Journey to Excellence??????? Why bother

[Abel Magwitch]

Why bother? Indeed, why bother - Once my troop found out that the former quality unit program was really a professional promotional program, we decided not to participate.

 

Under the old program, a DE was under pressure to ensure his units were quality units so the district could be a quality district. The SE wanted to make sure his districts were quality so his council could be a quality council. So he pressured his DE's.

 

Being a quality district or council of course leads to professional promotions, raises etc regardless of the actual quality of the council, district or units.

 

The troop I serve knows it is quality. We don't need to patch to wear on our sleeve to prove it.

 

 

[BrentAllen]

Basement,

Weren't you the one who was complaining about the Pack being a one-man show the other week? About how you couldn't get parents to volunteer to help with the Graduation campout? How you were still serving as Cubmaster because no one else would step up? You had the PWD where a parent hit one of your leaders?

 

And now you say your Pack has all 13 points covered, including succession? How does your Pack run a full week of Day Camp when you can't get volunteers for one camping trip? Something doesn't add up.

 

 

[DLister]

Scoutfish - All levels for packs require meeting 10 of 13 requirements and getting a certain # of points. If the camp participation minimum can't be met, it won't prevent your pack from earning the award.

[Beavah]

Yah, just for fun I did the JTE trainin' webcast thing early on, and I've had a small bunch of units in my area fill da things out as part of recharter, even though they were supposed to be doin' Centennial Award paperwork.

 

I think the overall experience with the new JTE is better than the Centennial Award. That one never seemed to work, for some of the reasons folks here describe and some others as well.

 

JTE doesn't take too much time to figure out, though some of da calculations are a bit onerous and a lot of units really don't keep the records required to do 'em right. So what tends to happen is that folks just guess, rather than go through the exercise of tryin' to pull together all the figures. Da question is whether they were just humoring me, eh? I can certainly see some unit leader or CC lookin' at the thing and havin' BD's reaction. "Why bother?" At first blush it sure looks like a bunch of time and effort for no real gain.

 

Loosely speakin', I think the results were relatively accurate, eh? That is to say, da "gold" units I'd consider pretty solid and so on. So there's not too much wrong with da rubrics, though I had trouble with a few.

 

So it's an improvement, but I guess in some ways I feel it's an improvement on somethin' that doesn't have much real value. It would be so nice if we could break da corporate culture of the BSA and get it to focus on providin' service to the units, and evaluatin' the quality of that. I just don't see evaluatin' the units in this way to be very helpful to the program.

 

Beavah

 

[SeattlePioneer]

Hello Beavah,

 

At least around here, the District Executive tells me the council has statistic on things like advance, retention and new membership. That's supposed to be available on request, but I haven't actually seen the data produced.

 

That might reduce the amount of guesswork required.

 

My district went over the district JTE a couple of times early in January. The first time we just read over the different metrics to undeerstand them. The second time the DE went back and figured what the results would have been based on last years data.

 

The third time we looked at our strong and weak points, looking especially where we wanted to make a particular effort to improve. And every couple of months we review how we are doing at our monthly district meeting.

 

That's my model on how units can use the JTE as an effective management tool if they have the desire to do so.

[Scoutfish]

Yeah, you know...I started to say that one item will not matter as it is variuos scores.

 

Doing a rough estimate based on past years, we would still make gold with a few hundred to spare.

 

THis year,I don't know as we are loosing our ACM, CC, Awards Chair , Webmaster ( yeah, kinda differet catagory)and Webelos II DL to crossing over.

 

I have managed to get 2 new ACM's, Awards chairs, and Webmaster so far, Our fisrt year Webelos DL will become the WII DL and I even have a Tiger DL already trained and lines up.

 

JUst gotta get a CC and that's a biggie to fill.

[Basementdweller]

Brent that is why the sheet is so ridiculous. I don't understand what you find so hard to believe, look at the requirements on the sheet. It is silly, Do you want a paragraph with a bunch of I did's.....because that is what happened.

 

We have a budget, is easy enough. NOTHING TO DO WITH PARENTS

 

succession plan.....pretty simple....recruit new tiger leader from incoming families the previous tiger leader becomes the wolf leader who becomes the bear leader who becomes ACM. CM remains as does the committee with no change. pretty simple me. the den leader is back the parent/scout is gone. NOTHING TO DO WITH PARENTS

 

Day camp was put on with the help of the troop NOTHING TO DO WITH PARENTS

 

leaders are 100% trained NOTHING TO DO WITH PARENTS

 

The SM and I are taking the webelos to resident camp no parents volunteered.

 

Conservation and Public service project are available for participation

 

 

 

 

[BrentAllen]

Basement,

If you are looking for some magic program to get your parents involved, it ain't going to happen. That's not the point of this program. It is to help units build strong, healthy units, and I think it does a good job of pointing out what it takes to build those.

 

You say the Pack has succession planning covered, but yet you said earlier that nobody would step up to take your place. That's not succession planning, in my book. Succession planning to me means you have ADLs for all your Dens, so if the DL gets transferred, ill or whatever, you have a specific person there to take their place. Same with CC, CM and ACMs. To simply say everyone moves up at the end of the year is not planning.

 

As we found out at recharter, many units don't have trained leaders. Many leaders didn't think they needed anything beyond YP, certainly not BALOO or OWL. This program points that out, and rewards the unit for getting those leaders trained.

 

Many Packs don't have Scouts participate in Day Camp - many don't even know it exists. Many don't have a summer program at all. This program points that out and rewards the units that participate.

 

You say your unit has a budget, but then also say the Scouts can't afford to do anything. Doesn't sound like much of a budget to me. The budget should include the financial needs to deliver the program, and ways to raise the money. Sell popcorn, spaghetti dinner, wash cars.

 

I don't see why this is so hard to understand.(This message has been edited by BrentAllen)

[Abel Magwitch]

Beavah writes - "It would be so nice if we could break da corporate culture of the BSA and get it to focus on providin' service to the units, and evaluatin' the quality of that."

 

Now that would be something, evaluating the council's service to the units!

[Scoutfish]

There are really two ways a unit can look at the JTE sheet:

 

1) If you already have a great program and a very quality unit - it's like getting a Christmas bonus in that you are getting something extra for doing something you were doing anyways.

 

2) If you program isn't great, isn't very good or if you are new and need something to shoot for, then following what is in the JTE sheet will bring you closer if not to a great program.

 

Ofcourse, "great" being like beauty...it's in the eye of the beholder, or in this case, the unit!

[Basementdweller]

What do you think a budget is supposed to be????????

 

We have X amount of dollars in our budget......of that we spend A on Advancement.....B on Pinewood Derby and Trophys.....C on Pack meeting Refreshements.....D on Den materials......E on training......F on Blue and Gold......G scholarship.....H on Pack Recharter fees....I Raingutter regattta on and on and on..

 

After all that is added up we need to have X dollars to provide our program. We sell popcorn, wash car windows during church for tips, sell flower bulbs and usually get enough to do it.

 

We can't afford Scout night at the major league ball park or pro hockey game or many of the big council or district events......we leave that up to the families. On one of the sports outings we could easily out spend our entire yearly budget.

 

Just because X is a small number doe not mean we don't have a budget......

 

I am providing a program with what is available.

 

 

 

[qwazse]

Floated JTE by my crew, and they were pretty much okay with it. I'll probably have them complete it in October by way of self-evaluation. Won't bother about the ribbon unless my UC makes his appearance around then.

[eastcoaster]

Wow, I'm just surprised at the low cost of some of your camps. Wish ours was less expensive! Our Day Camp is $240/week for a 5 day program, and the optional bus transportation is an extra $65.

 

Of course, we're in NJ, and Lord knows everything costs a fortune here.

 

Angela

[Eagle92]

Angela,

 

WELCOME TO THE FORUMS.

 

In reference o cost of CSDCs, prices vary from as low as $55 from 9 hour days/5 days to $320 for same time span. You get what you pay for, and the more expensive camps usually have paid staff.

 

My camp is $55 and no one gets paid. We also have challenges recruiting staff. We barely, and I do mean barely, had enough staff to run the camp last year.

[Basementdweller]

Brent........it is pretty easy to take shots at me about money and budget when your community has a median income of $82k http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunwoody,_Georgia

 

 

My community has an income of much less. according to Wikipeidia it is $23k.

 

 

Just sayin....it is a matter of perspective from the burbs is all.

 

I am going bet to be you have a bunch of stay at home Parents too. My den leaders are all single moms and dads. I am for all intents a single parent, wife works opposite shifts. Not a complaint.....Just sayin there is a significant difference in communities from the middle class to the poor.