One District size fits most

[SSScout 1615]

Many moon ago, Back in pre history, my Troop was in the X County District of the MegaCouncil. We had a good time.

When I finally became an adult (note I did not say grew up) with a boy to be a Cub, I discovered that in my absence, the X County District had been divided into A,B and C Districts (Omnia Countia est in tres partes divisibus?). My inquiries devulged that the rationale was that the powers that be thought that each District Executive (a paid position? a JOB? hey, maybe I could... nah.)should have about 40 or fifty Scout Units to oversee, and we would probably see a reshuffling of units in the near future due to growth and "overcrowding". X County had about 350 Scout Units of all sorts. Okay.

Sure enough, about three years ago, we were told that, due to overcrowding, our A, B, C districts would become the (they asked us for name suggestions) D, E, F, G, H, and I Districts. A new DE would be named for each. We drew a very personable and capable young man with a wife and two cute kids. So the X county is now six districts.

And so we progressed. Our F District organized and held Day Camps, camporees, Tiger Hunts, IOLS and all the rest.

Come May roundtable of 2008, it is announced that the D,E,F,G,H and I Districts would be combined into one X County District so as to "better serve the Scouts and better utilize the resources available", effective 1 July. In the mean time, keep on providing the high quality program to our Scouts. Us Volunteers felt somewhat blindsided, seeing as no one had said squat to us about this before the May roundtable. UCs are asked for an inventory of our units, and to recruit about 10 more UCs each to help cover the territory. The X County District will now have a District Executive and two Assistant DEs. "Regional" activities" will be the norm, three Regional Roundtables are predicated, if three RTCs can be found.

X County District has about 360 Scout Units of all sorts.

 

Meanwhile, the grapevine reveals that of the original six Districts, only 2 had DEs reliably over the three years. These men will be the new ADEs, the County DE named is a new fellow to us. Two other Districts had DEs, the two positions were filled by four people, who then transferred to other Scout positions or resigned for totally other jobs. The remaining two Districts evidently never had DEs assigned, being "temporarily" overseen by a Regional Executive. Conclusion... The reorganization gains BSA Council a big saving in payroll, and MAYBE the volunteers can take up the slack.

 

I have alot of respect for the dedication of the ADE who usetabe our F District Exec. Somebody has to sign the contracts and keep track of the 360 Units.

 

And what can we learn from this exercise, class?

[Eamonn 61]

Hi SSScout

Did you make it to the regatta this year?

I'm not sure how they go about tings in Maryland?

I served on an Area Committee for a few years, while a Regional Executive would keep an eye on a Council who might be between SE's, I never heard of one looking after a District.

I somehow have a hard time seeing a Regional Executive answering to a SE?

Have you maybe got something a little mixed up?

Eamonn.

[scottteng 11]

From all appearances it seems the BSA expects too much of it's DEs. Why else would the turnover be as much as it is. To us who do scouting for fun it looks like a great job. A DE does spend some of his time doing scouting stuff but his main job is fund raising. It's real similar to a sales job in that he has a quota of FOS money he has to bring in. They are making DEs here do every FOS presentation to every unit. We used to get real bad presentations from volunteers. We also used to get more for just having the presentation than we do now. They have raised the bar so you get no perks until you attain gold card unit actually paid in so with the monthly pledge system it happens late in the year. This district is most of a county and the council office is in the next county appx 45min to an hours drive. Des have meetings at council office and then lots of them in their district. The other thing that DEs are expected to do is increase the number of units. This involves seeking out potential chartering organizations and meeting with them. They are also expected to be at district and council functions on weekends. Thus far we have filled up their days, most of their nights, and some of their weekends. Who's ready to do it now for the salary BSA is willing to pay.

[Bob White 20]

I think many scouters have a huge misconception fo what professional scouters do. The De's biggest job is not fundraising. The De's biggest job and biggest challenge is meetin the goals of the council through the leadership and management of a volunteer workforce over whom theey have absolutely no authority or leverage.

 

As an example FOS. It is not the DE's job to fundraise, it is the De's job to recuit and motivate volunteers to fundraise. The DE's job is to meet the financial goals of the council. The volunteers job is to fundraise. If they don't then it is the DE that feels the heat not the volunteer.

 

It's very hard to be resonsible for very inmportant goals and have to depend on a workforce who you have no authority over. It is the DE who develops a strong volunteer workforce who gets the goals achieved without burning out.

[BadenP 93]

Bob

I think you should leave explaining what a DE's job is to those with firsthand experience in that position. DE's do a lot more fundraising than volunteers realize, not with the units but with the business leaders in the community attending a myriad of Rotary and Kiwana, etc., functions, meeting with the CEO's directly and many other functions. So please don't quote me what you learned secondhand in a training session Mr. White. Those DE's that do not concentrate on money wind up leaving within their first or second year because their FOS results will always fall short, and whether you want to believe it or not the most successful scouting professionals are those who exceed financial goals each year, volunteers can only be expected to do so much as their livelihood does not depend on the results, however the DE's does. This was also told to me by the current Chief Scout Exec. when I worked for him many years ago. You see Bob there is the theory and then there is the reality in running a major financial campaign.

[Bob White 20]

Hi BadenP, While I understand that you say you spent a couple years in the profession, I have worked with professional scouters at all levels, all of whom have been in the profession for far more time than you spent,

for many more years.

 

Even today, I and many, many, other volunteers probably have a much closer relationship to professional scouting today than you. I'm confident that the information I shared is accurate. I did not say that DE's do not raise money, I said that their primary role is to train and encourage others to do so. The fact that a DE's toughest job is meeting the goals of his or her employer through the use of volunteers over whom the DE has no leverage is undeniable.

 

I realize that the chip you seem to carry on your shoulder at times inhibits your view of the BSA. I am have no such impairment and I stand by the accuracy of my post.(This message has been edited by Bob White)(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[Gold Winger 9]

Baden, Bob sleeps at a Holiday Inn Express.

 

I know a fellow, an Eagle Scout who after college decided to become a Professional Scouter. He told me that he bailed at the end of his first hitch because he didn't like the constant pressure to raise money. Maybe he was making it up.

 

 

[BadenP 93]

Bob you don't even have the slightest idea how long I was a professional scouter and you may think you have special insight but after reading your posts I know that too is very wrong. I love scouting and have been involved on a volunteer and professional level longer than yourself, on a unit, district, and council positions as well as serving on three regional task forces. I was a professional just short of six years and was offered a Field Director position but I left in order to make enough money to support a family. Currently I am on the council Venturing committee as well as working with a crew for seven years. So once again you don't know what you are talking about. I have no grudge against the BSA quite the contrary, I do have a grudge against self proclaimed scouting experts who give out incorrect and distorted facts about BSA policies much like you frequently do in this forum. So if you want to insult me at least get your facts right, which you seldom do.

[Eamonn 61]

Eamonn Wearing His Moderator Hat.

Hey Guys. As far as I know the PM function is working.

If you must give each other a piece of your mind? That would be the way to go.

While some people might find this sort of bickering entertaining? It has nothing to do with the thread.

Please don't tell me who you think is at fault or who is to blame.

Thanks

Eamonn.

[Gold Winger 9]

Aw gee Dad! I guess as a Brit you've never taken to the American sport of plinking. Plinking is where you toss some old tin cans out into the field and then shoot at them. It's not much fun if there's no one to see you hit or miss the cans.

 

 

[Bob White 20]

I never said that DE's don't have to raise money, I said their role is to to accomplish the goals of the council through the use of a volunteer workforce. If BadenP or anyone else has evidence to the contrary they should should share it.

 

If BadenP or any poster feels that so many of my posts have been inaccurate then they have been strangely absent in sharing ANY BSA resources that are contrary to what I have posted.(This message has been edited by Bob White)

[BadenP 93]

Per your advice Eamonn I have sent a PM to Bob with the answers to his questions.

 

A DE's job can vary greatly depending on the council they are assigned to and other duties they are assigned in addition to their district duties. While there are common goals the methodology in achieving those goals varies from council to council. For example a friend of mine in the Las Vegas Council told me that raising a lot of money there takes very little effort due in large part to all the big money contributors, especially the casinos. If you are in a small rural council however raising money is a central focus for the DE and takes much more work and time.

[SSScout 1615]

Hello, Eamon. Nope, didn't get to this year regatta. Only so many me's to pass around.

I thought he was called a Regional Somebody, could be wrong about that. But that's what it was, a larger area fellow overseeing the smaller area "temporarily".

GW: I always think the stew is tastier when it's stirred a little , yes?

 

So: If the DE is NOT ultimately responsible for 'fundraising' thru his/her District, but is supposed to encourage the volnteers to fundraise, and then the DE somehow gets credited for the funds raised in his/her District by 'his/her' volunteers (which he/she encouraged),and if the DE is chastised or praised and promoted according to (among other things) the amount of funds raised in his/her District, how is that not being responsible for fundraising? (donja love run on sentences?) All those salaries come from somewhere, right? and they don't all come from 'dues'?

 

Do they?

 

sorry, can't wait for the answer, gotta go back to barn raising (son's 4H project)

 

TTFN, YiS

 

 

 

[Eamonn 61]

Not sure how it works in other Councils.

But...

When I was Chair. (I know, I'd yawn too!)

Sometime,about this time of the year, the key 3 would meet.

We would go over all the events that the District held and look at the budgets.

We would also look toward next years Quality District.

Some things were cast in bronze (Membership). In the early days we had to option of being + 1 or showing I think 5% growth? (I'm unable to remember if it was 5% or 2%) This growth thing was done away with in part because it was open to abuse.

The SE had and has the final word on Financial Goals.

We would meet and set 3 goals: Family, Community and District. These were sent to the SE. Who as a rule sent them back! Saying that he wanted more!! Him and I would meet and a compromise would be made.

Some DE's might have FOS as a Critical Achievement. It was up to each DE if he or she wanted to share these Critical Achievements with the volunteers or not.

Critical Achievements are what DE's are judged by. So there were times when they had a lot on the line.

I have always argued that it made little or no difference where the money came from as long as it came in.

To this end we really put our efforts into the community campaign. It also somehow seemed that we had more control over what we could bring in from the community than we had from the family campaign.

We also had a pop-corn goal.

District events were budgeted not to ever lose money, but at the same time we really didn't want to make a lot.

For some events this can be hard.

Day Camp should be easy, but when you have to send people to camp school this is an added expense that most Cub Scouter's don't see or know much about.

For our Community Campaign, we looked for businesses and groups who would be around for a while. In fact someone giving a one time large donation made life difficult for the following year (Try telling a SE that it was just a fluke and your not going to bring in as much as you did last year and he seems to develop selective deafness.) We went out of our way to "Look After these community people, inviting them up to camp for dinner so they could see how and where the money was being spent.

We went out of our way to ensure that all the Community Captains got timely updates of how they were doing and if things didn't look like they were going as they should, we helped them out by sending more volunteers (Not uniformed volunteers in to maybe run a phone-athon or send out letters.)

We do need to remember that not all volunteers serve as unit leaders or wear uniforms!!

Many of the best workers on the District Committee never wore a uniform.

Our District is not very big.

I would think trying to do this in a very large District might be a lot harder and would need a lot more hard working volunteers.

Sadly sometimes when Districts get bigger, it doesn't always follow that there are more hard working volunteers to help get the job done!

Eamonn.

[SSScout 1615]

OOPS... Corrections to previous postings...

 

Recent Commisioner Meeting... Here in X County District, we seem to have a "corrected" list of about 275 units chartered and registered of all shapes and types and sizes. We now have two scheduled R/T with BS and CS sections and RTCs. Looking for a third set. Seems like we have about 20 active UCs and they are connected to one or two U's historically. Gonna have two (at least) maybe three CSDC, but one CSDC Director has announced her retirement ( 6 years!). Two Camporees in the fall, if we're lucky, (did have four thru the 6 ustabe districts). Combined Dist. schedules seem to yield one Den chief training, two BSLS and two CSLS training thru the fall. And a UC training (all ya gotta do is round up some likely suspects).

My CPack lost it's CM to a job transfer, and the three gents who stepped up to pick up the reins decided to SHARE the duties, one will be the CM in name, the others ACMs but will rotate the months activities. The CC and others are all good with it, so the little Pack that could, does. Four full Dens, five if you divvy up the Webelos officially.

 

And so it goes...