Unit commissioner? What's that? District commissioner - what's that. Roundtable commissioner? What's that?

Units were told by former DE that roundtables were no longer needed. New DE has followed suit. Haven't had a RT commish for a few years. I think the last time we really had a unit commish was 15 years ago.

I wish I could give you some positive feedback on this SP, but my district hasn't had a DC for several years now. As for a unit commissioner, its tough to have one of those without having a DC. Hopefully you do have unit commissioners that serve your units in your district and council.

Hello Abel,

So you have a "Key Two"?


In what kind of shape is the District Committee?(This message has been edited by seattlepioneer)

Yes, a key 2. And the current district chairman was handpicked by the district director. Yep. And us pesky volunteers aren't allowed to speak or contact our district chairman without having the DD and DE screening what you want to see if it's worthy for the district chairman. In fact, very few have ever actually met the guy. For awhile before the DD found this district chairman, we had a key 1 which lasted about 6 months. Our former district commissioner quit because he was tired of the DD not telling him the truth.(This message has been edited by abel magwitch)

No. And I can't tell that we're missing a thing.

Sad.

What is a unit commissioner??? My best Joker accent "I think I seen one on T.....V....."


My only experience was an ugly one, the grand....Uniform inspection. He was told to leave and not come back.....


Like Abel our DE rules with an Iron fist and fires the district committee at will. Right now we have one surviving member from the great spring 2012 inquisition.

Apparently there are some UC's sprinkled through our district, but none assigned to our troop. There is a guy who is (or was) the UC for the troops/packs on either side of us geographically, but his son is in our troop so he isn't assigned to us. One of our ASM's (also with a son in our troop) has signed up to be a UC but of course he will not be assigned to our troop either. He may be replacing the first guy, I'm not sure. Either way, no UC for us. No real communication with (or from) district unless you reach out for them. Our district does have roundtables, and we have one ASM who goes, but neither our SM or CC choose to go, and in my opinion that kind of hamstrings the communication process. So it's a little bit of everybody's fault, I guess. The last time someone with a silver shoulder tab crossed our doorstep was about 2 years ago when the relatively new DE attended one of our committee meetings, just to observe.

As a UC for a Pack, Troop and a Crew .... units who are not getting support from a UC is troubling.

I visit fairly regularly (open invite from the units I serve), drop off info from Council or RT and of course encourage JTE and on-time recharter process.

I offer advice when asked, and try to encourage growing the unit.

I have attended Pack Meetings, School night for Scouting, Scout Sunday to present the Charter, Blue & Golds (and sat on the edge, skipping the food), canoed with the Crew (on a local river cleanup), provided info to the Troop as needed.

No uniform inspections ever were requested or needed, but I have judged an impromptu Watermelon seed spitting contest (which was mildly contested - I gave credit for multiple seeds)....
(This message has been edited by dg98adams)

Our UC is fairly active and has been volunteering regularly with our units. I am happy to have him as a volunteer. He's a good guy. He is experienced in Scouting. He moved into the area at a stage in life when his kids were out of Scouts.

That said, I'm thankful for the system that brought us another volunteer, but it would seem to have nothing really to do with any of his duties as a UC. By now I probably am more experienced in the ways of the district and council than anyone that they could assign as our UC, and our units are operating well, so there's just not that much that we'd really expect a UC to do for us. I will happily have him come along and camp with us and cook Dutch oven breakfast, though.

SP,you asked about my district committee - Our district committee consists of:

A district chairman who is never seen and no volunteer is allowed to contact directly,
A training chair,
An advancement chair,
An activities chair,
And a DE.

Thats it. But hey, our district has always been a quality district when that program was in effect.

Hello Abel,



The Journey to Excellence requires a minimum 1:6 ratio of Commissioners to units. That's for Bronze.

If you got that for last year it sounds like it would be a Miracle like the Virgin birth!



Commissioner Service: Increase the number
of registered unit commissioners over prior
year.
Brionze: Commissioner-to-unit ratio
of 1:6, or 5% increase in
the number of
commissioners over prior
year
Silver: Commissioner-to-unit ratio
of 1:4, or 1:6 ratio and 5%
increase in the number of
commissioners over prior
year
Gold: Commissioner-to-unit ratio
of 1:3, or 1:4 ratio and 5%
increase in the number of
commissioners over prior
year
25 50 100

You know SP, my council just bragged that it made gold. The council puts in their newsletter the individual units that made bronze, silver and gold, but never the districts. I guess I truly am part of a miraculous council ;-)

Truly shameful what some of you are describing. We have an enthusiastic DE, great District Chair, and my commissioner staff consists of 14 UC's, 2 RTC's and their staffs, and three ADC's. I encourage them all to use the Unit Visit Tracking System, and I also do Unit Visits and attend as many events as I can. A good Unit Commissioner can be a unit's best friend. How some councils can permit the bare minimum described by others above is beyond me. I make sure Unit Commishes do their jobs or they get replaced. If you wear Silver Tabs, you do the job. If you wear a Wreath of Service patch, you do the job. I guess I am a true believer of sorts, but it comes from being inspired by a great DE. She was originally going to leave, but now has decided to stay with us and hopefully will get promoted to Senior DE (attending PDL3 soon). Our District Committee has upwards of 20 active members and our Key 3 works great together. Some of you are getting short-changed and I admire how you manage without them - but having good commissioners, DE, and District Chair can go a long way towards a more successful program. Sadly, it is what it is, and you make do.

Hello Walnut,

I'm relieved to finally hear a positive report about Unit Commissioners and district organization in general.

I suspect the life of District Executives would be easier and with better results if more effort was put into recruiting district volunteers to do the tasks that need to be done and less time having the DE do those tasks.