Importance of Quality Unit (2/2)

(I ran out of lines with the previous posting...this is part two:)

Kirk replied to Kathie:

>I agree with most of what you say, but have found some notable
>exceptions :-) Increases in quantity should not be a REQUIRED measure
>of a BSA program.

No?? So you're saying that if you had one Eagle Scout all of these years to
come
from your Troop (I'm using Eagle as an example, because a while back National
and your local Council used to keep those kind of stats) and now all of a sudden
you haven't had a SINGLE Eagle Scout to come from your Troop in three years...
that's NOT a indicator???

If you have taken 40 boys to camp in the past three years but last year you only
took nine, isn't that an indicator that perhaps something's happened in your
unit??
OF COURSE, it should not be the ONLY indicator, but those numbers and the
lack thereof, always signal something significant. Good or bad.

> Usualy increases in quantity indicate positive
>things, but timing and circumstances often are more important than the
>quality of a unit regarding its relative size. Working with military
>units emphasises this. No matter how good your unit is, kids grow up,
>people move or the program level before yours was weak and you have to
>react. Every unit has a cycle.

But if you *know* the cycle (and those numbers will give you some rather good
indications of those cyclic changes), you can "head off" potential problems.
Want an example??? Okay. Here goes. On a typical military installation,
most of your movements back and forth to various other bases take place in
the summer.
You know this, because of the number of boys that transfer out and into your
Troop. Also, you know this because of the number of moving vans you see in
the neighborhood. Because many of those boys will leave before summer camp
season,
you work with your Senior Patrol Leader to have a "summer camp" during
Spring Break. It gives those boys a eight-day overnight camping experience
(there's NOTHING that says that you HAVE to have "summer camp", just a
long-term
camping experience of five or more days in lenght) and it assists in your
recruiting
for the boys that you'll lose due to rotations. Helps with adult recruiting
as well,
especially if you go someplace different each year during the break!

Doing this, I pick up the five to eight boys that I would lose at the end of
the summer to movements to other installations, I get a little PR for my
Troop, my boys have something exciting to tell about when they return to
school at the end of
what could have been a boring week off, and I have some new adults that are
interested in doing nothing more than "going on the next trip like that...it
was fun!"

And Mark Browning asked:

>What is going to happen when charters come due? Let's imagine a possible
>outcome:
>Scoutmaster Bob rechartered 25 boys last year. This year, due to problems
>that were not at all the fault of Bob or the troop, they'll be rechartering
>24 boys. So what does Bob do? Does he maybe renew the membership of
>Timmy and Jimmy who haven't attended for months? After all, Bob thinks, they
>could come back. And it's only going to cost the troop (or Bob) a few
>bucks, isn't it?

I wouldn't, especially if Timmy and Jimmy hasn't been around my Troop for
more than 90 days. They re-register. Now, that's NOT to say that I wouldn't
be making a trip out to their homes during the month BEFORE rechartering
(remember, rechartering month is for "make ups" and "final stuff", NOT for
working the rechartering application and getting everyone's approval of the
continuance of the program!) and sitting down with them and seeing if they
are indeed, still interested.
Then I would explain that since they have not been active with the Troop,
that I need them to fill out another application...part of that "them
"buying into the program".

THEY pay the registration fee (or something so that I know that they are
wanting back in the Troop), not the Troop. In my opinion, everyone pays for
their own
registration. It "buys them into" the program and keeps people from
pointing fingers about "well, I shouldn't have to pay because HE doesn't
pay...." and other stuff.

>Of course that's great for the professionals--and I'm really not a DE
>hater--who have performance objectives to meet. But it gets Bob's troop
>into an even worse bind for next year.

Its' NOT the District Executives that are "driving this train", Mark. It's
you and me, fellow Commissioners, that should be emphasizing this program
and selling it for what it is....a unit self-evaluation tool with a reward
(a cloth patch and pin for each member...remember what I said about "buying
in"??)

Kathie always has a way of bringing things together:

>So - no I don't believe it is a bad thing to require growth --- that is why
>we are here.

Thanks for your personal comments, which I've spent time laser printing and
*somehow* will find their ways to the *right folk*. However, I think at this
point in time, the very best we can all do is to work with the current
requirements and insure that your fellow Scouters are aware of the 1997
changes to the Quality
Unit/District/Council Committment sheets and program.

I hope that I've given enough background and have answered the major questions.
Again, I feel as if I've let everyone down, but I don't want to say stuff
that may never come out of a meeting as a potential policy. Also, as
several wrote here,
the BSA is YOUR program, not your Council Executive's...and you need to be
informed of all of the changes as soon as can be made available. As Kathie
would say, we have one of the largest "printing presses in the sky" in the
way of our official publications and flyers....many of which can be obtained
from your Council or from the National Distribution Center with a phone call
or letter.

Settummanque!
-----
(MAJ) Mike L. Walton (Settummanque, the blackeagle)
http://www.vhm.com/~uscardnl/
(Brigade) Signal Officer, TF 21, 21st Theater Army Area Command
Kaiserslautern, Federal Republic of Germany
"everything I say is "on the record"; speaking ONLY for myself unless indicated"
personal inquiries via blkeagle@midwest.net or kyblkeagle@aol.com
professional inquiries via waltonm%po2.hq@taacom.kaiserslautern.army.mil

-----FORWARD in service to youth and the nation-----

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