Leadership Woes

[CNYScouter 46]

The Ship has been doing pretty good in most areas so far.

We are meeting weekly sailing with usually about half the members present.

 

The last Ship business meeting went really well and the youth members are beginning to step up and take on some responsibilities and starting to do things on their own.

 

I cant say this for the adult side.

When starting this unit the CO said that they had plenty of people willing to be leaders. As it turns out the 2 from the CO that agreed to help are willing to do the Sea part (Sailing/boating) but not the Scout part. They are doing a great job with teaching sailing I expect that once the weather turns bad they will disappear.

 

When I found out the CO didnt have any leaders I recruited someone to be the CC.

They acted excited to be involved with the program and quickly filled out and returned the application. They signed up their daughter also.

I have yet to see them at any meetings.

After phone calls and e-mails that respond Ill be there when the time comes they are a no-show.

 

I have talked with the parents of the ship members.

All are willing to sit on the committee and help out, but none are willing to take on the role of Mate (Assistant Advisor) or CC.

 

On top of this I have the concern about required or mandatory training.

Our SE and Executive board has approved that all registered leaders must be fully trained for their position or the unit can not charter next year (it will become effective 9/1/06).

And yes, my DE has said they will not recharter any unit that doesnt comply.

 

For a Venturing Crews or Ship this is Fast Start, NLE, YPT and Venturing Leader Specific.

 

On top of this I cant get a training schedule for next year.

I have contacted both my District Training Chair and the Professional that works with the training staffs and have gotten no response.

No training dates are listed on our Web site or on the council calendar for next year.

I would contact the Council Training Chair but his contact information is no where to be found.

 

I did contact the Council Commissioner about this.

He agrees this is a problem but his only solution was to offer to come and do training for us himself (NLE, YPT and Venturing Specific).

But trying to get people to nail down dates for these has been impossible.

 

At this point I am trying not to get burnt out on all of this but with trying to deal with fundraising, the Ships program and then with all the training issues I can see it happening if I cant get parents to step forward.

 

Any suggestions?

 

P.S. Dont suggest contacting my UC because the Ship doesnt have one and there is no one in the District willing to become our UC.

 

 

 

 

 

[jr56 92]

Hello, if my council tried that strong arm tactic as far as requiring 100% adult leader training for rechartering, they would have close to 0 units next year, and then they would be out of a job!!

All I can suggest is to have a meeting with all the parents of the youth in your ship, and tell them what you need, be specific. Let them know that if they want a ship for their child to attend, this is going to have to happen, bottom line. Good luck to you.

[Eamonn 61]

Like you we are the only Ship in our Council.

So trying to find anyone "In-house" to provide training is not going to happen.

Sure you might be able to sit down with the District or Council Training team and go over what is in the material. But you could just as well do that by yourself. In fact if you ask your council may allow you to do just that.

I found that we had to rely on the Flotilla.

Sadly we seem to be a long way from both the flotillas that should serve our area.

In our case that would be the Liberty Flotilla:

http://www.seascout.net/liberty/

Or the Chesapeake Flotilla:

http://www.seascout.net/chesapeake/

We chose the Chesapeake Flotilla as it was a little bit closer to home and it seemed to me that they did a lot more.

I took the Sea Scout Leader Training's that were offered by the Flotilla.

Adult help is a tough nut to crack.

It seems that everyone seems to think you have to be very knowledgeable about sailing and boating to be a Sea Scouter.

Sure it helps, but at the end of the day we are dealing with young people and I'd sooner have someone who understood them and was willing to learn about the Sea Scouting side of things.

Still you need to be ever vigilant.

I was at a soccer game and I noticed that one of the parents was wearing a Coast Guard ball-cap. I asked him about his cap. He has attended a few meetings to go over Marine Radio with our Ship.

I was talking to someone who said he was bidding on a book on e-bay, he sent the guy a message asking what Sea Scout Ship he was in. The guy said he wasn't but he had a long service record with the US Navy. He is now the Skipper of a very fine Sea Scout Ship.

With the way things are at home for me I have had to tell the parents in no uncertain terms that I just can't do as much as maybe I'd like, they have to step up to the plate and take on some of the work. So far it is working. They all seem willing to do a little more.

I just need to remember to let them.

Eamonn.

[CNYScouter 46]

Sad thing is my council had to go to these "strong-arm" tactics because units couldn't/wouldnt send their leaders to training.

 

The first Troop we were with hadn't sent a leader for training for at least 8 years.

I decided to attend on my own and was given a hard time by the CC as I should have spent that weekend heading up a trip for the troop instead of wasting it at training.

 

I have been told that we are not the first council to require training.

Most councils that do this end up with 3 or 4 units that just wont go to training and end up not rechartering.

 

Right now I am looking for basic Scout training such as NLE and YPT and cant even get a schedule for that.

 

Where we are located puts us in the New England Flotilla but it seems they are doing very little.

I do understand that trying to find Sea Scout Training through my council isnt going to happen but even Venturing Leader Specific hasnt been held here in a couple of years.

 

I am fully qualified to give this training and I keep getting the answer do it yourself.

I am just finding it too hard to run the ship, train the youth leaders, head up fundraising, go to training myself and then try to add adult leader training on top of everything else.

It seems that I should be getting support from somewhere.

 

I have found that the Liberty Flotilla is holding the Sea Scout Leader Specialized Training in Sept. in NJ.

The tough part about this is it is the weekend between the 2 Wood Badge weekends and a 5 hour drive from here.

 

 

 

[Eamonn 61]

Like you everything we want to participate in seems to be a five hour drive.

I had hoped to take Sea Badge Training this year.

The NE-Region is offering a course in Connecticut and the Central Region had a course in Cleveland, which wouldn't have been too bad, but they moved it to Michigan.

I think I'm going to have to see how things are and hope that next year there is a course a little closer to home.

Eamonn.