With a heavy heart I wish to tell you that I will not longer be serving as Varsity Huddle Commissioner for the District. When I hear from the District about what they plan on doing to replace Huddle, if they do, I will let you know. When I started Varsity Huddle, we were the only District in the Council that had any kind of specific Varsity Huddle Training. Attendance has always been an issue since we started in June of 2010 and preparing for Huddle has always taken a decent amount of time away from my family. As this was a personal Wood Badge ticket, I am a little heart broken but I do still feel like the Varsity Scout program is AWESOME! And you men are AWESOME!!! Thank you for your past attendance and your support of me!
I am still looking for Coaches to teach classes at the Council's University of Scouting. This may become the only place that Varsity Coaches can get true Varsity training.
Reply:
I am sorry to hear that. A question, how much support support did you get from the Stake on this? In my mind, we have at least 30 men (1st counselor in Bishoprics, 1st counselor in YM Presidency, and Varsity Coach) that could attend on a monthly basis and really help develop this program at a Stake and District level. Add to that all the other Varsity Team Coaches from non-LDS Teams that could participate. I am curious, is that type of information available to find out who those leaders are? I have Brian Adams in our Ward, I am going to chew his ear and see if there is a Stake Unit Commissioner that could potentially take this and run with it. You have your own Team, and I will miss you, but in past units it has been the Stake that has really worked to help drive this at the round table level. I will keep you in the loop as I have these discussions because I do not think this is a program that receives much band width and we need it to help develop us as leaders for these boys.
My reply:
You may have just opened a can of worms..........
The Stake has played a very little role in Varsity Scouting. And I think it should be that way to a certain degree. I got their support to start the program and to be honest the only reason I went to them was just to give them a heads up and not to get an OK. The Stake doesn't get to "call" a Varsity Huddle Commissioner (though I am sure in someone's mind they think they can or should). Attendance when we were travelling to "old District far away" was about 17% and now that we are even closer it is even less. Two months ago I had no one show up after spending about 4 hours preparing. There are no non-LDS Teams in our District. I kept a list of most of these leaders up until about 4 months ago when so many changes were happening it was hard to keep an eye on.
The problem becomes, in my eyes, when we try to blend a Stake calling into a BSA position. If people don't feel the love for Scouting and want to do something on their own without a calling, they are not going to serve with all their heart, might, mind and strength!!
I have been to many District leadership events and our District is struggling! If members of our Stake don't step up without the need for someone to ask them to serve via laying on of hands, our District will continue to struggle. I am concerned to be honest. I thought our Stake members were going to step up but they have not.
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