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jkhny - Actually, I believe your Scout Executive was PROMOTED to Scout Executive in Jacksonville, FL. For all of our sakes, I hope you find the next Scout Executive more to your liking. I'm not sure we can take another four years of this kind of hatred. >At least it seems like our incompetent SE is finally getting the boot at the >end of his contract. Despite packing the board, he couldn't make up for massive drops in contributions, asset declines, and membership dues that show a drop of 30% participation in Scouting despite intense efforts to manipulate year end totals. We n

You should be ashamed of yourself. The new Scout Executive is a very fine man. You don't know him or his record. What you describe (if true) could easily be an administrative error. This new man in Birmingham is a truly dedicated Scouter. A Scout is . . . Trustworthy Loyal Helpful Friendly Courteous Kind Obeidient Cheerful Thrifty Brave Clean Reverent

scoutldr Could you please post which councils you are comparing? I would like to view the 990s and see things for my own eyes. Rarely does a Girl Scout Council covering the same geographic area as a Boy Scout Council have anywhere near the same budget. But I'm sure there are exceptions. Also, when comparing salaries, be aware that a Girl Scout Council can hire any person off the street to be their Executive Director.A Scout Executive must usually have at least ten years of progressive non-profit managment experience.

Quality Unit can be earned at anytime during the year. For example a Unit that recharters in December 2005 is given the 2006 Quality Unit form. It is possible that the Unit qualifies the date that they recharter their unit. However, the vast majority of units are not in that situation. Let's say that you have had a sudden influx of new leaders during the fall that haven't been trained or you have just lost your ACM. Well that doesn't mean you are penalized and cannot earn the Quality Unit Award for 2006. It just means that you will not earn the award until you have enough trained lea

To be honest, I'm not suggesting any specific action. What I am suggesting, is that it is time for us to stop competing against each other! In many cities we are knocking on the same corporate door 2 or 3 times for money. We confuse families with our arbitrary boundries, which no longer make sense in todays world. If you are in Boston at a bar in a hotel and strike up a conversation with a guy from Naperville, IL and ask him where he is from, what is his answer? Chicago! Many people who work in Downtown Chicago live in places like Deerfield, Naperville, Barrington, etc. So if they

Consider yourself left alone. BTW - LFL will get you nowhere. It is a gate opener, not a desitination. I agree with you 100%. I would never use the suburbs to fund widespread LFL.

Bottom line, cookie cutter professionals? A snappy retort, but not altogether useful. Profit margins? I believe we are a non-profit organization. If the bottom line means serving as many youth as we can will a high quality program, implemented by large numbers of dedicated and trained volunteers, while recognizing the fiscal realities of the world, then count me in. As far as ideology, I believe we share one ideology across this great organization. That is the Scout Oath and Law. I would love to hear hear how dramatically different the Scouters in Naperville, Barrington Heig

Let's hope not. I would say we have about 100-150 too many councils now. Why on earth does Chicagoland need 7 councils? Why does LA need more than 10? They don't. One media market, one council, period. That should be the rule. We can have stores and satillite offices all we want. We don't need 7 Scout Executives within 45 minutes of each other.

The most important part of recruiting Unit Commissioners is to have a long and deep prospect list. This is a simple statement, but can be challeging for many District Commissioners. It need not be. 1) Set up a time with your District Executive to review the rosters for the past several years for every Pack, Troop and Crew in your District. Take note of the Committee Chairs, Den Leaders and Cubmasters that appear for several years in a row, then suddenly disappear. Most often these are Scouters who served while their boy was in the program and then left. If they held one of those posi

AvidSM: I certainly understand your prospective. DE rentention can be a huge factor. But let's just break this down a minute and understand the problem. Today is a beautiful June Tuesday evening. As I respond to this message, I have just completed 30 hours of work for the week. During that time I have been challeged and exhilerated. I love my job. I have been to day camp, I have raised money, I have worked on membership and prepared for upcoming summer camps. I will have three very long days yet to work. But, I am not tired of my job. I love it. I draw energy from what I do. My

dbraxtonw: Thank you. I think you are correct. I too do not enjoy sniping at others. Unfortunately, a spirited debate will often bring it out of me. You echo my point much more concisely. Essentially what I belive is this: 1) Professionals are neither inheritly good or bad. 2)Volunteers are neither inheritly good or bad. 3)Good professionals working with lackluster volunteers leads to mediocrity and frustration for everyone. 4) Good volunteers working with lackluster professionals leads to mediocrity and frustration for everyone. 5)Excellent volunteers w

Longhaul - I truly feel for you and your council. Unfortunately in the Chicago Area Council, I believe you have been dealt a raw deal. I'm not sure if there is any group of volunteers and professionals that could truly make a go of the Chicago Area Council. Over the years, the council has slowly lost the power base of the city to the many suburbs that surround. Those councils have flourished while the intercity council has been left to deal with the variety of social issues and hostile environments that the city of Chicago poses to the Boy Scouts. I wish I had a good answer, unfortua

Baden - I belive I was not the one to go on the attack. That was you. I am simply trying to communicate how volunteers and professionals can work together to serve you. Your reponse is essentially, "They are all crooks with the wrong priorities". I find that childish. I want to work hard with volunteers to serve youth. Baden, I think your prospective on Professional Scouting is outdated and less than intellectual. This may be a contributing factor to your failure to succeed in the professional ranks. I'm sure you are much more happy in the IRS. I can not possibly speak to

Never been through professional training? Me? I've been through it all. I have NEVER heard ANY professional say that you need to learn to minipulate volunteers. I am sorry Baden that you had such a poor professional experience, but I have worked in multiple councils with many, many professionals. We never view our volunteers that way. Sure, sometimes there are volunteers that are just completely a pain to work with. But there are those professionals too. But I absolutely rebuke your statements about how professionals are trained. That is not how they are trained today, and if

Baden - With all due respect to you, you are wrong. Professionals are always deeply concerned about program. In fact, this year one region's director has challeged the Executives to concentrate on the "big three": Advancement, Training and Camping. In turn these will lead to more members and better funding. Now I ask you? If the professionals are worried about membership (not numbers) and money and the volunteers aren't then who is undoing the partnership. I find that professionals are usually quite interested in program. The fact is they can't spend much of their time