Roundtable attendance

[Gary_Miller]

moosetracker"If they think SM and CC go to roundtable for each unit they are sadly mistaken. Since SM & CC have enough to do, we send a representative."

 

It seems that this unit does not understand the purpose of Roundtables.

 

Roundtables, is not just a place to get information on Council and District events. In fact this is secondary to the purpose of Roundtables.

 

The primary purpose to Roundtables is to provide monthly training in different areas of the program. And every adult leader in the unit should attend.

 

However, the most disturbing part of this post is that the SM and CC don't attend Roundtable.

 

Would it be safe guess that the CO does not attend the District Committee Meeting either?

 

[Eagle92]

More thasn likely the COR doesn't attend discom mtgs. In my 14+ years on various discoms in 4 councils, only 1 did a COR actually attend, and he was also the Dis. Chair. Heck I didn't realize that the COR sits on the DisCom or Council Exec Board until recently, and I was a DE.

[Basementdweller]

What if the quality of the program is terrible??

 

The program after 8 years doesn't seem to change that much.

 

I don't see much benefit in attending

[Twocubdad]

I don't know of a single COR attending our district meetings. If they are, it's because they've been recruited independently to the committe, and it's incidential to their position as a COR.

 

Many years ago, when I first became CC of the pack, I got a letter from the district chairman reminding me that as CC I was an ex-officio member of of the district committee. Being a new, gung-ho Scouter, I showed up for the next meeting. I sat through the whole meeting until the end when the chairman ask me if there was some reason I was there. No, I said, I had received his letter that I was on the committee, so there I was. "Really?" he said looking at the DE with a puzzled expression. Apparently the letter went out from the office unknown to the chairman and was pure boilerplate.

 

Roundtable isn't much better. In 10 years as a committee chairman, cubmaster and scoutmaster, I bet I missed 5 Roundtables and three of those absences were due to other Scouting commitments. In the past two years, I've not attended a single one. My moment of clarity came when I took my son to a Roundtable meeting to fulfill a communications merit badge requirement. When the 15-year-old describes a meeting as the most incredible waste of two hours he's ever seen, it gives one pause to think.

 

If and when Roundtable meetings offer the supplemental training you describe, I may go back. Maybe. But as long as they can be boiled down to a medium length email with a few attachments, my time's better spent at home with my family.

[moosetracker]

Uh-oh I got called out on the rug..

 

Well we were members of a Pack and 2 troops all 3 of different towns and different units and of one council.. And, another troop of different town and different council.

 

All of these 4 units of different councils, never sent their CC, DM, SM or anything to a roundtable, they all sent reps.. And the practice was well established before we joined, so it was not introduced by us.

 

Pack had a semi-active COR..

Last troop had a very, very, very well informed COR.. In fact if she set her sights on going after the council, they stood at attention and said "Yes, Ma'am".. She grew up in scouting from cradel to grave. (She has sadly passed on.)

 

With her it was of utmost importance we have a rep at the roundtable, but not the SM or CC..

 

The Rep will not only pull the info from the boxes, but attend the announcements and the roundtable breakouts, then come back and report the info to the SM.

 

There are only so many, "1 hours a week" that people will do on a voluntary basis.

[beardad]

I have been to my district's roundtable a handful of times over the years. We are a fairly large district in a metro area. I would say on average 10 people show up every month. and that possibly up to 4 or 5 units are represented out of the hundreds of units in the district. Unless there is specific training going on (new leader essentials for example) nobody goes to these things.

 

[moosetracker]

beardad -- That is very sad.. Well our districts may not send the "Right" people, but our roundtables are very busy. A guestimate for last month would be slightly over 100 people.

 

Even excluding the OA (that meets on the same night).. Who were instructing the new ordeal members how to put together the horseshoe pack. (My son when he went got it with the instructions but they aren't too good.. And I spent a long time trying to locate 100% Wool (with out any blend) and paid a fortune for 3 100% wool blankets per instructed.. Only to find out all the new blanket material would do, wool was just what they had back in the day when the instructions were written.

 

I will say our roundtables are in tune with a carnival effect..

[AvidSM]

The main purpose of roundtable is to be a support group for the unit leaders. You can have supplimental training there also, but is should not take more than one third of the meeting. It can't be a rehash of last months district emails and web site postings. It has to be a place where leaders can discuss the issues that are important to them and share information about what works program-wise.

 

I don't blame leaders who don't attend roundtables that don't give them what they want. I'm not suprised by the other posts here that have been talking about low attendance.

 

Most leaders want to know if what they are doing is OK and if any other leaders are going through the same thing they are. They want to hear how other leaders are dealing with these same issues. It is very similar to what we do here on this discussion group.

 

The hard part is when you do give the leaders what they want and they still don't attend. The Commissioner running it has to reach out to these leaders and let them know the benefits of attending. He needs to develop friendships with these leaders so that they want to attend.

 

 

[Jeffrey H]

There are three types of folks that attend Roundtable in my District

1)      New unit leaders that are looking for some direction and assistance with their program.

2)     District committee members and roundtable committee members that are obligated to attend or feel obligated.

3)     Those that missed University of Scouting or Pow Wow and need the roundtable attendance for their leader award knot.

Veteran unit leaders that had a few years experience usually did not attend.  I stopped attending roundtables because the supplemental training that they were supposed to deliver would be canceled or it was poorly prepared and executed.  Instead, we received announcements of events that many of us were already aware and had already planned for.  The moral:  If anyone waited for Roundtable about upcoming events, you were already late or had little time to plan the event with your unit.  I can think of a couple of good meetings that were helpful for new Cub Leaders, but for the most part it was a waste of time.

 

[srisom]

When I first got back into Scouting as an adult in 1984, I went to Roundtables where almost every unit had at least one rep there. Now we are lucky if we have more than 3 units represented. Most nights there might only be 4-6 people.

Programs have been set up and invitations issued through several different Roundtable Commissioners, but no improvement.

If units would send at least one person, does not have to be SM, it would be great.

 

District Committee meetings are not as well attended now, but there are a few more. CORs there are really there for another position duty. CORs are invited once a year to the annual District Business meeting to elect the committee for the next year. Same thing on the Council level. While they are members throughout the year, most do not know it and when invited do not attend. For a Council Business Meeting, I have seen no more than 5-6 CORs, except those there for another position.

 

I have always found Roundtables a good place not only for a particular training, but a good place to share questions, concerns, etc. with others and get their views.

 

We can't get the adults there, so there is no way to get the youth there for an OA meeting.

 

 

[moosetracker]

Well I don't feel my district is so bad with it's setup.. SOMEONE is better then NOONE..

 

I don't think anyone who does attend RT felt our's was a waste of time. My old district was well attended also.

 

Poor turn out kills the enthusiasm of the people putting on the Roundtable. How much effort are you going to put into an event where few show up. Soon those few are not even showing up.

 

We went to our Council kick-off this weekend. They have booths set up so you can learn things and meet people. The first few times it was exciting. Now I kind-of run through the booths, stopping at 2 or 3 new ones.

 

Our council will not give out a district calendar to units that do not attend. Not only do you have to attend. You have to have 15 booths signed off, before you can collect your district calander. Only one calender per attendee. No more, No less.

 

This year I went for my calander, it was the first year they only gave us a paper copy. No electronic copy. I was shocked. I would burn copies of the electronic one to give out to other unit members.

 

I was shocked I asked why.. Response. It all is on-line.. Blink.. Not a good thing to advertise.. What you want to bet that the kick-off starts to fizzle. This Council calendar is not the golden carrot any longer.

[moosetracker]

typo.. district calendar.. I meant Council Calendar..

 

srism - if you have an active OA, you might see if they can't meet in the same time/place. You might get the parents of OA kids showing up just because they are there anyway.

 

If your Roundtable start putting on a good show for them, then maybe word of mouth will get others back.

 

[Twocubdad]

What's the purpose of producing a council calendar? To communicate important dates and activities to the members or to create a stick with which to beat people who don't attend Roundtable?

 

A few years ago the geniusry that is our training committee decided that training card would not be issued at the end of the courses, but would be distributed at the following Roundtable. This was purely a means to boost RT attendance. Guess what? Total FUBAR.

 

Years later there are still folks with incomplete training records because the registration was fouled up (per usual) and they never received their training cards as back up.

 

If RT doesn't have enough intrinsic value to attract Scouters, gimmicks, guilt and bullying aren't the answer to better attendance.

[John-in-KC]

Roundtable is one of the obligations of the Local Council to the Chartered Partner and its unit(s). I extracted the following from a charter agreement 12-182R (I googled this one, you can too!):

The council agrees to

 

Provide year-round training, service, and ***program resources*** emphasis added to the organization and its unit(s).

 

From the 2009-10 Boy Scout Roundtable Planning Guide #34253:

 

The mission of the Boy Scout roundtable is to provide quality resources, knowledge, and skills to unit leaders to enable and motivate them to deliver an outstanding program to their Scout troops. Roundtables focus on program highlights for upcoming months, not on the current month.

 

Who attends Roundtables, again from the same document (I googled it, you can too!):

 

Who Attends Roundtables?

 

Roundtables are for all troop leadersScoutmasters, assistant Scoutmasters, and troop committee members. Unit commissioners attend the roundtables in which their leaders are involved. This may mean dividing their time between Boy Scout and Cub Scout leader roundtables.

 

The quality of a District Roundtable is a direct responsibility of the District Commissioner. It's in his lane. He/she appoints Roundtable Commissioners for each of the 4 programs of Scouting (I think Varsity has a "Huddle Coordinator" vice a RT Commish). These folks are to recruit a staff and serve the units.

 

I will say this: We just completed our Program Planning Fair for the 2010-2011 program year. As part of that, we gave each of our attendees a survey. The District I serve has the attendance problem common to all Districts. Even so, our goal is 100% Scouter attendance. We look critically at what we're doing and what we need to do to boost attendance, both in terms of units attending and people attending.

 

Simply put, RT Commish and staff have to look at themselves as deliverers of the Scouting Charter promises to the units, and have to comport themselves as professionally as they would in their day jobs.(This message has been edited by John-in-KC)

[moosetracker]

Council calendar puts into one calendar all the events for all the districts. For the full year out.

 

In my job I wanted the training classes dates they were being done for each district. All on a single page. (On the web site the info may be there, but broken into different calendars for each district.). At a unit level this help me direct people to training outside our district if they couldn't make our districts training.

 

I know others boy / scoutmaster etc.. Were interested in the district events. When is the Fall/spring camporee. When is the Hike-a-thon etc.. you need those dates to plan your other events around them so you don't have conflict.

 

You hear about the events when they get closer, but to plan a year out calendar for your unit, you first must have the Council calendar.

 

This year also they had the first intro (you weren't trained after attending) for the masses on the new Cub scout program.. Info about it and question/answer time. That had a huge turnout. 3 classes, standing room only, the ran out of handouts in the 2nd class, and had to run to the council office for more between classes.

 

They also hold the Trail to Eagle, Info on how to send your advancement info in the new on-line format to council, and other programs.

 

Then they have these informational booths.

 

The CD they did not pass out this year had the paper calendar. Plus my training broken up even better then the paper calendar. Paper Calendar is Month per page along with all the other monthly happenings. The Cd had it just for training, broken down by training Course - with info of dates / district / who to contact. CD also had all those neat nifty forms you are always seeking out on the internet. What was on CD for training is not on the internet. It is just now no more.. (* SOB *)..

 

This REALLY is something people came out for. (Although, it may not be SM or CC, we may just send a unit Representative..)