COMMISSIONERS CORNER: May 2023

Commissioner Development

Whether you have been a Commissioner for 5 months or 50 years being current is essential for providing meaningful service to our units. Attending Council Conferences/Training events, monthly District Commissioner meetings and Roundtable are excellent vehicles for sharing and gathering new tools.  Dave Berger, MCC Assistant Council Commissioner for Training and Development recently highlighted “micro-learning” podcast opportunities located on scouting.org under Commissioner Continuing Education https://www.scouting.org/commissioners/training/continuing-education.  These video vignettes range from 10:00 to 15 minutes. Please take some time to listen at your leisure or incorporate it into your monthly District Commissioner meetings.

Membership Growth 

Some great news below on MCC Membership Growth. As you all remember, one of the Commissioner Team’s Strategic Goals for 2023 is to “Collaborate with Membership” with a goal of 1% growth.  April is in the books.

Here are a few highlights of where we ended the month.

  • We are up 11.63% in overall membership with 20,059. We now exceed month end July 2022 and are only 76 away from being over month end August.
  • For units we are up 2.41% over last year.
  • Cub Scout membership is up 15.49% at 9,895. This is more than we ended August with in 2022 by 11 Cub Scouts.
  • With Wayne State C2 Pipeline rechartering, Exploring is up 111.28%.
  • So far this year, we have registered 1,470 new youth. This compares to 1,206 last year.
  • For units, we started 25 new this year. 10 are new Cub Scout packs. This compares to only starting 9 new units by April in 2022.
  • Compared the top 5 councils (MCC, DC, Dallas, Houston, and St. Louis), we had larger growth in overall membership, Cub Scouts, and units. We are the 3rd largest council in the nation. Our growth was more than doubled and, in most cases, triple the other councils’ growth.

Kudos to the Commissioners, Professionals and Membership Teams for their dedication to growing Scouting in Michigan !!!

Volunteer Burnout

 “It’s only an hour a week”, well that is the sales pitch we either received or give when recruiting new volunteers.  Mark Bentley, Division Commissioner for the Great Lakes Division provided an excellent overview of volunteer burnout during the April Division Commissioners’ Meeting.  Here are some of the highlights:

Definition: Burnout is a psychological syndrome emerging as a prolonged response to chronic interpersonal stressors

  • The three key dimensions of this response are:
  • Overwhelming exhaustion
  • Feelings of cynicism and detachment
  • An ongoing sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment

Reasons Volunteers May Experience Burnout:

  • Lack of volunteer team support
  • Not enough volunteers
  • Volunteers not doing their job / Disproportionate workload
  • Internal conflict with team members
  • In position too long / Same old thing
  • Can’t say “No” / Life Imbalance
  • Micro-Management
  • Lack of clear direction / Poor communications
  • External life factors (family, work, health, etc.)

Ways to Avoid Burnout

  • Recruit more volunteers / Spread the workload
  • Identify areas of conflict / Work to quickly resolve
  • Rotate volunteer positions / Keep it “fresh”
  • It’s okay to say “NO”
  • Avoid micro-management / Delegate and give people space
  • Provide clear direction and keep communication lines open
  • Stay connected with what brings you joy
  • Connect with friends and colleagues for support
  • Family first!
  • Don’t take things too seriously

College of Commissioner Science 

…will be held this Fall.  The date is Saturday, November 11th, 2023, at Chippewa Middle School in Okemos, MI.  Please reach out to Tim Ekola or Mark Bentley if you would like to be on staff.

Monthly Division Commissioner Meetings 

All District Commissioners are invited to participate on the monthly Division Commissioners Meeting.  These meetings are the 3rd Thursday of every month beginning at 7:00 PM.  If a District Commissioner is not available for a meeting, please delegate the attendance to an assistant district or unit commissioner to participate as the council representative.

 

Yours in Scouting,

Tim Ekola, MCC Council Commissioner, timothy.ekola@hotmail.com