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I've seen discussions here about districts merging, but this one is new for me...

The other night at our Round Table, a Director from council was filling in for the Field Director, who is standing i for the empty DE spot.....

Anyway, he mentioned that since our district is so large that they are actually looking to hire two DE's for the district.

 

Anyone ever experienced it?

Do you think he's really saying without saying it, that they are planning to split the district?

 

Not that ANY of it really matters to me, since I really don't get much support for any of them in running the program, just curious.... and I guess a little hopeful that with a reorganization, I would see some help.

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It's been done in our council (Quapaw Area) for quite awhile, but what they do is have a position called District Director or Senior DE and then a separate DE position. I can't speak to the effectiveness of it since I haven't done anything on the council or district level since they started it

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If the district is too big, why don't they drag their little map out and draw a line on it and make two districts and have, just for example, one DE per district. I can't imagine it being all the difficult, but I haven't worked in a council office for many years. Maybe it is getting more difficult to figure these things out.

 

Stosh

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that was exactly my thought when they announced it!

 

The company I work for has over the last couple years started to have split territory sales managers. In name it sounds like they split the territory with the line like you suggest, but it's really more of a shared territory arrangement.

 

From my perspective it causes more problems. You don't know who to call and more things get dropped between the cracks.....

 

Our district is very small in land area, but is apparently the largest in council in terms of head count. They can't find and hold one DE, so I'm not holding my breath that I'll see how it pans out. I think there have been 4 or 5 DE's plus some long holes with the position vacant since I got back into Scouting with my then Tiger Cub back 3-1/2 years ago.

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I've seen this too for a variety of reasons. Usually one of the DEs is more senior or helping with other council initiatives or ....

 

​I'm 100% okay with it as long as I'd rather evaluate whether the district is the right size based on other criteria. Big enough to hold events. Big enough to get volunteers. Big enough to create opportunities.

 

I tend to favor slightly larger districts anyway as so much is online now that fewer and fewer leaders show up to district level training or coordination.

 

The only thing I've seen hurt by larger districts is OA conclaves. But even then, a larger conclave is sort of nice.

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** Retain a pro that might need to be kept for another future shift in people.

** Train a new DE.

** Get ready for a split/realignment.

** Give an old pro a new position on his way to ANOTHER new position.

** See if a senior E and an assistant can do stuff the Council SE thinks needs to be done (goals?) (experiment?) that a single DE doesn't seem able to do so as to make the SE look good.

** Has any neighboring Districts seen any "adjustments"? Is there a "trend"?

** "Just because I can". Not saying who, but still....

Advice? Just keep on camping and hiking. Let the pros figure things out in their part of the galaxy.

 

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My old district has a Director and three DE's. It was created about three years ago by merging three districts into one. There is zero intent to divide it. The original plan was to have four DE's, but the difficulty in getting anyone to take the jobs has led to the 1+3 structure.

 

One of the three former districts is where I Scouted for over twenty-five years, and we usually had a Director slot and a DE slot, often with vacancies due to the endless churn of paid personnel quitting or, occasionally, being discharged. During council financial crisis, such as when it was discovered that we had two sets of books and were heavily in debt, the DE slot would disappear for a time.

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I don't know how pro pay grades/scales work (maybe E92 or BP can comment) but one reason for large districts with multiple DEs is it creates a justification for Sr. DE and District Director positions. This has the benefit of keeping experienced pros in the district, but also (I'm sure) increases salaries.

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It strikes me that these ideas regarding a senior and junior aren't the case here, since the positions are both vacant. No DE = no senior person..... unless they plan to hire and old guy.

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I currently have 2 DE's, one honestly is just in training. Our DE recently left for another District so his assistant was then named DE, they hired another person as DE as well so now I have 2. Again one is relatively new and was not a scouter and the other one IS brand new and is an Eagle Scout!

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I don't know how pro pay grades/scales work (maybe E92 or BP can comment) but one reason for large districts with multiple DEs is it creates a justification for Sr. DE and District Director positions. This has the benefit of keeping experienced pros in the district' date=' but also (I'm sure) increases salaries.[/quote']

 

Ok therse are the various positions that I'm familiar with.

 

Paraprofessional: Various from place to place. Usually folks assignment a specific duty while either waiting to meet the requirements to become a DE, get training before becoming a DE, or waiting for a position to open. Duties I've seen parapros do are SCOUTREACH and program. It's being proposed that a parapro assist a DE if my district merges with 2 others and we will be geographically too big to only have 1 person cover it.

 

District Exec. Entry level executive. Covers a district and a few council level responsibilities.

 

Senior DE. If memorys serves minimum 3 or 5 years experience and given a few additional council level responsibilties.

 

District Director. A SDE who has a DE or 2 reporting to them. I was told the position is used for those folks who are ready to be a Field Director, but there are no opening yet.

 

Field Director middle manager who has X number of DEs and DDs reporting to them.

 

Director of Field Service larger councils that have 2 or more FDs with have a DFS to for them to report to.

 

Scout Exec: CEO of the council.

 

other positions I've seen/ heard:

 

Exploring Exec DE for Exploring

 

Learning for Life Exec

 

Camping Director

 

Program Director

 

Director of Camping Services.

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((With apologies to Joel Grey))

 

(Didleleededee), two DEs (Didleleededee) two DEs, (~~Didleleededee) und it is only one District...

(~~Didleleededee) they like it , (~~Didleleededee) we pay for it, (~~Didleleededee) til the next time....

 

I count the Boy Scouts, Und I count the Cubs... We go out camping und wash in three tubs....

Our leaders are "Two Deep", that's why two DEs, our DEs are so deep, they're in it up to their knees!

 

(Didleleededee), two DEs (Didleleededee) two DEs, (~~Didleleededee) und it is only one District...

(~~Didleleededee) they like it , (~~Didleleededee) we do it, (~~Didleleededee) we make it work.....

 

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I've seen District Executives, District Directors, Senior DE's. Now I see the term District Co-ordinator. What is that and how does it compare to the other terms as far as responsibility? Confused!

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