What is a unit commissioner and why have I never met one?

[Jeffrey H]

The UC's in my district are nice guys and gals with years of scouting experience. We have had some that quitetly drop by and visit a Pack Meeting or Blue and Gold. Their approach has always been the same - they never interfere with our meetings and they never draw attention to themselves. Observing the unit they are assigned to is part of their job.

 

Our Pack is strong, thankfully, and our UC's usually don't have much they can do with us. Often, as I've witnessed it, they tend to direct their attention to units that are in trouble and need assistance finding leadership and direction. UC's used to be very active assisting units in the recharter process, but not as much anymore as more units in my Council use "Internet Rechartering."

[AvidSM]

It's not easy explaining how a district functions to a unit volunteer. A district is not run the same as a pack or troop. It's main functions are advancement, membership, finance, activities and direct unit service (via the commissioners staff). A district is organized around those functions and exists to serve it's units, directly or indirectly. Whether a unit leader understands this or not is due to many reasons. As with units, no two districts are alike, with differing manpower, experience and dedication.

 

Units can function without any help from their district and some do by choice. Still, a district is supposed to "help a unit succeed", regardless of their differneces. But, it cannot help a unit leader if they do not wish to be helped. A good district should be promoting roundtable every month to get these unit leaders to attend and at least have some way of asking for help.

 

Unit commissioners are supposed to care about all their units: pack, troops, teams, crews, ships, etc. A typical district commissioner is always looking to recruit more UC's; it is a challenge to keep a full staff. If a unit leader really needs help and has no unit commissioner, then they should contact their DC.

[Basementdweller]

hmmm

 

My district....bunch of fellows sitting in meetings and there is never any results. They meet every month various committees and nothing ever changes.....Finance committee...what in the world do they do????

 

District Commissioner, typically a business man and not a scouter....He is key to raise funds for the council....Spends his time setting up golf outings and skeet shoots.

 

Membership committee.....the guys the DE yells at and trys to hold accountable for missed recruiting numbers. Not much else.

 

Activities Committee.....they do nothing, we haven't had a district event since I was day camp director 4 or 5 years ago.

 

Advancement committee...Send a rep to the troop eagle boards. They spin stories of bad eagle projects and terrbile scouts.

 

Roundtable commissioners....Run the round table. He does a pretty decent job.

 

Finance committee/????? is that the Friend of scouting guy????? We never have any money despite Golf outings and skeet shoots that raise lots of camporee.

 

Unit commisioners.....are supposed to fill out reports on teh health of units....The are the go between the De and unit, answer the units questions about operations.

 

 

 

So with all of the meetings, I don't see any results...No camporees, no cub events, we do have a roundtable.....nothing else.

 

 

[Basementdweller]

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Smart unit leader DO take an interest in district meetings and activities.

 

If district leaders could be plucked off a handy tree whenever they were needed, your approach might be valid. But most district leaders come from units and participate in district meetings and activities because they see the need and are willing to help out.

 

My district just started doing a monthly meeting for Commissioners before our monthly Roundtable.

 

Withing the past couple of weeks I found a former Cubmaster interested in becoming a UC for his old pack.

 

I'm currently working to use our district recognition program as a way of identifying and encouraging unit leaders to take an interest in district activities and perhaps take positions as district leaders.

 

In my experience, the Commissioner program CAN work if you have leaders working to MAKE it work and to be on the look out for capable and experienced people that can be recruited to do the various tasks that need to be done.

 

My district had a period of several years when things were slowly going to pot because district leaders weren't doing that job. The past year or so, district leaders have been working pretty hard and have reversed that trend line so that things are definitely improving.

 

That suggests that things CAN go to pot and fail, or can improve and get better.

"Smart unit leader DO take an interest in district meetings and activities"

 

I go to roundtable month after month and listen to them beg for volunteers....I watch the big troops sit with their arms crossed.....They have 19 adults and none of them can pitch in and help......Another Troop has 30 on the roster.

 

Your going to need to explain that better.

 

What I see you doing is poaching unit leaders for District positions......I disagree with what you are doing.

 

A Cubmaster should not be a UC for his old Pack.....he has too much skin in the game to be a neutral party in any dispute.

 

So what is more important, Adults working the youth level direct contact or Adults sitting in adult meetings about a bunch of nebulus things that never come to pass.

 

In the UC manual it says that they should not be registered in any other position in scouting.......

[jc2008]

Every district is different. I can speak for our district though since my husband is a Unit Commissioner. Our district has 11 packs and around 13 troops, and they have 2 people as Unit Commissioners. My husband does 3 cub scout packs and the other guy does 2-3 troops. There are not enough people atm to cover all the packs/troops. 2 of the packs my husband is in constant contact with are very healthy and large. The third pack is a new pack and we have been a constant presence for them at their leader meetings, pack meetings, events like pinewood and campouts. It gives the new parents confidence in the program to see people around who "know what they are doing" when all of the new parents are getting their bearings on scouting.

 

He helps where he can and I cannot see giving more than one "new/needy" unit to a commissioner, especially one that is heavily involved in his own Pack. We give a lot of time because we want to see scouting thrive in our community.

 

The trick is to find more crazy people like us who will go above and beyond the program that surrounds our son and reach out to other units and help them make it. Its not an easy task to find, identify and recruit these people.

 

Like anything else, if the UC is done right, it really is a benefit to the entire scouting community. But like anything else in scouting, you only get out of it what you put into it and in some areas volunteers who have that much time and energy and enthusiasm to give are few and far between.

 

[jc2008]

hmmm

 

My district....bunch of fellows sitting in meetings and there is never any results. They meet every month various committees and nothing ever changes.....Finance committee...what in the world do they do????

 

District Commissioner, typically a business man and not a scouter....He is key to raise funds for the council....Spends his time setting up golf outings and skeet shoots.

 

Membership committee.....the guys the DE yells at and trys to hold accountable for missed recruiting numbers. Not much else.

 

Activities Committee.....they do nothing, we haven't had a district event since I was day camp director 4 or 5 years ago.

 

Advancement committee...Send a rep to the troop eagle boards. They spin stories of bad eagle projects and terrbile scouts.

 

Roundtable commissioners....Run the round table. He does a pretty decent job.

 

Finance committee/????? is that the Friend of scouting guy????? We never have any money despite Golf outings and skeet shoots that raise lots of camporee.

 

Unit commisioners.....are supposed to fill out reports on teh health of units....The are the go between the De and unit, answer the units questions about operations.

 

 

 

So with all of the meetings, I don't see any results...No camporees, no cub events, we do have a roundtable.....nothing else.

 

I guess we are lucky in our district. We didn't have a District Derby, so my husband said this year we will have a district derby, and we invited all the packs, and a few of the leaders in our pack helped out on the day to make it terrific. We didn't have meetings with anyone, we just said "Lets do this" and did it.

 

we just ran it identical to our pack's pinewood and it worked out fine.

[howarthe]

I still don't know who my district commissioner is, but I was just recruited this week to serve on the district committee as the membership chair.

[DeanRx]

If you don't know WHO your unit UC is, count yourself lucky. I've only met one, but as a cubmaster, he was successful in inviting himself to unit functions (most often when we were having food and wanting to each without paying as a "guest of honor"). In addition, he would attempt to tell me and the CC how to run our unit, to the point that my female CC finally QUIT over being micromanaged and some off-color female remarks he made...

 

One of my final acts as CM was to ask him to stop attending any unit functions and I had to threaten to get the DE involved to make that happen. We had a very healthy, happy little cub unit going (about 35 kids on average) that this knucklehead would have screwed into the ground if left unchecked. The only thing worse than a PAID district boss, is a volunteer district boss! In my expirience, they do very little to help the unit and only serve to stir the pot. Steer clear !!!

 

[DeanRx]

If you don't know WHO your unit UC is, count yourself lucky. I've only met one, but as a cubmaster, he was successful in inviting himself to unit functions (most often when we were having food and wanting to each without paying as a "guest of honor"). In addition, he would attempt to tell me and the CC how to run our unit, to the point that my female CC finally QUIT over being micromanaged and some off-color female remarks he made...

 

One of my final acts as CM was to ask him to stop attending any unit functions and I had to threaten to get the DE involved to make that happen. We had a very healthy, happy little cub unit going (about 35 kids on average) that this knucklehead would have screwed into the ground if left unchecked. The only thing worse than a PAID district boss, is a volunteer district boss! In my expirience, they do very little to help the unit and only serve to stir the pot. Steer clear !!!

 

[BadenP]

The main problem with being a UC is that it is a thankless position where unit leaders look at you as a spy for the DE and council. As a DE I heard stories from UC's where they were asked to leave as soon as they showed up to a meeting. When they tried to explain what they were there for some were forcefully removed by unit leaders before they could finish, while others were told never to come back again for any reason. So it really isn't a mystery to me why no one wants the job. As a DE I used part of a roundtable to introduce the UC staff to the unit leaders with the DC explaining the role the UC plays in scouting. Afterwards things were better, more open and congenial but there was still tension. Part of the problem I think is that some UC's overstep their boundaries or are not very tactful with new ideas they present to the unit leaders leading to them being banned from that unit. Sad that we all can not work as a team instead of adversaries.

[jr56]

With experiences like that, I can't blame you for not wanting a UC. Unfortunately, anyone who behaves like that has no clue what the duties of a UC are supposed to be.

[kari_cardi]

Our past UC was a pain in the butt. He would show up without warning, expect to talk to leaders who were actively working with scouts, and spoke ENDLESSLY about what he was doing for his own units and how trained he was. No one cared, no surprise. He was annoying and not welcomed.

 

Our current UC is great. He comes to our meetings on a regular basis, waits patiently to talk to someone if he needs to, will help set-up/take-down equipment or otherwise pitch in to help, praises us frequently and acknowledges that we are top-functioning units in the district. He is also a genuinely nice guy. Our DE is also great. He supports us anyway he can, we meet several times a year in person to talk both unit and council needs, and I enjoy working with him.

 

Compared to many of the other scouters here, I feel like my unit belongs to an alternate-BSA universe. Not complaining!