Starting a new unit

[bt01]

In starting a "new" unit(cub, boy, or venturing), , how important is the charter, Community Organization, and the Chartered Organization Representative.

[SemperParatus]

Well, considering you can't have a unit without one, I would say they are pretty important. An active CO that takes an 'ownership' interest in a troop, rather than merely a name, can be of great benefit in the start-up phase of a unit.

[LPC_Thumper]

Let's take this one step further...

 

The CO provides a place to meet. I'd say that mattered.

 

The CO provides a resource for leaders. Either financial, or with a list of volunteers. Again, I'd say that mattered.

 

The CO may reflect a voice in the District & Council. The COR/IH get to tell the SE what they want done, the SE tries to balance all their demands. Again, I'd say that mattered.

 

The sad part is that many times these resources go untapped, and therefor their role can be viewed as not mattering...

[Kahuna]

Seems like the answer to that sort of depends on who is starting the unit. Seeing as how you can essentially sponsor yourself by creating an organization, club, corporation, etc., as your own sponsor, it more depends on the resources of the group. If you have experience, a group of adults willing to serve and a place to meet, you are probably all set. I don't know what the experience of everyone has been regarding CO's, but I've seen quite a few that don't provide much apart from a COR and a place to meet. I know that's not how it's supposed to be, and that the unit has to cultivate the sponsor to get the support they need, but as a practical matter, that's the way it is. The unit I work with here is sponsored by an organization that can't (for security reasons) even offer us a place to meet other than in daytime. They do give us storage/office space, but no leaders, no money or any of the other stuff we really need. It works to our advantage in this case, because the sponsor has a large presence and use of the name is helpful. They will help us to the extent they can and our COR will attend Council functions if we press him. We use facilities provided by other organizations, so otherwise we would be about as well off being sponsored by the 501©(3) we created to own our boats.