all have to be a little patient and more open to change.

[AvidSM]

These are the very specific instructions given by the BSA to a Unit Commissioner on how to remove a volunteer:

 

The BSA has a right to choose its leaders. A Commissioner is a representitive of the BSA. There will be times when a volunteer has gone beyond the point where coaching, training or a change of assignment will help. Quick action might need to be taken for the good of Scouting. The person or group with the authority to appoint a volunteer has the authority to remove and replace that volunteer.

 

In the case of unit Scouters, commissioners must remember that it is the Chartered Organization that has made the appointment. The commissioners role is to help the head of the chartered organization or the unit committee to make the change.

 

My suggestion, if I were the National Commissioner, would be to follow these instructions, if needed, in order to hold bad leaders accountable. I have spent enough time as a District Commissioner to know that there are leaders out there that don't think they can be held accountable. They are running their units into the ground. If I had the power to directly remove a volunteer myself, these people would be gone. But, I don't, so I use my political influence when I can and instruct my Unit Commissioners to use their own influence over the CO to affect the removal of a volunteer when all else has failed.

 

I am not am not a doctor and I am not the police. My job is to oversee the quality of the units in my district. Bad leaders lead to poor quality.