10 October 2008
GSUSA: Service Unit Coup
Posted by admin under: meetings .
Have you ever been in one of those meetings where somone comes in and kind of hijacks the whole thing and the next thing you know you’re off on a tangent and trying to find the left turn lane to get back on track? Tonight’s leaders’ meeting wasn’t as bad as all that, but it still had that same quality. Someone needs a little time, but hadn’t cleared their item on the agenda. Someone else is talking about the subject at hand, but then delve into an area that doesn’t need to be discussed in this forum. Meanwhile, everyone else is just helplessly hanging on for the ride.
I can’t really complain. The exact same thing happens in my troop committee meetings for Boy Scouts. It’s just a little frustrating to see it from the other side and not have the gavel in your hand so you can move things along. I always try to let people have their say, but after being in the audience instead of on the leader table I’m going to have to make a better effort to nip these things in the bud.
With all that carping out of the way, the meeting actually covered some good ground: Juliet Lowe’s upcoming birthday, December’s parade, camping advice, getting assignments for upcoming events, and necessary information to the coordinators who needed it. I just realized that if I wasn’t married to the service unit manager I would probably have a hard time finding most of the discussion relevant to me because a lot of it was inside baseball. A new leader would have trouble following what was going on and would want to figure out how most items taken individually related to her.
At the end was the break-out session so people could hold their necessary, but not necessarily public conversations while those who were interested could go learn more about the parade two months hence. Leaders have to have an even longer lead time than their troops because the leaders’ meeting will typically either be a month before they will handle it in their troop or the very next day if you wait for something that seems like a reasonable time period. So, it has to be this way. As a leader who prefers to plan things even 9 months ahead of time if she can do it, my wife is as comfortable with advanced notice as I am.
I did like the new idea of giving a random door prize out at the meeting and having it be relevant to the month’s discussion topic: camping. The leader got collapsible wash basins and mesh dunk bags for her troop cookware when they go camping. I also won’t complain about having a birthday cake for Juliet Lowe. You know, just as an example of what you can do in your meeting. Mmmm. Delicious meetings.
Maybe I’m just getting cranky as I get older. I thought old people like to sit around and talk forever. That’s it. I’m just jealous I wasn’t the one doing all the talking. Now it all makes sense. Well, I’ll try to make sure I start talking early at tomorrow’s troop committee meeting. *sigh* I want these meetings. I really do. Sometimes it just seems like all my Scouting stuff is 75% meetings and only 25% doings. As we keep telling the kids, though, if you don’t meet to plan things out, you’re liable to not like how your event turns out. So, grumpy Gus is out and smiley face will replace it.
Hey! We have a committee meeting tomorrow. Yay! 
- GSUSA: Team Meeting
- GSUSA: Watch Your Space
- BSA: Parent Meeting with Few Parents
- Instant? Um, well, No
- Overpriced Fun Thing of the Day
