What Do Want From Your District Chair?

In the coming weeks we will reconvene the District Nominating Committee. I think the chances are that they will ask me to serve as District Chair for another year.

The Council has four districts and four district chairmen. One is a Church Minister, who in the past has been involved as a Minister at Philmont.

A real nice fellow, in fact I have asked him to serve as SPL, on the upcoming Wood Badge.

The other two are not "Program Types."

(I like to think that I am !!)

As sometimes happens in Scouting, I was not what the Council had in mind when our last District Chair. Had to give up the position, due to his job. In fact I heard it said that the last thing they wanted was a "Red Coat." And it nothing to do with me being a limey.

Yes I do have a business background, having owned and ran a business in the area. But this wasn't a job that I "went after" or even wanted.

I was happy just being the Council Training Chair. (More my speed.)

It looks as if we will be a Quality District again this year. So far we are the only district to make our finance goal. We need one more unit and a fair recruitment in the fall. At this time we might be the only Quality District in the Council.

I have made it my thing NOT to ask anyone who is a unit leader to serve on the district committee.

Some people are not too happy with this.

So the question is.

What do you want from your district chairman?

Eamonn, I find this fascinating as I have no clue what a District Chair is. My most frequent contact as Asst Cubmaster is the DE. He only recently told me who our Unit Comm was, but I don't know who anyone else is other than the SE. Is it possible to give a brief description of the District Chair?

By the way, what I want in any position is to know who the person is and when I should give them a call. If you haven't noticed with this post alone, I obviously don't know who's who, and that has created problems. Knowing who to direct certain questions to would be very beneficial, and then having that person follow up on phone calls would be even better yet

What I want from the District Chair is leadership. Our District Chair never shows up at Roundtables and has never been seen wearing a uniform but everyone says that he does a great job. I think that what he has done has been let the District Commissioner pick great people to run things. It could be that I just don't know what he does do.

I'd like to see the District Chair at Roundtables, perhaps talking about the state of the district, where the district is going, etc. He may do much behind the scenes but he should let people know what he looks like.

In my opinion:

The District Chair's primary job is to,

1. Plan and chair the District Committee meetings

2. Recruit and supervise the District Committee chairs (finance, training, membership, etc)

3. Recruit and supervise an effective District Commissioner (who in turn recruits the Commissioner Corps)

4. Represents the District on the Council Committee and at District functions, such as FOS dinners, camporees, etc.

5. Prepares and presents District Reports to the Council Committee

6. Provides leadership in achieving Quality District

"Wait a minute", you say. "That's what our DE does!" Hmmmmmmmm.

Scoutldr has an excellent job description.

BW

Thank you scoutldr.

Score another one for sctldr! Excellent description.

Eamonn, from what I know of you, you are not a "red jacket." One of the qualifications of being a "red jacket" is not caring about Quality, being anti-council, etc. You may question, but it's obvious that you care.

Actually, in the several years that I have worked with District Chairmen at the council level (about 7) I would say that the number one cause of friction with district chairmen is when they consider the DE to be their employee and attempt to tell them what they should be doing. Whether or not I want the person I hire, coach, train and evaluate to do it.

Eamonn, my advice is for you to keep doing what you're doing. And let the nominating committee do it's job.

DS

Maybe a better question is what do you want from your District Committee?

The responsibilities scoutldr listed are good, but I would question #3. The nominating committee is charged with recruiting a district commissioner, just as they recruit the district chair. Its not intended that the district chair recruit and supervise the commissioner. The district commissioner, district chair, and DE make up the Key 3. The district commissioner has separate functions and is more or less the equal of the district chair. The relationships are discussed in a booklet available at the Scout Shop The District #33070C.

FScouter, is right on the money.

I didn't recruit the District Commissioner.

In fact due to a very sad, bad situation that was very poorly handled. Along with some other stuff. Our Scout Exec. Has now asked me to replace the District Commissioner.

I have to admit to not being happy and have talked to the Council key 3. They say "It is my district."

I don't and have never seen it that way.

They say that I can use the Nominating Committee to get rid of him.

Again I think that if the Council has the last word. It is the Council Executive Committee that approves all commissioners. It ought to be up to them (Yes I do sit on that committee.) to "Fire" him.

However it does seem that the buck has stopped with me and I will conform to the wishes of the Council key 3. When the Nominating Committee meets in a early September, his name will not be on the list for District Commissioner.

Needless to say everyone will think that I got rid of him, and I will feel that I have used the Nominating Committee as a screen.

My feeling like a real cad, is something that I can live with, as I do know that in the long run the District will be better served without this chap as the District Commish.

To make matters worse the Scout Exec. Has got to the DE. and at the end of the day she works for him. But she has started telling me about all the good things that he has done.

There are times when I really want the next two years to be over PDQ. Something that I never say, as a rule I love every minute of every day. Yes there are times when this job sucks.

Removing a volunteer has got to be one of the most unpleasant tasks. Its no wonder the DE and council people are playing hot potato with this.

Who has the authority (or responsibility) to remove a volunteer? A good rule of thumb is that the person or group with the authority to appoint a volunteer has the authority to remove the volunteer. The nominating committee is the group that recruits the DC, and the council executive board approves the nomination, with the concurrence of the DE. Approval lies with the council executive board, thus they are responsible for removal. Following removal, the nominating committee would then recruit a replacement. This is not a district chairman responsibility, though he should be consulted.

Is the DC doing such a bad job that he must be replaced immediately? If not you might let the nominating committee choose to not nominate him for another term. If he must be removed now, perhaps he can be moved into a position that better suits his strengths. That could help to save face.

The publication Selecting District People #34512E includes a section that discusses how to remove a volunteer.

Regarding the District Commissioner, Eamonn and FScouter are mostly corrrect, but when it comes to district nominating committee and the district election process, the District Commissioner is a different story.

Districts don't elect their district commissioner. They recommend the individual for the job. The recommendation is to the council executive board with the approval of the Council Commissioner.

Technically speaking, Eamonn, if the Scout Executive wanted the District Commissioner out of that position, it should have been the Council Commissioner doing the removing.

FScouter and Eamonn were right on in that he who does the approving should do the firing. It's also understandably confusing when you wonder who is doing the approving. (Just having fun with "ing" rhymes.)

I'll be happy to entertain further questions

DS

I just returned from our council training committee meeting and a similiar topic came up about removing a volunteer.

When the discussion was done, it was realized that no one ever trained him or went over a job description or expectations. Its a wonder he didn't quite. We give employees opportunities for improvement with clear goals. Do you do the same with yours volunteers? (rhetorical)

Eamonn, I believe Dave is correct. Let the nominating committee do its job with respect to District Chairman and tell the SE and Council Commish it is their job for your district Commissioner. You need to be removed from the situation so some district scouters, who favor the commish, don't blame you and stop supporting your efforts.

Bob H

We have a saying back "Home" that comes from the game of cricket.

There are times when all the stuff that you think you know, and all the tricks that you think will work - Won't or don't.

We call this a "Sticky Wicket."

I really don't want to go into much detail about what brought this all to a head, as there is a chance that law suits will be filed.

Our District Commish. could not have handled the situation much worse from both a Council and District point of view.

The guy is a super nice chap. In fact he is trying to be be too nice.

He has a very big ego and is one of those types that is in this game very much for himself. He wants all the knots and dingle dangles that there ever was.

He has surrounded himself with a bunch of real first class nit wits. He knows that they are nit wits as I along with a bunch of other people have told him so. The bunch includes the DE, the Scout Exec.

He really does want everyone to love him. To this end he tells people what they want to hear. At times this does put the key 3 somewhere between a rock and a hard place.

The guy is everywhere, doing everything but being a District Commissioner.

He has taken every training under the sun. But this ego of his is just unmanageable.

For example the attendance award that we give out for roundtable is now named after him. Yes he pays for it. But this came about with not a word. We now have the "His name Award Of Excellence"

He works from home and does spend a tremendous amoumt of time doing stuff for Scouting. He spends more time in the Scout Service Center then most of the people who work there.

So there are a great many people who think that he is doing a wonderful job.

While it is fine and dandy to say let the nominating committee take care of it. I sit on the nominating committee and the average Scouter has no idea that it even exists.

No matter what, as long as the powers that be are not going to take the bull by the horns, I am going to come off the bad guy in the eyes of the adults in the district.

Then there is all the trouble that he can stir up after the AGM. I know it is going to be a pain.

For the good of the District I will not put his name on the list to be considered for that position in 2004, and I'm thinking of having a heart to heart with him, but I don't want to make the council look bad, which means that somehow I have to put my feelings aside. As I do think that someone else not me ought to be dealing with this - Not telling me it is my District.

Maybe that yellow stripe is starting to show??

A sticky wicket, if ever there was one.

Eamonn