Problems

[click23]

I am a new UC,4 months, in a district with some serious membership and leadership problems. I have 2 troops, a crew, and a pack.

 

Troop A: Ten or so active and semi active boys, all but one are 14-17 and first class-life, with 2 or 3 about to "Eagle out". The Scoutmaster is wanting to step down, his son is no longer involved and a lot of outside commitments, we have done the "how to select quality leaders", 2 names came up and both declined. They have plenty ASM and committee support, but none of them want to step up.

 

Pack: Very strong, close to 40 boys. But only 4 Webelos, 3 will receive the AOL in the spring. Same CO as Troop A, but this only happened a few months ago, after moving from a fraternal lodge. CM has moved the Pack meetings to his church and stated that he his going to recharter there, he has been told that he cannot do it unless the current CO ok's this. The DE and myself are meeting with the Pastor of the current CO in a couple weeks. I brought in leader from Troop A last night to offer help with camping, activity pins, etc. to the pack.

 

Crew: Down to 2 girls and zero boys. Surveys have been handed out in the schools and had no interest. They have a male Advisor, but are having problems getting a steady female associate advisor and no parental involvement. At this point they are not planning on recharter.

 

Troop B: Same CO as the crew, the crew advisor is stepping up as scoutmaster. They have four boys, one is about to Eagle. This troop split off from Troop A several years ago for some personal differences, SM that is stepping down. This church is basically across the street from the church that charters Troop A and the pack. Pastor is an Eagle that wants to help in anyway he can.

 

We have two other troops in town:

 

Troop C: Basically the only adult leader is the scoutmaster, and very few boys.

Troop D: This is the strongest troop in town in membership and leaders, but they have lost a few boys.

 

Troops A, B, and C have been camping as one troop at a few district events to cover 2 deep and to have enough boys for a patrol.

 

For the crew I am not sure what else they could do, if they do not have the members and cannot get anyone new to join I guess the only thing that they can do is fold.

 

With the pack I am going to wait until the meeting with the pastor of the current CO.

 

The membership and leadership issues in the troops are the biggest issues I have right now. We have had some discussions of the COs of Troop A and B, and possibly Troop C and the proposed CO of the pack joining together and forming some sort of scouting support group that would charter one troop and possibly a pack. The pastor with Troop A is in favor of this idea. Our DE is new, I think the third in four years, and no scouting history. He realizes that the boys should come first and we should do whatever needs to be done to give the boys a quality program, but he is being hard pushed for numbers, not only membership but units and if we do this we will have a lose of 1 or 2 troops.

 

Sorry for all this rambling. I would like to know what you guys and gals think about all of this, and if anyone has joined troops like we are talking about.

 

Thanks

[jr56]

To make a long answer short, sounds like you are already on the right track. Try to consolidate the units as much as possible to concentrate the available adult leadership help. Hopefully, after a period of time, with good support and training, the units will grow stronger, and more units can be split off and formed. Better to have 1 or 2 units, rather than have them all fold and have no units.

[John-in-KC]

Remember to keep the DE and your ADC informed. DE won't be happy; his pay metrics include growth of units.

 

It really does have to be a challenge to be a salesman on salary

[packsaddle]

Been there, done that. The long-term health of the program, it's long-term outlook, and the long-term growth all depend on a long view, strategy, and committment. Chances are that the previous DEs knew their tenure was short so they didn't invest in the long view. This is a legacy that takes a while to overcome and the current DE's pay metric won't help. It is better for the boys to have one good program than for the DE to have 'good' but deceptive metrics. Consolidate the units in the way that best serves the boys and the COs. Then later, if a good program and increasing recruitment grow the unit, reconsider multiple units. Tell the DE to suck it up for a few years while the worker bees do the job for him.

 

[Beavah]

Yah, click23. Welcome to da world of commissionin'.

 

Nuthin' new about your circumstances, that's a pretty common result from the new-unit-pressure of DE's and the occasional "adult behavior meltdown" that causes troops to split. I think you've got basically the right notion, though it's really hard to comment from afar without knowin' the CO's and all of the principal players. Personalities and resources make a lot of difference, eh? Sadly, they'll really determine how you try to proceed, rather than what the "objective best thing" is.

 

Reality: You've got effectively one main troop in the area, and perhaps, maybe, one other viable troop (which currently exists as 3 troops). You've got one effective cub pack, which has some serious webelos retention issues.

 

How you choose to try to "package" that reality depends on the personalities.

 

Thing to look for: Is/Are there any adults in any of the troops (or the pack) who stand out as havin' the kind of character/enthusiasm to make a good SM? More than anything else, successful units develop around individuals "of the right sort." Find that person, and put him at the heart of your "possibly viable troopABC." If you have a second/extra, put him for now as the pack's bear-to-webelos guy, because your long-term viability depends on improvin' that webelos program and its retention.

 

Don't make the mistake of only askin' once, either. Yer best candidates aren't dumb, they know the work it takes. I personally think anyone who says "yes" the first time shouldn't be a Scoutmaster. Give the idea time to percolate, and have some different people approach 'em again.

 

Scout Law thing to think about: That Crew is really dead, eh? But we still have an obligation to those young ladies. As yeh consider the configuration, think about whether you can continue the crew charter with some of your many older boys from the troops. Might keep some of 'em from "Eagle-and-out," eh?

 

Out-of-da-box alternative: Since your TroopABC seems to be almost all high school boys, why not dissolve all three of 'em and form a stronger crew? That'd give your area a viable pack, a healthy TroopD, and a reasonable Crew to pick up the kids that Troop D loses and to add girls. Probably too much silly adult politics and turf issues to pull it off, but worth maybe kickin' around.

 

Beavah

 

Eagle-and-outn. A young man who was given a patch, but never really earned the Eagle Scout rank.

 

 

[Eamonn]

Hi

Looking back at what you posted on 8/9/2006 things don't seem to have improved.

Having served as a District Commissioner I really think that 4 problem units is too many for a new UC.

I also have reservations about UC's serving in all the sections.

The problem with the Pack and them wanting to change CO's is really a problem for the DE. The problems that might come out of all of this are beyond the scope of volunteers.

I know if I was the Cubmaster and a UC brought in leader from Troop, without my requesting it I'd be upset!!

If this CM wants to start a new unit with a new CO, the DE needs to take charge.

In August you posted:

" One crew that has dwindling membership, it currently has two girls and three boys"

Sad as it may be the unit is dead and is doing little to serve the needs of the two girls that remain. Try and help them find another Crew is about all you can do.

Messing with Units is never a good idea.

They need to either stand on their own or die.

Units have peaks and valleys. The Troop that is doing well today could well be the Troop that will have problems later on.

If the adults from one unit want to join another, they can of course do so, if the boys want to transfer to another unit they can move. But when someone who represents the Council starts to step in it is a sure recipe for disaster. It really does jeopardize the relationship that the Council has with the CO's.

Leaders tend to come and go, but CO last forever!!

Your role as UC is to be a friend to the unit.

At times you may have to do CPR,but heart transplants are not your job.

Eamonn.

[click23]

I sent an email to the DE just to let him know that this idea is floating around, and he replied "I think that sounds great"! I met with Troop B last night, the new scoutmaster has laid down a plan to increase membership, so now I am going to support them with this.

 

John-in-KC, I do not have an ADC, none in the entire district, so I have been reporting to the DC.

 

Beavah, All of the troop leaders get along great now. The scoutmaster at Troop A that the former scoutmaster at Troop B is long gone. The cubmaster of the pack is the WDL and the bear DL, his son is in the bear den, I think he will make a great scoutmaster. As for other adults in the pack I am not sure we will have any luck looking there, the cubmaster has not been able to find anyone to take over as WDL, but it is worth a look. I think that the crew might be able to find enough boys to recharter, but the main problem is lack of female adults. The boys in troop b are not old enough to join the crew, I am not sure about troop c.

 

Eamonn, The reason that I was assigned these unit is that at the time I contacted the district commissioner she had no active commissioners, and she had ties to troop A, and since a pack started there I got it too, she also had ties to the crew, and since troop b and the crew were operating as one I took it on too. In the last month or so she has got two more UC's. The visit from the troop leader was a planned visit, and the cubmaster had OKed it. Last year the pack had went on a few events with Troop A, they just basically wanted to reaffirm their commitment for help to the pack. And fulfill my duties for Webelos transition "Be a catalyst in developing good relationships between troop and pack leaders"

This was not my idea, just one I think could help. It started with the committee chairman from troop A, and pastor of its CO likes it, I plan on just offering my support as they run the show. And if some one comes up with a better one, then I will support it.