District Annual Meetings REQUIRED to Elect District Leaders!

[SeattlePioneer]

http://www.scouting.org/filestore/mission/pdf/513-332.pdf

 

The PDF describes the process for organizing and conducting the anual District nominating Committee and District Election Of Officers.

 

 

To summarize, the District Chair isn't supposed to be self perpetuating.

 

Each year the district chair is REQUIRED to appoint a nominating committee charged with making nominations for the District Chair, District Commissioner and other district officers.

 

The nomination made are submitted to the council for approval, and the council appoints one or more people to sit on the nominating committee.

 

Ideally, the nominating committee looks for the BEST people in the community to fill district positions, and these may not be people with a lot of Scouting experience.

 

 

 

My district leadership has been worn out in recent years, and no nominating committee has been held for years. I pointed out the obligation to hold that, and now that procedure is rolling along. I am optimistic that will lead to an invigorated district leadership.

 

I commend this method to those who need new district leaders.

[TAHAWK]

You recommend the madated process. OK. This process can work. Or you can get a slate dictated to the carefully selected, subservient nominating committee by the Council employees -- a slate of all Executive Board "suits" (AKA "community leaders") for the top slots. That HAS produced, in fact, for us, and for all three years of the new regime, the same top slate AND a failure to find a District Commissioner, Cub Roundtable Chair, Scout Roundtable Chair, Training Chair, Scout Training Chair, Advancement Chair, Scout Chair, Cub Chair, etc. But, hey, after twenty-eight months we got a Cub Training Chair -- who had never been on any training staff and means well. Did someone warn them that a purge might not work out and that it is easy to say "No" to strangers? Yup.

[scoutergipper]

In my experience, there's not a tremendous difference to my unit between having no District Commissioner and having the same guy who's been in the job since 1997. They are about equally valuable.

[SeattlePioneer]

Interesting comment, Tahawk.

 

 

I have high hopes of some significant improvements with new leadership. I HOPE I'm not disappointed.

[LeCastor]

Speaking from recent personal experience, my district is in a dire need of new blood as far as the district committee goes. We don't have a finance chair, membership chair, program chair...I volunteered to be the Boy Scout Roundtable Commissioner because I'm always at roundtable anyway. Now that I'm attending commissioner meetings and district committee meetings, I see how much isn't getting done. For so long it has been the same people doing these jobs and they are just burnt out or gone. There's no new blood stepping up or being nominated...It's frustrating.

[SeattlePioneer]

n Google the BSA list of the duties of a district chair.

 

The first duties listed are that the district chair is responsible for recruiting the volunteers needed to operate the district program.

 

If your district chair isn't making an active effort to do that --- you need a new one, probably.

 

And there's no need for that to be someone with a lengthy Scouting history.

 

The Nominating Committee process emphasizes looking deeply into the wider community to find an effective district chair.

 

The District Commissioner is the person who needs a good Scouting background.

[mgood777]

In my experience in rural districts there are never enough people to fill all the slots that need to be filled. Not even close. If someone shows up for two District Committee meetings in a row, just to watch and see what goes on there, they'll find themselves appointed to a position on the committee.

 

How do you think I became District Advancement Chairman at 19 years old, or District Commissioner at 21? I was one of the five or six people who regularly showed up at district meetings. They'll give you as many hats as you're willing to wear. I know how these positions are supposed to be filled, but then the vacant positions are filled by whatever warm body they can find.

Edited April 5, 2015 by mgood777

[SSScout]

"The work is done by whoever shows up".  Congratulations and thank you for your service.

 

When my good wife became CSDCDirector, there was no one else to be her assistant, so I was titled (officially!) "First Assistant Everything Else" and we had a ball. The CSDCs in later years became locally famous and we were able to recruit and train our successors (but no more FAEEs!).

[LeCastor]

In my experience in rural districts there are never enough people to fill all the slots that need to be filled. Not even close. If someone shows up for two District Committee meetings in a row, just to watch and see what goes on there, they'll find themselves appointed to a position on the committee.

 

How do you think I became District Advancement Chairman at 19 years old, or District Commissioner at 21? I was one of the five or six people who regularly showed up at district meetings. They'll give you as many hats as you're willing to wear. I know how these positions are supposed to be filled, but then the vacant positions are filled by whatever warm body they can find.

Yeah, this happened to me, too.    I just kept showing up and they asked me to be district membership guy.  And since I'm always at roundtable I was a good fit for Boy Scout RT Commish.  It's not bad, though.  I enjoy it but we ALWAYS need more volunteers!  There are too many of us who wear 3-4 hats and as Desertrat once said, you'll want to keep all the plates spinning in the air and neglect one or more of the other jobs while taking care of the the other one...

[SeattlePioneer]

The upshot of this campaign to have a Nominating Committee appointed-----

 

 

Last November a Nominating Committee of district volunteers was appointed.

 

They found an excellent new District Commissioner who has been doing outstanding work for several months,  and a new District Chair who is just getting started at that position.  He conducted the best District monthly meeting we've had in ten years.

 

And the Nominating Committee has been combing unit leadership and other sources of leadership to fill vacant positions.

 

This replaced the previous District Chair and Commissioner who were good people but just worn out and ineffective.

 

Instead of spiraling down as the district has been doing for years,  we are suddenly spiraling UP.

 

Big improvement,  but it will take time to dig us out of a hole.

[chrisg478]

_{So how did you convince your District to do this?}

 

_{On our District Committee -}

_{We have a new DE, fresh out of college, this is his first "real" job, and he doesn't know his head from a hole in the ground.}

_{We have a new District Chairman who is following the clueless DE because he doesn't know any better.}

_{And we have a recycled District Commissioner (2nd time as Dist. Com) who can not wait until her term is up on June 30th so she can get away from the other 2.}

_{There are also a bunch of names on a piece of paper that says they are all members at large. In the 8 years I have been on the committee I have never met most of these people.}

_{And then there is me on the verge of calling it quits.}

 

_{Any suggestions on where I go from here?}

[Eagledad]

The best way to recruit is for someone to personally recruit each individual. Some folks are good at that skill and can fill up the roster quite easily, I am such a person and I kept fresh energetic blood constantly flowing in the committee. We also used a nominating committee, but the committee is only as good as the known resources. You are going to have to get out meet people. I always ask units who where their most energetic leaders with new ideas. All units have at least one, so I would go personally meet them to learn their skills and ask them on the committee. Don't wait for volunteers to come, go out there and get them.

 

Barry

[SeattlePioneer]

Excellent comments,  Barry!

 

 

An inexperienced DE and an inexperienced DC are bound to have problems. Unfortunately,  you may need to work with and support those people while they acquire experience in how to do their job.

 

As far as the nominating committee approach,  you can Google "District nominating committee to find out how that procedure works.