Taughannock District
Baden-Powell Council, BSA
Commissioners

Announcements | Information | Commissioner Corps | Unit Commissioners

Commissioner Announcements

• Centennial Quality Unit Forms should have been handed in with the recharter paperwork - each commissioner has been sent an e-mail about his or her units whose forms are missing. Note that the 2009 form should be handed in even if the unit did not achieve its goals for Quality Unit. Keep a copy of your units' 2010 form (if you don't have one, ask DC Mike Brown for a copy), and use it as a tool for checking with your unit periodically.  

• Unit Calendars - "Failure to plan is planning to fail" - does each of your units have a schedule covering, at the least, the next three to four months? If not, they should - better yet, every unit should have an annual calendar in place at the start of the Scout year in August or September covering at least their monthly outing or major activity through the end of the Scout year the following July. For each month, a detail plan for meetings should be in place: 

  • Cub Packs may rely on the National Monthly Theme system for monthly den and pack meetings - under the new Cub 2010 program to debut this fall, all Packs should be following the Cub 2010 plan. 

  • Scout Troops should have their Patrol Leaders plan meetings on at least a quarterly basis - semi-annual or annual would be even better. 

  • Venture Crews should have a schedule calling for crew meetings on at least a monthly basis, and for a major activity on a monthly or quarterly schedule. 

• College of Commissioner Science: The Northeast Region Area 3 College of Commissioner Science will be held at the Christian Brothers Academy in Syracuse on April 24, 2010. Harriss "Hab" Butler, Northeast Region Commissioner, will be the keynote speaker. This is a great training opportunity for all Commissioners. If you can, you should plan to attend - download a flyer in PDF format here. 

Information For Commissioners

• Monthly Commissioner Meetings are held on the second Wednesday of each month as a breakout at the District Leaders' Roundtable - 7:30 - Dryden High School 

  The monthly roundtable is the principal training and communications program for the District. It is important that all Commissioners make an effort to attend the monthly meetings - not only will we be covering unit status reports and providing information for you to bring to your units, but this is also a great opportunity to touch base with your unit leaders (and perhaps to encourage them to attend, if they don't normally do so!).  Note: there are no roundtables in July or August, and the June roundtable is usually a picnic.  

  Dryden High School is at 118 Freeville Road (Route 38 North), on the right about half a mile from the intersection of Route 13 and Route 38 North in Dryden village. Look for the Queen Diner on the Route 13/38 North corner. Note this is Route 38 North (Freeville Road) leading to Groton, not Route 38 South (South Street) leading to Owego! 

• Each unit commissioner should visit each unit every month! This doesn't necessarily mean that you have to attend a unit meeting every month, but you should at the very least contact the unit leader or Committee Chair or make a point to chat with someone from the unit at Roundtable. Attending a Unit Committee meeting counts as a "visit", as does dropping in on a unit activity. 

• Please log all of your unit visits on the Unit Visit Tracking System (UVTS): To access the Unit Visit Tracking System, sign in through Myscouting.org If you're having trouble with the UVTS, contact Mike Brown or Jeff McKinney. 

• Useful Links for Commissioners:

  • BSA National Commissioners' Page - includes links to Commissioners' newsletter, Fast Start Training, UVTS, publications

  • Netcommish.com - Commissioners' website from the US Scouting Service Project - includes a weekly column called "Ask Andy" that's well worth bookmarking!

The "Commissioner Corps"

Unit Commissioners