Maybe temporarily suspend the 5 scout minimum to recharter ?

[walk in the woods]

According to Wikipedia 

"The median income for a household in the city was $38,255, and the median income for a family was $41,786. Males had a median income of $32,348 versus $21,772 for females. The per capita income for the city was $14,960. About 6.2% of families and 7.4% of the population were below the poverty line, including 7.4% of those under age 18 and 11.1% of those age 65 or over."

 

[Eagledad]

16 hours ago, Cburkhardt said:

While there might be a quick temporary fix to the immediate challenge (created by needing the extra youth protection form and the national fee increase), there is no easy fix when a geography has an abundance of under-sized units and scant unit leadership.  If this is common in your locale it means that there is likely a district volunteer leadership fail going on.  The councils in good shape that I admire began re-emphasizing the importance, function and volunteer "prestige" of the district chair, commissioner and other district leadership and committee positions a few years back.  It really is that simple.  When I was a Council President I looked around and saw an abundance of under-utilized volunteer talent at the council level and reallocated those resources to the key district positions.  At the same time I increased the expectations, resources and visibility of those positions.  That council was a large metropolitan council, so some of these districts effectively became "mini-councils"   A District well-stocked with volunteers just does not allow this situation to develop to this extent.  Take urgent action now to preserve those units by having another round of recruiting in January.  Then turn immediately to figuring out what is happening at the district level.  So this by having a quiet and businesslike meeting with your council membership chair and council commissioner.  Suggest solutions appropriate to your community.  Be a class act and bring along at least one experienced Scouter who is willing to work as a new district volunteer.   

Good post. Idealistic, but this should be the visionary model of every council. The higher the visionary in the organization, the broader the success of the organization.

I posted a few times lately that the quality of units are directly related to the quality of the district leaders. And of course the quality of the council is directly related. But not always. I have experienced strong district leaders who leverage their power over weak paid council representatives. So, nothing is guaranteed. 

As I have said before, the best councils and districts are the ones that express vivid visions that units can understand and follow,  and recruit the right leaders in positions to match the required skills to develop the units. I think this is where Churkhardt is going. The situation at the district level can be a paradox; leadership without vision don't typically recruit skilled leaders. And if they don't respect vision, they aren't likely to replace themselves with visionary substitutes. There are many successful councils like Cburkhardt's out there, but they are lucky because there aren't that many visionaries like Cburkhardt in high positions.

Barry

 

[qwazse]

54 minutes ago, Eagledad said:

... The situation at the district level can be a paradox; leadership without vision don't typically recruit skilled leaders. And if they don't respect vision, they aren't likely to replace themselves with visionary substitutes. There are many successful councils like Cburkhardt's out there, but they are lucky because there aren't that many visionaries like Cburkhardt in high positions. ...

Our CC said the same thing to our DE when they allowed a nice, but generally divisive leader to form a third troop at a CO within spitting distance of our troop's CO. Meeting on the same night at the same time as ours targeting boys from the same pack. Thank God that after about 3 years our boys and theirs had the vision to say, "This is is stupid."

[Cburkhardt]

On 12/12/2019 at 9:53 AM, Eagledad said:

Good post. Idealistic, but this should be the visionary model of every council. The higher the visionary in the organization, the broader the success of the organization.

 

Thanks Barry, but there is nothing visionary about my postings.  I believe in following the program and leadership structure of the organization and have found after 35 years as a volunteer that  …..  it almost always works.  That is how good the BSA program and leadership development process is.  When I was a District Chair (crazy as it sounds, I have served in just about every adult role out there from unit leader to our national governing entity) I found that if I just had about 10 great Scouters with me, we could do anything.  It just takes good cheer and confidence.  We only need to have about 10 great volunteers in a District to pull it all off, and there people are just waiting to be asked.  They are the unit folks who have about 4 years of experience and are looking for something new to do that goes beyond the unit.  Just ask them and they will say yes.  This is going to sound almost fraudulent, but when I was a District Chair we formed about 15 new units.  That was about 30 years ago, and 12 of those units are still going.  Let's see, that's about 10 new youth a year for 30 years times 12.  So, those people are responsible for about 3,600 kids that have experienced scouting as a result.  Who ever said District work was neither fulfilling nor important?    

[Eagledad]

1 hour ago, Cburkhardt said:

Thanks Barry, but there is nothing visionary about my postings.  I believe in following the program and leadership structure of the organization and have found after 35 years as a volunteer that  …..  it almost always works.  That is how good the BSA program and leadership development process is.  When I was a District Chair (crazy as it sounds, I have served in just about every adult role out there from unit leader to our national governing entity) I found that if I just had about 10 great Scouters with me, we could do anything.  It just takes good cheer and confidence.  We only need to have about 10 great volunteers in a District to pull it all off, and there people are just waiting to be asked.  They are the unit folks who have about 4 years of experience and are looking for something new to do that goes beyond the unit.  Just ask them and they will say yes.  This is going to sound almost fraudulent, but when I was a District Chair we formed about 15 new units.  That was about 30 years ago, and 12 of those units are still going.  Let's see, that's about 10 new youth a year for 30 years times 12.  So, those people are responsible for about 3,600 kids that have experienced scouting as a result.  Who ever said District work was neither fulfilling nor important?    

Well, maybe,but a Visionary is one who sees the big picture and understands where the little pieces fit to make the big picture reach the goal. I do understand the 10 great leaders theory and can’t disagree, but one good visionary can get most volunteers of mediocre abilities to be productive because they match their skills with specific program needs. I witnessed a visionary place a volunteer with basically no skills in a position that matched what little she had to offer. She earned the Silver Beaver for her noble effort in improving the district program.

If just following the program and leadership structure was all it took to get units at the top of their game, most units would be there. But, the average volunteer can’t get their arms around the program today because it has grown to complicated. 

The real crime here is as you say, those special people are just waiting to be asked. That is why I said find that one adult for the troop of 4 scouts, and that person will make it a great troop again. Just needs to be asked.

Barry

[Liz]

Our Council will waive the 5 Scout requirement if there is a plan in place to promote growth. 

Our Girl Troop started with 3 in July, and we're up to 7 now including the Scout we just accepted at Crossover last night, plus there's another girl that's almost done with her AOL that we know is committed to joining us shortly, and we are having a Webelos Night this week and will have a sign-up table for the 5th grade girls. 

Our Pack had all its recharter paperwork ready with 4 Scouts, our Cubmaster attended a meeting to get recruiting ideas we were getting ready to implement, and everything was going to be approved when our COR stepped down at the last minute (or maybe not at the last minute but they didn't inform us until a few weeks ago) and the CO declined to replace her so *poof* our Pack dissolved in a puff of steam. One of the 4 Scouts finished her AOL and crossed over ahead of schedule (see above) and the other 3 are joining other local packs. 

I think the "is there a plan in place to grow" is a reasonable question to answer when making exceptions to the 5 Scout rule.