Re: BSA Organiztion/National
Cheryl Singhal (csinghal@CAPACCESS.ORG)
Wed, 28 Apr 1999 10:19:43 -0400
On Tue, 27 Apr 1999, Anthony Mako wrote:
> <Steven G. Tyler wrote>
> With all due respect, Mike, all the reasons you've listed are a poor
> excuse for a national organization *not* to have an e-mail address.
>
> Steven, what is the first thing you would do with an email address for
> National BSA? Most likely you would send them an email containing a
> question that is extremely important to you. Now, ask yourself how
> long you are willing to wait for a response. 2 days? 5 days? A week?
> Longer? Finally, ask yourself is there isn't SOMEONE at your local
> council who could answer that question a lot faster. That's what the
Yeah, there probably is. IF that person's name were known to you, and IF
he were at his desk when you called, or IF your message were understood
-- he could probably answer in 15 seconds flat. However, I rarely have
that kind of luck. Even when I know who I'm trying to reach, he's
usually out at a meeting or out in the field; so I leave a message; he
calls me back four or five hours later, when I'm working on something
other than _this_ problem, to ask for clarification.
It ends up, usually, two or three days of phone-tag before I get any kind
of an answer.
SOME questions have flatfooted answers; How old must a child be to join
Cubs, for instance. How old must a boy be to join BSA? Which MBs are
REQUIRED for Eagle? Does the Eagle Project have a minimum number of
labor-hours that must be met?
If National went on the record on-line with those, it would evidently
save many of you considerable heartburn.
Other questions do not and there's no real reason National couldn't have
a canned response SAYING so: "This would depend on circumstances and we
feel your Council is in the best position to determine those." It takes
about 30 seconds to append or copy'n'paste such a canned response.
Cheryl
