Committee Role & Operations

[Beavah]

Yah, in da parent thread, packsaddle says

 

Sometimes [parents] have useful information such as school event dates that the rest of the committee are unaware of.

 

I confess I sat there baffled for a moment wonderin' why in the world a troop committee was gettin' into calendaring when the boys should be doin' that. Of course packsaddle might be talkin' about a pack committee.

 

Got me to thinkin' about what role different committees play, eh? What actual functions do they perform? Not what they claim, mind. Everyone claims to be youth run, but if the committee is doin' the event scheduling, then not so much .

 

So on a month to month basis, what does your committee actually spend its time on? Let's talk about troop and crew committees (the youth run side of the world).

 

And as a favor, let's say from the start that if yeh post, it's OK for others to challenge your way of doing things and critique it. Part of da goal is to see what others are doing, and to give feedback to push us to think differently or do better. So everybody agrees up front to take feedback and critique with good grace.

 

Beavah

 

[Engineer61]

Well, I don't know which Committee(s) she's on, but I know my wife spends a lot of time keeping all the Advancement Records up to date.

 

I end having to debug the stupid program when it fouls up or needs updating.

[Nike]

Our TC spends most of its time asking the SM how its going, find out what happened on the campout from an adult perspective, what are the boys planning, what do you need us to do to help the boys. Then we talk about Eagle projects, who's doing what, how they're doing, anything new in the pipeline. Money. When's the next fundraiser? Are we all on the same page? Anything from district or council? Any body got any issues? No issues, great. Issues, we'll talk. Everybody good? Great.

 

Kind of casual. Rarely is there vast disagreement.

 

[Scoutfish]

Enginer..Would that be TroopMaster by any chance?

 

 

We are a pack, so my answer might be different for 2 reasons: 1) We are a pack,

2) Most of our den leaders, Committeee members, CM and ACM have boys in the program... So I'd be really surprised as to why any of the committee wouldn't know what was going on calendar wise.

 

At the very least, since the program is in fact for the scouts..It seems the committee is obligate to find out what the school calendars are ( assuming that) the committee didn't have any kids in the program

[bacchus]

We have a monthly 1-hour scout committee meeting that lasts about 75 minutes.

 

Quality Unit status updates

Fundraising Status

Tour Permits

Boards of Review support

Court of Honor support

Budget (which seems to get ignored)

[acco40]

I've got a novel idea - why doesn't a troop committee ask the Scoutmaster in what way could they best support the program! That is their function after all. (This message has been edited by a staff member.)

[Engineer61]

Scoutfish,

 

Yeah, Troopmaster sounds like it...flaky program...

[Scoutfish]

We use pack master...when it's working and not locked up, locked out, locked away, or just screwing up.

 

Usualy 7 days out of the month!

[packsaddle]

Beavah, I owe you a response. Yes, that was mostly aimed at the Cub Scout Pack (for which I have nothing but the fondest of memories) but I also note that the boys in this troop, while 'doing their best' at putting together troop plans, often forget their own upcoming school or other event dates. The parents who attend our committee meetings have often been of great help by providing corrections or dates for which we were unaware (and there is also a university entanglement to keep track of). They boys do a pretty good job of deciding what to do. As far as keeping up with all the potential conflicts and holidays and what not, they're still a work in progress (but that's what we're trying to help with).

[Beavah]

They boys do a pretty good job of deciding what to do. As far as keeping up with all the potential conflicts and holidays and what not, they're still a work in progress (but that's what we're trying to help with).

 

Yah, of course they are still a work in progress. So are we adults for that matter .

 

Difference is as adults we're allowed to step up, make mistakes, accidentally double-schedule, forget our anniversaries or whatnot. And pay the consequences. And figure out how to pay more attention. (Actually never missed Mrs. Beavah's birthday or anniversary. Paid a secretary very well to make sure ).

 

I reckon your scouts will always be a work in progress if yeh keep having mommy and daddy fix their schedules for 'em.

 

Beavah

 

[packsaddle]

Yeah, maybe that's what explains us adults as works in progress...

As for me, I have never missed one of those dates...and without the help of a secretary too - it's my loving spouse who forgets anniversaries, etc.

Abandon all hope!

[IM_Kathy]

the only time any of our adults (committee or whatever) mention dates and school activities is when the boys have scheduled a planning meeting where they sit down and plan the next X number of months meetings, events, and campouts. The boys never seem to pay attention to the fact that "hey that weekend is during Christmas break"

 

another time we'll mention dates is when we as adults will comment among ourselves "there aren't a lot of boys signed up for this campout" "oh yeah, the high school band has a competition that weekend"

 

and then the one time we will bring up a date is when a couple of boys are working on a merit badge and are needing to say tour the capitol - rather than having boys all do this on their own the MBC will make an announcement that we need to know who else is wanting to do this. With this specific type of event it usually does take adults to look at the different school schedules (we have boys from 2 school districts) to find out when we have an early out on the same day and then set it up with one of our local congressman.

 

so those are the only few times I can ever think of any of our adults worrying about a date - the rest is all done by the boys.

 

also, I will add that adults do need to have a little say on dates. If we don't have enough adults able to attend an activity the boys want to plan then the activity ends up cancelled which isn't fair either.