Is Your Unit Getting The Support It Needs?

[Eamonn]

As a District I like to think that we spend a fair amount of time ensuring that we are meeting the needs of the units in the District.

The Unit Commissioners have been asked to attend a unit meeting of some sort each month. It can be a committee meeting or a pack, Troop or Crew meeting. It has been made clear that attend doesn't mean phone or bump into one of the leaders at Wal-Mart.

While there has been problems in the past with Commissioners who thought that they were part of some elite group or force. We have that under control.

The Commissioner is first and foremost a friend to the unit. He or She is also the go between letting the District know what we might be doing wrong and also reporting the strengths and weaknesses of the unit. If there is a weak spot that the Commissioner can act on straight away, more power to him.

The commissioners hold a monthly meeting where they report the health of the units. However if there is a big problem lurking on the horizon, they will contact their Assistant District Commissioner, who will deal with it or pass it on to the District Commissioner. He will deal with it and report it to the other members of the key3.

We hold a District meeting every month. The District Commissioner gives a report on the health of every unit. We use a color code,green, yellow and red. Green means that everything is fine. Yellow means that the unit needs a little help and red means the unit has big problems.

Of course none of this works if the Unit Commissioner hasn't attended a unit meeting or doesn't attend the Commissioner meeting. I have asked our District Commissioner to make sure that somehow, someway to get a report from every unit. For the most part this is working. We do have one Crew that seems to go MIA for a few months and then turn up.

If you are in a unit that has not seen a warm bodied member of the Commissioner Staff for a while. Get on the phone and call the District Commissioner or your Assistant District Commissioner and tell him or her.

This year our District has no dropped units and over 80% of the units are quality units. This is in part thanks to the Commissioner Staff.

As a District we are going out of our way to get the chartering organizations involved and on board. We mail reminders of the District meeting to all the charter Reps. We mail minutes to the head of the Chartered Organization if the charter rep wasn't at the meeting.

Still unit leaders come to me and say that their Chartering Organization is not doing anything for them. Of course my first question is "What are you doing for them?"

We have a good number of units that are chartered by churches. I think that it is odd when I pick up a church newsletter and see not a mention about Scouting in it. How long would it take to write a few lines and have it included?

I see the paper work on a lot of Eagle Scout projects, very few have anything to do with the chartered organization.

While the packs in the District are doing a fair job working away on the Religious Awards.We see very few from the troops.

We have units chartered by the Elks who have an Adult Leader Award, as yet not one has ever been awarded. The VFW have Wood Badge Scholarships and money available for Eagle Scouts to attend college, very few units are even telling their Scouts that it is there.

We want to help and support all of our units. At times it might be that the district needs a kick in the pants.

Eamonn

[Laurie]

For the longest time, in spite of asking, we had no clue in one unit that help was available. District, council--they seemed so far off and unknown--pretty much a separate entity rather than something we were part of. The DE and our former UC actually admitted to me that since the unit had "continued to continue on", it didn't need any help. I asked what about 75% of the pack youth being lost? Not a concern? No, it didn't get attention. I asked what about leaders who were frustrated, tired, untrained, and ready to leave? As in most leaders? No, it didn't get attention. I asked what about missing reports--no accountability fiscally and no apps for instance. No, it didn't get a attention either. We got attention in a way that seems quite backwards to me. We did get a new UC (nothing wrong with the other one--he simply was away too much and we needed him), did get training (though this was far harder than it should have been to do), did begin attending roundtables and taking part in district and council activities, began to send thank you and holiday notes to our UC and DE, and THEN we got attention. Privately, I had asked if we were folding and was told I was overreacting and dramatic when I listed the above. Then we were recognized at roundtable as a success story. During this roundtable, an announcement was made that three of four units labeled as folding were indeed folding. Then the unit I serve was named as a success story. Now we get help. We get offers of help, not just a willingness to help. What bothers me is that we at the unit level felt we needed to somehow prove we were worthy of the help. Isn't it the sick/failing units that need the help rather than those that are on track and growing? All that said, I like all that I've met in the district and council, found them to be truly devoted to Scouting, but remain at a loss as to why we'd be left to flounder, then suddenly get help when we built ourselves up.(This message has been edited by Laurie)

[KoreaScouter]

Most parents and many volunteers have no idea how BSA is organized above the unit level. My first roundtable as a new leader, everybody was a commissioner of something-or-other -- they were all interchangeable to me and I had no idea who was supposed to do what. People don't know what they don't know.

 

When I was a new Cubmaster, my two biggest sources of help and advice were my assistant Cubmaster and my UC. Wish I had one now (the UC, not the assistant Cubmaster).

 

KS

[packsaddle]

This troop was nearing death. I and others pleaded for help from the DE, from the commissioners, from the council, anyone whom we could ask. I wrote letters all the way to the national level. The buck was passed and we were ignored. So we did it ourselves (just like the little red hen) and turned the troop around. But we received absolutely nothing in the form of help from BSA, just a handful of gimme and a mouthful of nevermind.

[SR540Beaver]

Having never been in another district or council, I don't really have any way to compare. But the answer is yes! We have a very active district and help is available to anyone who asks for it. I believe the unit commissioner function had fallen flat, but there has been a huge puh to recruit commissioners, getting them assigned and getting them out in the units. Until this year, many units had no idea what a unit commissioner was or who their UC was. Not so anymore. Our new UC has been to our last three troop committee meetings. In our pack, the UC came and assisted with our Pinewood Derby. Both offered help with our recharter. Our DE is responsive and overworked. The council loses as much paperwork as they process. That seems to be true of every council. We've learned to make copies of everything since we know we will be re-submitting it at least once. I had attended all of my training for my pack position and even attended Wood Badge before the council found my SECOND registration form and got it approved by national! Maybe we have an exceptional district, but the help is available if a unit will just ask. With the UC's making visits, we hope to catch the ones who fail to ask before it is too late. I'm betting that Barry (EagleDad) will argue over which of our districts is the best in our council.

[John-in-KC]

When I was a pack CC, we had some rough spots in the road. I was new, and didn't know BSA practices.

 

Called my DE for help ... he gave me the name of our UC.

 

Son of a gun never showed up except to eat our Blue and Gold. Our Packmaster guru coordinated our recharter; we never saw a packet!!!

 

AFAIAC, a Commissioner who is not out visiting his units, both at program delivery and committee meetings, who does not come when requested, is a thief of perfectly good oxygen.

[KoreaScouter]

He's not really stealing it; he's just converting it into carbon dioxide...

[Proud Eagle]

Define "needs". Do you mean enough to survive, or the amount it would receive under ideal circumstances, or some other measure?

 

If all that is required is that the unit is able to survive, then yes.

 

If you apply any other measure, then NO.

 

 

Let me provide an example.

Last year our UC (we didn't know we even had a UC until the guy called the SM at home one night) called the SM and told him that he had our charter and that someone needed to come pick it up from him. The SM suggested he could just drop it off at a troop meeting, and that would give him a chance to meat the troop leaders. The UC then told him that he didn't have time for troop meetings, and that wasn't part of what he had agreed to do, and that further the DC told him the unit leaders would have to pick up their charters from him. It eventually came out that he had been holding onto the charter for a couple of months before he even bothered to contact anyone. Yep, that is about the way district support goes.

 

I think part of the problem is, no one wants to do anything for the district. All the competent leaders currently in Scouting are up to their eyeballs in unit level stuff. No unit has any leaders to spare to move into district positions. The district hasn't had much luck in getting people outside of Scouting to help out either.

 

Another example would be round table meetings. The district holds one round table per month. All programs share a single meeting. There is no actual program planned. All that is done is some informal talking, and sharing whatever the latest (meaning you needed it 3 weeks ago) information is. To make matters worse, often the district commissioner (who often runs round tables) is less than perfectly informed, so information about... say an upcoming camporree... has to be pieced together from what troop leaders have heard. Unfortunately most of the meeting will end up dealing with some trivial cub scout issue (such as a half hour argument on some pine wood derby rule). Little wonder most of the other leaders in my troop thought I was crazy for going to round table meetings. I soon realized it was a waste of my time and quit going.(This message has been edited by Proud Eagle)

[John-in-KC]

KS,

 

He was less useful than those articles of nature which convert carbon dioxide into useful oxygen.

 

Let me put it this way: I've seen (within the Army) soldiers of the Adjutant's General Corps (Navy yeomen; AF human resources folx), who, when about to be given an "Other Than Honorable" administrative discharge, added more value to the human experience than this particular UC.

 

Clear within our mutual professional context?(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

[packsaddle]

Hey, I'm with you on your estimates of worthlessness (my comparisons are to highly intelligent buckets of nails) but....well...there's a fine point I need to make. Plants (I assume they're what you refer to) don't make oxygen out of carbon dioxide. The oxygen comes from the water molecules that are split during photosynthesis. Sorry, I just can't help it - the boys roll their eyes too. YIS

[SR540Beaver]

Pack,

 

It is not just the boys!