If only that was an option
July 11
Forget any November madness, July is the important month for shaping the future.
At the upcoming regularly scheduled July Council Crew meeting is the vote for the next President of the Crew.
Kevin Li has been President for the last three years, ever since it was formed, and is unfortunately aging out this September, leaving behind the first real contest in our crew’s history. Basically, those are some large shoes to be fill.
Three of us have put forth nominations to run for the position, myself included. Neither of my two worthy competitors were unexpected. In fact, I would have been shocked if either of them hadn’t run. If either of the others win, the Crew is in good hands. (Just not as good as mine, but I may be slightly biased.) I had a mental list of others who might have run, and would be suitable candidates, but it’s down to the top three this time.
As part of the process, we have been asked to answer five questions to prepare the Crew to judge our worthiness. Well, if I’m going to have to write something about Scouting, you can rest assured I will be wise in the use of my resources and post it here. So below is the first part of my response.
1. How will your background contribute to your success as our PCC Rover Crew President?
The crews goals can change from year to year, but the primary goal of the president never changes. The job of the president is to develop the Rovers in the crew and create the right environment for them to grow. They have to nurture their crew from fledgling Venturers and new members into fully formed replacements for themselves as president. The president has to accelerate their growth, maturity, understanding and responsibility as fast as they can. In essence, the President shows the Rover where they are, shows in great detail where they can get to, explains just enough on how to get there, and then…. never stops pushing. Amazingly their goal matches perfectly that of Scouting.
Scouting is a youth development movement. It’s primary goal is to make fully capable and engaged citizens out of it’s members. A successful event or raising money is not. (ya ya I’ve heard the talk) Those are secondary goals, that yes should be strove for, but not at the expense of the primary. If the youth (or adult for that matter) members learned from the experience, can come back stronger than before and with a positive attitude, we have reached our primary goal for that experience.
Now that’s not to say the Crew President only has one job to accomplish. There’s a whole laundry list of other goals. Growing the membership of the crew, assuring that the crews efforts are serving the council at large, all the stakeholders are kept happy and informed, finding exciting and useful opportunities to develop the crew with, and that the Crew keeps functioning efficiently are among that list.
Ahhh Nick, hold up. I haven’t heard a single word about your background yet. Aren’t you suppose to be talking about that?
Why yes, but I’m suppose to be talking about my background that will support success. I’m merely defining success first.
So on to me. Almost every major experience in my life has lead me to become the best possible candidate for the primary job of the President. From being involved in my high school’s sound crew, Scouting from an early age, Soccer, the Council Rover Crew, and my current employment, have all played to my strength to teach other what I know while watching over them. In high school’s sound crew, I quickly developed the skills necessary to run all the equipment, and turned to improving my team’s. By giving them specific problems suitable for the individual to solve, the team ran efficiently and improved with each event. For those that know me, doesn’t that look familiar to my current job?
My current job is a lead banquet server for a rather large hotel. When every detail counts, we have to be able to train our staff quickly to recognize everything. My job is to train the staff, answer all their questions, set the good example, assign tasks to who I see best fit the job, and watch over them, giving them pointers when they go astray. The job requires me to always push to find new ways to get my staff to get the job done. I demand quality work from them, and in return they expect that I will always be there to help them. It took time to gain the level of trust I have from them, but they have learned that if they follow my lead and instructions, everything will turn out well. The constant time pressures of the job (there’s pretty much deadlines every 10 minutes) has accelerated my abilities to plan out details, communicate with fellow staff, teach staff new concepts as they arise, and look out for future issues.
The other half of the primary role is to create the right environment to grow. This comes by taking away the fear of failure, allowing experimentation, removing all obstacles that block them from doing their job, providing them with quality training and resources, and giving positive feedback on how they are doing. My long history in Scouting has allowed me to gain the needed skills and connections to fulfill this part of the role. Now, the crew does not exist in a vacuum. One of the strengths of Scouting is it’s network of members. By tapping into this vast network of members and resources, the crew can more effectively reach it’s goals. My strong relationship with many of the leaders and youth in our council and province would put me in the unique position to find the quality training, resources, and removal of obstacles that the crew needs.
If you believe, as I do, that the crew’s main function and therefore the President’s is to develop our crew’s members through guided life experience, then my life has prepared me to be the best one to prepare our crew.
Now it’s your turn. How has your background, Scouting or non-Scouting, made you successful? What strengths of yours come out time and time again in your different ‘hats’ (roles or jobs)?