Helping the committee go

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”

The new definition of “active”

The BSA raised our eyebrows recently with the publication of the new Guide to Advancement, which replaces the Advancement Committee Policies and Procedures book that had been in use for several years. There are thirteen significant changes in the new guidebook, the pros and cons of which have been or are being discussed on other Scouting blogs and discussion groups. The changes are summarized in the Introduction, and range from editorial restructuring to some fairly big changes to the Eagle project process.

One change, however, places a significant responsibility on the troop committee if it chooses to accept it, and that is the definition of an “active Scout” for rank advancement purposes and the evaluation of how a Scout in a position of responsibility has fulfilled his role. Continue reading “The new definition of “active””

The one question

As committee chair, it’s your responsibility to see that the committee supports the troop or pack program by providing those things that the Scoutmaster or Cubmaster needs to be successful. These things can be similar between these two programs (help in arranging activities such as camping or transportation), or they can be very different (“running the show” in Cub Scouts versus training the boys to do so in Boy Scouts).

Of course, you don’t do it alone. You hopefully have a committee full of eager parents willing to help with all the details, and it’s your job to recruit and support them. Continue reading “The one question”

The captain of the ship

Making my way through fellow Scouters’ blogs, I’ve recently come across some interesting observations about Committee Chairs and their role in a unit.

In some units (Troops and Packs), the Committee Chair is a figurehead position — a name filled in on the roster so that the charter will go through. Leader meetings are conducted by the Scoutmaster or Cubmaster. In other units, the Committee Chair exists only to call the monthly committee meetings and not much else.

But in reality, the Committee Chair’s job is, in many ways, the most important one in a unit. Continue reading “The captain of the ship”