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A PUBLICATION FOR COUNCIL COMMISSIONERS AND SCOUT EXECUTIVES SPRING 2001
M IS SIO N
The Annual Conference
Give it prestige
Plan a first-class event
Gather the entire team
Get everyone involved
Make it fun and colorful
Train! Train! Train!
The annual conference should be the
greatest event of the year for the council’s
commissioners and professionals —
a highly informative, high-morale, total
team event.
WHY A COMMISSIONER CONFERENCE?
WHAT’S THE PURPOSE? CONSIDER FIVE
REASONS — The conference is:
• 50% advanced training/continuing education
• 25% fellowship
• 15% information on what’s new
• 5% inspiration
• 5% recognition
Conference Options. There are many ways to format a conference. Many councils use a fast-paced,
traditional conference format. Other council’s use
a “college of commissioner science” format modeled after college courses and degrees. The event
may be parts of one, two, or three days. Two or
three councils in the same metro area may occasionally run a joint event.
Councils should place the highest priority on
attracting unit commissioners and new ADCs;
this is often best accomplished close to home in a
single council. The conference can also help set
good relationships within the single council and its
districts. A multicouncil conference that covers a
wide area is likely to sacrifice attendance due to
distance and travel time and confuse new people
about who does what in their own council.
Select a central location with intrigue or unusual
interest that will help draw attendance. Be sure it
has adequate facilities, including ample parking.
Conference Resource. Get copies of Continuing
Education for Commissioners, No. 33615B, as a
key planning resource. It has great ideas for conference committee organization, selecting the right
place, and planning the program; 19 promotion
ideas; a work schedule; sample conference programs; and suggested session topics. There is a
special chapter on the "college format."
Perhaps the most valuable parts of this resource are
the 34 training session outlines, ready for distribution to session leaders. And remember — one of
the greatest promoters for next year’s conference
attendance will be the reputation of this year’s
conference, the quality of its program, and the
vibrance of the conference staff and session
leaders.
William F. “Rick” Cronk serves as national commissioner of the Boy Scouts of America. Rick is president
of Dreyer’s Grand Ice Cream, Inc. He is a Silver
Beaver and Silver Antelope recipient who has served
in a variety of local and national responsibilities,
including troop committee member, council president,
area president, and Western Region president.
Points to Ponder –
Just for Fun
WHY COMMISSIONER
TRAINING SUCCEEDS
• Why are a wise man and a wise guy opposites?
1. Good quality. Commissioner trainers must perform at their best.
• Why do overlook and oversee mean different
things?
• If we have roundtables for unit leaders and square
tables for commissioners, why don’t we have triangular tables for the district Key 3?
• Why is the person who invests all your money
called a broker?
• When someone asks you, “A penny for your
thoughts,” and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny?
• If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked,
doesn’t it follow that electricians can be de-lighted,
musicians de-noted, cowboys de-ranged, models
de-posed, tree surgeons de-barked, and dry cleaners de-pressed?
• If Silver Beavers are so much esteemed, why are
silver fish so much disliked?
• Why is it that if someone tells you that there are
1 billion stars in the universe you will believe them,
but if they tell you that a wall of the camp dining hall
has wet paint you will have to touch it to be sure?
2. Plenty of fun. The train-the-trainer conference is
one of the most exciting events you will ever attend.
That excitement must be carried over into commissioner training programs so Scouters know how to
have fun in Scouting.
3. Frequent opportunity. Have plenty of commissioner basic training courses scheduled throughout
the year.
4. Enough trainers. All districts should be represented at the council’s train-the-trainer conference.
We need new trainers to replace those we lose to
other assignments.
5. Good records. If you don’t know who needs
training, you won’t know who to recruit for training
courses.
6. Good management. Some district commissioners
say, “I’m going to do the job all by myself.” It’s not
possible. People are available to help in Scouting.
Use them.
VOICE MAIL– Customer Service
Your council service center helps determine how
unit personnel and many others in the community
view the council. The council voice-mail system
may be the primary if not the only way many people will relate to the council service center.
Commissioners take the leading role in good customer service to units. So, commissioners should
really listen to how the voice-mail system serves
people.
Be sure your Scouters aren’t sent off to “voicemail jail,” sending them off to a maddening succession of prompts when they really need to talk to
real people. Scouters finding themselves locked in
a seemingly endless incarceration of phone
prompts will not feel they are receiving good unit
service. Be sure your system offers a ready option
to reach a living person.
2 the COMMISSIONER SPRING 2001
Another issue is how long a caller might spend
on voice mail before being connected to a real
person. Most Scouters are busy people with
expectations of prompt service. Five minutes of
recorded messages and endless phone prompts
without getting the help they need may create
unreasonable frustration and a lost opportunity to
be of service.
Remember the important unit service guideline
on page 24 of the Commissioner Fieldbook: Unit
service should exceed unit folks’ expectations
rather than barely meeting expectations. Simply
meeting expectations may not be enough in our
increasingly competitive society with its competition for volunteer leaders, youth members, and
dollars.
• NEW UNIT GROWTH
Be sure all your district commissioners
know where new units are anticipated
in their districts this year so they
can plan now where they will need to
recruit and/or assign new unit
commissioners.
• PLEASE SHARE
At the next meeting of your district
commissioners, please share and
discuss the enclosed insert,
In Support of Values.
•FIELDBOOK REVISION
Commissioner Fieldbook for Unit Service,
No. 33621C, was released in February with
several enhancements: expanded orientation
projects for new commissioners; added reference to Venturing roundtables; new reference
to third-party software in the annual unitrenewal process; and other minor updates.
• COMMISSIONERS AS GIVERS
“The only things we keep permanently
are those things we give away.”
— Waite Phillips
Philmont Scout Ranch donor
• QUOTES FOR YOUR NEXT MEETING
“To the Scouting world you might be one
person, but to one unit leader, you might be
the Scouting world.”
“The bridge you burn now may be the one you
later need to cross.”
• COMMISSIONER ELECTIVE
IN BOSTON
Don’t miss the commissioner elective on
Thursday, May 31, as part of the National
Annual Meeting in Boston. Identical sessions
will be held at 9:30 A.M. and 2:30 P.M.
E-MAIL AND YOUR STAFF
Good communication is important to an
effective commissioner staff. Is your
communication system consistent with our
new digital world?
Some councils have networked their commissioners by e-mail. District commissioners
and district executives are networked with all
their district commissioner staff members.
The Council commissioner and his/her staff
advisor are networked with their assistants
and district commissioners.
Note: Include e-mail addresses on commissioner rosters. Keep the quality of e-mail
high — no spam, every word geared to helping units succeed.
Caution: Don’t let e-mail substitute for
effective group interaction and the instant
two-way interaction of phone calls.
the COMMISSIONER SPRING 2001 3
SERVICE PLAN
Dates
The annual commissioner service plan
gives specific purposes for regular and
supportive commissioner contact with
units. Prepare your commissioners for
upcoming dates.
MAY — Troop Uniform Inspection.
Commissioner helps Scoutmaster and lends
dignity to a high morale event. Encourage
uniform for summer camp. Develop unit pride.
AUGUST — Unit Program Planning.
Unit commissioners visit with unit leaders to
help where necessary with the planning
process. With a new program year starting
September 1, a unit annual plan should be
completed by August 31.
30 DAYS AFTER EACH UNIT
CHARTER RENEWAL — Charter
Presentation. Commissioner presents
charter at an event of the chartered organization (not the unit). Make it special.
A MEETING IDEA
Find a Scouter in your council or district whose
values you greatly admire. Ask that Scouter to
make a short presentation at your next commissioner meeting or at a general session of your
annual commissioner conference. Have them
share such thoughts as real-life examples of
how Scouting values helped their career/their
family; how the Scout Oath and Law helped
them make the right decisions; and some of the
ethical decisions facing their community/their
company.
Calendar ITEMS
2001 May 30–June 1
National Annual Meeting
Boston, MA
June 3–9, June 10 –16,
August 5–11
Commissioner and Key 3 Conferences
at Philmont Scout Ranch
DURING THE UNIT CHARTER
RENEWAL MEETING — Quality Unit
Measurement.
This is the time to help all unit adults check
how they did during the past charter year and
commit for the charter year ahead.
July 23–August 1
National Jamboree
UNIT COMMISSIONER BOX SCORE
December 31, 2000
Number of
Units*
Unit
Commissioners
Required
Unit
Commissioners
Registered
Need to
Recruit
Percent of
Need Filled
Last Year/This Year
Unit/Commissioner Ratio
Last Year/This Year
Northeast
20,913
6,972
4,185
2,787
61.5 / 60.0
4.9 / 5.0
Southern
34,527
11,509
6,734
4,775
56.7 / 58.5
5.3 / 5.1
Central
27,993
9,331
6,618
2,713
70.5 / 70.9
4.3 / 4.2
Western
41,132
13,712
8,059
5,653
60.5 / 58.8
5.0 / 5.1
124,565
41,524
25,596
15,928
61.9 / 61.6
4.8 / 4.9
Region
NATIONAL
* Does not include Explorer Posts or Learning for Life Groups
4 the COMMISSIONER SPRING 2001
14-975 QQ