Centennial Unit Award

[ScoutDadof5]

I am just now getting back into Commissioner Service after a hiatus of a few years, having 5 kids will do that at times.

 

I see that the Quality Unit Award is goone and replaced with a Centennial Award. When I ask about the requirements for units...ummm, there appears to be much confusion and not much clarity there.

 

Can anyone point me in the right direction or offer up and commentary as to what is going on with that.

 

Being involved with a Pack, from prior experience, it has always been helpful in getting leaders trained by letting them know that it also helps the unit achieve thier goalof becoming a Quality Unit.

 

Ok, so the floors open on this one. Can anyone weigh in on this?

[scoutldr]

Welcome, ScoutDadof5. Whew...makes me tired just to think about it!

 

http://www.scouting.org/awards/centennial/14-190.pdf

 

Likewise, there are Commitment forms for District and COuncil. Your Council should have these on line, or in the office.

[ScoutDadof5]

Thanks for weighing in.

 

I looked at that and it shows a 2006 printing. In discussing that with other folks, they have told me that there has been several revisions and not sure what the actual "current" requirements.

 

Granted, what you referred me tow as posted on the BSA site, but just trying to get the low down on what''s what. The unit leaders have been saying the same thing because of some discussions that have occurred over the past 6 monthes at roundatble at various time regarding this.

 

[scoutldr]

Haven''t heard of any revisions. Our UC sat down with us at recharter time almost a year ago to set goals. She hasn''t been back to tell us the requirements have changed. BTW, our unit probably will NOT be quality unit for the first time in 15 years.

[ScoutNut]

As far as I know there have been no revisions. The problem is that many councils are handling this rather sloppily. They are not communicating to their UCs clearly and as a result the UCs are not communicating to the units clearly. Then you have councils like mine who seem to have lost much of the paperwork from the units. This forces the UCs to go back and recreate everything at the 11th hour.

 

There are no real set requirements for this award other than set doable goals in all areas that give you an increase over last year and then accomplish them.

 

[infoscouter]

People are having a hard time with this award.

 

The new award requires unit leaders to think about the factors that will make their unit truly improve, rather that just check things off on a list. Since it''s new, the BSA itself admits that the interpretation of the award will be an issue for people, and that next year''s award may evolve from the version we''re using this year.

 

Your units should have set their goals. This month, you and they should be going over their goals and determining if they''ve met them. If not, they still have a couple months, to get things in order, but the units that have met their goals by October 31 can start receiving them as of Nov. 1.

 

These are links to the Commissioner newsletter and a podcast that discuss the award. They may help you get a handle on the concept and the process.

 

http://www.scouting.org/commissioners/newsletter/4-06.jpg

http://www.scouting.org/commissioners/podcast/comm-0701C.mp3

[GLDCommish]

Time for me to put it my two cents. As a DC it's my job to make sure that my UCs get out there and get commitments. We did that with commitments from nearly 100 percent of our units (some are so stubborn). So up until now all is well and I never gave much thought to how we would determine who's eligible and who isn't. So the other night I sat down and re-read EVERYTHING I could find from last year on the New Centennial Quality award including the web site and listening to Don Belcher's podcast MULTIPLE times (I burned a CD so I could listen to it in my car).

 

I totally agee with the concept of the program. Encourage (force) units and leaders to carefully scrutinize their program to ensure that they are offering the best they can for our youth. That being said, the format (and form) that National has given us to work with is pathetic! I hope someone from National occassionaly reads these forums. Because when I try to discuss it with my DE or Council Commissioner they accuss me of being to nit-picky.

 

The way I read the point about youth retention percentage and recruiting new boys indicates to me that the unit can have an over all membership LOSS and still qualify for the award. Because they don't tie in one with the other. Example: Lets say you have a unit with 40 boys last year 2006 and it is clearly shown from last year's roster. The unit sets an objective to retain 75 percentage. That's a great number by National standards given that the National average is about 67%. That's a lose of 10 boys. The same bullet asks the unit how many NEW boys they plan to recruit and that number is set. So the unit decides to recruit 8 new boys. So now this year the unit only has 48 boys (loss of two) but since the number recruited is not tied into the percentage retained the unit has a net loss but still qualifies if they reach their objectives. Is that National's definition of "Progress"?

 

The leader recruiting is similar. They only ask about "NEW" leaders and no mention of leader retention. Same deal, if 4 adults leave a unit and you commit to recruit 3 NEW adults and the unit succeeds in recruiting, then the goal is met. But bottom line, the unit is still down one leader! I don't see that as "Progress". But at the same time if I follow the criteria to the letter I can't deny a unit the award based on that point. The only way they could be denied is if they commit to a number, say 3 new adults and don't recruit any.

 

This award is consuming too much time trying to just figure it out and it is taking away from concentrating on improving the program.

 

 

 

 

[skeptic]

From a leader perspective, the award is about as clear as the remaining dregs in our reservoir after a year of no rain. Before, the major goals were always reachable, but now it is so vague that I really have no idea whether or not we will qualify. We set our initial goals last year at recharter, but since, there have been "reviews" and UC's, or whomever they can find to act at the moment are fudging paperwork. So, other than another ribbon on the pole, and a pretty new patch, what will it gain? Still, my scouts will be a bit sad if they do not get the new patch.

 

 

[Cubmaster Randy]

Question

A pack has 50 members, crosses over 10 Weblelos II's, but then recruit 15 new scouts (tigers and others). What is their retention rate.

We've had some spirited discusiions as to this subject

[GLDCommish]

Hello Cubmaster Randy

 

I assume that there is no loss or gain in the other ranks (Bobcat, Wolf, Bear, Web I).

 

If your net this year is up 5 boys than your retention rate is over 100%. I don't know exactly how many boys you have so I can't tell you exactly what percentage. Take this year's number and divide by last year's number and multiy by 100. That's the retention rate. National averge is about 67 percent (I.E. one out of every three boys drop out of the program every year)!

 

If you can end up each year with a gain in boys you must be doing something right!

[Venividi]

I think that retention rate is based on specific names on a unit's roster last year, and how many of those same names are on the roster this year, not counting those that aged out; i.e., of those that were in the unit last year, how many of those same boys that are eligible for membership this year are still members. Adding new members does not affect the retention rate.

 

Venividi

[Gold Winger]

Not in my council. The way that whole thing was explained to us was that if you had 30 boys, lost 25 but recuited 30 new ones. They'd consider that you had retained 30 and grew by 5. Of course that was the interpretation last week. It may have changed this week.

[Oak Tree]

Any common sense interpretation of the term 'retention' would match Venividi's. But our UC also explained it to us as Gold Winger describes.

 

The idea of getting units to set their own goals may sound good on paper, but it makes the award meaningless. Some units may set really high goals and strive hard to meet them. Other units set very minimal goals. And then the implementation of the award ends up with all these nonsensical questions about retention or whatever.

 

Our district commissioner says they are going to help units reset their goals right now for 2007, as many units set them unrealistically high. But resetting the goals now seems like an exercise in bureaucracy. Does the district get rewarded if more units achieve the award?

[Lisabob]

Does the district get rewarded if more units achieve the award?

 

 

Yes. This counts toward achieving "quality district." Or anyway that's my understanding as part of my district's committee and from my DE. And QD counts toward "quality council" too.

[RangerT]

My feeling is that this award no longer serves any real purpose other than making the DE and council look like they know what they are doing when in fact most of them haven't got a clue. Service quality is way down, as are the numbers, no council deserves a quality award. It is time to scrap the whole damn award and let the units concentrate on what really is important, giving a great program, and serving the needs of the youth.