Confused Jamboree Mom

[West]

It's not his job to control each committee, true. But it is his job to make sure things are getting done.

It's not my bosses job to design trusses. But it is his job to make sure that trusses of a good design and construction get delivered to our clients on time. Even when I worked for the State people were held accountable.

Is scouting an orginization where no one is accountable for anything?

[wagionvigil]

I will re state my position in another way. The Council Executive is responsible for everything that goes on in a council. He is the one that take sthe heat if quality council is not met not the Volunteers. he is the one that will get moved to another position or out of scouting altogether. The Volunteers answer to him so therfore he is the man! Halo when all else fails go to the top and ask for a meeting. Councils answer to areas that answer to regions that answer to National in Texas. I don't know how far away you are from your service center but most Council execs don't like upset volunteers/parents coming in to complain. Of course it will have the trickle down effect. But eventually it may get handled.

[West]

Exactly. A lot of times people just won't listen until something comes down from above. If you've tried and failed with those directly responsible (or no one will tell you who it is), go over their head. If I learned any thing in scouts it's that 'It's not my job' isn't the way to go through life. One would think scouters of all levels would understand that.

[commish3]

Halo,
If your son is still going to jamboree I would contact the professional advisor to the the jamboree committee and calmly explain your frustration. Be specific in the information you are seeking and if that information is not yet available ask for the approximate timetable that you can expect the information by.

[halo]

Done.

Started calling in early December. No response. Emailed him. No response. Had my son call. No response. Had my son email. No response. After advise from a friend at the council, I cc'd Council Executive (6 weeks later). Got a phone call that afternoon and was given some excuse about his computer being broken down for a few weeks. Was told all my questions would be answered at a meeting that the committee is having and would be notified within a couple of days. 2 weeks later we're notified of the meeting the following day. At this meeting they awarded the prizes to the top popcorn sellers and announced the honey sale for spring. We were shown our 3 choices of shoulder patches and the boys got to vote if they wanted to go see The Lion King during their tour.

There was no question/answer time.

I stood in line to speak with him at the meeting. (Jamboree chair was not present). I got to ask one question regarding pre-camps, which I was told, they didn't have the dates for but we'd be notified within two weeks. I had a question regarding a health condition my son has and if he would be required to fill out the waiver by 2/1 (it was 1/28), but I never got the chance to ask.

I've left 4 messages since that meeting. No call back. My husband physically went down to the office last Friday and cornered him. He was told they were assigning troops on 2/15/2005 and we'd be notified immediately. He said he'd look into the medical waiver issue and get right back with us that afternoon. I have left 3 messages since last Friday.

So as of today still no troop assignments. No catalog. No information on the medical waiver situation. No pre-camp dates set. I did receive another bill though and a flyer encouraging me to keep selling honey.

What do you suggest I do next?

[commish3]

Even I will admit that not having the date for the pre-camp by now is NOT a good sign that the committee has their act together. The catalogue they have no control over. The troop assignments are not a big deal at this point.

Medical questions in my book should get a priority, and should be responded to swiftly. Computers really do break down and I am no position to doubt that his did.

My biggest concern is communication. 1 days notice for meetings, ending meetings before all questions and concerns are dealt with, not having an informative meeting that covers questions and concerns before they are raised. These are not good signs of a well managed committee.

Your best bet is still to keep the pressure on the committee chair and the Professional advisor.

Another avenue of information would be to contact on of the contingency troop Scoutmasters. Do you know who one of them will be?

Out of curiosity how many troops are going from your council and how is recruitment going?

[wagionvigil]

Our council has already filled two and 1/2 troops the 1/2 is with another council. All troops have met,selected leadership etc. Elsewhere in this forum Eammon explains what the Troop he is SM of has done so far. Communication really seems to be lacking and that is a big problem. Halo what council are you From? I might be able to find out a couple of things. Like assigned troop numbers and how many troops are full etc.

[halo]

We have two troops, one of which is not full and doesn't look like it will be filled. Our package is for 19 days for $2600. SM/ASMs have been introduced at the meetings, but they were introduced so fast I couldn't write the names down. Didn't recognize any of the names, so no one from the district I work in is involved. And I have tried back door ways to get the information as well, using folks I know in my district to try to get the information as well, with no luck.

[wagionvigil]

If you want to know what should have been done when go to www.scouting.org find the Jamboree and go to newslettes and Guides. Each month up to now is there in those it tells you a schedule and time frame.

[commish3]

That is probably why so many plans not completed. Without knowing who and how many are actually going they will have a lot of decisions that cannot be made yet.

Try calling district commissioner and ask him or her to get you the name of one of the Scoutmasters.

[Eamonn]

halo,
Boy oh boy it sounds as if you are having a time of it.
You need to make yourself a nice pot of tea. It won't make things happen any faster, but you will feel better.
First let me share a little tip with you, please don't tell anyone else but this works. In Scouting things work far better if you work with the volunteers. Phoning National is almost like me phoning the White House to find out about my tax refund.
Someplace, somewhere in your Council a lot of people do know what is going on. If one and a half troops are filled that means that there is sixty Scouts and maybe one hundred and twenty parents who know. There are Eight Jamboree Leaders that know. The Council has a Jamboree Committee. Our Committee has sixteen people on it. We have a professional adviser. He is not the Scout Executive, in fact I would bet that any questions about the Jamboree that were given to the Scout Executive would land on the Adviser's desk licitly split.
Any how if I were in your situation I would:
1/ Drink my tea or something a little stronger.Think calm thoughts.
2/ Call my District Chairman on the phone. E-mail is good but it is only a one way communication.
3/ Explain my situation and express in cool calm terms that I am very upset. Ask him what can be done and ask him to help. District Chairmen come in all sorts and sizes. At present in our Council all of our District Chairmen are program type guys. Scout Executives love District Chairmen as they know what is going on and have been known to ask questions at Executive Board meetings. If there is one thing that upsets a Scout Executive it is someone asking a question at a Executive Board meeting, when he doesn't have the answer.
It does seem that something is not working as it should. Sad to say things don't always go as planned.
I am one of the two Scoutmasters attending the Jamboree from our Council. Since day one I have been fighting E-mail. People seem to have a heck of a time with their computers. Earlier today I spoke with a Mom, who has two boys going to the Jamboree. She didn't receive the catalog. Another Mom, phoned the council service center and said that she wasn't receiving the mailings from there.
Each and every parent has met with me. In fact I insisted on meeting with the Lad and his parent. We had a face to face meeting where we covered the code of conduct. I had a bio of our leadership team. I wanted to let the parent know that we were going to take really good care of their son. The parents and Scouts have my home, work and cell phone numbers and my E-mail and mailing address.
The date of the shake down weekend was put into the 2005 calender at planning meeting held early in 2004 and given to our volunteers in September of 2004.
There are over two hundred people in your Council who ought to know what is going on. If they all are as confused as you are, I would think twice about allowing my son to go to the local Burger King, let alone to the Jamboree with them!!
The Council will by now have made the final payment to the National Office, they may not have sent names just money. As a rule most Councils pay for the number of Troops, not the number of people. Every Council I know wants to recover that money as quickly as possible. Having to borrow the money costs money. You should by now have paid for the Jamboree. All the Scouts in the Troop that I serve have.
One "Back Door" you might try is to ask to speak to the person looking after Jamboree accounts. This is normally a girl in the office. Take my word for it the girls in the office tend to know more than any of the pros.

[riverwalk]

That's one common term for those people at the "bottom of the food chain", at most offices. But it's very true that they are usually the folks on top of their office operations. They schedule others, and often know how to fast track stuff too. So I use that system sometimes.

But I will seek a face-to-face with the decision makers as well. When once we had a DE that "fired" our District volunteers whenever he wanted someone else in there...most Scouters just got their feelers hurt and went home. When it happened to me (I was still doing the work as I didn't know I was replaced...and my replacement didn't do the work, hmmm) I too had my feelers bruised. But I stayed active as a Scouter. I then went gradually through the chain of command until I got my audience with the Council Executive. I indicated how I went through his organization chart, allowing his subordinates the chance to resolve things. When they did not, I went to him. I reminded him that as a volunteer, I didn't have to work my way up through the system. I could have called him directly. I did it the long way as a professional courtesy. But this also gave me greater ammunition when reaching "the Office".

Others in here have vast experience, and detailed awareness of how the NJ process works. I don't know yet how that works, but I do know some things. If top bosses are worth their salt, they'll want to know when and where a ball was dropped. I watched "Stormin' Norman" do this (on TV) when he was in the Gulf War. And I've seen Chiefs do this on smaller battlefields where I work.

[Eamonn]

Maybe I'm just odd, but I don't look upon a Council Scout Executive as being anything special.
The volunteers hired him, he serves at the pleasure of a group of volunteers.
This game works best when we work hand in hand with our professionals.
I am the District, I am the Council, just as every volunteer in every District and every Council is.
It is all too easy to make a DE or a SE the whipping boy. When things are not going as planned or as they should be in the District I serve, the first step in correcting them comes from the District Key 3. Three people working closely to get things done.
I just spent eight years working with a DE, who before she became a DE knew about Scouting what she had learned from being the mother of an Eagle Scout. While she did earn her Wood Badge, program was never her strong point. She was a darn good administrator and a fine leader and thanks to the combined efforts from her, the other members of the key 3, the District Committee, the Commissioner staff, every volunteer and the help of the community the District made Quality District six times out of the eight years she was with us.
It does seem that something has gone wrong or something or someone in the Council that halo belongs isn't working. I feel sure that everyone in that Council wants to see the Lad attend the Jamboree and have a wonderful time.
I am blessed that I serve in a small Council, I know just about everyone. I enjoy a good relationship with our SE, I was his Ticket Counselor for Wood Badge, we eat lunch together occasionally and do go for an adult beverage after some meetings. Our Program Director and I have been close friends for going on thirty years - I spent my first night in the USA on his sofa. When I missed the plane and didn't get to my engagement party he got engaged and used the cake!! He always has been frugal!!
Even still things go wrong. We have in our Council very open lines of communication. We have some of the wisest Scouter's that I have ever met. And still things go wrong.
Last year I swore that there was a big black hole in our Service Center, papers were being lost like you wouldn't believe. One Cub Scout parent phoned me in a very upset state, she informed me that this was the last time she was going to fill in a application form for her son - She had already done it five times.
Half way through last year Scoutnet or a person not hitting the right key on a computer dropped me - For a while I was not a member of the BSA.
We had our District Pine-Wood Derby last week - I'm still getting hate mail. Bad thing is that the people who are complaining do have a legitimate complaint. Someone did screw up!!
The organizer of the First Aid Meet is upset, the patches weren't ready. The DE forgot to confirm the order.
The Jamboree Troops are doing a fund raiser, I forgot to order forms for the other troop. I will correct my error. All this in a week and the SE is away on vacation. Most of it he will never know. He has no need to know or concern himself with this stuff. I would much sooner see him playing golf with the CEO of a company that will donate big bucks to the Council.
Fixing halo's problem ought to be a very quick fix.
I hope that she can put what has happened behind her.
We dwell in a positive present and future, not in a negative past.
She needs to write down and list what she wants.
Leave out the broken computers and that someone has avoided her.
Was it Joe Friday who said "Give me the facts"?
Asking the people who can and will get her the answers in a timely way, ought not be a unsurmountable problem. Keeping it as close and near to home will make things move faster.
The goal is to find out what she needs to know.
Appointing blame can be a good thing, if the information is used to improve things. Just going after a pound of flesh is never a good thing.
I of course know nothing about the Council she is in or the workings of it. I do know that all of us: Volunteers and professionals do what we do, for the youth that we serve. Sad to say mistakes do happen, people do mess up, but no one wants to see a Lad upset or harmed in any way.

[wagionvigil]

Thanks Eamonn;
I asked brother Eamonn to jump in on this as he does have some insight as to how the Jamboree process works on a Council level. There are always problems and I expect there to be some major problems at the Jamboree when Council Leadership fail to follow the Transportation directives they are getting. Entry to the Jamboree for the contingents is quite different this Jamboree but if the directives are followed the process will be smooth and fast.