From: Alexandria Lone Scout (scouts_alex@HOTMAIL.COM)
Date: Thu Sep 07 2000 - 03:00:15 CDT
Absolutely correct. Good stuff.
Way back when there was a class of council that did not have paid staff. No
CE. That was wiped out during the 1920s. when councils matured the
volunteers didn't have the time to do it all so they hired the daily work
out. The volunteers were still in the saddle but there were people
designated and hired to see that things got done. Now it seems that the paid
staff really run the place with the help of the odd volunteer. Some are
truly odd too. The paid people are taking their direction not from the
people that are paying them but from the higher ups in Texas. If they please
Irving then they will move along upward and become even less responsible to
the membership and more responsible to the Irving people. It doesn't matter
if they please the people in the units. Implementing national policy,
misguided or not, has become more important than doing what is right for
scouting at the local level.
I've recently been looking at a file that lists most of the former councils
along with merger history. Some names were classy then. Homestead District
(as in area, not organization), Coronado (CA), Red River Valley, Bronx
Valley, Piasa Bird, Grayback, and such monikers. Some lasted many years with
exotic names only to be replaced with generic labels like Desert Pacific,
Inland Northwest, Northern Lights or Greater Cleveland. Sorry people those
sound like labels or power companies.
A much older scouting colleague some years ago had a story he told about his
early scouting memories from the 1930s. He was from a small and now many
times merged council somewhere in upper New York. The CE worked out of his
car. The part-time clerk was the only other paid staff person. The shop and
council office were in the CE's garage. The house came with the job. He got
his check directly from the council treasurer. The volunteers did the
fundraising and did the hiring. He was responsible for program, not finance,
and very much worked for the council president and the executive board.
During the summer the troops went to camp at adjoining councils' camps or,
more commonly, did their own thing locally. It was small and tidy. Probably
a bit improved with age. There was a great deal of support for the CE
because he was well known to the membership. He wasn't trying to implement
unpopular national policy or defend someone's right/left/middle political
agenda. He had a job to do building the movement. He was providing a useful
service at an acceptable price. I think this council was a little too
barebones, even for my spartan tastes, but it represents something that has
been lost.
Phil Abbey
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