de4bsa

The reason pros ask unit leaders to take on district responsibilities is b/c they are probably doing a good job within the unit, already have knowledge about the program, probably have an idea what the new job entails, and already have a relationship with the pro. It's not fair to the volunteer or necessarily the way it should be done, but it's much more convenient. What we (pros) probably should be doing is asking unit leaders to help us recruit someone else from their unit to take these positions. Of course, I had one CM tell me once that if he had a parent in his pack willing to do a

"I am trying to figure out what your attempting to tell us and why? Is it for eliciting sympathy for the long day?" I thought I was very clear in why I made my post. I noticed some posts on here from volunteers who didn't understand the role of the DE or what they do on a daily basis. What part of that was hard to understand? Oh, and I'm not trying to elicit sympathy for the long day. I hardly know anyone anymore who doesn't work a lot irregardless of their line of work, so I wasn't looking for anything out of that post.

I think, in general, anyone who has ever been a DE would read my post and think, "Been there, done that." I think your "typical" work days in this job vary depending on what time of year it is. In the fall and late spring, 11 and 12 hour work days are the norm. Your days are spent doing boy talks at schools, meetings with perspective C.O.'s about starting new units, talking on the phone to volunteers, etc. Your nights are spent going to school nights and signing kids up in addition to monthly roundtable and District Committee meetings. However, in the summer my schedule slows go down

"So, and I am not trying to be smug here, if you have a good District Committee and a group of District Volunteers that know the program and can get the job done you don't need to pay $70,000+ for a DE & DD. So no FOS as long as you do good Popcorn Sale to run the Council, wait with out DEs and DDs.... AH! an endless circle." You're probably on the right track with this sentiment more than you know. Early in my tenure my Field Director told me if I truly did my job well that if/when I left for another position the scouting program would continue to grow and prosper without a professi

I've noticed a few posts on here from volunteers who seem to have no idea what their DE does or how she/he spends the day. I thought I'd share my work today and hopefully shed a little light on the job for those who know little about it. I am a field DE meaning my home serves as my office. I live an hour away from my Council. This will probably be lengthy, but hopefully informational. 6:30-7:30- Get up. Shower, Eat breakfast (Girl Scout Tag Alongs), Watch TV. 7:30-8:15. Check email. I send a couple of messages and reply to a few messages from volunteers. 8:15-8:45. Get dr

Too much to really respond to since I last read this thread, but I'll address a couple of things. No, designating your UW gift to your favorite charity doesn't mean that charity gets "extra." Again, the only way a UW charity gets extra is if the donor designations exceed the original allocation. Yes, each local UW has a board that basically decides which NFP's will receive UW money and how much that money will be. This is why UW doesn't like donor designations. In essence, it can mess up their decisions on how money is allocated. nldscout, I don't dislike volunteers. Well, I take t

Unit Fundraising Gifts and Tax Exempt Status There seems to be a lot of confusion over what kinds of activities are allowable for a Pack or Troop to use in raising money for unit treasuries, and whether a unit is in itself tax exempt. Quoted from the National office of the Boy Scouts of America: It has been the long-standing position of the IRS and the BSA that units such as packs, troops, teams, posts, and crews are NOT covered by the BSAs group exemption, and that the BSAs tax exempt status under IRC Sec. 501(3) does NOT extend to units. Units are not, in themselves, legal

Beavah, you make a lot of good points. It's just hard to see it that way when fundraising is such a time consuming struggle for me. Last year, I finished roughly $3,000 short of my FOS goal. When I hear that a SM convinced people to give $1,500 to his troop I can't help but get angry. My thought process is, "Do what you're supposed to do and teach the boys to earn the money. If you know of people willing to donate to scouting, send them my way." It's selfish and short-sighted. On some level I know that but on another level I can't help it. Honestly, part of my motivation was to sti

There are a number of reasons why the troop shouldn't have done that w/ the United Way. First and foremost, it's against BSA policy. Actually, I'll stick a pin in that and come back to it. The United Way has to dispense donor designations to the entities that are to receive it. It wouldn't take long for other units to find out that a local troop got a four figure check from the UW b/c a SM was slick enough to convince his co-workers to designate their UW gift that way. What that troop did could conceivably end up being a nightmare for the UW and, more importantly, the other agencies t

"My big dollars will go to the Troop. To the IRS, it's all the same." Myth. Most individual units are not 501©3 entities. Even the ones that are probably don't meet the standards to be one, but some poor schlub who reviews these things saw "Boy Scouts" somewhere on the form and granted it. Just last week in my Council we had this situation come up. A SM in my district convinced his co-workers to designate their United Way pledges to his troop. The allocations to his troop added up to half of what the United Way had designated to go to our Council. The UW director said they legal

"Hawk Mountain a not very large council, serving the area around Reading PA, has not had a dropped unit in a very long time. The Council is fortunate in having an outstanding Council Commissioner,Darnall Daley. They say the reason for their success is in part due to the fact that once a year a meeting like the one outlined as the 45 day meeting is held. All CO heads, the DE,UC and unit leaders are at the meeting. It works for them!! " That is a very impressive feat. Again, I say God bless 'em! That council is definitely the exception and not the rule. I'd wonder if being a sma

I tried the by the book way early in my tenure with a couple of Exec. Officers. They knew nothing about the units except that they used the building and everything was OK "as far as they knew." Both of the EO's seemed confused when I pulled out the recharter packets. After meeting with the first one I left the recharter packet and told him I'd get back with him. I then called the SM and told him of my meeting. He had no idea why I would give the packet to the EO b/c "he wouldn't know what to do with it." The second EO I met with was just as confused by what I was saying about unit he

"I honestly don't know how that effects a unit's tenure, though." After re-reading anarchist's post about how lapsing cost his unit tenure, I guess I now know.

LOL. The directions for the proper steps to take on rechartering printed on the packet are priceless. Another example of the BSA printing something that looks great on paper but isn't really that practical. First, I'm down to 2 functioning UC's. If they were solely responsible for getting these packets out to the units they would have to quit their jobs. As a DE, I either personally deliver the recharter packets to someone from the unit (usually the unit leader) or mail it to them (Yeah, I know it's not SUPPOSED to be done this way, see my above comment about things that look great on

A couple of years ago I asked someone from national if there was ever any thought given to bringing in people with corporate management experience and plugging them into SE positions. His response was that the BSA prefers that employees work their way up the ladder within the organization. However, I'm in agreement with you. I don't see how my current experiences as a DE are in any way paving the way to being a competent SE. I think part of the thinking is if you can successfully manage and encourage volunteers to do the work of scouting, then you can manage employees who have a payc

Nah, I'm not new I've just never really took the time to research it. I'm a little out of my element when I start talking about tax designations. However, this is the company line I've always passed along to businesses who give to local units and local units that are more than willing to accept these donations. You're right about the chartered partner. If these units wanted to "beat the system" they could tell the donor to give to the C.O. (provided it's a 501c3) and have the C.O. earmark the money for the unit. Of course, I'm not going to put that idea in their head. I guess my ques

If someone wants to donate directly to a unit that is their right. However, it is my understanding that you can't write these donations off on your taxes. An individual unit isn't a 501©3 entity. Only the local council or national meets the qualifications to be a 501©3. Again, it's your right to make a contribution to Troop X but just don't count it as a charitable contribution come tax time. It's like trying to write off a $50 gift to your grandson on his birthday. Of course, unless you're audited I guess it doesn't make much difference. This is what I've been told by my SE. Is he wron

IMO, there is no such thing as being "too good" at recruiting. If you are only recruiting out of one school and your C.O. then you're doing nothing wrong. The problem you are describing really isn't all that uncommon. My guess is you have the best pack in the town and it's easy for parents to pull their kids out of a nearby struggling pack and place their children in yours. This presents a problem to your DE because he/she is now losing units and it's creating a numbers problem for him/her. It's not your problem so I wouldn't worry about it. Your job is to provide the best program po

Don't sweat the 70% thing too much. If 70% of your cub pack goes to Cub Day Camp, then you've met that requirement. Even if that's the only "outdoor experience" they have all year you've met the requirement. If 70% of your troop goes on a weekend campout/hike, then you've met the requirement. Even if your DE isn't interpreting it that way to you right now he will be if it comes down to you being a Quality Unit or not. You have to remember a couple of things. It behooves scouting professionals for their units to make QU. If we don't have 60% of our units make QU then we can't be a Qu

If your council/district is serving 25% of TAY in Cubs and 21% of all TAY in Boy Scouts then you need to pat yourself on the back because that's not the norm. Only about 20% of all councils/districts serve that many Cubs. Only about 15% of all councils/districts get 21% of Boy Scout age youth. At the end of 2005 my district was only serving 12.4% of all available Cub age kids, 7.8% of Boy Scout age kids, and 1.3% of Venturing age kids. I can't currently find my 2006 numbers although I'm sure they are slightly worse. Ask your DE if he/she has an Index of Growth chart. You will see ser

I'm an unhappy BSA employee right now. I came across this site by accident the other day and thought it might be a good place to vent my frustrations. So, if I continue to post and seem overtly negative then just ignore me. I'll try not to be too negative b/c I understand that a lot of very enthusiastic volunteers who do a lot for the program come to this site to share good, positive information. I don't want to be the rain that puts out their fire. However, what I said was true. My SE told me a couple of days ago that CSE Roy Williams is stepping down in September (kind of a "forced

Membership is a numbers game. To me, there is nothing wrong with what you did. You legitimately moved Webelos into a scout troop and legitimately started a Crew as an offshoot of the troop. As long as all the signatures were valid I see nothing wrong with what you did. Any district, and I mean any district, that has ever made QD has had to do something like that at the 11th hour to make it at some point. Again, as long as everything was above board I see nothing wrong with what you did. You simply played the game. BTW, I'm sure the membership increase was 2%. Increasing by 5% is consid

There was an increase in membership, but it was due to a big increase in Learning For Life membership. I don't know exactly how to put this, but that wasn't really considered much of a positive by professionals (I'm a DE). There was still a loss in traditional membership (cubs, boys, venturers). This probably isn't going to come out right, but I couldn't care less about LFL. Why? Because my critical achievements (what a professional scouter is judged on) are all written to increase TRADITIONAL membership. At the end of the day, unless you are a LFL Executive, professionals are judged