Your postion time

[drmicrowave72]

In reading some of the post. Some have said there time is coming up to leave that postions. one said SM he had do his three years. than other say I have been doing this for 20 some years. Are there time limts on postions at council or district levels. I have heard this a few times about the three years. I know for some if you had some one that wasn't good in that postion that all you had to do was to wait for the time to run out.

YIS

[bbng]

All positions are for one year at a time and are renewed through the rechartering process. Some people agree to commit for a specific time frame, but they too are renewed in their positions only if the chartering organization approves that renewal. The BSA does not put a limit on the time served in a particular position.

[emb021]

Some councils may have a local policy to limit a person in specific positions to a specific number of years. There is good and bad reasons to do this.

 

[evmori]

Let's see, I was a ASM for 1 year then the CC for 5 years & SM for 7 years & ASM for 2 years and a CM prior to that for 3 years.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[Chippewa29]

I've never heard of time limits for certain positions. In our district and council, there are elections for year for those positions (volunteer of course, not professional). Our district likes to keep bringing fresh blood into those positions.

 

At the unit level, it really depends on the unit. Some will have elections for the committee positions each year. As for the SM and ASM positions, they are on a continuing basis until the person either resigns or is replaced.

 

I feel that a Scoutmaster should serve at least 5-7 years. Ideally, a Scout should never have more than two SM in his youth Scouting career. I've heard people say that there is too much work for the SM to serve more than a couple of years at a time. If you delegate the work and get other adults involved, a SM should be able to serve for multiple years without making it his full time job. The stability of that position is a big key to growing and maintaining a successful troop.

[gwd-scouter]

I agree with Chippewa in that a SM should serve for at least 5 years. I say that knowing that I've only been in the SM position for two years and a minimum of three more years to go seems a bit overwhelming at times!

 

One of the biggest problems our troop has had was a succession of SMs that only served 1-2 years. With each new SM came a period of transition that lasted 6 months or more - sometimes during the SMs entire tenure (one of the SMs served less than a year). Add to that a SM who was all talk and no action, another that was such a nice guy he would never hold a scout accountable for anything and did all the cooking for them, and you have a mess!

 

This ultimately led to a complete breakdown of the troop into nothing more than an a "cliquish" social club with an occasional (adult run) camping trip on the side.

 

Of course, if your troop is running smoothly, has a functioning committee, is truly boy-led, and a transition plan is in place for the adult leaders, then changing SMs would not be such a big deal.

[John-in-KC]

There are tenure times associated with training to earn various Scouter knots.

 

As one example, the working Scouter (green knot) has two years after training tied off to it.

 

As I recall, SM has a 3 year tenure to earn the knot.

[jmenand]

Our Scoutmaster is on his 17th or 18th consecutive year with our troop.

[Trevorum]

I served as CM for four years and moved on when my youngest son joined the troop. (I thought of staying, because CM is the best job in Scouting!) I was then an ASM for a couple of years. When I was asked to serve as SM, I agreed to at least 3 years. It seems to be a default duration of service in our troop, but is not mandated. I also figured that after 3 years my sons would be Eagle or nearly so, and that I might be ready to serve in a different capacity. I absolutely love being SM, but I'm now ready to let younger bones than mine do the job.

[Eamonn]

Our Council has a 3 year term limit on Chairman positions.

I think 3 years is not long enough!!

It takes about a year to get a good understanding of what you are doing and a year to train the next guy, so that only leaves a year to get anything done!!

Eamonn.

[SueM]

ahh..Eamonn has hit on the dilemma..my mentor has instilled in me that one of our main jobs to do is (basically) pick out, train and groom our own replacement! Unfortunately, he groomed me for his position (CC) and I had to take over as SM instead because no one else would do it! Now he's been ready to step down as CC..but I can't take over for him because there's no way I have anyone ready to take over as SM who I feel can continue to build on the foundation I'm trying to make...Besides..I have grown to like this position too..it's a lot of frustration for sure, but it's also very rewarding. Though I did enjoy the committee work immensely..I'm not sure I could go back to doing "just" it!

 

sue m.