Re: When is a "clic" a "clic"?
(no name) ((no email))
Sun, 11 Feb 1996 15:57:40 -0600
Gary wrote:
>As many of you, we recently had our district awards banquet and presented
>many awards to scouters within the district. As the nature of such
>presentations, not all the "deserving" people were recognized. That is a
>characteristic of the "beast". However, it was later questioned as to
>how the receipients were selected. There seemed to be one significant
>correlation (not to imply cause-and-effect). Each of the receipients
>were "good" friends of the district chairman/commissioner (the same
>person was assuming both roles by self proclamation) and the selection
>committee was comprised of that same person and others of "very similiar"
>minds. The most "interesting" of the selections was for the District
>Award of Merit, the Chairman's "significant other".
I have a series of questions for you, Gary...maybe you can answer
them in the open or privately, I'm not sure. But this will help me as well
as others to understand some key issues within your District:
First, how come the District Chair and Commissioner were one and the same?
Under MOST Council by-laws, the Chair and Commissioner MUST be two separate
folks.
Second, how come the Nominating Committee was set up with the
Chair/Commissioner? Again, just looking at some Council
bylaws, the Nominating Committee must be Scouters OUTSIDE of
the Chair/Commissioner and must render a report to the District
Chair. Kinda hard to do this when one of the members is also
the District Chair, right?
Third, where's your professional team during all of this?
There's nothing wrong with the "significant other" of the Chair/
Commissioner getting the Award of Merit if she "deserved it" by
meeting the established requirements and being recommended. In
one District where I've served, the District Executive AND his
wife, a very vocal and active Cub Scouter (Den Leader Coach,
member of the training team, and organizer) received the District
Award of Merit together.
>Although the receipient has been active in the district and will
>undoubtedly continue beyond the past year, the perception of a >"clic" is
there.
That perception will continue as long as your District operates
the way it has been instead of the way that it's supposed to.
>My question to the list is this. When is the influence of >personal
friendships in the awarding of accomplishments >detrimental to the program?
Anytime an award is presented without being "on the up and up".
This sounds like a symptom, not a specific problem, Gary. I
betcha a CSP that not only has "the clic" been planning and
coordinating ALL of the District's program, it's those same
folks that get information first before everyone else in the
District, right? Your District needs to be "wiped clean and
reformatted" for better service and to resolve some of those
"grumblings" about "those inside the circle".
Several times here, we've run "alternative awards" to the
traditional District awards, so that EACH and EVERY Scouter
is recognized and appreciated for their efforts. One of the
best ways that one of my mentors did, was to purchase from
his December check three gross (a gross is 144, so this is
432) coffee mugs, with the words "Thank you" in three languages
(the District straddled three countries in central Europe).
These were presented to the unit leader and committee chair
and their spouces during the recognition banquet.
Other Districts have set up some sort of "levels" before the
District Award of Merit level, to recognize those Scouters that
have done great service, but not at the level that would merit
them a District Award of Merit. In the District where I grew
up, we had the Buckskin and the Presidents' Awards. Only those
Scouters that have recieved both awards in the past would be
considered for the District Award of Merit or the Silver Beaver.
In this way, everyone in the District knew potentially from
year to year which Scouters are "coming up" for the District's
"higher awards". Other Districts have come up with that
infamous "Why Knot" to award to Scouters that have given service
to their District over the past year, so that every Scouter will
have a "knot" to wear. That "why knot" (why not?) became the
basis for the Scoutmaster Award of Merit.
Settummanque!
(MAJ) Mike L. Walton (Settummanque, the blackeagle) (
co-Owner, Blackeagle Servics of Kentucky (502.826.7046) __)_
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