A WOSM View of BSA's Professional Scouters (Long)

At 07:08 AM 1/24/97 +1030, Sarah Jones wrote:

...
>Our District Commisioners are also no paid postions. In fact, all
>commisioners here in Australia are volunteer postions and no one gets paid
>for these things. Even the Cheif commisioner for each state (the one who is
>in charge so to speak) isnt even paid and even national postions of
>Australia are also voluntry.
...

All Commissioners in the Boy Scouts of America are volunteers. So are
all positions on unit, district, council, area, region and national
committees. Unit leaders are volunteers. The BSA has roughly 3,7 million
youth members, 1.5 million volunteer Scouters and 4000 professional
Scouters at any given time. Those figures are some years old and are from
memory, so they will actually be a bit different here and now.

All professionals are paired with two volunteer Scouters to form a "Key
Three". The two volunteers are a Commissioner and a committee President.
The Commissioner handles the "Operations" side of the house. The President
handles the "Logistics Support" side of the house, and the professional
serves as an advisor and "gofer" for the two volunteers.

The teamwork aspect of the "Key Three" is emphasized to the point that the
BSA has "Key Three" training courses at the Philmont Training Center in
New Mexico, where "Key Three" teams may go to spend an uninterrupted week
getting to know each other, learn their respective jobs, and learn how to
work as a team in the year to come.

Examples:

EXAMPLE 1 EXAMPLE 2
District Commissioner | Council Commissioner
District Chairman | Council President
District Executive | Council Executive

...
>This bit may get me flamed, but I think that not having paid staff could
>actually be a bonus given the way some of the BSA people have spoken about
>the Paid Scouters in the USA. I belive that you get the best out of someone
>if they are there becuase they truely want to be there and are doing it
>voluntry like everyone below them. This gives them in my mind a bit more
>real human face value to them and prevents the us vs them attitude. Again,
>something I have picked up from some of the BSA leaders on the list and the
>way they have talked/spoken about the paid people in their councils.
>

I have walked both sides of the volunteer/professional Scouting trail in
the BSA. Ultimately, I decided that I enjoyed Scouting, the hobby, too much
to subordinate it to or to forsake it for Scouting, the profession. There
are two sayings in common use amongst the BSA Scouting professional corps
of which you should be aware:

"You work the first forty hours per week because you are paid to and you
work the next forty hours of that week because you are a volunteer who
loves and believes in Scouting."

and

"Ashes to ashes
Dust to dust
What the volunteers don't do,
The professional must."

Both are true statements.

>Although, I would like it even better if we were paid to do scouting, like
>most *voluntry* organiziations, I think a person must really belive in it
>to make it a great program that each year kids want to join and stay
>involved in.
>
>

I believe that your concerns are largely answered by the two sayings I have
quoted. In actual fact, a professional Scouter avereages 55-60 hours per week
in the normal run of things, and about 90-100 hours per week whilst he or she
is helping to staff long-term Scouting events.

Here in California, the de facto minimum wage paid to a high school kid who
flips hamburgers at McDonald's is about US$5.50/hour. An entry-level member
of the BSA professional corps earns about US$24,000/year. Hourly employees
in the state of California must be paid time-and-a-half for work over 40
hours per week, double-time for work on Sundays, and triple-time for work
on national holidays.

If one assumes:

1) The low figure of 55 hours per week, excluding weekends
2) An absurdly low figure of 8 hours per day for 2 weekends per month
3) That the BSA professional never works on national holidays
4) That the BSA professional never works longterm Scouting events

(that loud snickering noise you hear in the background is all the BSA
professionals who lurk on SCOUTS-L trying to keep from laughing
uproariously)

At US$5.50/hour, this works out to:

($5.50x40x52) + ($7.75x15x52) + ($11.00x8x2x12) + ($16.50x8x2x12) =

$11,440.00 + $6,045.00 + $2,112.00 + $3,186.00 =

==> $22,783.00/annum

Thus, on an hourly basis, an entry-level member of the BSA professional
corps earns roughly what he would if he worked an equivalent number of
hours per week at an unskilled, entry-level job. The figures are somewhat
worse than are indicated here, because most BSA professionals do spend one
or more weeks per year staffing at BSA summer camps and suchlike.

Additionally, all members of the BSA professional corps must hold a
baccalaureate degree from an accredited university and undergo an intensive
series of professional development seminars, in addition to volunteer
courses such as the Wood Badge, et. al. Volunteer Scouting experience is
preferred, and the proportion of former Scouts and Scouters in the BSA's
corps of professional Scouters is quite high, with a representation by Eagle
Scouts all out of proportion to their numbers in the general population.

The BSA professional initially (I think) accrues 2 weeks of vacation per
annum. He or she may be dismissed at will upon two weeks notice, regardless
of seniority in the professional corps. The medical benefits are substandard
when compared with those of other corporations with revenues in excess of
US$100,000,000 per annum.

(Correct me if I am in error, but I believe 4 to 6 weeks vacation per year
is the norm in Australia. At least, this is what Hadyn "Skip" McComas, a
summer camp International Scouter from New South Wales told me a few years
ago.)

Thus, one can readily see that the men and women who enter into the
professional service of the BSA do so in spite of the lousy hours, working
conditions and pay, compared to those they would enjoy if they were to
begin a career in private industry. Indeed, we lose a great many of them
to private industry when they "burn out" because of the high sustained
operational tempo and occupational stressors attendant to professional
Scouting.

It has been ever thus, and so shall it ever be.

If you wish to obtain an evenhanded evaluation of the role and value of
the BSA's professional corps in fostering Scouting and its fitness to be
part of Scouting as a whole, I suggest that you read, "250 Million Scouts"
by Lazlo Nagy, the former "Chief Executive of the World Organization of the
Scouting Movement."

The ISBN for this book is ISBN 0-85013-153-7, published by Dartnell. I
have the 1985 printing.

Lazlo Nagy says in part:

pages 116-117

"In countries spared by fighting or distant from war zones, Scouting had
continued to develop and in the United States it experienced a great leap
forward. At the end of World War II, more than half the world Scout
population was to be found in that country which developed its own original
methods while remaining faithful to the guidelines laid down by B.P.

It had nothing to do with the two world wars or with their relative
isolation that prompted the Americans to 'naturalize' British Scouting and
transform it into a typically American product. From the outset in 1910,
the Boy Scouts of America followed their own particular path and were the
first in the world to demonstrate that a youth movement born overseas,
rooted in other traditions and subject to other requirements, could still
be transplanted without losing or betraying its original spirit, ideas and
principles. It was no easy task and needed a man of the moment to inspire,
motivate and corrdinate the process of transplantation. That man was James
E. West, a lawyer by profession before becoming Chief Scout Executive for
32 years and honorary Chief Scout of the Boy Scouts of America for five more
years. The great American philosopher Emerson declared that 'an institution
is the lengthened shadow of one man'. The Boy Scouts of America (B.S.A.)
are without any doubt the lengthened shadow of James E. West. The B.S.A.
was celebrating its 75th Anniversary in 1985, and while Scouting across the
Atlantic has certainly evolved considerably during this period, its unique
qualities have undergone little basic change."

pages 118-119

"From the outset, the American Movement was a voluntary one organized at
all levels by unpaid Scouters. There was one important proviso: Volunteers
are often extremely busy men and a special corps of professionals was
established to enable them to carry out their Scouting tasks. The latter are
paid specialists in different sectors. Contrary to the 'permanent' staff in
European Associations who in fact do not stay on permanently since most of
them are seconded teachers or other civil servants, the specialists make
their career as professional Scouts. They are systematically trained to
perform their varied and often delicate duties with great competence and
professional conscience. In the USA, to be a professional Scouter is a
fulltime career like being a dentist, electrician or teacher.

When the B.S.A. delegates reappeared in Europe in 1945 there were already
1500 professionals in the service of American Scouting. Today, there are
more than 4,000. The ideal proportion is said to be one professional for
every one thousand boys, all of whom are members of different units
directed solely by volunteers. Just as it was 78 years ago, the volunteer
spirit is still one of the foundation stones of Scouting.

Worth noting is the fact that the Americans always and still are in
agreement with B.P., who once said jokingly that the Scout age was
anywhere from eight to eighty. Which does not mean that the old should be
kept in responsible positions which bring them into direct contact with
the young. However, in a movement as global as Scouting, there is a place
for all men of goodwill, and for the vast range of qualifications and
experience they offer there is room for people of all backgrounds,
professions, social and material levels. This total integration under the
slogan 'the right man in the right place' spared American Scouting from
splitting into heteroclitic groups of the sentimental 'veteran' variety
which, albeit unintentionally, tend to take the proverbial road to hell
paved with good intentions.

This book is no place to analyse or go into detail about all the aspects of
American Scouting, the modifications introduced into the formulation of the
Law and Oath, or the changes in uniform, system and structure. American
Scouting still sticks to its grass roots, but is more pragmatic, more
practical and more oriented toward competence than European Scouting which
is more intellectual and places greater emphasis on education than training.
The European approach is to do the right things. The American is to do
things right. However, the two approaches are not contradictory and the
interacting influence of these two schools of Scouting thought have been,
and still are, a mutually ennobling and enriching experience. This subject
will be raised later.

One last word on the amazing Scouting Movement in the USA which was only
discovered by others after World War II and is further proof of the constant
search for improvement, if not perfection. Since 1910 the American Movement
has used modern management techniques including the hiring of outside
independent consultants, often at high cost, to identify the weaknesses
and propose remedies."

One should note at this juncture that Lazlo Nagy was hired to do just such
a survey by the Ford Foundation (and at the urging of the BSA) for WOSM, and
was then asked to become the professional Scouter in charge of implementing
the action plan he had formulated.

I trust that this posting sheds some light on the subject of how the BSA
professional staff fits into Scouting in the BSA.

Yours in Scouting,

Rodger
Rodger Morris <rodger@fishnet.net>
Scoutmaster, Troop 852 Wood Badge 416-18
Ventura County Council at Philmont, 1973
Camarillo, California, USA "I used to be a Beaver..."

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