Committee meeting ceremonies

[Calion]

Does your troop have any opening ceremonies at Committee meetings? For instance, reciting the scout oath and law at the beginning of the meeting?

If so, how does that work for you? Is it effective, or just kind of awkward and weird?

Edited December 14, 2019 by Calion

[Eagle1993]

My committee meetings are held in bars, so no scout uniforms, oath or law.  Our opening ceremony is starting a tab.  That said, if committee meetings are held at other locations reciting the pledge is a good opening.

[ParkMan]

In ten years as a unit volunteer i cannot ever remember a formal opening beyond "let's welcome Bob - who is attending tonight for the first time."

Edited December 15, 2019 by ParkMan
grammer

[eagle90]

The CC bangs his gavel and says "The Meeting will come to order"....

[Eagledad]

Wished I thought of the bar location. 

Barry

[T2Eagle]

37 minutes ago, eagle90 said:

The CC bangs his gavel and says "The Meeting will come to order"....

Your CC has a gavel?  Man, I need to talk to my committee.

[MattR]

We used to serve margs after the meeting was over. So the meeting usually started with "We only have an hour, let's get going."

Those were the best meetings. Succinct.

[Calion]

1 hour ago, T2Eagle said:

Your CC has a gavel?  Man, I need to talk to my committee.

Hm. I think I have a gavel, left over from when I was Party chairman…somewhere…

[RememberSchiff]

11 hours ago, MattR said:

Succinct.

Remove chairs, turn down heat, ...  

Edited December 15, 2019 by RememberSchiff

[eagle90]

One of our former ASM's was a woodworker and made a gavel out of a piece of wood from our summer camp.  Unfortunately he passed away way too early from brain cancer, so we use the gavel symbolically to feel he is still with us.

 

Dale

[Sentinel947]

28 minutes ago, eagle90 said:

One of our former ASM's was a woodworker and made a gavel out of a piece of wood from our summer camp.  Unfortunately he passed away way too early from brain cancer, so we use the gavel symbolically to feel he is still with us.

 

Dale

Not related to committees or gavels, but honoring former Troop leaders who passed away during their time in the Troop. This is how my Troop honors them. 

[eagle90]

Very nice.  We had two very influential leaders pass within three months.  Might look into doing that.

 

Dale

[DavidLeeLambert]

My sons' current troop's committee meets during the troop meeting; so we join the scouts for opening exercises, then head off to a room on the other side of the building for the committee meeting itself.

My daughter's pack's committee usually meets in a room at the town's public library, so no ceremony; sometimes someone uses the phrase "call to order", but the real start of the meeting is when the treasurer passes out the budget report, anything before that is just chat.

When I ran pack committee meetings of an LDS pack, I always opened the meeting with prayer.

[fred8033]

38 minutes ago, DavidLeeLambert said:

My sons' current troop's committee meets during the troop meeting; so we join the scouts for opening exercises, then head off to a room on the other side of the building for the committee meeting itself.

I've always liked this approach.  It gets the committed / involved adults away from the scouts.  It gives parents a place to go.  It helps recruit parents by showing them opportunities to help.  It avoids adding yet another night to the scouting calendar.

[Liz]

We usually start with a round of "Sorry I'm late," and "Do you know if so-and-so is coming?" We usually meet after hours in a truck stop type restaurant owned by our CC; occasionally if we're not in too much of a hurry she'll take orders and make everyone a burger or something. 

Every once in a while, if a financial or policy change decision is made, someone reminds the rest of us that someone should make a motion and we should officially vote on it. 

That's pretty much it. Our committee meetings are very informal.