Hycotee Herald

J Stultz
(336) 504-5763
jstultz@charter.net

On being a Commissioner

I was asked recently by a well-meaning, albeit relatively new Scouter what exactly did a commissioner do? I, of course, gave the standard response about being unit helpers charged with being a ready response force if trouble came. Sometime later, I pondered on this answer and I realized that being a commissioner is not that simple.

It is difficult to pare down anyone’s job into a sound–byte type description. A welder welds, a doctor fixes sick people and a builder builds. But is that all they do? A welder many times is also a de facto machinist who makes things to fix things that are broken. A doctor heals, but they also counsel on prevention and recommend ways to stay healthy. A builder builds houses or businesses, but their impact goes beyond just completing a structure. Oft times, they shape in subtle ways our communities by their development and growth projects.

As a Commissioner in Scouting, our jobs are equally complex. Sometimes, as a roundtable commissioner, the Scouter, is a facilitator and educator, broadening the horizons of the leaders around him or her with roundtable programs and training. As an administrator, the commissioner is at the heart of the re-charter process, an thus moves our units from one year to the next. As a resource, the commissioner helps leaders with sticky situations, by providing a third party opinion about conflicts and disputes. And yes, they function as a unit doctor, assisting with struggling units on their way.

All of these roles require a few qualities that I want to discuss here. I was convinced of this after my conversation above.

Above all else, a commissioner must be available and visible. What that means is that a commissioner should be VISITING their units once a month. You cant assess a situation you have never seen and you can’t help with something you don’t understand. The truth is, many commissioners either don’t visit their units or don’t utilize the visits for their intended purpose. Consider these polar opposites. (I had to come up with fictional names that would not suggest any person in our district, since these are made up examples!)

Commissioner Laverna hasn’t been to her units in months. She just does not have time and the last time she went, she was viewed suspiciously by a paranoid Scoutmaster who saw her silver shoulder loops and assumed she was coming to ram some program down his throat. Over at the pack, the Cubmaster ignored Laverna because she had been a Cubmaster for 18 years and did not want or need any input from anybody else. Laverna went to the commissioner’s meeting but did not understand the flap about charters, because she had never actually seen one. She means well, is a nice person, but is wholly disengaged.

The other extreme comes with Commissioner Darwin. Dar is a good guy who goes to almost every meeting. He knows the problems with the unit and could tell you, over the course of several hours, all the ins and outs of the troop’s dynamics. He has done the Troop’s charter the last six years and has not missed a troop trip in the last five. The problem comes when the Chartered Organization has a dispute with the Scoutmaster about facility use. Then there are questions about use of funds and then issues about the chartered organization finding youth for the unit. The Assistant District Commissioner asks Dar to help mediate the trouble, but the Chartered Rep refuses to talk to Dar, because Dar is one of the ones who’s expenditures were being question and further, the Chartered Organization rep thought Dar was an assistant Scoutmaster.

It is difficult to break these extremes down, but this sentence comes close. When you are lying on the operating table, you don’t want a someone who is not a surgeon cutting you open and you certainly don’t want to do it yourself. The issue is focusing on your role in Scouting and the closeness to your units. Too far away, and you have no clue what is going on; too close and your become ineffective.

Over the next few months, you are going to be seeing a few opportunities to hone these skills. We are going to be having a few gatherings to sort out communication and report issues and hopefully do some training. Exciting new things are on the horizon…. . .

Consider your self on the continuum of Commissioner service. How do you know your units? Are they strangers to you or do you know too much?

I thank you for your service to Scouting. Trying to describe what you do may be difficult, but is vital to ensure a good program for all our youth.

Yours in Scouting!