Troop Committee Issues

[wagionvigil]

BL get Marge to request it.

[Cowboy]

Find a Scout Friendly accountant who will do a free audit during a slow time of the year. Having this every year will please a good Treasurer (we all make mistakes) and keep a "bad" one honest or get rid of them. Even a bookkeeper can do a minor audit. (BTW: That is the only word in the english language with three double letters in a row).

[biglou]

I know I am bringing this topic back up from my Troop Committee. Things have changed. The Troop now has a Committee Chair that is interested in what is going on. We are currently working on a problem know and I am very thankful that he is handling it with the Council office. If you are wondering about what that problem is, it is about summer camp and someone did not turn in money to reserve our week at summer camp when they were asked to do so at 3 seperate committee meetings.

Next week, is the Troop's committee meeting. I am not looking forward to it because I know one person is going to try to assign blame to me about the summer camp deposit thing. Well, she was the one who has control of the funds and I have no access. There is also another issue. The Scouts sold approximately $6000 in Easter Candy with a profit of 35%. The fundraiser coordinator was not given any direction towards if there was going to be a split between the Scouts and Troop. I will just say that the Troop Committee without even consulting the fundraiser coordinator decided that the 35% profit was going to be divided 60% Scouts/40% Troop. They did not ask her, they just took it. They should have asked her about it because parents were told their Scouts would be getting the full 35% profit. It is not going to be pretty. Someone is going to be in for it that night and it ain't going to be this kid!

FYI, I am calling the Pastor of my church and advising her of the situation. I think she needs to be at this meeting or at least made aware.

[biglou]

Oh yeah, I believe someone mentioned audit. That is going to be suggested next week. Sorry I left that one out.

[biglou]

I know I keep bringing this particular thread up every once and a while. But I heard some interesting news tonight. The Troop CC is going to resign after a certain Scout makes Eagle. Well, in my ideal world and Troop Advancement Plan, there will be several Eagle Scouts in my Troop this year as well as the aforementioned Scout. Things will be changing in my Troop this year and my "evil" plan is falling in place! LOL! Just kidding. I have not "evil" plan. I already have a boy-led Troop. The last part is getting the Troop Committee understanding what their job is and there are members in place to do so! YEAH!


FYI, the boys "saved" a Star Scout that quit two years ago. They kept asking him to come back and they succeeded. I was excited about this. They even recruited another new boy never involved in the program. I love positive peer pressure!

[Bill Pitcher]

Biglou points out an interesting fact here . . . that the Committee learns what their job is! Here's the question: Are your troop committee members taking the training when the council offer's it? Or are they watching the video on line and saying: "There, I'm trained?" I feel the council offering of three hours, or so, not only provides the committee members ample training, but also provides so many opportunities to interact with other council members (trainers and other troop committee recruits with fresh, new ideas). Opinions?

[smtroop168]

Bill...don't disagree that face-to-face is good but getting them to at least do the online version is better than nothing

[Fred Johnson]

I repeatedly hear "are they trained?" Well, I think that just too simplistic. To me the issue is not online versus in-person. I've had very mixed experiences with both and most of my training is already years old.

I THINK...

• BSA training programs are absolutely necessary.
• BSA training is cursory at the 10000 foot view ... glancing over details or missing whole key topics. It takes years to learn how the program works in detail per BSA design... or at least to learn not to over complicate it.
• Some leaders are not oriented enough to take the training and miss the nuances of what is being communicated.
• Leaders leave BSA training thinking they are ready to be a leader.
• Leaders leave BSA training reaching different conclusions depending on the trainer and their personal attitudes.
• BSA training does not teach with hands-on the official documents. Leaders need to open the key and read documents. G2SS. ACPP. SMH.
  
  • How many "trained" troop advancement committee members have read the ACPP? Opened it? Know that it is the authoritative source for advancement? Knows it applies at the unit level too? Knows it even exists?
  • How many "trained" scoutmasters have read the scoutmaster handbook? View it as guidelines or suggestions instead how it's supposed to be done.
• Person-to-person discussions based on BSA publications are more useful than proclamations from scouting generals. They are often wrong or reflecting what they like versus what BSA currently teaches.

IMHO, training needs to be continuous ... even for the 40 year scouter.

IMHO, committee meetings should include training at every meeting. Consider it the scoutmaster minute for the adults. Done by the pack trainer or the committee chair. Maybe just two minutes on how the committee should behave during the PLC report. Maybe suggestions how to interact with scouts. Maybe reading an interesting magazine article. Maybe some new requirements or a special topic. Maybe philosophies and goals. Maybe available camps. I think this would help achieve the key need to have the adults in a unit work in the same direction.

[Bill Pitcher]

Fred, I think you should write the new BSA Training Guides and sylabi!! The on-line "training" is too much entertainment, and the 3 hr. course is "too much game playing" for my tastes. SM/ASM training should cover the GS22 amd SM Handbook. . . but it rarely does, if ever. As you say, new leaders probably have NEVER HEARD OF THEM! The Advancement guide should be a purchase for EVERY troop's new advancement chair. Does it happen? I doubt it. All great topics for the round tables as follow up to council training.

[razor_strop]

Fred, I agree fully! As CC, I've been selecting a section of our troop policies & procedures to review each committee meeting, making notes on sections that need discussion (i.e., don't quite follow BSA policies), sending them out prior to the meeting for members to review, then discussing them at the meeting. This way, we kill two birds with one stone--we review and update troop P&P, and conduct a short, focused training session each committee meeting. It seems to be working pretty well so far; several folks have mentioned that even after X years as adult Scouters they didn't realize we shouldn't be doing X or should be doing Y. Of course, it helps to have copies of Advancement P&P, SM Handbook, and the Troop Committee Guidebook on hand to show folks where something is written to stave off the "show me" arguments.