New 2011 Performance Recognition Program

[AvidSM]

It looks like the Centennial Quality Awards (CQUA) are going to be replaced in 2011 by the Performance Recognition Program. My Council Commissioner provided me with advance copies of the forms that will be used with this program. They say on the top, "Scouting's Journey to Excellence" and below that, "2011 X Performance Recognition Program", with the "X" being Council, District, Troop, Pack and Crew. These forms are numbered 513-105 through 513-108. There are different written criteria for each and three recognition levels: Bronze, Silver and Gold.

 

My initial reaction to these new forms is that I like the changes because the units can no longer set their own goals. With the CQUA no matter how well or poorly each unit did, they can still achieve the same quality unit award as long as they set their goals low. And, most units did not set their goals at the beginning of the year. They waited until the end of the year, which made it easy to fill out the form in order to earn the award.

 

The new criteria for the three levels, Bronze, Silver and Gold are already set on the form. I've looked over these criteria and it's not too hard to acheive the Bronze level. I would guess that half of my units could achieve it without changing any part of their program. The Silver level is possible if a unit sets their mind to it. Gold looks hard to attain and a unit would really have to have it's act together to reach it.

 

There's lots more to talk about with these new forms. But since I'm not sure that they are official yet, I just wanted to see if anyone else knew anything about them. I searched scouting.org and could not find copies of them.

[Eagle92]

only problem i have withthe breif glance of the paperwork is that they do not include Tiger Cub Rank in CS Advancement. it's been how many years since Tigers were fully incorporated into the pack and had to earn Bobcat, which counts, before their Tiger Cub?

[NJCubScouter]

I found a council web site that has the forms here: http://www.threefirescouncil.org/images/Council/Files/Journey%20to%20Excellence-District-Crew-Troop-Pack.pdf

[gcnphkr]

Not terribly hard at the unit level. We had an so/so year and still managed 1975 points.

 

This was interesting: "Scouts are awarded badges at least twice a year at court of honors, where troop plans are reviewed with parents."

 

Our court of honors take the entire meeting. I'm not sure how we would fit in reviewing troop plans with the parents.

[Eagle92]

Are they taking about a slide show of the events that the scouts are being recognized with, or are they talkign "here is what's up" type review? if the former, perfectly doable, if the later, why woudl this be done at a CoH?

[NeilLup]

Scouting's Journey to Excellence is the new program to replace the Centennial Quality Award program. It will provide recognition for Councils, Districts and Units for improving their delivery of good Scouting and/or for achieving specific measures of good performance.

 

A series of webinars will be held over the next months or so for leaders at all levels of Scouting to introduct the program and help put it into use.

 

For council level leaders, the website to sign up is:

 

http://journey-to-excellence.kintera.org/council-staff-volunteers

 

and for district and unit leaders, the sign-up website is:

 

http://journey-to-excellence.kintera.org/district-unit

 

All BSA leaders are welcome to participate in the webinars. However, space is limited and signing up before the meeting is required. There is no cost.

 

There will be webinars for district leaders and individual webinars for Pack, Troop and Crew leaders. The schedule is given when you go to the sign-up web page. Commissioners are encouraged to participate also as Commissioners will be implementing the program.

 

Your local council has also received information on these webinars.

 

Please plan to sign up for a webinar in the area of greatest interest and value to you and encourage your Scouting friends and colleagues to do so also.

[gcnphkr]

I'm not sure. That it is of "plans" I would assume that it is of future events. The only reason I can think of doing it then is because the parents are there and it would be a challenge to get them all together for a separate meeting.

 

Another curious thing was that for maximum points the budget is to be complete by May 31 for the following program year. Our program year starts in October with the APC at the end of August or beginning of September. This would imply that we should move our APC to April and run June to May. I can see some reason for doing that. Of course, that assumes we have a budget, something I've never seen in seven years with this troop.

[Twocubdad]

Just focusing on the Troop requirements, it seems reasonable. Without hard numbers on advancement and retention, I'm guessing we're somewhere in the 2000 point range.

 

I like the PLC meetings being in the mix. I would prefer it be a little heavier on similar program metrics and allow credit for other program elements, like OA participation, high adventure, etc. There is a lot of diversity in how troops are run and this really doesn't reflect that.

 

We're a real bottom-heavy troop, age-wise, so we have very high advancement rate and summer camp attendance percentage. We're also in a heavy growth mode, gaining a net of 15 Webelos for the next few year. So the numbers work for us. On the other hand, if all those things were reversed, it would be difficult for us to meet many of the gold standards.

 

I recall several years ago, when I was Cubmaster, our DE decided that every pack in the district needed to grow it's membership by 10%. At the time we had over 100 Cubs in the pack. Myself and the CMs from the two other 100+ packs sat on the back row at Roundtable, blew raspberries and threw stuff during the meetings. Fixed goals for stuff like that just don't work.

 

I also see some of the items as meddlesome. We only do two courts of honor a year, which works for us. The service requirement sounds like a way to resurrect the Service for America PR campaign by requiring every unit to register. And why does anyone care when our fiscal year ends?

[NC Scouter]

Will someone please tell them the plural is courts of honor, not court of honors.

[NC Scouter]

Also love the language for #7: "The troop is separated into patrols ..."

[rdclements]

Looks like they flipped Silver and Gold again. It would be nice if they had someone proof read these things before publishing them.

[RememberSchiff]

Hmmm,

 

So for a Venture Crew, the Crew President and Secretary must sign, but for a troop, naah we don't care for the SPL to sign for his "scout-run" troop.

 

1. Advancement - I would rather see 60%, 80%, 100% of those scouts who left (aged-out, quit) had earned the rank of First Class or higher. I'm not thrilled with encouraging mills for those who remain. Did we SM and ASM's help all those boys that joined?

 

2. Retention - Corrected any troop problems stated by departing and transferring scouts as verified by District Commissioner and departing scout parents. Retain 70%, 80%, 90% of Webelos crossover for 1 year.

 

5. Short term outings (hikes, camping, bike trip, Red Sox game...) - PLC plans and conducts outings (too often troop conducts = adult conducts)

 

6. Long term camping - PLC plans and conducts.

 

10. Budget - allow scout families an opt-out of fund-raising i.e. donate cash equivalent, return all monies in his account to scout when he leaves unit or scouting.

 

No scout participation requirements except for summer camp?

 

Maybe split form for troop performance: one section adult leader goals, one section scout goals.

 

My $0.02

[rkfrance]

For the average unit leader, is it worth it?

 

We've gone from a very simple form several years ago to the Centennial program to this. This is definitely not easier to understand or more user friendly.

 

We can't get leaders to come to roundtable. Now they're supposed to check out a webinar for the "new" quality program. It MUST be as convenient, easy and painless as possible.

 

This is going to take a lot of time to explain to people, who most of the time, wouldn't care about it to begin with.

 

For the commissioners and professionals, it will be a HUGE waste of time trying to get these same leaders to understand how this will benefit them, the unit and the youth.

 

[Rockford8070]

After looking over this form, and I really only looked at the Cub Scout form, it doesn't look that hard. There's a little more math involved, but it seems the goals are much more clear cut and standardized.

[Eagledad]

I remember after our first year in the troop, the UC came by and proudly announced that we earned the Quality Unit Award. I will never forget the look on his face when we asked, "What did we do to get that".

 

The requirements for these awards are basically a short check list of what the leaders hand books direct us to do it anyway. But so few people read the hand books, they don't know. For me, the irony is the award now requires the adults go to training where they will learn what the leaders hand books say.

 

But it works, I have watched adults go way out of their way to earn those awards.

 

Barry