Taughannock District
Baden-Powell Council, BSA
Commissioners

Announcements | Information | Commissioner Corps | Unit Commissioners

Commissioner Announcements

"Welcome" to Taughannock District's new(ish) 
District Commissioner, Clay Converse!

Effective September 1, 2023 (to pick a totally arbitrary date), Clay Converse will be taking over from me as our district's District Commissioner. 

Clay is a 60+ year veteran Scouter, being one of the very few people who have served in all of the Key 3 positions - District Chair, District Executive (both here and overseas in the Transatlantic Council) and District Commissioner. As a youth, he was a Cub Scout, Boy Scout and Explorer, becoming an Eagle Scout with Bronze Palm and earning his BSA Lifeguard certification. Clay has served as Unit Commissioner, District Commissioner (and ADC) and is currently an Assistant Council Commissioner for Membership. As a Commissioner, he has received the Commissioner's Key, Arrowhead Honor, Distinguished Commissioner Award, Award of Excellence in Unit Service. Clay received his District Award of Merit in 2000 and Silver Beaver in 2017, as well as the prestigious (locally, at least) Patriot Patrol, Old Guard, Dethpicable Order of the Black Duck, Founder's Award, "Honorary Mike" Award, and many others. Other awards include the James E. West Award, Founder's Bar, Emergency Preparedness Award, Professional Training Award and Vigil Honor in the Order of the Arrow. He has also been active in the Girl Scouts of the USA. 

I'm sure Clay will be a great DC, and I hope you will all offer him as much help and support as you've given me over the last seventeen years. 

Mike Brown, Taughannock District Commissioner for another week. 

• Unit Commissioner Fast Start Training and Commissioner Tools Training is available through  my.scouting.org - you'll find training under Home, My Dashboard, My Training. Courses are in the "Training Center", listed by program. Commissioner Courses are in the "Other" section. 

• Journey to Excellence Forms will need to be reviewed with unit leaders from time to time during the year.  

• Unit Calendars - "Failure to plan is planning to fail" - does each of your units have a schedule covering, at the least, the next three to four months? If not, they should - better yet, every unit should have an annual calendar in place at the start of the Scout year in August or September covering at least their monthly outing or major activity through the end of the Scout year the following July. For each month, a detail plan for meetings should be in place: 

  • Cub Packs may rely on the National Monthly Theme system for monthly den and pack meetings - all Packs should be following the Cub Program Delivery plan. 

  • Scout Troops should have their Patrol Leaders plan meetings on at least a quarterly basis - semi-annual or annual would be even better. 

  • Venture Crews should have a schedule calling for crew meetings on at least a monthly basis, and for a major activity on a monthly or quarterly schedule. 

Information For Commissioners

• Monthly District Commissioner's Cabinet Meetings are held on Third Tuesdays of each month as a Zoom conference call at 7:30PM - all Commissioners are requested to attend. The link will be sent out each month before the meeting, but it's the same as we use for the Roundtable in case you didn't get it. Anyone interested in being a Commissioner or who would like to attend, send an e-mail to DC@TCScouts.org  (no Commissioner's Cabinet in July or August)

• Each unit commissioner should visit each unit every month! This doesn't necessarily mean that you have to attend a unit meeting every month, but you should at the very least contact the unit leader or Committee Chair or make a point to chat with someone from the unit at Roundtable. Attending a Unit Committee meeting counts as a "visit", as does dropping in on a unit activity. 

• Please log all of your unit contacts on the Commissioner Tools system: To access the Commissioner Tools, sign in to My.Scouting.org and click on "Commissioner Tools" in the pull-down menu on the upper-left corner of the page. You should plan to enter at least one contact with each of your assigned units each month, plus at least one Detailed Assessment for each unit each year. If you're having trouble with the Tools contact Mike Brown or Don Perkins 

• Useful Links for Commissioners:

  • BSA National Commissioners' Page - includes links to Commissioners' newsletter, Fast Start Training, UVTS, publications

  • BSA National Commissioners Manuals and Resources Page 

  • BSA National page for Charter Renewal Resources (including Internet Recharter)

  • BSA National Commissioner's Service Team directory

  • BSA National Roundtable Support page - news and information for Roundtable Commissioners

  • Netcommissioner.com - from the US Scouting Service Project, a weekly column called "Ask Andy" that's well worth bookmarking! Note: "Andy" (Hal Daume) passed away in November 2022, but his 676 past columns remain on the site and are well worth reviewing.  

• Useful Facebook Groups and Pages:

  • Commissioners of the Boy Scouts of America  

  • Commissioner Development BSA 

  • BSA Roundtable Commissioners

  • Scouting Volunteer Tech Support 

  • US Scouting Service Project 

  • Scoutbook

  • BSA Volunteer Training Team

  • Scouting Magazine

  • Scouting Alumni and Friends

  • Baden-Powell Council

The "Commissioner Corps"

Roundtable Commissioners - roundtable@TompkinsCortlandScouts.org
Scout Roundtable Commissioner: Mike Stoll 753-9277 - mikefstoll@gmail.com
Cub Roundtable Commissioner: Cathy Homrighaus 756-2650 chomrigh@twcny.rr.com 

Unit Commissioners