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2. Session 529 Unit Service Plan
Thank you for coming
This is session 529: Unit Service Plan, so hopefully everyone is in the right place
My name is Mike Grueter, I’m the District Commissioner for the Aquila District, as well as Committee Chair for Troop 282 in West Seattle
Mike Grueter, Aquila District Commissioner

3. Presentation Overview
What is a service plan
Why do service plans
Who does them
When do we do them
How do we do them
Today I’d like to cover these points, answer as many questions as I can, and get into the online tools a little bit to give us a head start on our service plans

4. What Is A Service Plan? A tool to help strengthen a unit
A customizable annual plan
One or more actionable items
A way for the unit to benefit their youth
A way for Commissioners to help our units
How many of us have not yet used a service plan?
How many of us have used a service plan in the past as UCs or unit members?
How many of us are currently working on a service plan with our units?
The service plan follows the Journey to Excellence metrics
These metrics have been included by the BSA because they are the things that, if done well, provide a great program to our Scouts
This should not be busy work, instead it should be a way to find the quickest path to a better Scouting experience

5. Why Do A Service Plan? Help your Unit(s) be better
Identifying goals, needs, and strengths
Create actionable items
Identify people to complete the actions
Decide when the actions should be complete
Help us do our jobs as Commissioners
Help bring District resources to Units
Ultimately provide the best Scouting experience to our Scouts
Using the Service Plan will help focus us and our Units on becoming better
We as Commissioners will understand our Units better
Also, starting in 2018, the District JTE metric associated with Commissioner visits will only be counted if detailed assessments are completed
The District Committee will have a better understanding of the Units
Commissioners and Committees can better provide assistance to Units
In some cases, Units can provide assistance to the rest of the District

6. Who Creates A Service Plan?
Unit Key 3s
Chartered Organization Representative
Committee Chair
Cubmaster/Scoutmaster/Crew Advisor
Unit Commissioners
Other District Committee Members?
This is a collaborative effort
We are really just facilitators
We just want to help Units focus and prioritize what they want to do
In the cases where Units do not have assigned Commissioners, or Commissioners are not able to easily build relationships with Units, District Committee Members can be brought in to help

7. When To Create A Service Plan
At a meeting(s) with Unit Key 3s
After visiting the Unit several times so they know who you are and why you’re there
After building a relationship of mutual respect and trust
After using your knowledge of the Unit to pre-fill-in as much of the form as possible
You can’t introduce yourself to a Unit and start working on a detailed assessment or service plan right away
District Committee members who have relationships with the Unit can help break the ice
Save yourself and the Key 3 members time by reading through your past assessments, and filling out the form to the best of your ability prior to the meeting
Get a copy of the Unit’s Journey to Excellence form and hopefully the worksheet that shows how each metric’s score was calculated
Remember that this is a customizable, flexible plan that will be periodically reviewed and updated to provide continuing improvement

8. When To Create A Service Plan
Maybe the best time to start working on a service plan is after the Unit’s JTE form has been turned in
How many of you assist your Units in filling out their JTE forms?
This gives you the best idea where your Unit is at now and where they can improve the most
Along with your regular Unit visits, be sure to keep in touch about the points in your Unit’s service plan
Find out how things are progressing toward the target dates and adjust as necessary
Some items in a service plan may not need any involvement from the District, but always look for things the District can offer to help or add value
Document progress with further simple assessments
Build on the progress with another detailed assessment in the May/June timeframe, or in the fall leading up to the next JTE report (JTE standards are updated every August)
Another time to assess a Unit is when there is a change in the Key 3
Change happens, so stay flexible

9. How To Create A Service Plan
Ask questions to get the Key 3 talking about each section
Try to get ideas flowing
Listen and take notes
Identify goals together
How does each potential goal benefit youth
Help to prioritize the goals
We’ll get to the mechanics of the online form after this slide
Talk through each section of the detailed assessment with the Key 3
Use the standard BSA reflection tool to evaluate each section:
What should we start doing in this area to benefit our Unit?
What should we stop doing or change to benefit our Unit?
What things work well that we should continue doing?
Focus on JTE metrics that are not gold to find areas where improvements can be made
Focus on gold metrics to identify areas where that Unit can help others via Roundtable or by building the District Committee
Once goals are defined, then find out what is the most important or efficient thing to do first
What is low hanging fruit? What gets the most bang for the volunteer time buck?
How can we best utilize our limited volunteer time to help our youth the most?
If you have trouble prioritizing, consider that the BSA assigns weights to each JTE metric. It could be useful to think about importance in those terms.
Pick one thing and do it well, then move on to the next thing
What can you do to help?
We as Commissioners may not have all the answers, but we can certainly connect our Units to other District and Council people who can help
If you don’t know who your District and Council resources are, contact your District Commissioner and/or District Executive

10. How to Access the Tools Use https://my.scouting.org/
You can scan the QR code on the screen to jump right to that link on your phone or tablet.
We use the same User ID and Password for taking online training like Youth Protection.

11. Find Commissioner Tools
Click the Menu button

12. Find Commissioner Tools
Click on “Commissioner Tools” in the tools menu
You may need to expand the District category in the menu
Raise your hand if you do not see the “Commissioner Tools” option
Your BSA Member ID may not be associated with your scouting.org account
You may have more than one account
You may have more than one BSA Member ID
You may not be registered as a Unit Commissioner
Please check with your District Executive if you do not have access to the Commissioner Tools.
After you access the Commissioner Tools, it will also be listed in the “My Recent Tools” category for quick access.

13. Select Your Sub-District
Click on the sub-district that contains your Unit
The Aquila District pictured here has two sub-district categories
The “Aquila Seattle LDS” sub-district contains Units chartered through the LDS church
“Aquila General” lists Units chartered by other organizations

14. Select Your Unit
Click on your Unit in the “Organization Navigator” list
If you do not see your Unit in the list, either type the number of your Unit in the “Search” field and click the magnifying glass button, or scroll though the list of Units until you see it.
You may need to click the “Load More” link at the end of the unit list to view more Units.

15. Create An Assessment Click the “+ New Contact” button
This screen shows Pack 284 being selected.
You can see some useful information here including:
Who made the last contact and when it was made
The Commissioner(s) assigned to the Unit
Past contacts, which you can review
Archived visits from the old UVTS
Note the scoring in the color coded bubbles
The bump indicates that the score was manually entered by the reporting commissioner, overriding any automatic calculations
Once a Detailed Assessment is completed, you will see color coding for the four Health Indicators (Finance, Membership, Program, and Leadership), and other features will become available.

16. Set Basic Info Enter values in the three pop-up menus
Your name will auto-populate
The contact type defaults to “Unit Meeting”, but there are other choices that may be more appropriate, or you can create your own
If you are entering a contact for another Commissioner, click the “Yes” button, but typically, you won’t need to change this
Unit health defaults to “Unit health unchanged”, but you have the option of choosing improved or declined as well
Note that the date field will only allow dates up to 2 months old, so get your assessments entered sooner rather than later
You can enter a date in the future to schedule a contact or plan for a Detailed Assessment, and this gives you the option to contact your Unit Key 3 as well as send them a Unit Assessment form

17. Detailed Assessments
Click the “Detailed Assessment” option

18. This is the first page of Detailed Assessment.
We can print blank a Unit Commissioner Assessment form (to be filled out by the commissioner about the unit) or a Unit Assessment form (to be filled out by the unit).
The 7 sections of the detailed assessment are listed as well as the progress for completion.
You click a specific section to enter the details.

19. The service plan section is very useful for describing:
actionable items
who is in charge of completing the actions
when the actions should be complete
when they actually are complete
You can create service plans for each of the four primary Detailed Assessment sections:
Planning & Budget
Membership
Program
Volunteer Leadership

20. Goals
Schedule a contact with your Unit’s Key 3 to start working on a Detailed Assessment now!
JTE Bronze = 10% of units record at least 6 assessments
JTE Silver = 20% of units record at least 6 assessments
JTE Gold = 45% of units record at least 6 assessments
In 2018, this JTE metric will include the requirement of at least 1 detailed assessment per Unit for it to count

21. We Can Help Bruce Anderson Chief Seattle Council Commissioner
Mike Grueter
Aquila District Commissioner

22. Further Information
Commissioner Tool Member Care Contact Center:
Commissioner Tools Webpage: Commissioners/tools.aspx
The webpage noted on this slide has some useful information and instructional videos that show a bit more about the online tools

23. Further Information
Unit Commissioner Program Notebook:
This PDF has 50 pages of great information for Commissioners. Well worth a look.

24. Further Information
Unit Performance Guide:
This guide is designed to build sustainable new units and to strengthen existing units

25. Questions?
Q & A
Thanks for attending!

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