The unit committee is where the business of the pack or troop takes place. While the Scouts are busy doing the things Scouts do, the adults are taking care of things like finance, logistics, equipment and recordkeeping. And just like any other committee, meetings are unavoidable. In fact, we’re expected to meet monthly to help ensure that the business is taken care of.
Committee meetings can be a real drag if they’re not conducted efficiently. They can go on and on with little focus, not getting much accomplished other than frustrating the participants. So to keep your committee meeting from keeping the minutes and throwing away the hours*, try the following: Continue reading “Seven ways to improve your committee meetings”
If you’re a regular visitor to this site, you are most likely a volunteer Scouter. Someone who gives of their time and effort to help the Scouting program exist for our sons and daughters and the communities in which we live.
If you’re the parent of a child involved in organized sports, you are undoubtedly aware of how competitive playing a game has become. And it’s not the children who are competitive – it’s the parents. Sure, many of the kids want to get in there and do well at their sport, but the parents push them to do better. Many are finding that other parents have outdone them, enrolling their kids in special training camps, instructional sessions and skill drills in hopes they’ll make it in a highly-competitive league. They plead with teachers and school administrators to do what they can to give their children better grades so high-profile college teams won’t dismiss them. Recreational leagues can be cut-throat. Parents scream at the children and coaches from the sidelines during games. And this all starts – incredibly – in grade school.
Although Scouting is a year-round activity, many troop and pack committees don’t hold regular meetings during the summer months. There’s either just not enough business to make holding a meeting worthwhile, or there aren’t enough committee members around to be able to get anything done.
Once again, there are sordid details of child abuse by a prominent member of society in the headlines. The latest incident involved former Congressman and speaker of the House J. Dennis Hastert (R-Illinois) who is accused of sexually molesting boys when he was a high school wrestling coach prior to his service in elected office. He won’t be charged with the crimes because the statute of limitations has expired, but his behavior is being taken into consideration as he is sentenced for illegal financial acts involving hush money recently paid to one of the victims of his assaults. I won’t detail any of the prosecution’s findings in the case here, but you can certainly