Throughout Scouting, but especially within the commissioner corps, we have spent the last two years worrying about survival. Many of us, especially those in the Western U.S., still long for our friends that left us when the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints departed. Then, we struggled through the bankruptcy process only to feel like the guy on the bottom of the pile on a goal-line stand when the COVID-19 pandemic hit us and caused a hemorrhage of units, especially Cub Scout packs. What a trying time!

But we have weathered the perfect storm. Now is the best time to consider doing things differently. Sir Winston Churchill is credited with first saying, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” We can’t compare our trials over the last two years to the devastation of World War II, but now, like then, it is time to consider things differently – a time for creativity within our councils and within our units.

We’re entering a new era with fewer Scouts, fewer commissioners, fewer volunteers, fewer professionals, and fewer dollars, but with the same big Scouting heart. And in councils and districts across the organization, that heart is leading to some creative solutions to rebuilding problems. Let’s look at things various councils have done to adjust to new realities:

• Moving all operating committees to a council level to avoid burnout (some councils are even renaming clusters of units as zones rather than districts)
• Exploring joint efforts between councils – such things as joint meetings of council membership and marketing committees to gain synergy from groups within and from nearby
• Joining with nearby councils or with our own Territory Commissioner to offer joint Colleges of Commissioner Science
• Creating triage teams – specially designated small teams of commissioners to work on critical issues of at-risk units
• Deploying commissioners to help with an all-hands-on-deck effort for membership invitations
• Asking former commissioners to join in a call-a-thon to contact every unit – especially those without an assigned unit commissioner
• Encouraging early rechartering to make sure we avoid losses in spirit, energy, and people at the end of the charter year

It is time for creativity – start planting the seeds for these ideas and solutions now so that it will soon be time to harvest. We have weathered the perfect storm, and now let’s find new ways to work together to build morale and grow this great program!