The beginning of the end?

[Eamonn 61]

Some years back when I became a District Commissioner, I was invited to sit on our Council Executive Board.

Then someone said that District Commissioners weren't supposed to be on the board and I received a letter thanking me for my past services.

Not having to attend another meeting and pay for a very bad dinner, didn't upset me in the least. At that time I was very close to our District Chairman, so both of us being there wasn't that important.

Our District Chair and the SE got into a very nasty and heated argument over finical goals. Sadly our Chairman lost his temper and used some Anglo-Saxon terms to inform the SE what he could do. Soon after that he quit Scouting.

I took his place on the board.

The nominating committee met and nominated me to be the District Chair. The term of office is three years. My three years ended last December. In January the board gave me a gift and once again thanked me for my past services.

I was happy to move on for lots of different reasons. Knowing that my time would soon be up as District Chair. I'd started the Sea Scout Ship and was really happy to be back with the youth members. We had a new DE who to my mind was (is) as useful as pockets in my underwear and has the communication skills of a dead frog.

I seemed as District Chairman to spend a lot of time trying to prevent, shall we say unacceptable things from happening in the District, mainly in the area of membership.

This time last year it became very clear that the Council was in very deep financial trouble.

A lot of finger pointing was done.

The local United Way had just informed us that they were not going to fund any organization that had an endowment fund, so we and 38 other organizations were going to be de-funded over the next 3 years. We had been receiving a little under $90,000 a year. So last year we lost $30,000. The numbers seemed to show that we had lost a lot of money at Summer Camp. We were going to end the year $250,000 in the red.

The board met and cuts were discussed. However the feeling was that we didn't want to cut the level of service and the board agreed that we all as a board had to do more to bring more money in. Not as hard as it sounds because there was a golf outing that brings in $100,000. This money had gone into the endowment fund, but was now being ear-marked to go into the general fund. So that meant that we only needed to come up with $150,000 plus the $30,000 that we knew we were not receiving from the UW.

I know how bad this is going to sound!!

But, I was happy to be out of there and not on the board. I still get a lot of the reports as I sit on the area committee.

As a District Chairman, I had my own way of doing things.

I used the year end membership numbers as a goal, but used the numbers from rechartering as the real numbers. I tracked each units membership and in some ways bullied everyone into ensuring that we met our year end goal.

I met with our Community FOS Chair once a month and we went over the reports. At any given time we knew how the campaign was coming along.

But once my term was over, there was no need for me to do so. One reason was I was busy with the Ship, the other being that no one asked me!!

Here we are seven months later.

I don't have the District Membership numbers, but from what I hearing they are worse than bad.

In fact all the Districts seem to be in sad shape.

While some of the Council ran fund raising events have done a little better than last year, they don't come any where near to making up the shortfall.

Our SE has found a job in another Council (Hey Ed you have a new Director of Field Services.)

I kinda like the SE. I was his ticket counselor for his WB.I hate to admit it but I feel he knows how bad things really are and is jumping ship before everything hits the fan.

Before we can (not me!!) get a search committee together we are supposed to do a feasibility study into a council merger.

On one side of us we have a big Metro Council and on the other we have a very large (in geographic terms) sprawling rural Council, which just replaced their SE because of his lack of fund raising availability.

I hate to seem full of doom and gloom, but things just don't seem to be going well.

Events both District and Council don't seem very well attended. The Training Team is falling apart. Cub Scout Resident Camp has had to be cut back due to lack of Cub Campers.

Units seem to be folding and the only new Unit in the Council within the last year is the Sea Scout Ship.

The Ship, the Sea Scouts and little old me can carry on, no matter what happens.

I'm not sure if a merger is a good or a bad thing. I don't like the idea of being part of the big metro council, their turnover of staff is horrendous. We as volunteers in the Council all seem to know each other and either manage to get along or avoid those we can't get along with!!

We have a very attractive endowment fund.

Our big camp is in a state park, so we don't own the land.

We have the most active Lodge in our Section and we have some really outstanding and knowledgeable volunteers.

It would be a shame to see us lose our identity, but I'm starting to think that this really is the beginning of the end.

I'm sure many of us will still keep the faith and continue to serve the youth in our communities. After all a change of CSP isn't the end of the world.

Eamonn.

 

 

[t158sm 10]

There are both good and bad things that will occur with a council merger. Some people won't like the changes and will simply quit Scouting. The loss of your council and OA lodge identity and "the way things were" will be a major outcome of the merger. I continually wish we could go back to "the way things were."

Our rural county moved districts into another micropolitan county instead of the metro county we were with. End result - I don't have to drive 50 - 60 miles for many district events. Banquets, camporees, etc.are now no more than 20 miles away.

Stick with it in the ship, try not to let the other things get in the way of what your doing for the Scouts themselves. That's what matters.

[BadenP 93]

Your post Eamonn just goes to verify my point that the relationships between council and volunteers are adversarial at best, and that their goals and our goals are usually polar opposites.

 

I know that there are those out there who defend professional scouting to the death, but what is happening in Eamonns council is happening all over the country, including my own council. So I say again, professional scouting is all about money, money, money. In spite of the ever decreasing number of scouting pro's who really do care and really try to make a difference the priorities of National are quite clear. I have been on both sides and it deeply saddens me to see what has taken place in councils and National over the last 20 years. The facts speak for themselves, in spite of the smokescreens a few individuals love to toss out.

 

Yes we can stick to our units and keep helping the youth, which is what we all love to do, but if the infrastucture of the BSA continues to deteriorate and finally collapses what happens to the youth? I think all of us know the answer to that, and it should be a deep concern to every scouting volunteer.(This message has been edited by BadenP)

[Eamonn 61]

I really don't want to bash or beat up on the professionals.

Just like any group there are the good, the bad and the ugly.

Part of the blame has to be taken by the Executive Boards.

While maybe in some areas there are people who serve on Council Executive Boards, who really can make things happen in the Council. Either because they have the means to donate large amounts or they can influence others into doing so.

Our last Council President (His term ended when mine did.) Had hoped that he could somehow talk the companies that are headquartered in the big metro council next door and donating to that Council, into realizing that a good number of their employees and customers do come from the next county. Sadly he didn't have much success.

We don't in our area have the big corporations who can donate large amounts.

Twenty years back the Board we had seemed to made up of a mix of volunteers and local business owners who owned small to mid-sized companies in the area. These guys knew their employees they knew what was happening in the community and while they didn't have the funds to make large donations they were willing to put their hand in their pocket and offer the services of what ever business they were in.

It seems that these people have been replaced by guys who may manage a small part of a large company, but don't have the funds or the authority to do very much. It seems that we have a lot of people who sit on the board because it looks good on a resume. They may make the suggested $1,200 a year donation, but that's about it.

I was a little upset when we discussed selling a Council owned camp site. -I looked around the room at the 35-40 people on the board and seen that only about 6-8 of us had ever visited the site. I don't mean never camped there I mean visited.

At one time we had a very nice Lady who worked for a Hospice company as the Vice- President for membership. She was a super nice person, but never made a membership meeting and the reports that she gave to the Board came from the Field Director. Who before he got promoted was hailed by the Board as being a white knight for starting a 600 member "Venture Crew" (The School District didn't recharter it the following year and our membership was down the drain -But by then he was long gone.) This didn't seem odd to the Board as they don't know any different.

Of course we all know who should be electing the Board members.

Eamonn.

[SR540Beaver 116]

BadenP,

 

I'm not here to blindly support the pros as 95% of my concerns are at the unit level. But what you said seems contradictory to me.

 

"So I say again, professional scouting is all about money, money, money. In spite of the ever decreasing number of scouting pro's who really do care and really try to make a difference the priorities of National are quite clear."

 

"Yes we can stick to our units and keep helping the youth, which is what we all love to do, but if the infrastucture of the BSA continues to deteriorate and finally collapses what happens to the youth?"

 

Isn't that why the pros are concerned about money, money, money? Like they used to say in the space program, "no bucks, no Buck Rogers".

[BadenP 93]

While I agree with your sentiment Eamonn it still begs the question, Who selects the members of the Executive Board, what are their backgrounds in scouting, and what/whose interests do they truly represent?

 

Not the volunteers, I am sure most will agree.

 

Who then should we hold responsible?

 

 

SR

 

Money is important for the program to survive, but this is a question of how that money is put to use. Many times the program takes a back seat to the financial needs of the professional staff. Program must always be the number one priority, build it and they will come and so will the money.(This message has been edited by BadenP)

[emb021 16]

"Who selects the members of the Executive Board, what are their backgrounds in scouting, and what/whose interests do they truly represent? "

 

"Not the volunteers, I am sure most will agree. "

 

"Who then should we hold responsible? "

 

The voting members of a council are the Chartered Organization Reps, not the volunteers.

 

We can thank James West for this system.

 

In every membership organization I am aware of (or am apart of), its the members (or their elected representatives) who have this power. In the BSA, the 'members', who should be the volunteers, are instead the Chartered Orgs.

 

And when it comes to elections, they mearly confirm the candidated put forth by the nominating committees. There are no nomination from the floor, candidated are not voted for individually. Again, not quite the right way to do things.

 

 

But what do you expect? West was an attorney, not a parliamentarian...

 

 

[scoutingagain 20]

"West was an attorney..."

 

Probably a corporate attorney.

 

I said this before, but the BSA does not run as a representative democracy, but more like a corporate entity where the CEO appoints his own board of directors, who then decide on the CEO's salary and perks.

 

SA

[BadenP 93]

emb

 

While the COR's are voting members we all know in reality few if any ever attend to vote on anything. The SE hand selects his own board with people of the same mind set as he, they are always the majority present, and the vote always goes their way. In my experience I was one of 3 CORs present at a board meeting and we were all made to feel very unwelcome, and we were even asked by a board member what we were doing here.

 

Later on I found out why, this was the night the board was to decide whether or not to sell the council camp, guess how the vote went? Yep, we CORs were out voted. So you can quote all the supposed to be's you want, they are rarely the reality. While the BSA may not be a democracy it still has a responsibility and obligation to its membership who financially support them.(This message has been edited by BadenP)(This message has been edited by BadenP)