Unit Commissioners do and donts

[ScoutDadof5 10]

Over the years, I have heard many things as to what a Unit Commissioner should do and what they should not do.

 

I would be interested hearing what others believe a Unit Commissioner should and should not do.

 

Do you have a story about yourself or another where something was done that exemplefies Unit Commissioner service and thier role?

 

Do you have a story or commentart about yourself or another that speaks to what a Unit Commissioner should avoid doing with a unit?

 

I would enjoy hearing your comments on this topic.

[Lisabob 13]

Well I can give you two quick DON''Ts:

 

When a unit that hasn''t seen its commissioner in living memory falls upon hard times...DON''T parachute in a squadron of unit-commissioner-war-hero types who will then waste countless hours regaling the struggling unit leaders with pointless war stories that have no bearing on the problems the unit is facing! Happened in our pack. I had no idea who or what a unit commish was at the time, and after that experience, I didn''t want to ever see them again either.

 

When a unit is having problems, DON''T go in guns blazing and tell them to either do it your way or else. Or else....what? UCs don''t have any power in that situation, except to exacerbate and annoy. The fellow who did that (again, in our pack) was not welcome thereafter.

 

On the good side - I know a bunch of really excellent UCs and I just went to Commissioners College a couple weekends ago to get my bachelor of UC, where I met some great people who no doubt do a fine job for the units they serve. I hope to be one of them soon, myself.

 

 

[John-in-KC 311]

Everything Lisa said, except taking Bachelor of UC coursework. That''s about 18 months out.

 

Additionally, DO NOT be incapable of listening in on the adult information back-channel: If the pack/troop/crew you serve communicates by email and list-serv, YOU bloody well participate in the list.

 

I had a UC who was clueless; he refused to give us an email address, then he complained he didn''t know where we were on meeting nights, when we were offsite.

[Eamonn 61]

Let me state from the get go, that I think the idea of Commissioner Service is a wonderful idea.

Sadly it''s not working and I happen to think it''s broken beyond repair.

In our area we just don''t have the man-power to be able to provide anything that looks like what the BSA seems to think Commissioner Service should be.

A quick look at the Fall Commissioner Newsletter shows that Nationally we have 114,076 units and only 19,867 Unit Commissioners. We need to recruit 38,026.

Somehow I just don''t see that happening.

I do think that spending a week at the Philmont Training Center is a good idea for all commissioners.

I went as a District Commissioner. Not only did I have a great time, but I learned a lot.

I do believe that a UC does need to know a fair amount about the program area in which he or she is working in.

Someone who has spent all their time working with Cub Scouts might want to take Boy Scout Training and visit some well run Troops before becoming a UC for a Troop.

A good UC will be a good communicator.

If he or she knows what resources the District /Council has available he will be able to make these known to the unit and make the needs of the unit known to the District/Council.

He or she needs to be honest. Even if at times the honest answer is "I don''t know!!"

It is important that the UC remembers that he or she is not part of the unit. He or She was selected by the District Commissioner and approved by the Council Executive Board. This means that no matter what he or she is always a guest of the unit and should act accordingly.

It should also mean that he or she is seen to be supporting the actions of the District or Council.

While the UC is in fact the eyes and ears of the District; knowing that spies are never welcome will help him or her form a real friendly relationship with the adults in the unit.

A good UC does need to realize that units have one set of adults who provide the program (Work closely with the youth) AND there is a set of adults who manage the unit (The Committee) ignoring either is a big mistake.

 

As for a success story.

Some years back when I was District Commish. An application that had done the rounds (Had been floating around the Council Service Center for about six months!!) Finally landed on my desk. The guy had been out of Scouting for over 20 years and wanted to return.

No one knew what to do with him. So sticking him in as a Commissioner seemed like a good idea.

From the first time I met him, I just plain out and out didn''t like him!! (How Scout-like is that?) It seemed to me that he was living in the past and just didn''t understand that 1960 was a long time ago.

Pack 474 lies in the very far end of the District.

To be honest it never had been much of a pack. It was dieing, a slow painful death. This guy lived fairly near to the pack so I asked him to take it on.

My thinking was it was dieing so what harm could he do?

The pack went down to five Cub Scouts, there was no real leadership. One Cubmaster came and went, then another it was really sad.

September came and the plans for School Sign up night were made. I assigned a Commissioner to each school. He went to the school where Pack 474 got most of their Cub Scouts from.

I was very surprised when he returned with ten applications. Still I knew that without a leader this was just a flash in the pan. He went back and organized a parents meeting, from which he got a few willing parents to volunteer. He worked very closely with these parents. They loved him!!

The pack now has over 50 Cub Scouts. Two years back one of the parents started a new Troop, this old guy is working with them. It''s an uphill task.

I still can''t say that I like him, but as a UC he has worked wonders.

Eamonn.

[scoutldr 732]

As I tell others in my profession, "if you hold yourself out to be an expert, you have a duty to be one."

[ScoutDadof5 10]

Eamonn..."Sadly it''''s not working and I happen to think it''''s broken beyond repair. In our area we just don''''t have the man-power to be able to provide anything that looks like what the BSA seems to think Commissioner Service should be. A quick look at the Fall Commissioner Newsletter shows that Nationally we have 114,076 units and only 19,867 Unit Commissioners. We need to recruit 38,026. Somehow I just don''''t see that happening."

 

Other than the disparity between commissioners and what national believes that we should have as commissioners, what do you mean that ..."It''s broken beyond repair"?

 

I tend to agree that trying to come up with twice again as many unit commissioners as there currently are seems unlikely. Other than that, what about the commissioners program or model is broken?

[Lisabob 13]

Not Eamonn here, but something I heard at a recent event made me wonder what "they" were thinking...

 

There is apparently a push to recruit not only a LOT of new commissioners, but overall, one million new adult leaders for scouting.

Now I''m in favor of that as a general idea, don''t get me wrong. But at that same event I was told that people who serve as commissioners MUST NOT have other positions in scouting.

 

So in reality that leaves us with two categories of people to draw upon to be commissioners: 1) newbies who know nothing or next to nothing about the program and are not actively engaged at the unit level, and 2) folks who are retired from active service as unit leaders.

 

While I''m thrilled that anyone is willing to give of their time, my experience is that a person new to scouting would struggle to serve as a UC because they don''t know the program! Not their fault and perhaps they''ll get caught up, but in the meantime? And on the other end, while I do know some UCs who fall into the latter category and do a fine job, I have met many more who seem to have inherited a UC title as a retirement gift that entitles them to tell endless war stories of little relevance to the units'' needs, rather than as an important and sometimes rather active position that requires them to keep up with changes. In particular this seems to be the case when they are assigned to cub packs, since cubbing rules seem to me to undergo more frequent changes that boy scout rules - and yet, cub leaders are usually more in need of basic information (being new to the program, themselves) than boy scout leaders are.

 

So if those are to be our main sources of UCs, then yes, I think the system has some considerable problems.

 

 

[Eamonn 61]

Lisabob

The million new leaders is talked about in the long term strategic plan. Along with a lot of other stuff that really doesn''t seem to be happening.

There does however seem to be some movement with regard asking parents to get more involved with the unit that their child is in.

ScoutDadof5,

If we for a minute put aside the fact that we only have about half the number of UC that we need.

While of course there are a lot of really good UC''s who are doing a wonderful.

Sadly it seems that Commissioner Service is the last stop for a lot of people who have either failed as Unit Leaders, or just don''t seem to fit in anyplace else.

Back when I went to PTC (I think it was 2000) As part of the get to know each other/ introduction. Each of us had to say who we were, where we came from and what each of us seen as our biggest problem.

Mike who had the misfortune to sit next to me was from the San Fransisco Bay area. I raised my eyebrows when he stated that his biggest problem was "Scouting in a hostile political environment" In fact his statement made me feel a little silly when I said my big problem was the age of my commissioner staff.

At the time of all the District Commissioners at the conference I had the most UC''s. 27 serving 39 units.

Sounds great until you discover that most of them were way past 70 years of age. At least half a dozen were unable to drive after dark (We are out in the sticks)

They were all dedicated people.

The Lady I inherited as my Assistant District Commissioner Cub Scouts, was 82. She had been a Den Mother with my Mother-in-law. She had lost a leg to diabetes and was nearly blind.

This left me between a rock and a hard place.

I didn''t want to be unkind. But she just wasn''t up to the job.

She however felt that after all her years of service that she had earned the rank of Assistant District Commissioner.

All too often in Scouting there seems to be some stupid idea that one position "Out ranks" other positions.

(In the end I sweet talked her into taking the new position of Boy''s Life promotion.)

Some of the commissioners had been with a unit for so long that they were embedded in that unit and had become so close that at times they were a unit problem not a means to a solution.

Worse still were the guys who seen their Silver loops as some kind of power trip, almost to the point that it seemed they were telling the unit leaders "It''s my way or the highway" Of course when they were wrong to start with! This didn''t make life any easier.

Add to all of this the fact that we play the numbers game with Commissioners.

Our Council Commissioner is a truly great guy. I love him dearly and think he might even like me a little.

But I have sat through Commissioner Cabinet meetings where he has pulled out the sheet which shows where each Council ranks in the number of Commissioners and sadly with no view to quality it just becomes a who can we add to the list game.

 

As for a fix.

I think we need to look at making the Training Team a listed position (Yes -Go ahead give them a patch!!) An have them visit units to promote trainings, offer one-on-on training where needed and while they are there they can observe how things are going.

Eamonn.

 

 

[John-in-KC 311]

Lisa,

 

Since I''m not yet one, I can''t say this for sure,

 

But I think the theory is certain Program folks, if they are doing their jobs right, have enough on their plates as-is, and shouldn''t have another Scouting position (and certainly not a principal position):

 

Den Leaders

Scoutmasters

Venturing Advisors

Unit Commissioners

 

If these folk are doing their tasks well, they''re supposed to be very committed volunteers. Is there truth? Certainly for DL''s and SMs...

 

Does that help?

[Lisabob 13]

John, I get it and actually I agree to a large extent. I was, however, informed (perhaps wrongly?) that in the abstract at least, this also meant I ought to give up my district and troop committee positions if I want to be a UC.

 

Not. Going. To. Happen.

 

(and by the way, I''m pretty sure my district commissioner isn''t going to push me to do that, either.)

 

My point was that we can''t realistically "fix" our UC problem without drawing upon people who are both experienced and active, or we''ll simply create other UC problems like what Eamonn describes. Unless, of course, we get a sudden influx of those million new folks who are going to all start running units, freeing current unit leaders up to be UCs?

[LongHaul 10]

Lisabob, District Committees are not supposed to recruit from direct contact scouters either. As a MC you are not considered a direct contact leader but can you accept that your District Committee duties take time that may be devoted to your unit? Over the years I''ve seen too many scouters burnt out by trying to fill too many positions. As a UC how many units are you responsible to/for? IN my area it could be anywhere from 2 to 6. That''s a lot of hours if the job is done right. If your District position requires weekly time what is left for the unit? The people I''ve always seen as the Commissioner pool are those unit leaders that have been around 6 or 7 years. Let''s look at the unit dynamic and assess the viability of the unit without this person or persons. Allowing a unit to grow and promoting new blood in key positions can improve program. The "experienced" leader can then share their wisdom. Newbees don''t make commissioners they make problems. Don''t tell me how to fix my problems if you have never done this yourself. Tell me what worked for you not what you read or were told. In response to the original question a serious DON''T would be never approach the CO and read them the Contract agreement without talking to the COR & CC first. Our local area got a new UC and after sitting in on a few committee meetings took it upon herself to approach each CO in turn and point out the things the CO had agreed to do. Major disaster costing our District several units. LongHaul

[Lisabob 13]

Good points, LongHaul. The burn out issue is something I''ve given a lot of thought to, believe it or not.

 

At the moment my troop position is fairly limited and is also closely linked to my district committee position (I''m doing district webelos-scout transition and I am helping our SM with the same matter for the troop, from a committee position and not as an ASM). It is true I''ve done a fair amount with the district in the last year, but what I keep coming back to in that position is that we need to have more active and competent UCs in the district in order to make all of the other things the district is supposed to do work better. If something really had to give I would be most at ease giving up my troop position because we''ve got a bunch of people on the troop committee, we have an SM I feel I can trust, and that is the role in which I''m least active and where there are others who could easily do what I''m doing now.

 

I haven''t had a chance to hash out the details of any UC assignment with our DC yet - I''m hoping to catch him this weekend - but if I do end up in that position, I have in mind one or maybe two of the cub packs in my area that do not have and definitely need a UC, and with whose programs I have a good bit of experience. Of course there are always new things to learn but I think I am pretty well acquainted with the cub program from personal experience over the years. Frankly I''d be uncomfortable UC''ing for any of the local troops - I know the SMs all pretty well from Wood Badge so I consider them to be friends, but they all know far more about Boy Scouting than I do and consequently I wouldn''t be as effective with them as I would be with a Cub Pack (in my own view, at this point in time).

 

So I appreciate your comment - and I hope what I''m saying makes some sense. I don''t think it would be overwhelming, but then, I''m not in the thick of it yet either.