Information, Observation, and Inspiration for Scouters
Time for answers to a couple of your questions:
Our Committee Chair has a conflict that prevents his participation in our troop committee meeting on its traditional night. In his absence our Scoutmaster is running the meetings. Is this a good practice, or should someone else be running our committee meeting?
My first suggestion would be Continue reading “More Q&A: Committee chair absence, getting leaders trained”
It’s already mid-August, which means school will be starting very soon for most, and with it the Cub Scout program year. Packs should have been planning their recruiting activities – Boy (and Girl!) Talks, exhibits and demonstrations at school activity nights, School Nights for Scouting (evening presentations and orientation for new Scouts and families) and the first whiz-bang pack meeting.
But there are three things you need to do as soon as possible. Continue reading “Three things you must do now”
“All in favor, say Aye.”
How often do you hear that in your committee meetings?
If you’re doing things right, you shouldn’t.
That’s because the troop committee isn’t a legislative body and doesn’t make decisions based on what most of the committee members agree with. Continue reading “Democracy in the committee”
It doesn’t happen very often, but on rare occasion a troop’s committee withers away as Scouts leave or age out and their parents, who served on the committee, also depart without being replaced. Sometimes, others just take on the added responsibilities rather than recruiting a replacement, until the burden gets too great and they themselves step down. When you’re wearing not just one hat but a stack of them, it’s not easy to take off just one or two.
A question arrived a few weeks ago from a Scoutmaster who said that his troop committee had essentially disbanded. Continue reading “Rebooting a troop committee”
If you’ve ever transitioned from being a rank-and-file employee to a supervisor or manager, you’ve undoubtedly run into some rough spots as you made the transition. Taking on a managerial role is a big step, because you’re now overseeing the people you used to work alongside.
The same sort of thing can happen if you find yourself nominated, selected or volunteered to be the committee chair of your unit. Your chartered organization probably picked you because of your dedication to Scouting and knowledge of the program, your unit and your fellow committee members. But that’s no guarantee that you’ll work smoothly with them as their new chairman. Continue reading “New committee chair? Watch out for these”