Sometimes Scouting volunteers really bug me...

[desertrat77]

Backroads,

 

LOL, either you are digging your hole deeper, or you are trolling us in the most sublime manner.

 

If it's the former, I'm guessing you are new to the work force.

 

 

[Backroads]

"First perhaps we need to define our terms, from MacScouter who says:

 

If you are paid to do Scouting, you are called a Professional.

If you are not paid to do Scouting, you are called a Volunteer.

If you pay to do Scouting, you are called... ... A Scouter

 

So, you love people, its the public you can't stand?

 

Other than saying, we can only process the paperwork we receive, I don't know as there will ever be a solution "

 

I'll take those terms. Not what we use 'round the office, but they make sense. Thank-you.

 

I really do apologize if I'm making myself look nasty and bitter, but I do hate it when I have to send people away from my desk unhappy--I like to think my motives are in the right place. Believe it or not, but I'm usually sent as the diplomat when things are ugly 'tween council and volunteers.

 

I work in both a crew and at the office, so I suppose I see a different perspective than those of you who are just working with the youth. You see the mistakes people in my position make... and I get to see the mistakes those in your positions make (probably not a reality you want to hear, but it's true...)

 

I guess I shall just keep smiling and giving what explanation I can.

 

Perhaps candy at my desk will at least make them a little happier...

[Backroads]

I wasn't going to respond, but this post struck a nerve. I know what the office staff go through and the hard work they do. Heck I even offered to help out one time back when I was a pro.

 

But maybe it IS the office's fault. I'll give you a few examples.

 

...

 

Personally I am hoping and praying that INTERNET RECHARTERING will fix those problems. BUT as I mentioned, we do have units that have poor or no internet access. Heck I did the YPT online version at a commissioner training out in the boonies, and it took over 4 hours to download the training!

 

Yes, what do all those legitimate office errors/laziness have to do with a unit never bothering to get the process started? How can I lose a registration form that was never filled because a unit, intentionally or unintentionally, never bothered to see that it was done?

 

If I'm reading you right, you're suggesting people are much more likely to blame the council after past negative experience. Which is certainly fair. But what I don't find fair is when volunteers choose not to their jobs as a result.

 

As for rechartering... LOL, but don't hold your breath. The Internet Rechartering is as buggy as ever. Third year on it, and I still haven't figured out all the tricks when something doesn't go according to plan.(This message has been edited by Backroads)

[OldGreyEagle]

Mr Roads, I see you are in Logan, Utah. I was there about 10 years ago and found the best name for a Fossil Shop ever, it was called "Remains to be Seen", always thought that was the best name of a store I ever saw. I bought something just for the bag. Is it still there?

 

And I don't know how gently to ask you this, so I shall just plow on. Do you know if the units who cannot just seem to get paperwork in are LDS units who have leaders who get "called" to be leaders and the ones who get paperwork in are the units with leaders who have volunteered for their positions?

 

 

[Backroads]

Mr Roads, I see you are in Logan, Utah. I was there about 10 years ago and found the best name for a Fossil Shop ever, it was called "Remains to be Seen", always thought that was the best name of a store I ever saw. I bought something just for the bag. Is it still there?

 

And I don't know how gently to ask you this, so I shall just plow on. Do you know if the units who cannot just seem to get paperwork in are LDS units who have leaders who get "called" to be leaders and the ones who get paperwork in are the units with leaders who have volunteered for their positions?

 

Alas, I believe that shop closed a few years ago.

 

As for your other question, no offense taken (heck, I'm LDS myself). It's about 50/50. The LDS units that fail on this are probably taking "callings" lightly, and the other ones probably don't know about it: Our roundtables and whatnot tragically tend to wind up LDS Scouting-themed no matter how hard the DEs try, just due to the council being roughly 70% LDS units and therefore very few people bother to show up to meetings/trainings.

[Basementdweller]

This is entertaining.....

 

We have done internet recharter for years.....It fixes all the issues if YOU invest the time to actually do it.

 

I fixed the Packs....took a bunch of adults off and out whose boys weren't members.....Took 5 or 6 hours the first time thru it.

 

 

[Backroads]

"We have done internet recharter for years.....It fixes all the issues if YOU invest the time to actually do it.

 

I fixed the Packs....took a bunch of adults off and out whose boys weren't members.....Took 5 or 6 hours the first time thru it."

 

 

The bugs seem to come in if you don't do it straight through... like, you try to go back a few pages to fix something. It seems innocent enough, but it gets pretty screwy!

 

Our council usually advises people to have the current roster up-to-date so you won't be doing much when you enter Internet Rechartering.

[Eagle92]

Road,

 

Yep, when poor service happens once, people tend to remember. And when it happens repeatedly, everything seems to get blamed on the poor service. Even if it is the leader's fault for the problem.

 

As to LDS units, I hate to say it, but trying to keep up with who's a leader and who isn't can be crazy. I remember as a DE going through about 5 or 6 people to get the charter to the units. Doing a camp promo and OA elections was challenging, and I know that the current list of leaders for the LDS units is incorrect b/c I called the folks and none of them are involved in scouting at this time, and they didn't know who was and was not involved.

 

One LDS pro I met and talked to about the situation basically said "the further away from Salt Lake City, the greater the challenges.

[eisely]

Our troop is in pretty good shape, and other than a legacy of advancement not being consistently recorded, at least the basic rosters seem pretty accurate.

 

I will say this. I think a lot of volunteers take a very cavalier attitude towards paper work. While we can all cite instances where we know that stuff was submitted to a council office and disappeared into a black hole, there are probably more instances where stuff was never submitted in the first place. Most of the training for adult leaders simply ignores the administrative side of scouting, and many new leaders or committee members simply do not realize their responsibilities.

 

Many years ago the lady who was our advancement chair in our troop in Southern California educated me about this. When council refused to recognize some names when she turned in advancement reports she figured out that some membership applications were never making it to the council office. She made it part of her job to check with the scoutmaster every week if any new scouts had joined so she could latch onto the membership application and get it where it needed to go.

[Backroads]

We have a response in attachment to our logging policy in relation to paperwork people KNOW were filled out not making it in. If someone calls with such a report and we can't find the stuff on our logs, we often ask a variation of "Do you know who brought it in?"

 

99% of the time, we later find out so-n-so had yet to make it into the office.

[Eagle732]

"If you're teaching the Scouts under you that being rude, irresponsible, and unprepared is not only acceptable but ideal, perhaps you should find another hobby."

 

Good comeback Backroads, the problem is obvious.

 

 

[Backroads]

Sorry, I reacted too harshly to your earlier comment and my reply was inappropriate.

 

But such an attitude would only a problem if I spoke to volunteers in a professional setting that way. I doubt I'd have worked where I do for as long as I have if that was the case.

 

I do believe volunteers' frustration isn't necessarily directed at me, just at the realization they need to do something more than than they thought they did. It's just hard when I'm getting the f-bomb thrown towards me and I don't have a satisfactory answer.(This message has been edited by Backroads)

[Eamonn]

I have been asked time and time again, why I wasn't a professional Scouter?

As a rule I answered that I didn't ever want to give up my being able being able to tell people that I might not like or didn't want to get along with. - Where to go.

 

I'm a volunteer.

I do what I do. Because I like doing it and a lot of the time like to think that I just might, just maybe might be doing some good.

I enjoy seeing the kids in our program have fun, enjoy the program and grow in the program.

I hate the cold, but have taken Scouts hiking, camping and skiing in the snow.

I've camped in the rain, hiked in the rain, cooked in the rain, gone home with more mud than the Mad Potter of Biloxi used in his life time.

Some of this wasn't a lot of fun.

But anything is more fun than going cap in hand asking people I know for money.

Of course I'm not silly or daffy enough to think that we do what we do without funding.

Which of course brings me to the people who work in the Council Service Center.

Yes!

It's called the Council Service Center.

Thanks to a lot of effort by a lot of little fellows and their families selling a ton of over priced pop-corn, thanks to a lot of people twisting the arms of other volunteers and Scout families to donate to FOS, Thanks to the good people in the business communities who believe in what good Scouting can do and volunteers badgering the heck out these good people.

We have Service Centers.

Thanks to volunteers the people who work there work in decent conditions, earn a living and get a fairly decent benefit package,

 

I'm sorry Backroads, in my book you work for and are paid by the hard work the volunteers do and it bugs the heck out of me that you seem to forget this.

If you need to brush up on your customer service skills?

I would strongly suggest that you do it sooner rather than later.

If you really think so little about the volunteers who are doing so much for you to do your job and ensure that you get your pay check?

Then the time has come for you to do something else.

Eamonn

 

 

[Beavah]

Yah, Backroads, I hear yeh.

 

Da thing of it is, in da grand scheme of things, paperwork doesn't matter much. Scouting volunteers choose to volunteer because they enjoy bein' outdoors, and they enjoy workin' with kids. That's where their heart is. That's where they spend their time.

 

And that's where we want 'em to spend their time, eh? We want 'em to be out in the woods with kids. We want 'em to be planning pack and den meetings and worryin' about canoe trip safety and sittin' with the lad whose parents are splittin' up.

 

That's what really counts. Da paperwork will get done when it gets done. All those of us who serve in support positions, execs and registrars and commissioners and such, we have to recognize that we're here to be supportive, eh? We're here so that those fine men and women can spend their time worryin' about how to teach recognition of poison ivy and how to help the mentally challenged lad be successful in his first Position of Responsibility - without worryin' too much about da paperwork.

 

So yeh take it with charm and good grace, knowin' that your charm and good grace means that somewhere a scoutin' volunteer is spendin' a bit more time doing good things for kids because you've had his back. That thought should be enough to bring a smile whenever yeh need it in dealin' with an upset soul.

 

Beavah

 

[Eagle732]

Backroads, Do you volunteer as a Scouter too?