Removing a Family from Unit

[VinceC]

 

Unfortunately, this may happen very soon in a unit that I am now a part of. Has anyone had to do such a thing? I'm speaking of 2 sons and their father, who is on the troop committee. The mother, while not registered, fuels the fires.

I prefer not to go into the details here, but it is definitely warranted. I have seen and experienced things firsthand. This should come as no surprise to the family. All concerned have been spoken to regarding their actions numerous times. No one really knows how to go about doing this. Is there a formal way this is to be done?

Everyone on the committee would like them gone, but are afraid to send them packing fearing repercussions later coming back to haunt them if not done properly.

Commissioner and DE agree with us, but say that this is a unit issue.

Any suggestions?

Thanks.

 

[le Voyageur]

 

 

A job for the COR....or the Institutional head. It's their Charter...

[nldscout]

There is no formal way, Just simply have the CC and the SM tell them they are no longer welcome. Its not hard to do.

 

Then send a note to Council asking they be remved from your troop charter.

 

Thats the end of it. What possible repercussions is there? NONE! They have no recourse.

[Eagle92]

Have you tried everything else yet? This is a big decision and you will need to do a few things.

 

I can tell you from my limited experience that this is a unit matter and the DE and UC will not get involved until after the unit does their part. When a unit did this while I was a DE, I had to counsel the dismissed party about them having to find another unit.

 

 

1) make sure the Committee Chair, Charter Organizational Rep, and Institutional Head all know what is going on and agree with the decision. As Voyageur said, it's their charter.

 

2) make sure your Unit commissioner and DE know about it in advance. That's a courtesy as I'm sure the DE will be catching all types of grief over this matter. Been there and done that, didn't like the 2AM phone call

 

3) make sure you have a copy of all the scouts records, and that they are up to date. I would go so far as to get an advancement report from council on the scouts. MAKE COPIES AND GIVE THE COPIES TO THE PARENTS, KEEPING THE ORIGINALS.

 

4) Fill out the transfer form on the scouts and MAKE A COPY FOR YOUR UNIT.

 

5) Get a copy of the leader's history with the unit, again I'ld go so far as to get a copy of his Training report from council MAKE COPIES AND GIVE THE COPIES TO THE LEADER, KEEPING THE ORIGINALS.

 

6)Fill out the transfer form on the LEADER and MAKE A COPY FOR YOUR UNIT.

 

7)Give prorated reimbursement of unit dues,and a check for the scout's account if they have one.

 

8) Have a letter signed by the Committee Chair, Charter Organizational Rep, and Institutional Head saying that their services are no longer needed. Hand it to them in person with witnesses, preferably the CC, COR, and IH doing the handing and talking.

 

9) Send a copy of the letter given to the dismissed parties, as well as a letter explaining the decion to the council so that it can be noted with the unit's charter and records. This is vital is the leader had any access to money at the council office

 

10) If this individual had access to the unit banking account CHANGE IT IMMEDIATELY!

 

[John-in-KC]

Eagle92 outlines a good procedure. My only comment is if Dad was on the Council signature card for unit funds or for the Scout Shop, change that immediately.

 

To re-emphasize: The IH/COR are players here. If they do not buy into removal of the Scouts and the parents, you've got a big problem! Get the IH/COR to buy in before you start the removal action. Get all the administration done before you notify the parent and the youth.

[hotdesk]

In June I joined a Cub Scout Pack that I helped reorganize. The Pack had started to fade, but the Chartered Organization Rep. knew that it was a needed program for the neighborhood it served. I joined the Pack as Committee Chairman, at the age of 21, to help bring the thing that the Pack was really missing, a connection to Scouting and Community Resources.

 

After this point I worked at recruiting volunteers. The first volunteer I recruited was responsible for working with our Tiger Cub program. After a few meetings I noticed that the two Tigers I had weren't coming to meetings on time anymore.

 

At this point I made a point to observe the Tiger Cub meetings. I realized that, for many reasons, it was the adult leader who was causing these scouts to lose interest in our scouting program.

 

After I realized this, and going forward with the idea that the Tiger Cub program was perhaps the most important program in a pack, I decided that a change was necessary.

 

The hardest part about this change was the the person was a co-worker. For this reason I spent about a week talking to different people to get the advice I needed on how to construct the conversation.

 

From this experience here's what I learnt:

 

1) Have a meeting to make sure that both groups know why the situation isn't working. Make sure that the Committee Chairman, Cubmaster, and/or Chartered Organization Rep. are involved in this meeting and make sure that they are the ones doing most of the talking.

 

2) Be honest with the volunteer, but do not be harsh. Chances are that you'll see this person from time to time in scouting and other community situations.

 

3) Have an idea of the things that you want to say before the meeting starts. Write it down. Make sure that you have specific examples of the things that you plan on discussing.

 

4) Make sure that you thank the volunteer for the time that they put into the program. I'm sure that they still did things that benefited the scouts of your unit and the unit itself.

 

5) If you know that the family will be staying in scouts provide them with a list of units in the area. You can probably find this on your District's website.

[frank10]

Keep the number of people involved in the firing to the least number needed for safety.

I've never understood why it takes one manager to fire one employee but it takes the whole committee to tell a volunteer that they can find a new way yo fill that one hour a week. I never was much for public humiliation.

 

On the other hand, be firm when you do it. Don't let him think that this is open to negation and that there is no need for him to defend himself. Thank him for any effort he has put in but assure him that you have thought it over and his services are no longer needed.

 

Then, keep your mouth closed tight. Resist saying another word about it to him or anyone else. It is a closed chapter. Anything you say will only make things worse.

 

Oh, Good luck.

[Eamonn]

VinceC,

What position do you hold in the unit?

 

I think Eagle92 and le Voyageur make a very good point.

 

There are many lessons to be learned from all of this.

 

All to often the only requirement we place on having someone join a unit is that they have a warm body.

We fail to select the right person for the job.

Then we seem to be shocked when it doesn't work out.

We fail to have everyone understand that the Chartering Organization is in fact who they are signing on with.

The Chartering Organization owns the Unit.

The Chartering Organization has decided that the programs of the BSA are the programs that hey think will best serve the youth members that they serve.

Some Chartering Organizations take their role very much too heart.

I had one unit where the rechartering papers always seemed to be in at the very last minute, because the Chartering Organization head (Executive Officer) made sure he met with each of the volunteers on the charter before he would sign off on it.

 

We do of course have a lot of Executive Officers who seem willing to sign off on just about anything that is placed in front of them.

 

Right now I'm serving as a COR for a Ship.

I do report to an Executive Committee. As a rule our Executive Officer changes every year (He or She is elected from the membership.) I like to think that they are happy with what the Ship is doing. But I know that for the most part they don't know very much about the members of the Ship (Youth and Adult). When I bring a new adult application to the meeting to be signed I give a very short breakdown on who the applicant is, what I know about them and what the references that they supplied have stated about them.

Most of the time these applications sail through (No pun intended.) Sometimes if a member of the Chartering Organization Committee is aware of something about the applicant it will be brought up (We had one person who applied to be a Ships Committee member who the Elks Committee knew was behind in their property taxes.)

However most times they rely on my word.

 

I agree that removing an adult who is disruptive is a good idea.

The best and easiest time to do this is at rechartering.

That way you simply remove their name from the charter and don't accept their registration fee.

Of course you would need to inform them and the Chartering Organization that this was being done and have a good reason to do so.

My big problem with what you want to do is about the two sons.

Removing two youth members because their Dad is not easy to get along with? Just seems wrong.

If there are other problems? These need to have either been addressed or need to be.

Chances are that if Dad is asked to leave? They will also leave.

But if they have done nothing wrong, only had the misfortune of having not very nice parents? Asking them to go; is just not right.

The CO has the final word on who serves the organization and who doesn't.

The pros will really not want to get involved and from my experiences will pass this like a hot potato! As right they should.

While I have never had to remove a volunteer from the Ship.

I think if the Skipper and the Ship's Committee Chair came to me saying that they wanted someone removed. I'd make a phone call to the Executive Officer of the Elks and inform him of the what, where and when. Then I'd meet with the person who was being removed and thank them for their past services.

As for the youth members?

If they had done something wrong? The Ship's Committee would have to look at what they had done? Decide a course of action.

But it would have to be something very serious to warrant removal from the Ship and the Scout Executive would need to be informed as to what this was and why they were being asked to leave.

He or She could then decide what action he might want to take or not take.

Eamonn.

 

 

 

[Spatulate]

Reading back over old posts and found this thread. It was useful for me as I find myself in a similar situation. It’s hard.

[fred8033]

4 hours ago, Spatulate said:

Reading back over old posts and found this thread. It was useful for me as I find myself in a similar situation. It’s hard.

My sympathies.  It is hard.  I wish you the best.  ...  My only advice is don't let problems linger as such problems poison others experience and can just lead to more issues.

[MattR]

@Spatulate, nobody volunteers to be the hard one that deals with problems yet sometimes it's needed. Remember the scout law, do your best and leave it at that.

[Tron]

@SpatulateThere are 2 issues, the first is you have to identify if the "family in question" is the problem or is it something else. The other issue (sort of pointed out in OP) is the repercussions; are you afraid because your unit is not doing things correctly and the ejected family might report you? 

These issues always come down to, if the unit is following the rules, and doing things to the best of its ability, removing someone from the unit for bad behavior should not be a threat to the unit. 

[Spatulate]

On 6/10/2022 at 10:41 AM, Tron said:

@SpatulateThere are 2 issues, the first is you have to identify if the "family in question" is the problem or is it something else. The other issue (sort of pointed out in OP) is the repercussions; are you afraid because your unit is not doing things correctly and the ejected family might report you? 

These issues always come down to, if the unit is following the rules, and doing things to the best of its ability, removing someone from the unit for bad behavior should not be a threat to the unit. 

Toxic negative critical families. Tearing down leadership nonstop. Made allegations against a leader that got that person removed from BSA. 

 

[Tron]

On 6/13/2022 at 11:13 AM, Spatulate said:

Toxic negative critical families. Tearing down leadership nonstop. Made allegations against a leader that got that person removed from BSA. 

 

So a leader got removed from BSA totally? Not asked to leave a Troop, not asked to step down into a non leading position, totally removed from BSA?

[Spatulate]

On 6/16/2022 at 8:39 PM, Tron said:

So a leader got removed from BSA totally? Not asked to leave a Troop, not asked to step down into a non leading position, totally removed from BSA?

Sorry for my delayed reply.

YES - appeal in process, but terribly handled by local council. More of a witch hunt/vendetta than anything else. The person never received details about so-called investigation, allegations, process, etc. Got one letter saying "you are on hiatus," got another letter months later saying "you are out."