September 2011
September 2011: Are you going to Roundtables this month?
Don Miles
Asst. Council Commissioner for Roundtables
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If you’ve been an adult volunteer in Scouting for more than five minutes, someone has urged you to “go to Roundtable this month”. Maybe you do and maybe you don’t. To perhaps help you focus better on this important component in Delivering the Promise of Scouting to our youth, please take a few minutes to check out . . .
The Top 3 Excuses for Not Attending Roundtable
3. “I went there awhile back but it was boring and I didn’t know anybody.”
Roundtable is where we volunteers meet monthly to catch up on Scouting news, share ideas, and network with other folks struggling just like us to provide a quality Scouting experience for our youth. Programs and leadership at all of our Roundtables change regularly and what you saw last time you went won’t be the same if you show up this month. We have enthusiastic new leaders at most of our Roundtables who just want the opportunity to share their ideas with you – and I guarantee they’ll talk to you cordially.
What good reason do you have for not giving your Roundtable another chance? Is your favorite sports team or your work environment exactly the same as it was last year? Didn’t think so.
2. “I took training for my Scouting position and that’s all I need to do my job.”
As a Scout trainer for fifteen years I’m the last person to tell you that leader position training isn’t key to being a successful adult leader. But position training is just the first step, not the end of your training journey. Supplemental training -- like Wood Badge – is something everyone should step up to and Roundtable is supplemental training, customized for you, given every month.
The best “professors” to supplement your position training are your fellow Scouters at your monthly Roundtable: they’re the ones dealing with Scouting’s challenges where the rubber meets the road. Why forsake the ideas and inspiration they can give you every month?
1. “My unit hasn’t participated in Roundtable for years and we’re doing fine on our own.”
Scouting isn’t the sole property of your unit: we’re all part of a Scouting Movement. Each unit has its own innovative programs, helpful ideas, unique leader personalities. We all have something special to contribute and the place where we all pour our “special sauce” into the brew is at Roundtable.
Trying to present Scouting in isolation within one unit is a recipe for stagnation and likely veering-off the correct path from ignorance about the constant changes in Scouting locally and nationally.
We’re all in this together, folks
– fulfill your duty as a responsible Scout leader and join us down at your monthly Roundtable. I promise you’ll go home inspired, with new ideas – and having had a fun time.
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