Information, Observation, and Inspiration for Scouters
So you’ve just stepped into the job of Committee Chair for your pack or troop. Now what?
Committee Chair is an important role – indeed, the unit can’t function properly without one – but there are ways in which a person new to the position can get off to a great start without going crazy.
Hopefully, one of the first things you’ll do is read the position description in the appropriate handbook. Continue reading “The new Committee Chair”
You know the feeling. It’s time for the monthly unit committee meeting, and you dread sitting through a long drawn-out meeting which usually degenerates into an open-ended discussion or retelling of old “war stories.”
Perhaps you’re the committee chair and you equally dread the meeting, not knowing how it’s going to go, what you need to accomplish or why you’re even having a meeting in the first place.
Sound familiar?
A while back I posted a series of articles on making your committee meetings more effective. These were aimed at the committee chair or meeting facilitator to help improve the meeting experience for everyone concerned.
Harvard Business Review had a short “management tip” article recently on ways for participants to, as they put it, save the meeting that’s going nowhere. It’s a very short article but it can get you to thinking, especially if you’re stuck in such a meeting.
My solution to these issues  is prevention, and that lies in the hands of the committee chair: Continue reading “Abolish “death by meeting”!”
At a recent troop meeting we were welcoming a parent of a boy new to Scouting and discussing how the troop and Boy Scouts all works, and in the process of explaining which committee member takes care of dues, or membership, he asked me what my position was, and what I do in the troop.
This kind of took me aback, because most people in Scouting are familiar with the committee chair’s role, or at least knows what functions he or she performs. I blurted out “well, I’m kind of like the CEO of the troop,” and while I felt at the time that it was an OK answer, later I thought that it didn’t really describe what the committee chair does. Continue reading ““So, what is it that you do?””
As a committee chair, what do you think your biggest challenges are? Conducting the monthly committee meetings? Keeping track of finances and advancement? Helping out at pack meetings or troop campouts?
These are all challenges faced by committee chairs, but there’s one challenge common to all of us: Keeping our committee members feeling useful and appreciated.
If there’s one thing we all crave, it’s to be wanted, needed and appreciated, especially in something we care about, like Scouting. Continue reading “Helping the committee go”