Role of Troop Committee after Annual Program Planning Meeting

[Spatulate]

(I am a new CC as of March '22.)

Our units had their annual program planning weekend this last weekend. Sounds like they did a great job!

I am trying to learn what is my role and the Troop Committee (TC) role as to approving the program plan? I guess I need your advice as to "what comes next?" The leaders and Scouts planned out the entire year, so do they create a document for TC approval or is there more TC input required?

Thanks for helping out a newbie who is also doing re-charter for the first time - that's a story for another post!

AM

[fred8033]

Don't push too much formalism onto the scouts.  Celebrate their planning.

Your job is a loose one.  Is committee / COR comfortable with their plans?  ...  i.e. no sky diving with paint ball guns?  camping on Dec 25th?  ... conflicts.  safety.  budget.  ... Beyond that, your job is to help the troop infrastructure support the scout's plans.  CC & SM should partner to decide how and how much to support the scouts.   Sometimes committee reserves and pays for camping sites; buys more tents; coordinates cars; publishes schedules; processes advancement.  Other troops, scouts do a lot of that. 

SM & CC should work to find the right balance to make the scout's program shine.

Edited October 10, 2022 by fred8033

[dk516]

In our Troop the SPL/ASPL will present the final annual plan to the committee for approval. They provide some insight on the motivation and goals of the various outings and some rough programming ideas on what they are planning to do. I look at my role as sort of an audit function on the overall outings. Are they realistic with the Troops resources or will they require high cost or other resources to make feasible? How can additional resources be achieved or not? Are they within the borders of what can be safely achieved (GTSS)? We try and estimate which outings require a lot of committee support or even a separate committee like summer camp planning. Early reservation commitments (cash??) needs before a full signup, etc. Also, your Troop outing plan should be reflected again in your Troop' budget to make sure that needs are covered and things like that.

[Spatulate]

THANK YOU. I think part of the issue is we have two brand new SM, so they are learning the ropes, as I am. 
AM

[5thGenTexan]

I made a sign reading  "Please Turn Off the Lights" today.

 

 

[5thGenTexan]

Seriously though...  out National Night Out was last Tuesday.  Neither of our SM for either Troop could be there at the designated set-up time.  I made sure our booths were set up and ready to go.  I also spent 2 hours that evening "rubbing elbows" with other community leaders.  Getting more information about upcoming events, letting some know what we can do, speaking with adults who used to be in the Troop as youth. A lot of the sort of thing that just doesnt work in an email conversation.  

There are just a lot of things outside of running the program that need attention, and I make sure that stuff gets done or find someone who can.

I am CC for two Troops....

[curious_scouter]

This was my first year helping in the annual planning.  I think keeping it simple, letting the Scouts take the lead, and having the adults engaged primarily to sanity check cost, logistics, and safety is the key.  For this, we asked 3 adult leaders to attend - the rest agreed to "proxy" to those three.  This provided decent sanity checking and avoided having too many adults around to interfere with the Scouts' discussion.  We did not seek further approval after that session. 

No plan survives first contact anyway.  If we had gotten "committee approval" for the plan, we would have felt obligated to re-seek approval when our original plan for November's outing fell through and the SPL had to pivot with the PLC to an alternate plan. 

Asking your SPL to present the plan to the committee has merit IMO.  Not necessarily "for approval" but for "here's our plan".  Gives the SPL some adult association, a chance to receive some well deserved positive feedback from said adults, and gets some adults spun up on the plan and in a position to attend or help if needed.  Might suggest this next year.

[DuctTape]

The "approval" as I have always believed is solely whether the Committee is able to provide the necessary logistical and financial support. ie, two-deep leadership, transportation, permits, etc. The only reason for "disapproval" IMO is b/c the troop committee is unable to facilitate providing e.g. enough drivers for the activity. The primary purpose of the Comm is to support the Scouts plan, not approve/disapprove their plan.

[Spatulate]

44 minutes ago, DuctTape said:

The "approval" as I have always believed is solely whether the Committee is able to provide the necessary logistical and financial support. ie, two-deep leadership, transportation, permits, etc. The only reason for "disapproval" IMO is b/c the troop committee is unable to facilitate providing e.g. enough drivers for the activity. The primary purpose of the Comm is to support the Scouts plan, not approve/disapprove their plan.

Yes, this is what I remember from when I was TC Secretary for three years prior to being CC...plan is presented to TC for approval staffing-and-budget-and-safety-wise. I will ask the SM to prepare the plan in a readable format to have SPLs present at the next TC meeting.

[InquisitiveScouter]

As from posts above, the Committee looks at the plan first through the lens of "Can we rally the functions, logistics, and bodies we need to support our Scout's desires?" 

An example might be that the Scouts want to do a Troop cycling/camping trip.  You expect 25 Scouts to attend.  How many adults will this take to provide transportation and supervision?  Two isn't gonna cut it. (Unless you've got a 20+ passenger bus that one leader drives, and the other leader pulls a large trailer that can carry 27 bicycles and Troop gear.  You get the idea.)  So, what's it gonna take, and can we provide it??

This is why it is important for the SPL (with SM, or adult that facilitated planning, attending) to present this to the Committee...  if only for the Personal Growth/Adult Association/Leadership Development aspects of it.

Once the plan is approved at the Committee level, it becomes the demand function for a Troop budget. (Does your Troop have one?  Budgeting is a Committee function, not a Scouts' function.)  What resources will it take to implement the plan, and how are we gonna get those resources (like thru dues and fundraisers)?

Our Troop runs an SPL term of 6 months.  Each SPL has the task to do an Annual Plan during this tenure.  With this scheme, at a minimum the first six months of new SPL's tenure is already programmed, and they can look ahead for planning, instead of trying to come up with a camping trip for next month.  The next six months after that on the existing plan can be tweaked, if the PLC wants to make some changes.  They are not "married " to that part of the existing plan.  (e.g.,  Previous PLC said they wanna do skiing, but we have changed our mind and wanna do snowshoeing instead.)  Then, they get to dream up (create) the plan for another six months after that.  This kind of long range planning makes for a much more stable program for our Troop and families, and gives us time to make adjustments and do adequate budgeting. YMMV.

The adult leadership needs to help set a "battle-rhythm" adequate for your Troop's needs.

[InquisitiveScouter]

18 hours ago, Spatulate said:

I will ask the SM to prepare the plan in a readable format to have SPLs present at the next TC meeting.

If you use Scoutbook, just put the plan on the calendar there.  No need to come up with another product.  At the meeting, you can project the calendar on a screen one month at a time, and everyone can follow it together.  Technology can really help with this.

Or do it by Zoom and screen share. (or your favorite platform)

We do a trip-by-trip approval.  When a trip is approved, we put "Committee approved" in the admin notes on Scoutbook.

Edited October 11, 2022 by InquisitiveScouter

[Eagledad]

34 minutes ago, InquisitiveScouter said:

As from posts above, the Committee looks at the plan first through the lens of "Can we rally the functions, logistics, and bodies we need to support our Scout's desires?" 

An example might be that the Scouts want to do a Troop cycling/camping trip.  You expect 25 Scouts to attend.  How many adults will this take to provide transportation and supervision?  Two isn't gonna cut it. (Unless you've got a 20+ passenger bus that one leader drives, and the other leader pulls a large trailer that can carry 27 bicycles and Troop gear.  You get the idea.)  So, what's it gonna take, and can we provide it??

This is why it is important for the SPL (with SM, or adult that facilitated planning, attending) to present this to the Committee...  if only for the Personal Growth/Adult Association/Leadership Development aspects of it.

Once the plan is approved at the Committee level, it becomes the demand function for a Troop budget. (Does your Troop have one?  Budgeting is a Committee function, not a Scouts' function.)  What resources will it take to implement the plan, and how are we gonna get those resources (like thru dues and fundraisers)?

Our Troop runs an SPL term of 6 months.  Each SPL has the task to do an Annual Plan during this tenure.  With this scheme, at a minimum the first six months of new SPL's tenure is already programmed, and they can look ahead for planning, instead of trying to come up with a camping trip for next month.  The next six months after that on the existing plan can be tweaked, if the PLC wants to make some changes.  They are not "married " to that part of the existing plan.  (e.g.,  Previous PLC said they wanna do skiing, but we have changed our mind and wanna do snowshoeing instead.)  Then, they get to dream up (create) the plan for another six months after that.  This kind of long range planning makes for a much more stable program for our Troop and families, and gives us time to make adjustments and do adequate budgeting. YMMV.

The adult leadership needs to help set a "battle-rhythm" adequate for your Troop's needs.

If I didn’t know better, I would say this was my troop. We run exactly the same way including each SPL doing an annual plan.

I agree the committee supports the scouts program. But, I also believe they insure the Scoutmasters program is in sync gwith the program vision.  Every scoutmaster has a different way of doing things, so program consistency is the committee’s responsibility.

Barry