All Group Commissioners,

Essential Working Tools for the Group Committee

This is a short introduction to your role as Group Commissioner and to some working tools which we feel will help you to manage that role.

For those of you who were able to attend the Council 2005 Rev-Up Conference in January this is a review, for those who were not able to attend this will bring you up to date.

Introduction
As a result of the changes in Scouts Canada structure over the past few years the organization was changed. The major changes to Group Committee operations were the creation of the Group Commissioner position and a change in the emphasis of responsibilities.

Up to the time the changes were made the prime focus of the Group Committee and Group Committee Chair was administration of the Group. Program was taken as a given. After the structure was changed program became the prime focus and administration became a given, a support function.

In the new structure the Group Commissioner became ACCOUNTABLE for MANAGING both the program planning and Group administration aspects. Group Commissioners also became part of the Area Service Team, which, managed by the Area Commissioner, has both service and support components. The Group Commissioners form the service part (each in effect being the equivalent of a service scouter within their own Group) and the Deputy Area Commissioners are the support part, available to provide guidance and help as needed.

As the Group Commissioner you are responsible for managing your Group and have the freedom to set up your own team, the Group Committee, in the best way you feel will get the job done. Don’t recruit people for job titles, recruit people for the functions you need to make the Group operate effectively.

As a Group Commissioner you have three key areas of responsibility:

1. to promote and monitor quality programs in all section in your Group
2. to develop, and maintain the leadership team needed to provide this quality program
3. to provide communication and access to resources to the leadership team

The Group Committee Handbook provides a good descriptive overview of what a Group committee is responsible for but does not tell you how to carry out these responsibilities in any detail.

You can find more information about the Group Commissioner and Group Committee responsibilities in the following documents available on the Council and Scouts Canada web site:

There are working tools already available to help you with your job. We believe that if you use, or monitor the use of, these working tools your job will be easier and you can be a more effective manager. The tools already available are:

1. the Scouts Canada Membership Management System (MMS) (developed by National) - accessible on www.scouts.ca with password
2. Action Toronto Award documents (developed by GTC) www.gtc.scouts.ca/pageview.asp?section=resources&page=acttor
3. A Checklist for Group Commissioners - Group Committee Activities document (developed by GTC) - www.gtc.scouts.ca/pageview.asp?section=resources&page

Item (i) is for GROUP SUPPORT (administration of the Group), item (ii) is for PROGRAM SUPPORT (activity planning) and item (iii) is for both GROUP and PROGRAM SUPPORT to help you MANAGE both areas.

The Working Tools

MMS (a National GROUP SUPPORT tool)
The major ADMINISTRATIVE change introduced for Groups by Scouts Canada during the re-structuring is the new MMS and changes to the registration process.

The MMS is a National developed WORKING tool. It provides you access to your own Group’s information on-line at any time. You can quickly check such member information as the registration status, member roles, honours and awards, currency of PRC, Section membership, parent information, etc. The training information is yet to be updated.

The administrative changes made by the MMS caused three noticeable changes in the registration process:

1. registration forms and fees are handled differently (still being reviewed)
2. the “Annual Group Financial Statement” form is no longer submitted with the registration package, and
3. the application form for Group/Section charter is no longer part of the registration process.

Any additional changes will be communicated with the registration kits when these are modified each year.

ACTION TORONTO AWARD (a Council PROGRAM SUPPORT tool)
The Council Service Team efforts have been directed at both Group Committee/ Commissioner training and at working tools to help you with your job. The first Council developed PROGRAM SUPPORT tool resulted from the review of the section “Action Toronto Award” documents.

We suggest that this is an “essential” tool for all Sections in the Group. You should use it as a planning tool when preparing your annual program plans in September and when evaluating your program in May/June.

The bronze level requirements meet Scouts Canada Program Standards and our goal is to have every section in every Group using this document when planning their activities. Use it as the base for a planning outline if you do not have a formal planning process in place. If you already have a good planning process in place, use the Award document to assess what the Sections did against the Award requirements, and if these have been met apply for the Award.

The Group Committee should be involved in both the planning and evaluation processes.

A CHECKLIST FOR GROUP COMMISSIONERS - GROUP COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES (a Council developed GROUP SUPPORT tool)
The first Council developed GROUP SUPPORT tool is the “A Checklist for Group Commissioners - Group Committee Activities” document. This in effect has the same intent as Appendix A in the “Group Committee Handbook” but is more detailed and specific.

In its own way this checklist is also an extension of the Group Commissioner job responsibilities summary (“Group Commissioner Key Responsibilities”). It is a month-by-month breakdown of Group Committee activities starting with August, when preparatory activities for the Scouting year normally commence.

Activities are listed under PROGRAM and under ADMINISTRATION and the Group Commissioner is responsible for overseeing, not doing, all of these activities. The items that are repeated over several months are activities you should be doing throughout the year, e.g., youth recruitment, leader recruitment, program monitoring. Some items are deadlines, some reminders.

The Checklist asks each Group Commissioner to provide a Group health report to the Area Commissioner each month. Except for August and September this is still a general statement on the Checklist but the intent is to define a specific report topic for each month so that by the end of the Scouting year most of the significant activities in Appendix B of the “Group Committee Handbook” would be reviewed as an ongoing process rather than doing this as a onetime activity.

This last is premised on the belief that corrective action taken close to the event is much more effective than corrective action taken as the result of a year-end review, e.g., some Group Committees review the previous month’s section meetings at each monthly meeting and take immediate action as a standing part of the agenda.

Please use this checklist in any way it is useful to you. The upcoming month will be posted in as a segment in the “Team Toronto E-newsletter” which the Commissioner sends out monthly.

Please also consider this Checklist a living document. We consider it as a continuing DRAFT and will refine it as experience shows what works. If you have any suggestions for additions or improvements or something does not work for you please contact us.

In summary:

• if you recruit people to help you, use the tools that are, and we are making, available
• check section activities REGULARLY, the job really is not as big as it seems
• review the Checklist document for the next month before/during every Group Committee meeting
• as Group Commissioners are accountable for managing the Group, not doing everything by yourself, recruit help
• you cannot delegate your accountability but you can delegate responsibilities to other members of your team.

We are currently working on an additional tool which is designed to help you with assessing the “health” of your Groups.

Heather Graeme, Deputy Council Commissioner, Program Support
Ants Evard, Deputy Council Commissioner, Group Support

c.c. Council Commissioner
Area Commissioners
CED, CFE’s