Re: Direct Service Council was Alaska
(no name) ((no email))
Tue, 20 Feb 1996 22:05:25 -0600
Rhett wrote:
(from my comments):
>> In Ian's case, Rhett, he serves as a BSA leader within an >>international
school-chartered Troop (Troop 401, right?)in >>London AND as a member of a
British unit and serves as our equal >>of a Commissioner. This is an
example of how Americans living >>abroad can be members of both host nation
AND US Scouting >>organizations.
>See, I think you are missing the point here, mike that we are not
>a foreign country, neither is Kentuckey...what would it be like >if your
council office was 500 miles away (as it would be for me >if we were made
one council) or 1000 miles (as it would be for >our outlieng areas..500
miles is enough!).
I'm not missing the point...my point is that it doesn't matter
if the distance is over foreign land (Europe, the Far East, North Africa),
over water (the Pacific), or over American ground (as in my example below).
The fact is that Scouting....American Scouting...still gets carried out by
professionals and volunteers belonging to a local Council; and that kids get
the effect of belonging to a Council and the BSA.
>The TAC comparison is not valid, in my opinion because they are >working in
a foreign country. Personally, I think if we
>compared costs of running TAC or direct service council to the >three
councils in Alaska, you would find much more in >expenditures from direct or
TAC than Alaska...
The COMBINED ESTIMATED (because I'm working here with dated information...my
information is from 1987, the last time I was in
Alaska long enough to gather this information...so I've adjusted
them for ten years of growth (not realistic, but that's all I have) even
though we both know that two of the three Councils
haven't met their SME/FOS goals in two of the last four years) BUDGET OF ALL
THREE COUNCILS is $2,126,200; the BUDGET of the
DIRECT SERVICE COUNCIL is only $822,330 in 1992.
A lot of that budget is for transportation and travel-related
costs. DSC gets away with a lower amount because their five
professionals do double-duty as BSA representatives to the various
WOSM (World Association of Scouting Movements) Districts, which
the Direct Service Council also uses as it's District boundaries.
However, a lot of the DSC's budget is spent on travel and transportation.
On the Alaska side, you have three local Council
buildings and four camps to spend money on...DSC only has a office suite at
the National Office complex for its offices and payments
for maintainance of six camps (owned by those "countries that
don't matter in this discussion").
>...hey mike, maybe I would buy it more if you could compare it to >a
council operating WITHIN the US over such an expanse.....just >the fact that
we are within the US makes a huge difference.
Why? What difference does that make? Okay...
So, you think that I'm comparing "apples" to "oranges". Good.
Take out your Rand McNally, and find Montana and Great Falls,
Montana. Take out also a ruler and please note the scale at
the top of the map (.50 inch = 20 miles) is what I'm using on my
1994 Rand US Atlas.
Find Sidney, Montana, on the far east end of the map and place one
end of the ruler there and measure the distance and convert it
to mileage. That's about 500 miles, give or take a couple hundred
miles for the roadways (500 airmiles or 700 land miles).
Sidney is where the Big Sky District of the Montana Council is
"headquarted" out of, taking up a good almost one-sixth of
the entire size of the Council (state). The professional there
is a paraprofessional, NOT a "commissioned" professional, but a
"professional-technical" person, like Ev Grain in Europe.
Like Ev in the Iberia District in TAC, he is supervised by a
District Director...in this case, he's supervised by a Senior District
Executive in Billings, by my ruler, 150 miles south and
west.
There are fourteen Troops, eleven Packs and three Explorer Posts in the
District, with some of them residing on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation
nearby. In order to get any advancement information, badges, insignia, or
anything else, the District Representative can fax it in to Great Falls,
arrange for FedEx to deliver it by plane (there's a airfield there) and get
it to the unit. The DR also has a lot of the most common insignia and badges
on-hand, and there's a retail store that sells Scouting uniforms
and can order anything out of the ordinary (special sizes, etc.)
through the BSA's Supply Division.
This District is in similar size to that of the Three Rivers District in TAC
(out of Kaiserslatern, and serves youth in the
southwestern corner of Germany and all of the Benelux countries
(Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg) as far as MEMBERSHIP
(that's the ONLY way to properly compare similar Districts, no
matter what the geographic size is). Both Districts have a membership of
3000 or so. The number of units are different, with
the Three Rivers having more units (but smaller ones) than the
Big Sky District does.
Both Districts, by the way, are Quality Districts in 1994.
>> The professional staff of TAC has to carefully work with and
>> around the staffs of the host nation (in Ian's case, England's)
>> Scouting Association. TAC has developed and maintained a great
>> working relationship with MOST of the national Scouting
>> associations (in some countries like Germany, we're talking
>> THREE national associations!) in Europe, the Near East, and
>> North Africa.
>Yes, you definately seem to think that we are similar to a
>foreign country....working with foreign scouting organizations >etc etc.
>Nope, we are just as much a state as Kentuckey....Hey, make a >case for the
whole east coast being one council, now that would >be interesting:)
Rhett, what is the difference? Please tell me what is your difference
between a District on foreign soil and a District on
American soil? What's the difference, for example, between a District in
Alaska and a District over the Pacific Ocean belonging
to the Aloha Council? In BOTH cases, the District's volunteer and
professional leadership has to raise monies, coordinate program
and provide services to the units (and individuals) in that District. In
BOTH cases, they have to work with "local people" to
arrange for sites for camping events, special events and for
mutual cooperation. So, what is the difference as you see it?
Settummanque!
(MAJ) Mike L. Walton (Settummanque, the blackeagle) (
co-Owner, Blackeagle Servics of Kentucky (502.826.7046) __)_
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