Ship Charter Presentation

[CNYScouter]

Does any have a charter presentation ceremony the Sea Scout ship can use?

 

After the open house on Sat. the CO asked if we could do this Sunday night at their annual Spaghetti Dinner

This is the clubs best-attended event of the year and would like to us do this right after dinner.

I am looking for something that is not to fancy or lengthy or anything that will take a great deal of time to prepare for as they still have not appointed a COR.

 

 

[Eamonn]

Talking as an Ex-District Commissioner.

Technically (Whatever that might mean??)

You don't have much say in the presentation of the charter.

That is up to the Unit or District Commissioners.

I'd give them a call.

I'm sure with the Scouts you have and their help you can come up with something.

We opted to wait till we had all the Scouts in Whites, so we could use it as a photo-op in our local newspaper.

Eamonn.

[CNYScouter]

So, As the skipper of the Ship I am not involved with this?

 

As there is no UC for the Ship (if I want one I need to recruit one myself) will the DE play a role?

 

Because this going to be on such a short notice and we haven't even had a Ship meeting yet I'm pretty sure that no youth will be at this.

 

I would like to postpone this until the Ship at least has an activity uniform but this is the only event that has just about the whole club turns out for.

[Eamonn]

Call the District or Council Commissioner.

Tell him what is going on.

As Skipper you might say that you are part of the Chartering Organization.

So in some ways it would be like buying yourself a birthday card.(Your name is on the charter!!)

We are a volunteer organization.

The DE isn't a volunteer.

Eamonn.

[CNYScouter]

But again, there are the way things should be done and the way things are being done.

 

I talked with the DE yesterday about this. (He called wanting to know if I had the COR app yet) and I was told that We would be doing this.

 

It seems this DE handles just about everything in the district.

When I went to the district Training Chair about find who did the training I was looking for He told me he didnt know who did it.

I said this to the DE and he knew someone who could do the training said that if I needed training talk with him he could arrange it.

 

At this point I do not think we will be doing the charter presentation on Sunday anyway.

 

Our council puts together a package when doing these but needs 2 to 3 days after finishing the paper work for chartering to get it together so I dont think there is going to be enough time to do this.

 

 

 

[John-in-KC]

Two comments:

 

The charter comes off the same laser printer as do the BSA membership cards. The registrar loads a full sheet of the colored paper in, hits print, and whammo! Charter.

 

Call your DE, and get him in gear on producing the charter. Of course, getting that COR is something holding up the show, unless the Exec Off is willing to service in both until he selects a permanent COR.

 

Eamonn ... As a COR, I've withdrawn charter presentations from my UCs until they actually show up to be the units' friend. Invisible commissioners hinder forward movement!

[CNYScouter]

John-in-KC,

 

DE has said they can print a charter off but depending how busy the office is will depend if they can do it right away.

When doing charter presentations the council produces a nicely printed frameable charter and that is the reason they have asked for a couple of days to get it done.

 

I am not sure what the hold up is on the COR.

The Exec officer of the Club has asked me at least 4 times what a COR does.

I've given him a printed job description three times.

The man;s not stupid. He's a professor at a med school.

 

I have had the rest of the paperwork and applications done for almost a month.

 

My real concern is that we are now losing kids over the delay.

A month ago the CO had me meet with some kids who seemed very interested in joining.

 

The DE saw them at a COH the other night.

Because things have taken so long they have found other things already to do this summer and said they would perhaps check us out again when we start doing things.

[Eamonn]

Can't help thinking that at times allowing things to be as they are when they are wrong only allows us to keep on getting what we got.

We know who should be presenting this charter.

How it is made really doesn't matter.

Just as we make a big deal and have COH and BOH when we present advancements and badges, the presentation of a charter is a big deal.

While I have a lot of respect for a lot of professionals, they are employees and Charter Presentations is not their job.

I'm sorry John-in-KC, but I fail to see how things will ever get better if you aren't willing to help them along.

CNYScouter

Your DE is a member of a key 3. In most cases you will find it is far better if volunteers talk to volunteers.

Your DE has a different agenda than the volunteers. You need to talk with your Dist Commissioner, he is the person who appoints, Commissioners, if he isn't doing his job, talk to the District Chairman, if there is no joy there move on to the Council Commissioner and then the Council President.

Council Presidents don't like to have this sort of thing on their desk. I bet after one call or a couple of E-Mails you will have a unit commissioner.

If they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing go through the system again.

Accepting bad service and looking for ways not to do things right only makes things worse.

OK so you might get the reputation of being a real pain, but this isn't about you. It's about a unit that hopefully will be there long after you have gone.

Having been a District Commissioner and District Chair, I really took phone calls from volunteers to heart, particularly calls from new units.

While I hate to sound judgmental, I think your DE would do a better job and help the District more if he stopped trying to do everything and started helping with selecting people who could do the job and know what they are talking about.

Eamonn.