Committees

To some people, even the mention of the word 'committee' strikes fear into their hearts. In my day job, committees are a mixed bag. They slow down processes, yet at the same time serve to provide job security; since everything moves at such a glacial pace, nobody ever loses their job.

To a Scoutmaster, the Troop Committee should be a time saver. Surely some places there are committees that get in the way of the SM. In my experience so far, Troop Committees in LDS troops are all but nonexistent, so they neither get in the way nor save any time. We have a chairman now, Brother McEvoy, but he's often out of town. He does an okay job if I stay on top of him, always telling him what he should be doing. The problem is that I can barely stay on top of a dozen kids that need me to tell them what they should be doing, let alone tell the committee chairman how to do his job as well.

So it's time to head off to camp, and Brother McEvoy is out of town as usual. I spent most of today and yesterday finishing paperwork, buying food, and arranging another vehicle for one of the dads who had something at work pop up and couldn't help transport us to camp.

I'll be buying a few more last minute things I forgot last night in about half an hour when the Sabbath is over, finishing packing my own things, getting a couple hours of sleep, and then heading out to camp. One of my paperwork things was to print off a current record of all the boys' advancement so I know where everybody is at. I thought Brother McEvoy was on top of keeping the computer up to date, but as I'm printing things off, I'm seeing quite a few things that I know boys have earned but are not in the computer. Grrrr...

As I was driving home yesterday from a family reunion (why I've scheduled family reunions in back to back weeks with Scout Camp two years in a row is another blog post), trying to get a bunch of last minute things worked out over the phone, I commented to Sister Smyth how it would be nice if I didn't have to arrange transportation, collect physicals and money, sign boys up for merit badge classes, buy the food, order the t-shirts, and all the other stuff that goes along with getting up to camp. She said, "Isn't that your job?" I guess our next FHE may have to be the online troop committee training. If the SM's wife doesn't understand the benefits of a well-oiled committee, I don't know how anyone else in the ward is going to.

Two months and counting

In two months we head out to our week-long scout camp. So far it looks like we'll have a large number of boys attend. As always, someone will drop out at the last minute, and I'll have to figure out what to do about the money that was already paid for him to attend. It's always one of the ones that doesn't pay his deposit, but we pay for him anyway assuming he'll get it in.

This year I've handed all the money collection and camp registration over to the troop committee, like I've tried doing in the past. Hopefully this time it will stick, and I won't end up having to do most of it myself. I'm sure it's coming, though. Being a fully BSA-trained scoutmaster, I'm well aware of the way the committee should work. Being a Mormon scoutmaster, I'm well aware that I end up having to do all the work myself.