Re: Fwd: Local Councils from 50 to 55
(no name) ((no email))
Sun, 31 Jan 1999 03:00:00 -0600
Neil correctly wrote:
>This is interesting. But unless the numbering has changed, the
>largest council size is "56" and the smallest is "51".
The numbering system did change, Neil!
Add one number to each category, and you've got it; there's also
been some minor "membership and unit numbers" changes which change
the "number of people needed" to manage that Council, but it should
be pretty well consistant with what's out there in the field today.
(Thanks, Bill Sills, for fishing the old posting before I could!)
>Interestingly enough, Boston Minuteman Council is a 55, not a 56
>because we only encompass a portion of the metro Boston area.
>This is a sad and painful story going back to the early
>history of the BSA when every town was a council. The other large
>cities you mentioned are, to my best knowledge, class 56 councils.
But under that *stupid* experiment called "Mass Bay Federated"
(those living there and some of the pros can recall it; the BSA
experimented with lumping together four "community Councils" into
one "mega Council" like the New York City Councils have been
working for years) and thinking that "if it worked in Gotham, it'll
work here too!"
Big disappointment. The experiment was halted officially not even
half way into it's intended run, and it put all of those Councils
participating behind slightly over the run. But as Mass Bay
Federated, it was considered at the "high end" (56) even though the
individual Councils were "graded" at smaller scales (55, 54).
>In recent days, there has been a move to upgrade councils to 56.
You'll see a lot of this over this year, as the BSA is entering
it's "crunch time" to consoldate or merge smaller Councils into
larger ones. I really feel for those in western Kentucky, because
I'm afraid that after this year's out, we'll see only two local
Councils (Louisville and Lexington) left; I have a strong feeling
that the Shawnee Trails Council would be split up between
Louisville; Evansville, Indiana; Jackson, Tennessee; and Nashville.
If that happens, and if similar "splits" amoung the smaller local
Councils occur this and next year, we could see "commutes" of more
than three hours to the "local" Council Service Center.
Strong local Council programming is what's going to save many of
those "area Councils" from the "scissors," in my opinion!
Settummanque!
(c) 1999 Mike Walton ("no such thing as strong coffee,...") blkeagle@mninter.net
http://www.mninter.net/~blkeagle Burnsville, MN 55306-7130 (612) 435-3068
privately at kyblkeagle@aol.com or waltonm@server.kaiserslautern.army.mil
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