With My Head Planted Firmly In The Sand.

[Eamonn]

Much as I hate to brag. When I left Pack 155 to move on to the District, I knew that things were in good shape. The pack had great Leaders, a good working committee and things looked good.

My successor was my Assistant Cubmaster. He didn't do things exactly as I had done and there were things that he did that I didn't like.But he was the new Leader and I was content to let him do his thing. I really like him. He went on to restart the troop that had not been around for a good many years. He was my ASM for the last Jamboree. He passed the Pack over to another nice guy. The membership remained strong, but I did note that they were not having as many Committee meetings and at the one pack meeting I attended there were very few parents. When his time came he passed the Leadership on too a Den Leader who had four boys in the pack. Her husband was also a Den Leader and her best friend was her Assistant. The best friend and her were like glue. Together the three of them attended Wood Badge.

Meanwhile I'm patting myself on the back, thinking how great things are and what a wonderful job I had done. Yes I was very full of myself. The great me had set this thing up. I was so wonderful that this was the model of how things worked when the wonderful me was around.

Not long after the Wood Badge course the husband of the Cubmaster said that he was leaving her and the kids. Shock-waves ran throughout the District.

All three quit Scouting very soon after.But our District Commissioner said that he was working with a new Cubmaster. I was happy to hear that.

Last week the new guy called me and said that there were all sorts of problems. I met with him and found out that the District Commissioner's idea of working with him was just dumping a stack a books at his house. There is no working committee and there hasn't been for a good while. Worse still they have individual Scout accounts and the treasurer had not kept up with them.A good number of Scouts are in the hole and owe money and some of these are no longer in the pack. The money too fund these guys has come out of other Scout's accounts.

I can't believe that this has happened to the pack. The pack that is chartered by the church that I attend.

How could I be such a dumb twit as not to have seen it?

I am working with the new Cubmaster and we are having a Pack fund raiser to replace the missing money.

Eamonn.

(With head hung low.)

[dsteele]

Eamonn:

 

Let's talk on the phone about this.

 

You've done nothing wrong. I applaud you for wanting to help fix it.

 

I've been in a similar situation. What you need to understand is that once you pass the baton of leadership, it's up to those who follow to either make a change or continue. Often this works out well. Sometimes it doesn't.

 

It's too bad that it hasn't worked out well in your case, but you don't get to blame yourself for problems that came along the path once you stepped off.

 

Unc.

[AnneinMpls]

Hi Eamonn,

As Unc said, you can't blame yourself.

There's also a lot of....well, I'll call it psychic energy for want of a better term, and in hopes folks dont start thinking I'm much more odd than I really actually am...

I can imagine this situation with the pack resonating quite strongly for you, given what you've shared about the demise of your troop across the pond. It might be helpful just to sit back and say, ayup. Once you can bring that to the fore, it takes some of the wind out of its sails - that stuff that makes you feel more of the blame than you ought.

The other piece is, this is *highly likely* to happen to you repeatedly, given that you are probably well up there in the top 2-3% of folks who give of themselves for scouting - that means 97, 98% of the folks to come after are just simply not going to have that same level of commitment or skill or knowledge or availability.

Sounds like you're working a good plan to assist the pack get back on its feet again. Obviously, the more you can work within the given structures and support the persons in those roles the better. I could see a temptation to do too much, which wouldn't be good for you or the pack. (By the way, were't you just healing up from back surgery? Hope you're feeling all better!)

Pax et bonum,

Anne in Mpls

[packsaddle]

I too, am sympathetic. I left the pack in good hands but one generation later the leader nearly had it die. I had moved on to the troop by that time but I worked on the CO to do something. A new CO minister arrived and he took an active interest and things turned around for the pack (and the troop). Keep the faith, Eamonn - things have a way of working out for the best if you keep trying.

[Laurie]

Eamonn, you're only guilty of having too big a heart and of caring deeply about units, even when they are no longer your responsibility. You've no reason to hang your head low, nor does this mean your head was in the sand. From what you describe, things looked good on the surface, and there was no reason for you to question that. I'm going to give to you the advice you gave to me: don't second guess yourself. You did right by the pack, new leadership was in place, leadership that had training and enthusiasm and made choices. I'm sorry things got all in a muddle, but I agree with Pack: they'll work out somehow. It seems that the process of working things out has already begun, and I wish you well with that!

 

(p.s. I just tried to post this by providing the user name Eamonn--hmmmm...could it be I want to be just like you and this was a slip that could be very telling?? )