Commissioner Confusion

[sherminator505]

I have a question. I was in the local Scout Shop the other day and I saw insignia for a District Commissioner and a District Scout Commissioner. Having never heard of the latter, I was wondering if anyone could explain the difference to me?

[Buffalo Skipper]

I am going to assume you saw them in a framed display. "District Commissioners" and "District Scout Commissioners" are dated titles which go back to the mid-'70s and also included "Troop" and "Pack" Commissioners.

 

Today's equivilent titles would be "District Commissioner," "Assistant District Commissioner" and "Unit Commissioner" respectively.

 

You can see some historical Commissioner Patches on Mitch Reis' site:

http://www.scatacook.org/photogallery/PatchGalleryCommissioner.htm

(This message has been edited by Buffalo Skipper)

[sherminator505]

Nope. There was a stack of them, along with other current council, district, troop and pack badges of office. What drew my notice to this patch was that I have never observed anybody actually wearing one and I'd never heard of the office.

[eisely]

Maybe your local scout shop should offer the obsolete badges on eBay to collectors. The inventory certainly isn't turning over very fast in the store is it.

[Eagle92]

Sometimes distributors are stuck with out of date insignia. Like my local distributor still sells Tiger Cub Coach patches 'cause she has them in stock still. Sometimes you can find treasure.

[BadenP]

Interesting site Buffalo, I did notice that there was no Venturing/Sea Scout Commissioner patch, and I don't think I ever saw any commissioner wearing one in my council. This is probably because they can't find enough commish's to serve the packs and troops, which I think is sad because I think a quality commisioner could be a excellent resource of helpful information and advice to all those struggling leaders and units out there, instead of being looked at as an enemy or spy as many leaders view them. That is one job in scouting that really doesn't get the respect it deserves, and thats why it is so difficult to recruit volunteers to fill it.

[sherminator505]

At times, I wonder how much terminology affects attitudes. For example, take the word "commissioner." In our sports-crazed culture, "commissioner" is the highly paid head honcho who decides if some problem athlete should be playing or not. In Scouting, a "commissioner" is someone who is 1) a non-paid volunteer and 2) someone who is there to help. Some folks have a hard time reconciling those images, and that leads to confusion.

 

This confusion is further amplified when we insist on calling too many volunteers "commissioners" when their primary roles might be training or running roundtables. This tends to dilute the meaning of what a "commissioner" is in Scouting, and the word loses its descriptive value.

 

Perhaps we should consider renaming some of these positions, making the titles more descriptive ("Trainer" and "Coach," for example), and reserve the titles "District Commissioner" and "Assistant District Commissioner" for the two or three folks charged with leading this group of volunteers in the District.(This message has been edited by sherminator505)

[nolesrule]

I don't think terminology is the issue. I think it's more an issue of reputation or perception. We've all heard about commissioners "being spies for the district or council", whether said in jest or seriousness. Perhaps there are some who act in that manner, but the good ones, while they do need to file reports, are there to help as commissioned by the local district or council.

[frank10]

Our unit commissioner is not just any spy he is a master spy! He's so good that we have never once seen even his tracks let alone catch a glimpse of his shadow.