Committee Meeting and Scoutmasters

[Crew21_Adv 25]

Thomas54 and Fellow Scouters,

 

Greetings!

 

 

My Troop meets similar to artjrk. I've seen this successfully done in other troops, and brought it to my troop years ago. Here is how my troop conducts these meetings.

 

We previous held Committee and PLC on a different meeting night. But the attendance was low for both meetings.

 

Most of it is dependent around the parents schedule (and/or) the willingness to drive a few miles. The boys that lived a distance from our meeting hall had to be driven by their PLC by the parents. So we may see 1 or 2 patrol leaders. The Committee members would have to give up another evening for committee, and unless it directly involved their son or was a tremendous amount of money, most committee members would not sacrifice another evening.

 

So we cancelled the last regular troop meeting of each month, and placed PLC and Committee on that evening. (Separated by a 30 minute begin time). Between 2/3 up to 3/4 of the troop get the night off, and some parents enjoy this option.

 

Working with our PLC, (good guys, but not always the most driven) it takes about an hour maybe up to an hour and fifteen minutes to complete thirty minutes of planning and work.

 

Usually, the committee is taking care of certain administrative details, and the SM and ASMs walk in and report the program, program dates, transportation needs. Then the committee may re-visit a topic to satisfy the needs of the PLC quickly.

 

So holding our PLC, then Committee meeting on a regular night, in lieu of a regular meeting has increase planning and attendance.

 

The SM/ASM's don't know every detail the committee is deciding, but the SM/ASMs are aware of most every decision and most every topic, either in fine detail or overview.

 

Scouting Forever and Venture On!

Crew21 Adv

 

[SR540Beaver 116]

Never, ever, never, ever, never hold the committee meeting the same night as a troop meeting. This is how the first troop my son and I joined operated. It is also what led a whole class of newly crossed over scouts and their parents to leave the troop after four months. It was a small and struggling troop that had not done much recruiting and had "older" boys who were very comfortable with their clique. The SM was deployed and no one in the troop would step up and fill in. The gentleman who at the time was the District Training Chair and an Eagle Scout who had a son crossing over agreed to be the acting SM until the SM returned. All of the rest of us new families joined because we knew him and respected him. The committee was without a chair, so his wife stepped up and took the position. We were all excited to be part of the wonderful world on Boy Scouting. The deployed SM's wife was the treasurer. She wouldn't file any financial reports and couldn't tell us how much money boys had in accounts. The CC continued to ask her for these items for the committee meetings. To make a long story short, for conveniences sake, they held committee meetings the same time as troop meetings and all that seperated the boys from the adults are the paer thin hanging folder walls in the church fellowship hall. About 4 months in, the CC (acting SM's wife) asked the treasurer (SM's wife) for the financial reports and scout account info and the lady went ballistic. She started screaming how all of us had ruined the troop since we joined and how she was told she could do the job however she saw fit when she took it and proceeded to actually throw three ring binders across the table at the CC. The boys were on the other side of the wall and could hear the commotion. A meeting ensued with the COR who seemed perturbed that he had to actually show up and do something as well as the unit commish. Basically all they offered was, "can't everyone just get along". No, they couldn't. We all moved to greener pastures and left them to their comfortable clique.

 

So, my suggestion is to NEVER have committee meetings the same time as troop meetings. You never know when a hot headed adult might put on an unscoutlike display.

[Oak Tree 15]

Good story, SR540Beaver. I hadn't really factored that in to my thinking. :-)

 

The two times that I can immediately recall about adults putting on unscoutlike displays were both in cases where the parent was at a troop meeting and felt their son was being treated unfairly. For now I'll trust my committee to behave calmly and see if I can find a way to have no parents at all at my troop meetings :-)

[eisely 13]

Interesting story from SR540Beaver.

 

I had not considered the possible impact of a committee meeting spilling over into a troop meeting. Beaver's point is well taken.

 

Also well taken is the insistence by the CC on a report from the treasurer. I have taught Troop Committee Challenge for several years, and one point I make about the treasurer is requiring regular reports. The form and content of a treasurer report can vary, but just requiring the treasurer to provide current information in a written format helps ensure sound management of the troop finances. When someone goes four months without rendering a report and then goes ballistic, there is a problem. Ya think?