Well, was reminded again this morning, that if you want your newsletter to publish at a specific time, it is a good thing to tell the computer that information ...

On Saturday, I attended "About Boating Safety" put on by the Coast Guard Auxillary in Cocoa. 8 hours of training - $40/person. No apologies for the cost or the duration (they did provide a hot dog & hamburger lunch). It was good training - but pretty much "death by powerpoint." There was no requirement for me to take this training (for my daughter who attended with me, the goal was to be able to drive a boat or PWC since she was born after 1/1/1988) but I heard no one grumbling about the requirement, or that they needed to attend this course. I wonder why we have such problems getting Scouters to attend training, when we provide it for free.

Looking for the List of Commissioner Assignments? You can sort the page by any field shown, and you can download this list as a spreadsheet. If you see any changes or corrections, please, let me know.

Looking for the District and Council Calendar of Events?

<Start Soapbox>

In the video that I linked to a couple of weeks back (Tico Perez at the National Annual Meeting), Tico talks about what we really need to do as Commissioners.

It may be that when you have a great unit, you only need to "see them" (face-2-face) once a month. But maybe, your unit needs "more time" each month -- heck, I have a Pack that takes almost daily care and feeding! (I may never forgive you, Randy.)

We have a standard to meet that is provided by JTE ... in 2011, that was 6 unit contacts for the year for each of our units. In 2012, that moves up to 6 unit "visits" (face-2-face, unit meetings, unit activities, leader meetings) ... that may take a month and a half ... it may take six months ... but 6 ought to be the "minimum" ... for any of us.

I have actually said (multiple times) that it should be at least 10 contacts ... one per month (and time off for summer months). But we should never limit our job to simple numbers ... we need to understand what our units "need" -- and provide them THAT level of service.

And be honest when you make that determination. Honest with yourself, and honest with the unit. And if you think you can't provide them what they need, let me know. Maybe we can team you up with another Commissioner to give your unit what they need in order to be successful.

Remember, we work for those young men, the Scouts. Our job is to make sure they have a great program, a great Scouting experience, that they are indeed, "Prepared. For Life."

<Climbing down off Soapbox>

September. October. November.

Three months - that's all that remains!

By the time your units turn in their re-charter packets (November Roundtable), every direct contact leader must be TRAINED to continue in that position.

So, review that "Not Trained" list you received from Randy, and ensure your units' direct contact leaders are trained, or will be attending training -- hopefully at the District Training Day, Saturday, October 8th.

Training courses for the day will be:
9:00 - Noon: Chartered Organization Representatives (Instructor: Ron Blaisdell)
9:30 - 4:30: Scoutmaster and Assistant Position Specific Training (Instructors: District Team)
9:30 - 1:30: Cub Scout Leader Training (Break-outs to be determined by registrations)
9:30 - 2:30: Venturing Leader Specific Training (Instructor: John Lapotaire)
9:30 - 2:30: Explorer Leader Training (Out-of-District Instructors)
1:00 - 7:00: Varsity Leaders Position Specific Training (Instructor: Ron Blaisdell)
(As many of you may already know, the training for Varsity, Venturing, and Exploring Committee Members is the same as the training or the unit leaders.)

So please, encourage your untrained unit leaders to attend! (Heck, encourage some of the trained ones to attend - a refresher is always good!) Training will be held at Holy Cross Lutheran Church, N. Sun Dr, Lake Mary, FL.(map)

"The servant-leader is servant first ... It begins with the natural feeling that one wants to serve, to serve first. Then conscious choice brings one to aspire to lead. That person is sharply different from one who is leader first, perhaps because of the need to assuage an unusual power drive or to acquire material possessions…The leader-first and the servant-first are two extreme types. Between them there are shadings and blends that are part of the infinite variety of human nature." - Robert K. Greenleaf

(This series of "notes" first appeared in the YahooGroup "VenturingList" and are written by Michael Brown. I thought that they were worth sharing with the Commissioner Corps.)

As leaders, knowing ourselves is an important aspect of leadership that is too often overlooked. Do you have a good understand of what `type' of person you are? Are you an extrovert or an introvert? Do you like working with people or with things? Are you more a thinker or a doer? Have you put any thought into the fact that the people you often like to work with or be around have similar traits to you, and that the people you don't like to work with have different traits? This is usually all lumped into the broad concept of "personality types" or "interaction styles", of which here are many models. While many people may get the chance to take a personality/interaction test at work or maybe school, not everyone gets the chance.

I should say that I am not a psychologist, and I have no training in this field. I have been exposed to some of these concepts, and have spent some time doing further research for this Note, and so I encourage those who have an interest to seek out some of the resources I mention and take this further if they want to learn more.

For me, my first real exposure to this was at work when I completed the "L-E-A-D Personality Inventory", which was developed by Dr. Walter Lacey. It focuses on 4 types: Leader, Expresser, Analyst, and Dependable, and the inventory then ranks these four. (if you are interested in this inventory, it's available from the Church Growth Institute www.churchgrowth.org) In this area of personality/interaction tests, the main 3 tests seem to be Myers-Briggs, DISC, and Social Styles. In addition, I felt that StrenghtsFinder should also be touched on as many may have also heard of it. Let's take a look at each one.

"Correcting bad habits cannot be done by forbidding or punishment." - Baden-Powell

CONTACT INFO:
Ron Blaisdell
1060 Meadow Lake Way #103
Winter Springs FL 32708
321-593-4704
ron@blaisdell.com

CONNECT:
Connect on Facebook
Read my Blog
My Scouting Video Channel
Follow me on Twitter
Archive of Past Issues
Commissioners' Meeting Materials
Commissioner Resources (links from all the past newsletter issues)
Commissioners' Toolkit (4Gb of great Commissioner Information and handy tools)
Seminole Springs District web site
Seminole Springs District on Facebook