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Any National guidelines for mergers?


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Anyone have inforamtion about guidelines or criteria for merging Councils? We have a an individual or two who would like to see us merge with a neighboring Council. My conversations with the National Commissioner indicates that National has no opinion since our finances are very solid. This seems to be a push by the Deputy Regional Director. My Council is bordered by 2 Councils and I feel if we investigate merging, we would best serve the youth by looking at both Councils, not just the one that the Region professional is encouraging.

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There is little or no interest from people in my Council. The larger, neighboring Council has always eyed us a cash cow to be merger and property sold to build there endowment. They have a sympathetic ear with the Regional Director, who previously served at a Council where he sold off their camp.

 

I'm just snooping around looking for information to make sure that uninformed Board members don't think that they must follow along.

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Years ago we were told the council next to us had the money but we had the boys. A marriage made in heaven.

 

Not so fast. Now we're the side with the boys and support the entire council.

 

Worked out well for them.....

 

 

If there is no readily apparent need for your group to merge, rebuff them at every opportunity.

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eisely, I looked at the 46 page document that your merger committee put together. I'm not entirely opposed to merging, I think we need to look at all the options not just the one desired by the Regional Director. Every time this talk comes up, I tell all the volunteers to "do our job" and it won't matter.

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If merging was in the best interest of the youth in my community I would have no problem supporting it. This one however dates back a few years ago when the Region started to push us to sell the camp. This property is jointly owned by the 2 Councils that would merge. My Council has invested millions of dollars in buildings, roads, utilities, etc while the other has contributed nothing. Any sale of the land requires the monies to be split 50-50. This push to merge is driven by the bean counters and financial guys, not the program guys. It makes no sense whatsoever to merge.

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Since I know what councils and camp(s) Tokala is speaking of, I also recall the stories of another large camp in our state that was pushed to be used a certain way and wasn't, again by bean counters and not program people.

 

This is what happens when the wrong people have the power in an organization.

 

 

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Our nominating committee met today (I am part of that group) and I spent some time with my SE discussing this. Seems to be a lot of pressure from the Region to do this. The Region was not happy that I contacted another option and disrupted their "plan". I like a good clean fight, but I'm ready for a dirty one this time :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

I don't think the Area and Region folks know that I have connections at the National level that deal with these matters specifically. I can try to apply pressure from both sides and put the squeeze on the Area/Region guys :)

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  • 2 months later...

We had our annual Council business meeting last night and I noticed that the deputy region director was listed as a guest. He was there to notify us that they are already planning on giving us a conditional or transitional charter for 2013. We haven't even closed out 2012 yet and they're threatening us simply so they can merge my Council to suit their needs. Unless the Region Director changes, we'll be merged in a few years. I just hope to be able to manage it so it's the best option for the kids in my Council.

 

The deputy region director slipped in his comments and showed his true colors when he stated "we have to get past the volunteers to make this work". It's the volunteers that make Scouting work. Merging Councils to sell camps and hire more professionals doesn't grow the "business".

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Merging Councils? Selling camps? Defining our purpose? Building endowments? Hiring certain Scout Pros? Leaving a 'legacy'? Making one's mark as a Scout Exec?

I keep remembering "Owasippee".....

 

http://www.scouter.com/forums/viewThread.asp?threadID=87008#id_204768

 

and it is not always about Scouts and efficiency. Follow the money... Try to get the newspapers interested in a non-profit, for the kids organization becoming MORE interested in the money.

Is the Council treasury and financial statement transparent? Corporate reports to the state up to date (public record!)

 

If you have the time, might make interesting reading.

 

Good Scouting to you!

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