CHAPTER XXII TURNOVER Turnover in Leadership Its volunteer leaders are the life blood of scouting. Their loss therefore is serious indeed. A troop gets nicely started, boys and parents interested, all working well, when-Bang!-the Scoutmaster has resigned or left. What can be done to remedy it. Such unfairness to the boys cannot justly be condoned. Loss by death or removal, of course, cannot be avoided, but loss by desertion, by "abandoning ship" should be prevented either through selecting better men or through better maintaining their morale. The following facts are significant: 1) Change of leaders usually involves waste. The exception to this is in the replacement of poor personnel. 2) More Care in Selection will forestall much loss. 3) Helpful Training will reduce Turnover. 4) Strong Group Morale will tend to hold scoutleaders. 5) Where troop Committees function and secure leaders from within a parent institution, the group pressure for "sticking" is stronger than if a "hand picked" leader has been imported from outside. 6) The Appeal of the boys may become a potent appeal for holding good men. 7) Multiple Leadership is "accident insurance" for the troop. If the scoutmaster has as associates two or three assistant scoutmasters with him, his own "dropping out" finds someone prepared to take his place. 8) Veteran Scouts as leaders are being used more and more as the movement grows older. Leaders who have "come up" as scouts and now are taking their places as Scoutmasters. Such leaders tend to permanency. WHAT ARE THE FACTS OF SCOUTMASTER LOSS? WHAT ARE THE CAUSES? On the following page the study of dropped, active and total scoutmasters registered for the year ending December 31st, 1919, shows losses entirely too high. The significant thing for the individual Scout Executive to do is to count the "chairs made vacant." He started out with so many scoutmasters-how many of them did he hold to the end of the year. Losing a dozen and getting a dozen new ones do not cancel each other. Why did these men drop out? A careful inquiry and recording of these facts will soon reveal dominant causes which can be avoided in the replacements which the Troop Committee shall be helped to make. Turnover in Troops The Local Council which loses 10 troops in a year but which added 10 new ones has apparently "held its own" statistically. But it has not held its own-it has lost its character building contact with two or three hundred boys. The 10 new troops probably represented merely a normal growth. Effective Scouting then involves not only recruiting but holding and serving boys as well. Here again the sound method of correction is to carefully ascertain what the facts are, what the causes were, and on such knowledge to base improvement. It is good administration, however, to count no troop as dead until its failure to reregister has been "followed-up." Many local councils have found that such "follow-up" reduced their loss by one-half. That this is one important task of the Executive, is quite generally conceded. [From Study by C. A. Edson-Director Records, National Headquarters.] The above percentages are computed on the total registration for the year which includes some replacements. 489 639 troops lost in one year from four states represents an actual wastage of troops which is very serious indeed and merits careful effort toward correction. The way in which "follow-up" may operate in such cases is indicated by the following attention given certain over-due troop registrations in territory not under council. TROOPS NOT UNDER COUNCIL IN ARREARS—JAN. FEB. MARCH 1920 Number of Troops which received questionnaires 1,146 393 34 293 74 100 26 |