Eamonn

SagerScout, While at this time I am uncertain if there is a unit in Arizona that will meet all your requirements. If you would change your plans and move to Greensburg, I feel sure that we could meet and fulfill your needs and those of your family. In fact I am aware of just the District that is in dire need of more Scouting type families. Still if you are at this time unable to change your plans, I wish you a happy and safe move and the best of British Luck in your new unit. Eamonn

Not sure how we got to where we are? Still.Looking back at the last two men who served our district as chairmen. Both are very dear friends of mine and no I don't have to pay them anything for being so!! One of them is what you might call my best friend both in and out of Scouting, So much so that if ever anything happened to Her That Must Be Obeyed and yours truly, he would get number one son. Jack the one before me had served as a really good Scoutmaster. He served on a number of Wood Badge courses as a staff member in fact he was/is a good all round Scouter. Sad to say he viewed his role as the District Chairman as a "Them and Us." Them being the Council and Us being the District. Jack really did think that the DE worked for him. Which at times worked out well for the DE. If Jack thought that she was being treated unfairly he would rush to the Council Service Center and go to bat for her. On the other hand If the DE said that the Council wanted something done which Jack didn't like or approve of Jack would tell the DE that the District wasn't doing it. Mike was the Chairman before Jack. Mike has been all through the program. Not being a swimmer he never made Eagle Scout and while I was 3500 miles away rumor has it that he was never a great Scoutmaster. He does understand how Scouting works and served as a first class District Chairman. He really understands the process and being as we are the smallest district who always got the new DE. Mike has done a lot to help train them about what the job is and who they work for. He is at present a Council Vice President. Our current DE worked with Mike for about a year then Jack and now has little old me. Pam our DE is by far the best DE in the Council. We have a great relationship and are really good friends. I in no way ever think that she works for me. I am very thankful that I don't sign her pay check. At times I even remind her about that. She is charged with bringing out the best of the volunteers in our district of which I am one. As a key3 we are a team that leads the district to realize the goals of the district and the council. These goals have mainly to do with: Membership, Finance, Commissioner Service. Sad to say some of the volunteers in the district think that the DE is at their beck and call and is there to deal with anything and everything that could ever and does happen. This is so wrong. We are trying very hard to get everyone to follow the correct course of action. Mostly to understand that in most cases a volunteer goes to another volunteer. If there is a problem in your unit your first port of call ought to be your unit commissioner. Not a call to the DE. If I have a problem I will call the Council President or the Council Commissioner, not the Scout Exec. One of the things that I do have to do is remind Pam of this. Even though she doesn't work for me I think that she has better ways of spending her time doing stuff for the District then trying to sort out some mess that was caused by a few adults who refuse to see eye to eye. Eamonn

In another thread someone posted: "I think that we would have a fairly hard time looking upon the boy as living the Oath and Law." A couple of things come to my mind. I have always thought that the Oath was an individual thing. This is made obvious when it is stated "...I will do my best..." While there may be a need for the occasional or special discussion to help improve the meaning or understanding of the Scout Oath and Law I fail to see that other then too further the mission of the BSA why we looking upon a boy as living the Scout Oath and Law. After all it is his honor and his best. So a boy may have done something that is wrong. When I look at why we do what we do I see that we are here to prepare young people to make ethical choices over their lifetime. If all the youth were already making ethical choices all the time would there still be a need for the BSA? If this was the case and all the youth were making ethical choices all the time would there be a need for the Oath and Law? Eamonn

While I am not as up on the rules and regulations as some of the other wise people. I can't help thinking of the parable of the Prodigal Son. Eamonn

While I have to admit to being very goal oriented and at times not going the extra mile after the goal has been met. We as a district committee have a set of goals that we agree upon at the start of each year. While these are approved by the committee most of them come from the key3.As a key3 we have different ideas and at times different areas in which we want to focus our energy.Some of these goals will fall in line with the DE's critical achievements which are set by the FD and the Scout Exec. Some that have to do with unit service will come from the District Commish and while I seem to dwell on management, at times I will come up with stuff that is just what I feel is important. This year my big goal was training the district committee. There was a goal for Cub Scout camping along with summer camp attendance. We also wanted to improve the nominating committee.The District Commish wanted to recruit a lot more staff. While we gave them all our best shot we didn't meet all of them. But they were out there and were on the agenda at most of the key3 meetings and a few of the district meetings. Our Council Commish has let it be known to all the District Commissioners that he does not want to see any dropped units come rechartering time. I have to admit to being a little taken back by his stance on this as we both agree that there is such a thing as a quality drop.I will have to have a chat with him and see what he is up to. Much as it hurts and pains me to admit it as a district our weak spot is in commissioner service. Sad thing is that I don't really have a handle on how to put it right. We lack the manpower and worse the leadership to make it work as it should. Eamonn

Ok I'm no longer with a troop so maybe I don't count? First let me say that if directed by the Charter organization or the Scout Exec. I would of course comply with their directive. I do however feel that Scouts and Scouting is for all boys. We are there to help them, something that we can't do if they are not there.I have in the past had Lads who have managed to land themselves in hot water and in a few cases in trouble with the law.I don't see anything in the BSA literature that tells me that Scouting is only for good kids. When a Scout makes the Scout Oath he is saying that he will do his best.While I like to think of myself as being a good judge of character I can't look inside a boys heart and really know if he has done his best. I can't know if he was just lucky and didn't get caught? I can't know a lot of what is going on. As long as I don't know how can I set myself up as judge and jury? I can't. Sad to say we don't live in a perfect world at times we all mess up. I do think that everyone is deserving of another chance and some people need lots of chances. There may be a situation where repetitive wrong doing without any effort to change for the better might after I had tried my best to deal with the situation and the Scout, ask him to look at joining another unit. I would I think have to accept that maybe just maybe that I had failed the Scout. Eamonn

OGE is a hard act to follow. This will seem a little unrelated but that has never stopped us before. I will tie it all in. As I have posted in the past I am getting out of the bar business and have for the past few years been working as a dietitian for UPMC. Most of the time I don't get to spend too much time with the residents that need my help. That was until Ralph came along. Ralph is in his early 80's. He has renal failure and is a diabetic. He has an great love of gummy bears. He will eat a whole bag in one sitting. When he goes for dialysis I get reports saying that he isn't following his diet. Poor old Ralph and I have gone head to head more the once. Still he is a nice old fellow and every now and then he will share his gummy bears with me. I went to work on Monday and there on my desk was two small bunches of wheat tied with a green band. Along with a sheet of paper with a picture of two turkeys and the following: To you Eamonn for whom our family is most thankful we offer these words of inpiration and gratitude. Happy Thanksgiving from Ralph and his family. Needless to say I was deeply touched. I would like to share the words with all of you as my way of thanking you for all that you do not only foe the Scouts but also for the help that you have given me over the past year. "Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around." - Leo Buscaglia "If you find it in your heart to care for someone else, you will have succeeded." - Mary Angelou. All of you do care and have succeeded. Have a happy and save Thanksgiving. Eamonn

In another thread Laurie stated that it seems that her DE. Seems to be carrying a lot more of the weight then he/she ought to be. The reason given was that no one would take on some of the work. (Not in those words.) In our District I have a hard time keeping our DE. from trying to do all the work. For example. Every year about a month before the school sign up night we have a training for the event. It is presented at a ice cream social.This year I received a frantic phone call from the DE. Telling me that the twit of a FD had called a staff meeting at the other end of the council and she wouldn't have time to pick up the cakes and ice cream. She was also going to fax the meeting plan to my office. Picking up a few cakes and a ton of ice cream is no big deal and I could have said yes. But I said no way. I instead explained to her that she should never have got involved and asked her what the Membership Chair was doing. She hadn't even asked. I said that I would give him a call, which I did and he took care of everything. Sometimes we need to learn to deligate. We also fell into the trap of doing things at such and such a time because we always had. We used to have a district dinner every year on either the last weekend in Oct. Or the first weekend in Nov. Over the years we have seen the numbers dwindle. First we thought it was because it was held on a Saturday, so we went to Sunday. Then we thought Sunday didn't work because of the Steeler games. What didn't help was that October is one of our really busy months. We have all sorts of leader training, the popcorn comes in and there is all the membership stuff going on. When we asked the activities chair to find out why people were not coming the main reason given was that they were just too busy. My feeling is that we are asking a lot from our volunteers and the time that they have to spare for Scouting.We brought the matter to the District Committee and cancelled the dinner. As of now we don't have a chair for the Mall Show. Already the DE is saying that the key3 could take this on. My feelings are that it is up to the activity chair to find someone, do it himself or not hold it.As for the key3 chairing it this isn't even an option. Eamonn

While most of the time I find myself in agreement with OGE. This time we are poles apart. I have to admit to not knowing what the legal age is when a person can get married. I also have mixed feelings as to if a unplanned parenthood is a reason to get married. I do feel that there is no way that it is up to me or us to set ourselves up as judge and jury. As an organization our mission is to help young people grow up and make ethical choices.If we look at the characteristics of boys of this age we have to see that they are going to experiment and try out all sorts of things. We would of course hope that, as parents and teachers that we would help steer and guide our young people through the pitfalls of growing up. We would set the example and be there for them when they need us and maybe as parents when they don't think that they need us. Sad to say some people make mistakes and bad choices. I would hope that we are here for all of our youth not just the "Good Kids." Eamonn

I think that I understand where Bob White is coming from. Scouting is there to support young people and their families. However we only do so in the context of the program. Whatever the charter organization does is up to them. They may or may not want to solicit the help of the unit. Over the years I have had Scouts who have made bad choices. Some have got into drugs others have been caught shoplifting.I have been in court a few times as a character witness. I think a lot or at least some people in Scouting think that if we put a boy in a Scout uniform that he automatically is transformed into some kind of an Angel. As to how do we deal with a Lad who has made a mistake. My view is that we deal with him just as we would any other Scout who has made a bad choice. At the right time which might be the Scoutmaster conference. I might want to discuss taking responsibility for actions and being responsible. I would if asked by the family try to do what they ask. If they ask that nothing is to be done I would do just that. Eamonn

I like this guy. Can we trade Governors? Eamonn

Having a big Metro Council next door on one side of us we tend to think of ourselves as being small. With 10,600 youth members we are about the same size as the council that Dave is in. I don't have a count on all the new units but we were just over the 200 mark. We have four Districts. All but one of our DE's is a senior DE. There has been for sometime an ongoing discussion by some of members about how hard it is for a small Council to survive. Mainly because of the cost of running a small Council. Rumor has it that the Council on the other side of us is having a really hard time and is carrying a tremendous amount of debt. They have had to cut DE's and have done away with the Learning For Life program. We have been very lucky that the staff that come to our Council seem to stay for a very long time. We also have a very good endowment fund, which is well managed and has done well even with all the problems that the market has had over the past couple of years. Still we are having a hard time balancing a budget. As long as this is true any idea of a capital campaign is almost out of the question. We would love to put in a Cub World at our smaller camp site but we just don't have the money. We do have a couple of large corporations but they are not really behind Scouting and don't do much. This means we keep going back to the small businesses. Being a small business owner I can attest to how hard it is to know where to donate money. I get at least five letters a week asking for some kind of donation. While I have never been in a large council and don't know how much longer the small Councils will last. For now I like our small one. Eamonn

Last I heard this was a program for young people. Unlike the professional armed forces. If the Scouts have said that they want to do this that is one thing. I would however guess that the idea didn't come from the Scouts. Please show me where it is written that this game makes us a family. Thanks Eamonn

Thanks Dave. As you may know I do not have a lot of time for the Learning For Life program. Well that might not be true? It might be a great program. It just is not the program that I'm in and I would much sooner not have my donation to our council used for it. To make matters worse due to a stale mate with the state budget many of the schools were going to drop the program. At our last board meeting we spent $5000.00 to keep it going. Needless to say I voted against it. But was outvoted. I will abide with the vote. Mainly because it is a done deal. But it irks me that we will go out and ask for FOS donations telling everyone about our values and then spend the monry on a program that does not follow the Scout Law and Oath. I don't know about Denmark but something is rotten somewhere. There is a letter floating around from Roy L. Williams that asks councils to have more integrity when setting membership goals. I do have to feel bad for Roy. All the work that went into the new unit drive this past Feb. And then to see membership take such a hit. Eamonn

Here I go sticking my neck out. First, I don't see why the Scouts in the troop would want to be part of a funeral when they don't know the person?? Sad as it may be after a certain amount of time has past the youth in a troop might have heard of you but they don't know you. As a district, we offer a small service at the Funeral home when a "Old Timer" passes on. This is an adult service. Even with this there are times when there is not a big turn out when the person has not been active for a long time. As for the uniform. Life is not hard the uniform is the uniform. You don't have to wear it but if you opt to wear it you wear all of it. Maybe that is why it is called a uniform? As members of the organization we do not have the right to alter or change it. Eamonn

Ok I have just finished a posting which was way too long about the quest for Quality District. As I went to refill my coffee cup I was hit with this. Just a thought. For a number of years I served as a District Commissioner. Over these years I spent a fair amount of time recruiting and training a commissioner staff. When it came time to explain "What a Commissioner is?" I used to use the term "A friend of the unit." As I went for his last cup of the night I thought that maybe a Commissioner might be viewed as a Guardian Angel. Having been raised in the catholic church and had the catechism almost pounded in to me ( God Bless Sister Mary Matthew.)I was given to believe that each and everyone of us has a Guardian Angel. He or She is there to help out and will if asked help us to reach the right choice but never interferes. It is late now. So I will sleep on this one. But I have to admit that I kind of like this idea. Please feel free to add your two cents. Eamonn

Ok I have just finished a posting which was way too long about the quest for Quality District. As I went to refill my coffee cup I was hit with this. Just a thought. For a number of years I served as a District Commissioner. Over these years I spent a fair amount of time recruiting and training a commissioner staff. When it came time to explain "What a Commissioner is?" I used to use the term "A friend of the unit." As I went for his last cup of the night I thought that maybe a Commissioner might be viewed as a Guardian Angel. Having been raised in the catholic church and had the catechism almost pounded in to me ( God Bless Sister Mary Matthew.)I was given to believe that each and everyone of us has a Guardian Angel. He or She is there to help out and will if asked help us to reach the right choice but never interferes. It is late now. So I will sleep on this one. But I have to admit that I kind of like this idea. Please feel free to add your two cents. Eamonn

Dave, You of course knew that I have checked out all the ways of reaching QD. In fact while we didn't "Need" it last year we could have made it on the 2% in Cub Scouts. It seems ironic what was our strength last year has come back to bite us in the tail. Yes there have been years in the past when we were only a few Lads shy and I have been out knocking on doors with applications in hand on December 34th. I have never been an officer in the OA. So I have real knowledge of the workings of Quality Lodge. However our Lodge didn't make it last year something to do with not enough Brotherhood members. At the time OJ was the Brotherhood Chairman. Needless to say he was not a happy camper. As I say I am not up on the workings of the Lodge. It does seem to me that the pressure and demands of the goal are a little bit much for a youth member. There are those who will look at the goal and say that it is just a gobbledygook goal set by national. I don't think so. When I look at what a District is to do and the standards that are too be met. It is a good goal. I sure as heck don't need another plaque. I happen to think that they are a waste of time, But that is just me. I get really upset when people tell me that I am only interested in numbers. Yes I am interested in numbers. Every number in the membership total is a youth who will benefit from the program. Every dollar is there to improve the program. You can bet that when the Scout Exec. presented the budget to the board it wasn't a rubber stamp approval. It was scrutinized and really put under the microscope. We work way too hard to bring some of that money in. We are very careful about how it will be spent. As Bob White says there is a "Chink". Sad thing is that there is not a lot of time to get it worked out. The quest for QD. 2004 starts or in fact has started with the Rechartering Packets. It is all too easy to just strike a name off the charter. With no investigation or inquiry. Having been a unit leader, I know that at times all I seen was the money that I was saving. I wanted to get the charter done- Over- Out of my face. Still how Lads did I just write off? How many might have come back if I had just picked up the phone? Even if it was only one. It was one too many. Would things have been different if the Unit Commissioner had taken the time to go over the charter member by member? Or were we just trying to make sure that the numbers jived and all the signatures were in the right place? Dave, as you know this is the last year for the 2%. In 2004 we have to make it by the +1. We could I suppose spent many happy hours working out a formula that might be a little more fair. But for now we have what is in place. From the reports that I have seen membership has taken a hit all over the country. I have heard that we may be as many as 100,000 down. Mainly in the Cub Scout program. So far the only explanation that I have been given is the increase in the membership fee. Which I don't see as a real reason. Still this is for others to worry about. Right now I would like to see that number come down to 99,914. Eamonn

Ditto. Eamonn

For only the second time since I have been a member of the key3,we are not going to be a quality district. While we managed to meet all the other goals we will not meet the membership goal. While I am not crying myself to sleep at night. I do have to admit to not being very happy about this. While pointing fingers would be easy.It is a waste of time. However there is a need to look at why we didn't meet the goal. As is well known our Council is blessed with a Field Director that I don't like and consider to be a first class twit. I would guess that he might be a little bit more charitable when he describes me. He is the advisor to the membership committee. It would be great to lay all the blame on him. Sadly I can't do that. Yes he made some errors and didn't do things the "Eamonn Way". A way which might have worked but we will never know. The real truth is that as of this minute we are down 86 Cub Scouts and one unit. While the Field Director is still giving the old "Rah-rah" speech and is at long last rechecking names on lists for members who may not be in the system. We in the field know that we are just not going to make it. We are just too far away to make it. Many would look at me and say "Oh ye of little faith." We have not given up on recruiting. In fact at the District meeting last night the membership chair vowed that he would visit all the schools in the District and ensure that every boy had a letter and an application form. Looking ahead to next year. We need to make sure that before a boy or girl is removed from a charter that each of them is contacted. How often we forget that retention is as big a part of membership as recruiting is. We need to look at each and every District Event as a recruiting event, with all the resources of marketing and unit building put into place. I have to admit to feeling like a bit of a cad. I do have everything in place for the needed new unit. It is a Venture Crew which will be chartered by the church that I belong to. The Field Director knows that I have this unit and is pushing me to "bring it in." From the Commissioners report it looks that we will not have any units that will drop next year. If I sit on this unit until January we will have met that goal from the get go.As I say I know in my heart of hearts that this is not the way to play the game. There is a group of people that knowing how much not making Quality really does pee me off are telling me that "You can't be quality every year." This group includes ex-council presidents, Regional type people(Whatever that might mean!) and a couple of pros. Never the less I do feel that after all the hard work that went into the other goals, that it is a shame that we will not make the big one and maybe I have let these people down. Kind words are nice and are appreciated. Still having made it would be a lot nicer. Eamonn

I have been heard to say that the only dumb question is the one that you didn't ask. Your question merits two answers. There is what is happening and there is what ought to be happening. Sad to say many Scouts opt to wear a Scout shirt along with the sash with blue jeans and maybe think that they are in uniform. This is not how it ought to be. While not wearing a uniform is ok. Wearing parts of it is really a no no. Yes this is coming from someone who knows better, but at times does not wear uniform socks!! Many of our members will have 101 reasons for not wearing the full uniform. However to my mind these are not reasons they are excuses. Still as long as leaders allow this to happen and many do the same thing I suppose it is something that we have to live with. If the occassion or event calls for wearing a uniform it ought to be the full uniform. I don't have a problem with not wearing a uniform. I do have a problem with this partial "uniform." My view is that it's like being pregnant. You are either in uniform or your not. There is no half way. Eamonn

Zahnada Thanks. I had forgot Guide. I like that one a lot. Not so keen on Instructor. When I was a Scout a good many of the Scoutmasters were addressed as Skip. This being a shortened form of Skipper. I always fancied myself as a Skip. It had a nice ring to it and wasn't too formal. But it never happened. I think it might still be used a lot down under. At the District meeting tonight I was letting everyone know that the nominating committee had been working and there were some changes in the pipeline. One being that we had found a person who had agreed to be my successor. I said that he would be the District Vice Chair. Someone asked if the vice chair would out rank the District Commissioner? While we all know that the DE, District Commissioner and District Chair. Work as a team and form the key3.I had never given any thought to anyone holding a "Rank" Or outranking. Each and every person in Scouting is doing what he can. I know at times that I have to give myself a kick in the pants, when I start to judge others and their commitment to the program. If you give this some thought it makes the definition between Leaders and followers really hard. I don't outrank you. I'm not your boss. But if you want you can come along and join in with what we are doing. Eamonn

Just a couple of thoughts. I have an agenda to do before our District meeting. The more I think about it the more I know that if I were to stand up and yell "Charge!!" No one would move. I like to think that I when it comes to leadership there are those who will buy into what I'm trying to do. Why do they do that? Maybe they trust me. Maybe we share the same or a very similar vision. Maybe I have done well selling the idea of where we are going. I don't see myself as the "Great White Hunter." I don't look at them as followers. They are active participants. We share a vision, we set a goal and we work together to reach it. At times my only role maybe to bring together a team who will share the vision and get the job done. As to the title of Leader. I have to admit to being happier with the title Scout Leader then Scoutmaster. But that is just an Eamonn quirk. If we were to rename or retitle the "Job?" I'm not sure what it might be. Scout Manager? Troop Manager? I don't think that I like manager and I sure as heck don't like Supervisor. How about Director? No. I think it has a dictatorial ring to it. Trainer? We might be getting warm. But something is missing. As I say I have to rush. But will give this some thought. Eamonn

Many Thanks OGE. I will plant this seed with OJ and see what happens. While I am not part of the crew. I do take a keen interest. Right now they are going through a rough spot. The officers are at loggerheads. They are off to some kind of a training later this month at Potomac Council. This might help ease things up a bit. Eamonn

A few years back I was involved in Cub Scout Day Camps. Our council does not get involved. Allowing the District to run the show. I had a great time as program director and almost as much fun as the Camp Director. We are a very small district so we only had about 200 or so Cubs at camp. What is really great is that I got to know so many of these little guys who are now not so little. They still come up to me and say Hi or start singing some of the Day Camp Songs. I feel sure you will have a great time. Eamonn